Another first accident...

[iceman86]

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Hello,

I've been riding for 5+ years now, and this is my first accident. I will provide as much information as I can. I would like to ask for your viewpoint, and what are my best course of action. But many of you may get a laugh out of this or be shaking your head in a brief moment.

Info about the rider:

• M1 licensed (I let my M2 expired)
• Insured
• Suzuki Gladius SFV650 '09
• Rode Honda CBR125 (1 year+) then Suzuki GS500F (4-5 years+ until recently got a new bike)

The accident
Image for reference


I was going west on Richmond St East in Lane 1. I was positioned where the Green Circle is placed in the image.

The Driver was in Lane 2 positioned and indicated by the Red Circle in the image.

At that position he signaled to go left as he was cutting into my lane.

As soon as I noticed he was making a left turn I try my best stop safety, but I quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to stop in time as I was trying to. I was going T-Bone him in the next second.

Next thing I know I am sliding on the ground with my bike. I went frontwards and my bike followed behind on it's left side.

I came to a complete stop with my face on the ground with hands on the front bracing the impact, and part of my left leg was caught underneath the bike on the tail end.

Nearby pedestrians came to my aid. One person realized my left leg was stuck underneath the bike. He help lifted the bike enough so I could free my left leg.

I hit the kill-switch right after, and scanned for the driver that cut me off. He stopped. He parked. He came over to check on me.

It took me a few moments to realized what just happened and what I needed to do next. Assess the damage to the bike and myself.

We exchanged license, insurance policy, and plate #.

I took pictures and collected the broken pieces from my bike.

No Police or Ambulance were involve or called. I denied it.

Motorcycle Damages as I can see:

• Left Bar End scraped.
• Clutch Lever end is scraped a little.
• Shifter was bent inwards (I unbend enough so I could shift freely to get the bike home).
• Left side of the tank has a black scraped mark on white colour tank.
• My steering is a little out of alignment. I need to angle the handlebar to left a little to go straight.
• Fairing on the right that covers basically my radiator is completely shattered. It is a two layer fairing. The front layer is gone, but the back housing of that fairing is still intact.
• Same fairing on the left has scraped marks as well and still intact.

Rider's injuries:

• Left upper thigh is bruised with redness (quarter size).
• Left knee on the left side below kneecap has some skin scraped (nickel size) It is red.
• Right mid thigh is bruised and sore. No redness or visible marks.
• Right ankle on the left side feels a little bruised and sore. Very mild redness.

No damage to the Driver's vehicle as I never hit him.

This has happened to me before with a Taxi driver 1-2 years ago. The Taxi driver kept going at that incident. I had a witness but I did not have any information on the Taxi driver. I was advised on here than to move on as it was a self-caused accident.

I would like ask the members of this community for your opinions and thoughts once again on this situation. I really do not know what to do.

I apologized if this is posted in the wrong section of the forum.

Thank you for your help and for hearing my story.

Edited
Additional Information:

• Happened on Richmond St E. and Victoria St.
• Victoria St is a 2-way street.
• I have one witness.
• We exchanged phone numbers.

 

[J_F]

don't think anyone is going to be laughing
sounds like you're okay, that's the important part
bike doesn't sound too bad

as the police weren't called, think you're on your own with this one
would recommend you do not contact your insurance company

 

[FLSTC]

One key detail is that there was no contact between vehicles. If reported to your insurance, I suspect you would be held 100% at-fault. If that was the case, I would suck-it-up, repair the bike on my own dime and chalk it up as a learning experience.

If you were to make an insurance claim, both your personal injuries and collision damage would be paid-out by your insurance company (personal injury, dcpd coverages). You could try to ask the other driver to pay personally, but good chance they’ll say to go to insurance and you’ll get the fault assigned.

Your title says first accident, but you mention a previous one?

 

[FLSTC]

Some other thoughts -

What was the temperature/road condition? Cold temps result in reduced traction as well as any moisture. With daily stop-n-go traffic there, I’d expect some oil and other automotive fluids in the center of the lane.

How old is your front tire? Rubber gets harder as it ages - even if it has sufficient tread depth, a fresh tire may be warranted.

They are usually obstructions in that left lane, but bikes can easily get around and get thru traffic faster than others. Possibly, the driver may not have expected a motorcycle to be coming up on the left. I’m not making an excuse for their obvious fault, but this is a consideration you need to make to help avoid being caught in such incident.

