Suddenly Sideswiped

Pete Coulson – January 2016

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning without fail, my friend Mike and I go riding. We do the same route each week around the inner west of Melbourne. Our wives think it’s amusing that we both spend romantic sunrises together and even sometimes we stop to take a photo.  

 

We aren’t training for anything as it’s basically so we can justify a coffee before heading into work. 

 

Recently on a Thursday ride I got knocked off my bike by a guy in his work ute. 

At the time I sustained some sore ribs front and back but other than that okay. Skin off knee heals.

 

I was one of the originals who purchased a Fly6 and until now, have never needed the footage. I like the Fly6 as it means if I am riding I always have a light flashing on the back. Be it in the dark or daylight.  

 

With my Fly6 on the back, it’s clear from the footage the driver drifted into the bike lane and hit me. As you can see we were slowly rolling down a slight incline and the driver swerved into the bike lane and sideswiped me. I would usually be able to survive the crash but I got caught in his passenger’s mirror.

 

It wasn’t until afterwards that my friend Mike who is in the vision behind me said that he swerved left into the bike lane as he assumed the driver was going to turn right into a parking spot (island parking). Just like semi trailers tend to do. 

 

It’s a shame I didn’t have the about to be released new Fly12 on the front as it would have shown the incident more clearly, but nevertheless you can still make out what happens.

 

So just in case I have back issues I was advised to report it to the company and the police. The driver never supplied his details to me at the time of the accident but his ute has company signage on the car door. The police loved the video as it showed them exactly what happened. Sadly, the the driver delayed telling his company for 2 days after the accident and didn’t tell them the same story of what actually happened.

 

The company representative finally called me several days after the accident and said that the driver told him I crashed into the ute. Clearly from the footage you can see I was even on the far side of the bike lane as far away from the car lane as possible. 

 

I told him my version and that I have video of the crash. I emailed it through. He watched it whilst on the phone to me and then says, “oh dear.  Clearly the driver didn’t tell us the truth.”

 

So the moral of the story. There are several sides to every story.  But video with a nice big lead in trumps all stories. 

 

Get a camera. It doesn’t lie.

 

Pete Coulson