Cycling UK Forum

Has anyone else been reversed into by a car. Its happened to me a couple of times. Yesterday on a narrow street I was following a car that had to stop because another car had pulled up in the middle of the road to chat to his mate on the pavement. This is a fairly narrow road, with cars parked down both sides, so I always ensure I'm well out from the edge to avoid drivers doors swinging open. I was sitting about 3 meters behind the car when after being stopped for a some time he flicked on his left indicator and began to reverse into a parking place next to me. I managed to yank my front wheel back and hammer on his boot, so he stopped before he hit me. No apology from the driver, I dont think he had a clue what was behind him. This isnt the first time someones tried to reverse into me, luckily the first time I was further over to the side of the road and stopped a couple of metres back from a stationary car, who had realised a lorry coming the other way couldnt make the turn if she stayed where she was, so she just reversed at speed, missing me by a whisker. When I banged on her roof she nearly flew out of her seat.

It occurs to me that without witnesses to the contrary both drivers could argue I cycled into the back of them. Has this happened to anyone else?

Yes this has happened to me and, yes you're right, without witnesses you could be up a certain creek without a paddle. My advice is expect it to happen and be prepared to get out of the way (but keep hold of the moral high ground by banging, shouting etc)

I had this happen when I was a teenager. There was a car behind me in a traffic queue and the white van in front reversed (don't know why). Couldn't do anything and just watched my front wheel being bent. They gave me a lift home and 20 quid (if I remember correctly and this was in the early 80s) and I got home and changed the wheel for one we already had in the garage. Seemed like a result at the time. What I didn't do was change the tyre outer and I suffered a repeated series of punctures before I spotted the split. In those days it never occured to me to carry inner tubes, tools etc so I always ended up walking home - why I'll never know.

A couple of months ago I was talking to a cpouple of former colleagues in Batley when a large box van whose driver had been delivering in a narrow one way street suddenly shot backwards and felled a motorcyclist who had absolutely no chance of anticipating what was going to happen and no chance to take avoiding action. The assumption 'it was clear behind when I got in so it must still be clear now' was to blame. I was nearly knocked down by a car driver who finished eating a sandwich in Halfords car park and shot backwards as he threw the wrapper out of the window.

Some big trucks have a sign on the back 'If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you' (sub-text: 'and if you can see my mirrors I am not looking.')

The scenario of 'flustered driver reverses without looking in an attempt to lessen a problem in front' is becoming more common with the increase in flustered drivers.

I arrived at a grain depot one day to watch a tractor reverse its trailer over a pick-up truck. The tractor had only been stopped on a weighbridge for two minutes and then the driver checked his mirrors & reversed. In those two minutes a site worker had pulled up so close behind the trailer he was invisible...

Fortunately he got out of his truck before the incident.

If there is no back window on the vehicle, i.e. commercial vehicles, orr there is a trailer in the way you are invisible if you are so close you can't see their mirrors.

And if they watch their mirrors too much they'll hit the bike in front of them.

Yes there are stupid drivers, but if you've got brains you'll make allowances for this

One thing I intended to mention but forgot is that many drivers of commercial vehicles now believe that if they have a reversing alarm fitted they can reverse with impunity (especially if they switch on their hazards) and the obligation to keep a look out passes to anybody behind. (A bit like a ship using a foghorn.)

Some years ago a bus driver in Dewsbury bus station reversed in this manner and feeling a bump drove forward. When he got out to investigate he had knocked down and run over a a female pedestrian and then run her over again as he drove forward. The deceased was deaf and had heard neither the approaching bus or its alarm, nor the frantic warning shouts of the police officer in the yard of the police station next door.

I admit it is one of my few accidents. Delivered a parcel, walked to the drivers door, going round the back of the van to check nobody was there. Climb in, eyes straight on to the mirrors both sides. Start the engine reverse to be able to get round the car parked in front, BANG.
Some one had managed to drive in from a side road and parked behind without entering my sight. I always reverse slowly and maybee I should have had one of those sounders but a parked car cant react.
We have a lot of van drivers reversing on our pedestrian zones using their sirens to clear the way and it gets me very angry. It is the equivalent of driving the wrong way down a one way street with your horn on. The police dont seem upset by it at all.

Nearly got reversed into twice today, obviously my bright red jacket has the same properties as Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility. Drivers just don't look carefully enough, dipsticks!

One of the scarier moments. Turned right at a junction to be met by a car reversing at me, at some speed too!!

MM

It has happened to me when motorists reverse from their driveways. They simply do not look all round, and probably rely too much on their mirrors, which obviously have blind spots, and their reversing lights ! It's lack of care and poor education.