Filtering blame

Hi

I had a near miss on the way to work today & would like some advice on
whose fault it would have been (re: insurance) if we'd made contact.

I was going along Farringdon Rd, across the junction with
Calthorpe/Margery St - Farringdon Rd is quite wide, with 2 lanes in each
direction, and the junction is quite wide generally. The traffic in my
direction was stationary across the junction so I filtered past it on
the right, doing ~15mph. There wasn't any traffic other than the cars
queueing across the junction.

When I was basically across the other side of the junction, a twat in a
Vectra got pissed off with waiting in the line and decided to take the
right turn instead, pulling out (without indicating) straight in front
of me. Much braking and swerving ensued, and he stopped before pulling
out fully so I just managed to get round him. Fortunately nothing was
coming the other way at that point or I wouldn't have had anywhere to
go. He then behaved like a total prick, shouting and V-signs etc, which
pissed me off no end.

As I see it, if I had hit him it would have been his fault. He obviously
wasn't originally intending to turn right or he would have been in the
middle of the road, not past the middle of the junction, and would have
already gone as there was no other traffic. He would also have been
indicating (although this is probably a long shot in London), and after
changing his mind he obviously didn't have a proper look before starting
to go.

So would it have been my fault for filtering at a junction, or the
cretinous myopic ****'s fault for being impatient and pulling out (while
basically already over a junction) without looking/indicating?

Tim

 

IANJP, but I think in nearly all such cases the best result you'd get
would be a 50/50. Overtaking at a junction is clearly contrary to the
highway code, so you _might_ even be looking at a careless/reckless
charge for that.

Not that I haven't done the same thing a thousand or more time myself,
of course :-} You just have to _expect_ every car to behave as this
twat did, I'm afraid.

 

Sucks bigtime.

Tim

 

I filtered behind a Janitorial scoot on zig zags. He even had the courtesy
to nail it so I didn't get caught up in the traffic.

 

Apparently you can so long as you do not overtake the lead car on the
approach to the crossing.

I'm sure JP will give you chapter and verse if you page him.

 

....

No, came very close though. Somehow avoided dropping the bike afterwards
too, despite getting very wobbly.

 

Isn't this by way of a leading question of some kind?

 

InsCo's usually go with 50/50 in such cases, rising to "It's entirely your
fault because you're a biker, you granny raping baby killing ****".

 

I admit that it was a little biased.

Tim

 

You may pass all standing traffic on the zig-zags up to but *not* including
the car at the front. In practice this means that you pull up about level
with his door, then nip in behind him as he pulls away.

 

That's what the law says.

However, in practice, a friend of a friend (your honour) regularly
pulls to the last car, then as the lights turn green, and the car
stays put as there's no room the other side of the crossing, filters
slowly past, stopping to check for pedestrians at the crossing.

Seems fair to me, other wise I'd^W he'd be there all f*cking night.

 

Finger in the air guess, I'd say 50-50 liability. Sucks but that's just
the way it is.....

 

Is it?? Can you filter on zig zags at a pedestrian crossing then?

I may sound like I'm being sarcastic but it's a serious question. I'm
thinking no and I'd never do it but I'd be interested to know if the HC
or more importantly the police would differentiate between filtering and
overtaking.

 

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=zig+zag+filter+group:uk.rec.motorcycles+
author:JP&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=3a29792e.35072537%40news
..clara.net&rnum=1

 

Either:

1. Don't overtake/filter past right hand turns.

2. Filter wide and watch the front wheels of the cars ahead of you until
you're clear of the junction.

3. Filter very slowly indeed past the danger point.

4. Filter up the inside.

5. Close your eyes, nail it and scream, "I'm invincible!"[1].

Any of the above really, my order of preference is 2, 3, 4, 1 then 5.

[1] "I'm invisible!" also works.


--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, COSOC#9, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Cool! I think that having heard that it rings a bell.

Still amazing, "UKRM in useful on a Friday shocker"

 

6. Fit an obscenely loud exhaust.

 

Prolly go knock for knock as you were overtaking in a dodgy place.

 

Tell me about it. You've only just finished repairing the bike from
when it happened to me

 

Careful there, the URL posting police will be down on you like a ton of
bricks.