 

[Wingboy]

Fall down go boom.Don't do it again.End of story.

 

[Max527]

Wow, I hope I make it to 5 years without my first accident. As mentioned previously, don't involve insurance or else you're going to be paying more. Live and learn experience, I always ride slow downtown because of morons like that changing lanes almost immediately, they cannot be trusted. Glad you're ok!

 

[roadrash]

Glad you're ok. +1 on not involving your insurance company if there was no vehicle contact. They would likely consider you at-fault.

 

[Evoex]

That's Victoria St. isn't it? To my knowledge is it NOT a 1 way street going south, thus you are not able to make left turns from the middle lane of Richmond.



If this is true the other driver is 100% at fault as you had right of way.

Sorry to hear about your accident, i wish you the best in your recovery.

I would confirm that the above is true and then proceed to a collision center and report it. I did not see if you exchange personal info as well but since you sustained injuries i would just go through insurance as you never know how they can develop.

EDIT: Did you get any witness info? That's going to help tremendously.

 

[sburns]

Forget insurance you will get screwed
Right tire track position instead of middle.


Sent from the moon!

 

[Evoex]

Wow, I hope I make it to 5 years without my first accident. As mentioned previously, don't involve insurance or else you're going to be paying more. Live and learn experience, I always ride slow downtown because of morons like that changing lanes almost immediately, they cannot be trusted. Glad you're ok!

I feel like i level up every time i make it out of downtown. lol

 

[GreyGhost]

That's Victoria St. isn't it? To my knowledge is it NOT a 1 way street going south, thus you are not able to make left turns from the middle lane of Richmond.

View attachment 40058

If this is true the other driver is 100% at fault as you had right of way.

Sorry to hear about your accident, i wish you the best in your recovery.

I would confirm that the above is true and then proceed to a collision center and report it. I did not see if you exchange personal info as well but since you sustained injuries i would just go through insurance as you never know how they can develop.

As there was no contact and presumably no witnesses that are willing tondescribe what happened to the insurance company, I suspect he will get more than 25% at fault. If he had touched the other car, I agree with you entirely.

Iceman, glad you are mostly ok. I would not go through insurance (assuming your physical injuries are manageable) as I suspect it will do bad things to your rates. It may be worth a call to the driver along he lines of "It will cost $2000 to fix my bike. If i go though insurance, that will cost me $5000 in increased premiums. Please be a standup human and split the repairs with me." They may tell you to sod off or it may be the quickest $1000 you've gotten. I don't see a way out of this without you losing a bunch of money, at least you can try to minimize the loss.

 

[jc100]

Anyone else thinks this whole contact/non contact thing is skewed against motorcyclists? I can see where there’s an issue with following too close where both vehicles are in the same lane but in a case where someone makes an unsafe merge into your lane and this happens without any contact but the driver is 100% at fault this stinks.

 

[Evoex]

Good catch, forgot about the no contact. That blows, next time make sure to hit him.

 

[Max527]

Anyone else thinks this whole contact/non contact thing is skewed against motorcyclists? I can see where there’s an issue with following too close where both vehicles are in the same lane but in a case where someone makes an unsafe merge into your lane and this happens without any contact but the driver is 100% at fault this stinks.

If Motorcycle insurance was 50 bucks a month like in BC, we'd be claiming every incident lol

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

 

[bigpoppa]

If Motorcycle insurance was 50 bucks a month like in BC, we'd be claiming every incident lol

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Nah the cost increases exponentially for making a claim

The number of riders that I know that never make a claim, even though they need to, for the service that they pay out the ass for, is astounding.

If you penalize someone for using the service they pay for, they wont use said service.
The only real reason to get insurance in ontario is to not break the law.

Not to get coverage in case something bad happens.

 

[FLSTC]

Left Bar End scraped. Clutch Lever end is scraped a little.
- Sand the scrapes and paint over. Can easily replace both the bar end and lever if desired.

Shifter was bent inwards (I unbend enough so I could shift freely to get the bike home).
- Remove and bend back into shape. Replace if desired. Check the transmission/shifting operation (not sure if there's a risk there)

Left side of the tank has a black scraped mark on white colour tank.
- Try to buff out. If paint needed, a dent-repair shop may be able to do a really good job for a decent price.

My steering is a little out of alignment. I need to angle the handlebar to left a little to go straight.
- With the front end jacked-up, you can loosen the triple clamp bolts and axle, straighten, then re-tighten as per spec.

