Postboxer wrote:So are his insurers saying that you undertook him then swerved in front, or he was overtaking you and you swerved in front?
They are saying that I moved in front of him. They haven't given it that much thought.
For a bit more detail:
I've been riding bikes my whole life and commuting primarily on bike for the last 15 years. I do thousands of miles a year. I've had one other major incident (100% fault other driver's fault, no quibble). I've definitely developed a fairly finely-tuned 6th sense for avoiding accidents.
I don't get angry at drivers, but I suppose I am 'assertive'. I think that an important part of being a cyclist is asserting your right to be on the roads and not simply being a meek apologetic inconvenience that makes themselves invisible. Partly this is so drivers see cyclists as other road users and that has the knock-on effect that other less confident people can ride without (so much) fear.
So, to the incident: He was slower than I was at that point, and I was moving between queuing traffic for at least 200m before the junction. I moved across to position myself in front of him well before the junction (perhaps 40-50m back), then he tried a ridiculous close pass so I reached across and tapped his wing with my open palm to say 'too close mate'. He failed his overtake since he ran out of space between him and the car in front. I repositioned myself in the gap (between the car in front of him and his car) while both cars were stationary (In hindsight, this was not the smartest self-preserving move on my part, but I was playing the role of a rider with, y'know, a right to be in that space). The car in front moved forwards a few spaces, I stayed immediately behind that car until I stopped at the white line of the roundabout. Angry man beeps his horn at me, I turn back to face him, give him a gallic shrug (life's too short to get wound up at other people) then as I turn round to face forwards again, he drives into me, pushing me onto the roundabout.
There is absolutely no doubt that a) he had seen me (he beeped at me {FFE - family-friendly edit }!), b) I was positioned directly in front of him for some time, c) I was stationary at the time, and d) it was an intentional move on his part. FWIW, I don't know if he was trying to hurt me - he may have simply been trying to establish dominance by nudging me forwards. Perhaps he momentarily forgot he was driving a 2ton machine and had gammon-footed clutch control.
Could you tell exactly where on his vehicle it had hit you?
Yes, you could see the broken trim on the front centre portion of his bumper. I don't have photographs of that since he drove away, although apparently the police have recorded the damage. For some reasons, they did not take photographs of his car, but apparently he has shown them (but not his insurer) a photograph of the damage.
Also, how wide is the road where the collision occurred, could you post a link to google maps, do you know where he was stopped? If you ever find his address you could check it's on his way home.
I won't post a map if that's OK, I don't want to reveal all the details online. It's a two lane 40mph limit inner city dual carriageway. It splits into three lanes about 70-80m before a roundabout which has 4 other exits (at approximately 9, 12, 2, 4 O'clock from my approach). I was turning slight right (3rd exit / 2 O'clock) and I was (appropriately) using the middle lane. At rush hour, traffic is at a crawl. Even though it's a fairly steep uphill approach to the roundabout, I am always cycling faster than cars (still only ~10mph). At that time, often the traffic is static on the roundabout itself and I have to weave through. It's an awful junction, to be honest, but an unavoidable bottleneck for me (the rest of my commute is quite pleasant!).
That's a good point about the direction he was travelling in. I will check if / when I find his address. However, there are not very many junctions between the accident and where he was stopped so I think it's likely he was intending to travel in that direction. It's also quite unlikely he would have been able to turn off the road onto a side street to evade police, which may well have been his intention. Of course, he would not have been aware that the police were so close behind him, so just trying to scarper and get home seems like the most plausible explanation.
Funny how he was stopped by police on his way home to report it but then failed to report it to his insurer.
Yes, there are lots of aspects that are 'funny'. Failure to report to his insurer is, I believe, a contractual issue between him and his insurer. I.e. he is obliged to report it for their records and it potentially invalidates his insurance if he does not, but I don't think there is a legal duty to notify them within a certain time frame. Presumably his insurer could consider it to be fraud but as far as I know they don't plan to pursue him for that (why would they?).
When you wrote to them you had the registration number of the vehicle... and what other information?
And when they replied how did they identify the incident? What was in your letter... and a name or address of the driver or the registered keeper?
Quite soon after the incident, the police contacted me with the driver's name and DOB (?) and insurer. I already had his number plate. I contacted his insurer first by phone and then by email. I haven't written a physical letter to them (yet). They recorded the incident and then (apparently) spoke to the driver. In their letter they just refer to the 'incident' by date and a reference number.