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Hi there,
I am involved in a small accident this evening when I was driving on a two-lane road (each side has only one lane), trying to turn right into a carpark. However the oncoming side of the road was in heavy traffic at that moment, vehicles were queuing in the single lane but they left a gap in the queue because there is a KEEP CLEAR sign painted on the road right in front of the carpark's driveway. Beside the queue, there were a few stationary cars in the designed on-road parking spots next to the kerb. There's no cycle lane.
Before turning right, I checked my side's other road users, then the oncoming side's road users and hazards, made sure it was all clear. At that moment the queue wasn't moving, none of the parked cars was pulling out, no pedestrian in the footpath, it seemed all the hazards were stationary. Only one area I was not able to check that was between the queue and the parked cars, because the queue was long enough to hide my vision from seeing the cyclist coming towards the gap.
Then I turned with the normal speed of making a right turn. While I nearly finished the turning, the cyclist ran into my car at the rear door of my car's left side with a certain speed. Then I quickly parked my car properly in the carpark and help checking his injury and damage. One of his hand back skin was scratched a little and the front of his bike got slightly bent; My car seems fine, just the surface of the left rear door got very slight paint scratch.
As there were no major injuries, none of us called police and I didn't inform my insurance company because I'm not sure who's at fault.
So could you please tell me as the situation I described above, what kind of responsibility shall I take? What if he asked me for compensation? Look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks a lot and best regards
For a better understanding, I attached a picture, to see if the link works
Hi there,
This is a little bit tricky, as both road users have responsibilities here, but the cyclist more so I think, because you had no way of seeing the cyclist until you were in its path.
I have found a portion from the cyclists road code: When riding past queues of stationary or slow moving vehicles, your visibility will be reduced and turning cars may not see you. Slow down and be particularly careful when there is a gap in the queue - the driver leaving the gap may have left it for a turning vehicle.
Thank you so much Cade for your useful information and early reply, you have a great day!