Fairing on the right that covers basically my radiator is completely shattered. It is a two layer fairing. The front layer is gone, but the back housing of that fairing is still intact. Same fairing on the left has scraped marks as well and still intact.
- The most expensive piece of this incident. Your bike might look better without this rad shroud.

 

[Gary]

My 1st bike accident was similar. Cage, coming off the shoulder pulled in front of me, with no warning.
I grabbed and hit the binders as hard as possible to avoid contact.....high sided.....bike slid a bunch....neither me or the bike touched the car.
Cager was deemed 100% at fault.
My bike was repaired, fully. My gear that was damaged was covered, fully. And his ins co had to gag up some cash, about 5 yrs later for my injury.
Just because there was no 'contact', doesn't make it your fault OP!

 

[Mad Mike]

Glad to hear you are OK.

Fix the bike yourself. Unless there is a witness that can make a clear case that the other driver made an incorrect lane change, your ins co will likely hold you at fault -- don't call them -- its cheaper in the long run.

Lick your wounds then reflect on the accident to see if there are any lessons learned -- particularly since this is the second time.

Why did it happen? Why are you riding in the right-most lane? Were you travelling significantly faster than the flow of traffic (too fast to stop)? Was your emergency reaction appropriate or is there another maneuver that may have been better?

Again, good to hear you are not badly hurt. Reflecting on accidents might make you a better rider.

 

[iceman86]

Your title says first accident, but you mention a previous one?

I am apologized. I think I was just too tired when writing this post last night. I guess it is my second. Very similar situation.

What was the temperature/road condition? Cold temps result in reduced traction as well as any moisture. With daily stop-n-go traffic there, I’d expect some oil and other automotive fluids in the center of the lane.

How old is your front tire? Rubber gets harder as it ages - even if it has sufficient tread depth, a fresh tire may be warranted.

It wasn't that cold yesterday. If I can recall there wasn't any visible debris in the lane I was in. Tires were installed last season.

That's Victoria St. isn't it? To my knowledge is it NOT a 1 way street going south, thus you are not able to make left turns from the middle lane of Richmond.

If this is true the other driver is 100% at fault as you had right of way.

Sorry to hear about your accident, i wish you the best in your recovery.

I would confirm that the above is true and then proceed to a collision center and report it. I did not see if you exchange personal info as well but since you sustained injuries i would just go through insurance as you never know how they can develop.

EDIT: Did you get any witness info? That's going to help tremendously.

Yes, that is Victoria St and it is a 2-way street.
Yes, I also do have a witness and we did exchange phone numbers as well.
I apologized for not including this information.

Left Bar End scraped. Clutch Lever end is scraped a little.
- Sand the scrapes and paint over. Can easily replace both the bar end and lever if desired.

Shifter was bent inwards (I unbend enough so I could shift freely to get the bike home).
- Remove and bend back into shape. Replace if desired. Check the transmission/shifting operation (not sure if there's a risk there)

Left side of the tank has a black scraped mark on white colour tank.
- Try to buff out. If paint needed, a dent-repair shop may be able to do a really good job for a decent price.

My steering is a little out of alignment. I need to angle the handlebar to left a little to go straight.
- With the front end jacked-up, you can loosen the triple clamp bolts and axle, straighten, then re-tighten as per spec.

Fairing on the right that covers basically my radiator is completely shattered. It is a two layer fairing. The front layer is gone, but the back housing of that fairing is still intact. Same fairing on the left has scraped marks as well and still intact.
- The most expensive piece of this incident. Your bike might look better without this rad shroud.

I figured the fairing was going to be the most expensive. Yeah, most of the damage affecting the operation of the motorcycle I can fix myself.

Why did it happen? Why are you riding in the right-most lane? Were you travelling significantly faster than the flow of traffic (too fast to stop)? Was your emergency reaction appropriate or is there another maneuver that may have been better?

I was going to pass him if I could (like if I have the time and space in the next stretch of road a head). I wasn't expecting the driver to make a left-turn as he crossing the intersection in that lane.

I am not sure if my reaction was appropriate or not. I think naturally my instinct was I did not want to hit him.

 

[Evoex]

Yes, that is Victoria St and it is a 2-way street.
Yes, I also do have a witness and we did exchange phone numbers as well.
I apologized for not including this information.

You are good to go.

I would call the witness and confirm the story (so you don't get any surprises) and let them know you are making a claim with your company and they may be contacted. No collision centre needed i guess since there was no contact.

Good luck!

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