Law relating to accident involving a group of cyclist

[diggler]

Bicycle insurance - specifically damage caused by a bicycle to person or property is covered under a person's general contents insurance - no special insurance required - none at all. It's called public liability. Same if you drop your mobile phone off a bridge and it hits/injures someone below or smashes through a car window causing a freeway pile-up - it is covered by your contents insurance should they claim against you... within limits of course - up to 10 or 20 million dollars.

However - cover for the damage to the bicycle itself is hard to find at a reasonable price.
This is the issue here - not the damage to the third party.

I'm a little confused by this. Are you suing against the motorists public liability insurance?

No - you would be suing against the motorists Compulsory Third Party Insurance for the injury... and trying to claim against the car driver's *general car insurance for the damage to the bikes

I don't have public liability insurance so you can't assume everybody does.

Then you sir or ma'am - are taking an incalculable risk on your lifestyle, your family's lifestyle and the life of anyone you may injure - especially if you cause a permanent disability to the person you hurt. Just either get contents insurance OR join BNSW, Bicycle Vic or BQ or whatever org in your state - liability is included .. that's all it takes...

*general = either Comprehensive Insurance or Third Party Property Insurance. If the car driver has no insurance whatsoever - then a heap of lawyers get involved if the driver wants to fight it.

You are 100% correct. The damage to the bike is claimed under the third party property damage / comprehensive policy for the driver. However, the fact that he is trying to deny responsibility suggests either he doesn't want to pay the excess or doesn't have the insurance. Surely the excess would have been used up in the damage to dad's bike. The public liability insurance usually does not cover motor vehicle accidents.

By the way, my home contents does cover my random acts of negligence, so everyone can rest easier now.

[Xplora]

I see this as two wrongs in action - the car made a dangerous U turn, but the cyclists were travelling too close to avoid an accident... the issue is, however, that your daughter didn't prang because she hit bikes in front, but because evasive action was taken due to the car? Methinks that it is clear that the car caused the injury, because the riders were clearly not hurting themselves already until the car did something silly

[diggler]

Your insurance should cover this,let the insurance companies fight over it-after you have been paid out.
You do have insurance dont you ?

Bicycle insurance - specifically damage caused by a bicycle to person or property is covered under a person's general contents insurance - no special insurance required - none at all. It's called public liability. Same if you drop your mobile phone off a bridge and it hits/injures someone below or smashes through a car window causing a freeway pile-up - it is covered by your contents insurance should they claim against you... within limits of course - up to 10 or 20 million dollars.

However - cover for the damage to the bicycle itself is hard to find at a reasonable price.
This is the issue here - not the damage to the third party.

Dad sues against motorists CTP green slip for injury and third party property for damage to the bike.

Daughter sues for bike and injury against public liability in home insurance of other cyclists. Problem with this plan is other cyclist must pay excess and daughter may be contributory negligent.

[Kenzo]

Your insurance should cover this,let the insurance companies fight over it-after you have been paid out.
You do have insurance dont you ?

Bicycle insurance - specifically damage caused by a bicycle to person or property is covered under a person's general contents insurance - no special insurance required - none at all. It's called public liability. Same if you drop your mobile phone off a bridge and it hits/injures someone below or smashes through a car window causing a freeway pile-up - it is covered by your contents insurance should they claim against you... within limits of course - up to 10 or 20 million dollars.

However - cover for the damage to the bicycle itself is hard to find at a reasonable price.
This is the issue here - not the damage to the third party.

Dad sues against motorists CTP green slip for injury and third party property for damage to the bike.

Daughter sues for bike and injury against public liability in home insurance of other cyclists. Problem with this plan is other cyclist must pay excess and daughter may be contributory negligent.

The at fault party 'caused' the accident. i.e. the car through negligent driving. S/He should be liable for the lot. But I'm an IT guy... not an insurance claims person.

[manlyman]

I just found this on the Bicycling Queensland website if you are a member:


BQ members who have an incident when riding and subsequently require legal assistance can call McInnes Wilson Lawyers for a free initial consultation, and further services by arrangement depending on their advice. Contact 1300 855 103 and be sure to mention that you have BQ Membership.

&

Bicycle Queensland Member Insurance provides cover for costs incurred as a result of a bicycle riding incident anywhere in Australia or New Zealand. Members must be Australian Residents to qualify. Racing cover is NOT included.

The policy is administered by Cyclecover and includes:

Liability Cover

Cover for legal liability to third parties as a result of the member's bicycle riding activities.

Personal Accident Cover

Cover for financial loss due to personal injury suffered as a result of a bicycle riding accident.

http://www.bq.org.au/join/insurance/

[plugmeister]

Hi all,

An update. The drivers CTP has now paid for all medical costs. Since in QLD the CTP is an "at fault" scheme, then it seems that the insurer has decided that the driver was at fault. I've been catching up with the discussion tonight, some great posts. I can add some more detail. Our group is an organised ride that includes quite a few junior riders, so we travel no more than two abreast (quite often single file) and leave a reasonable gap between wheels for safety purposes. When the guy pulled out the lead rider (me) was at most 10m from the vehicle (all I could do was call "carrrrrr" before I hit), so most riders were simply attempting to avoid a collision with the car rather than other bikes, since we were travelling at around 30kmh.

I'm in touch with a local solicitor to see if it is worth chasing for driver for bike damages. There wasn't a huge cost to repair the bikes, but given the attitude of the driver, I'm keen to see that he takes some responsibility for his stupid decision that morning. I ride to work regularly and IMHO I believe he saw us and decided (like may drivers do) that "they are only bikes" and that he could get away before we arrived. Hard to prove of course.....

He has comprehensive insurance, but no insurance I have covers bicycle damage outside of my property, so all I can do is look to seek a damages from QCAT (Small claims). I'm OK to do that more because the driver is being a moron and is refusing to pay damages on my daughter bike - now I'll add my damages to the list and go for the lot. I'm also in touch with the local Police to see that he at least gets a TIN if they won't charge him.

Thanks for all the posts.

Cheers,

Plug

[KonaCommuter]

He has comprehensive insurance, but no insurance I have covers bicycle damage outside of my property, so all I can do is look to seek a damages from QCAT (Small claims). I'm OK to do that more because the driver is being a moron and is refusing to pay damages on my daughter bike - now I'll add my damages to the list and go for the lot.

I thought your daughters bike was TDF specced?