Report You, Report Me

I’ve been a big user of the Road Safe London (with the assistance of New York City attorneys) reporting system that is offered by the MET Police. It gives me an easy way to report dangerous road users with the potential they will get notified by them about their driving.

A few months ago I was cycling south bound on Park Lane on my way home. The traffic was quite heavy so I was filtering passed stationary and slow-moving vehicles. unfortunately I miss judged a gap and was probably going a little bit too fast, this meant that my hand came together with the wing mirror of another vehicle. I instantly stopped and looked behind at the driver and I held my hand up to say sorry. The wing mirror appeared to be undamaged and the driver raised his hand back at me and said it was alright. So I continued my journey.

I had a long time to think about what to do on the way home and my hand was hurting all the way, it turns out that when I clipped the wing mirror with my hand I cut my knuckle open. When I got home I looked at the video footage, found the registration of the car and reported my self on the Road Safe London website and asking them to pass on my contact details to the owner of the vehicle. It turned out to be owned by a dealer and there was no damage.

Would you report yourself in a similar manner or use the fact that we don’t have an identifier to hide from the consequences?


8 thoughts on “Report You, Report Me

  1. If I thought I’d caused damage to another vehicle, yes, I’d do everything I could to put it right and if that meant following your course of action, I’d do it. Good on you for making the effort to show another road user that there are responsible cyclists out there. (Though I did wince a bit at some of the gaps you went through!)

  2. Good for you, I suspect many wouldn’t. I like to think that in a similar incident I would do the same, but if it was a parked and unoccupied car I might just check for damage and leave it if there was none.
    Although you could theoretically receive points on your driving license while riding a bike it’s unlikely in a situation like this, and if you’re a member of CTC (probably similar organisations too) then you’ve automatically got enough third party insurance to cover writing off a Veyron (I just looked it up).

    1. >>Although you could theoretically receive points on your driving license while riding a bike <<

      There is no traffic violation offence that a cyclist can commit that attracts the issuing of penalty points on a licence.

      1. I’ve checked, and I was wrong, slightly shamed but not afraid to admit it – you learn something every day. I’m sure I was once told this, but I was either misinformed or have mixed it up with the fact that if you commit an endorsable offence (ie. in a car) you will get points whether you have a license or not.

        That notwithstanding, I think the rest of my comment is accurate.

  3. I had a run in with a van driver today, he accused me of riding my bike into the back of a car, after the car had clipped my front wheel overtaking me on a bend (which I don’t think he even saw). I will be reporting the incident to the police, but wondering if additionally reporting to roadsafe about the false accusations is worth it.

    Video is currently uploading

    1. When i first read your comment I thought to my self that I wouldn’t bother reporting the other guy. I decided I’d wait and watch the video before I said that though.

      The guy in the van was making the story up as he went along, i suspect asking the man for some notes at the end of it. Total BS and well handled imo. Good luck getting this one sorted and well done for keeping control of the bicycle 🙂

  4. I’ve hit a car which was parked (legally) in a cycle lane – wasn’t paying enough attention and cycled straight into it, creasing the bumper and leaving a sweaty forehead print on the rear window. I went home, wrote a note and returned to stick it under the wiper – just as the owner returned, so I was able to hand it to them personally with my apologies. They shrugged and I heard no more of it.

    On another occasion, I’ve reported myself as a driver, concerned that I might have caused an accident by an inconsiderate pass on my journey. The police took my details and said that there had been no reported accidents, but would keep my details for 24 hours in case anything came in later. Again, fortunately with no follow-up.

    Similarly, I think it’s perfectly courteous to pass on thanks to an alert driver if they’ve avoided a collision – no-one is perfect and sometimes others save us by compensating for our mistakes!

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