Hello, I just joined this forum to get the opinions of people who are experienced in riding bicycles. I am not, but I was recently involved in an accident with one. This is how it occurred:
I was driving down a hill with 4 lanes, 2 lanes going each way. On my side of the road, the far right lanes are frequently parked in because there is a park/rec center on the right. When a car is parked in that lane, other cars cannot drive in it because the lane is not large enough for 2 cars. I pulled my car behind several parked cars as I was going to take my kids to the park. I then realized that the back of my car was sticking out into a bus stop, so I needed to move. I then proceeded to pull out to the left lane to move ahead of the parked cars that were in front of me. I checked my mirrors and no cars were coming so I proceeded into the left lane. I then slowly drove forward and pulled right into a parking space right after another car. Then a short time after "boom", a cyclist and my car collided. I admit that I did not check very well to the right because a moving car could not have been in that lane since it was filled with parked cars and there is no bike lane present.
Thankfully the cyclist was not badly injured. Her bike suffered some slight damage, but nothing very major. In fact, my car probably sustained more damage. We got along to discussing the accident and I explained how I didn't see her (obviously) and how I didn't expect anyone, car or bike to be passing me on the right. She said that she saw me pull out to the left and thought I was leaving down the road and didn't expect me to pull back to the right to park again. This is a relatively steep hill, so she was going to quickly to stop in time and she didn't want to jam on her brakes and possibly launch herself onto the road over the handlebars.
Naturally at the time I felt awful and I offered to assist in anyway I could. This included paying for damages to the bike. Now that I've had time to think about it and do some research into it, I'm not sure that I am truly 100% at fault here. I even spoke to a traffic court judge for his opinion and he said he felt it was the bicyclist at fault since she tried to pass me in a lane that was was already occupied. He felt she should have been more cautious and treated herself like a vehicle and waited behind to pass because the space between my car and the parked cars she was trying to pass through was narrow (less than 10-15 ft). The cyclist has contacted me and now wants the payment for her damages. The bill isn't very high, but if I'm not 100% at fault here, I don't feel 100% comfortable paying for it. I offered to just have both sides just walk away from this since I have to pay for my car damages as well, but she doesn't agree. She says the responsibility is on me to check for obstacles before changing lanes to park. I don't disagree with that completely, but should bicyclists be passing cars on the right in an area so small in an occupied lane? What do you you guys think? Should I just pay this and be done with it? Or do I have some grounds to stand on? Thank you for any feedback you all can provide.
I was driving down a hill with 4 lanes, 2 lanes going each way. On my side of the road, the far right lanes are frequently parked in because there is a park/rec center on the right. When a car is parked in that lane, other cars cannot drive in it because the lane is not large enough for 2 cars. I pulled my car behind several parked cars as I was going to take my kids to the park. I then realized that the back of my car was sticking out into a bus stop, so I needed to move. I then proceeded to pull out to the left lane to move ahead of the parked cars that were in front of me. I checked my mirrors and no cars were coming so I proceeded into the left lane. I then slowly drove forward and pulled right into a parking space right after another car. Then a short time after "boom", a cyclist and my car collided. I admit that I did not check very well to the right because a moving car could not have been in that lane since it was filled with parked cars and there is no bike lane present.
Thankfully the cyclist was not badly injured. Her bike suffered some slight damage, but nothing very major. In fact, my car probably sustained more damage. We got along to discussing the accident and I explained how I didn't see her (obviously) and how I didn't expect anyone, car or bike to be passing me on the right. She said that she saw me pull out to the left and thought I was leaving down the road and didn't expect me to pull back to the right to park again. This is a relatively steep hill, so she was going to quickly to stop in time and she didn't want to jam on her brakes and possibly launch herself onto the road over the handlebars.
Naturally at the time I felt awful and I offered to assist in anyway I could. This included paying for damages to the bike. Now that I've had time to think about it and do some research into it, I'm not sure that I am truly 100% at fault here. I even spoke to a traffic court judge for his opinion and he said he felt it was the bicyclist at fault since she tried to pass me in a lane that was was already occupied. He felt she should have been more cautious and treated herself like a vehicle and waited behind to pass because the space between my car and the parked cars she was trying to pass through was narrow (less than 10-15 ft). The cyclist has contacted me and now wants the payment for her damages. The bill isn't very high, but if I'm not 100% at fault here, I don't feel 100% comfortable paying for it. I offered to just have both sides just walk away from this since I have to pay for my car damages as well, but she doesn't agree. She says the responsibility is on me to check for obstacles before changing lanes to park. I don't disagree with that completely, but should bicyclists be passing cars on the right in an area so small in an occupied lane? What do you you guys think? Should I just pay this and be done with it? Or do I have some grounds to stand on? Thank you for any feedback you all can provide.