Bike crash - slightly injured wrist - what to do?

[Brainaddict]

The Stats19 is quite specific in its questions.. Such as weather conditions, time of day, road type, proximity to junction &c..

I feel that the statistics should be picking up my reporting method, rather than my reporting method adapting to the statistics collection. You may pass this comment on to the relevant people if you like

The GP is adequate both for medical purposes and insurance, so they should be picking it up, no?

 

[Geri]

The Stats19 is quite specific in its questions.. Such as weather conditions, time of day, road type, proximity to junction &c..

I have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds great.

 

[citydreams]

I feel that the statistics should be picking up my reporting method, rather than my reporting method adapting to the statistics collection. You may pass this comment on to the relevant people if you like

Or... you could ask your GP to fill out a Stats19 form whilst you're there

The GP is adequate both for medical purposes and insurance, so they should be picking it up, no?

I admire your faith in the government's ability to roll-out integrated IT to the group practices

 

[Corax]

integrated IT

The what?

I work for a major acute and it's unheard of. Good luck with the generalists!

 

[citydreams]

I have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds great.

http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/...ies/Pages/dataanalysistransportforlondon.aspx

 

[rubbershoes]

Before seeing a solicitor, it's worth checking if you have any cover for legal expenses under your household policy, or with a trade union, as they will be able to put you in touch with someone who can do it free of charge.

nooooooo

go to a local solicitor. they should do it for free anyway (any decent one will). if you go through your legal expenses insurers they'll send you to a legal firm miles away

 

[Geri]

nooooooo

go to a local solicitor. they should do it for free anyway (any decent one will). if you go through your legal expenses insurers they'll send you to a legal firm miles away

Why do you need a local solicitor though? Loads of them make you pay for the ATE premium, disbursements etc. so it would be so much easier if you can go with a firm you know you don't have to pay anything for, rather than try and find one who will fund all that for you.

 

[Spark]

nooooooo

go to a local solicitor. they should do it for free anyway (any decent one will). if you go through your legal expenses insurers they'll send you to a legal firm miles away

they will try to do so but you are entitled to select your own solicitor. the problem is the insurers will probably try and make it difficult for your solicitors in terms of how much they charge and admin

 

[Brainaddict]

Or... you could ask your GP to fill out a Stats19 form whilst you're there

My GP knew nothing of any such form. He even said he has bike accidents himself and has never filled out a form to record it. Makes you wonder how reliable those bike accident stats are


As for my wrist, he didn't send me for an x-ray, which I think is fair enough at this point - there's no reason to suspect a broken bone. He thinks it's just a strained ligament.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

My GP knew nothing of any such form. He even said he has bike accidents himself and has never filled out a form to record it. Makes you wonder how reliable those bike accident stats are


As for my wrist, he didn't send me for an x-ray, which I think is fair enough at this point - there's no reason to suspect a broken bone. He thinks it's just a strained ligament.

I'm a bit puzzled why you bothered going to both a walk in centre *and* your GP, when neither of them have the x-ray facilities that would rule out your having sustained a hairline fracture.

You'd have been better off going to A&E to get the x-ray done, and then you would have known for sure (well, not necessarily, but that's a whole other medical negligence experience story). Corrective surgery after something hasn't been set properly and has healed badly is more of a bugger to do than sorting out an injury properly from the beginning.

I think it's probably still worthwhile getting it checked out by x-ray, especially if you're just about to go off and do some climbing, because if you have some internal injury to your wrist, you wouldn't really want to be bearing weight on it.

And surely, the driver who hit you, doesn't he have a legal obligation to report any accident within 24(?) hours to the police?

Maybe you should double check to make sure it's been reported. And also make sure the company he works for knows about it.

If he drives around like an idiot, and then acts in a really blase fashion after hitting a cyclist, he's not learning any lessons for the future is he? Maybe the next time he hits a cyclist they might come off worse than you did. Might be a good idea to report the incident so that he gets a bit of a wake up call and starts paying more attention to other road users while driving?

 

[lighterthief]

Well done for going to your GP and not clogging up A&E as so many here seem so happy to suggest.

 

[citydreams]

My GP knew nothing of any such form. He even said he has bike accidents himself and has never filled out a form to record it. Makes you wonder how reliable those bike accident stats are

The Stats19 is police recorded accidents only (compared to hospital data for accuracy). TfL then use an under-reported factor (~70%) to estimate total accidents. This factor has been the same since 2003 so I guess it's long overdue we had a new way of monitoring cycling accidents.

Thanks for asking

 

[Geri]

And surely, the driver who hit you, doesn't he have a legal obligation to report any accident within 24(?) hours to the police?

There is no legal obligation to report an accident to the police if you exchange details at the scene.

There is also nothing in the OP to suggest he was blasé about it - at the time it didn't appear that the OP was injured, he gave him his card and said to send him the bill for repairs to the bike. Really, what more do you expect him to do?

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

There is no legal obligation to report an accident to the police if you exchange details at the scene.

There is also nothing in the OP to suggest he was blasé about it - at the time it didn't appear that the OP was injured, he gave him his card and said to send him the bill for repairs to the bike. Really, what more do you expect him to do?

Actually, what you said about there being no legal obligation to report an accident to the police if you exchange details at the scene isn't strictly correct:

What must a driver involved in a traffic accident do

A driver involved in a traffic accident should stop whether or not the accident was their fault if:-

anyone, other than themselves, is injured; or
another vehicle, or someone else’s property, is damaged; or
an animal in another vehicle or running across the road is injured; or
a bollard, street lamp or other item of street furniture is damaged.
If you have to stop, you must remain near the vehicle long enough for anyone who is involved directly or indirectly in the accident to ask for details. This could be, for example, the owner of an injured animal, a relative of someone who is injured, or the police. The driver must then give their name and address, the name and address of the owner of the vehicle (if the driver is not the owner), and the registration number of the vehicle.

The driver may also have to report the accident to a police officer or at a police station, in person, as soon as practicable and in any case within 24 hours. This duty arises whenever the driver has not given their name and address at the scene of the accident, whether or not they were asked to do so.

If any personal injury is caused to another person, the driver must also produce a valid insurance certificate if asked to do so by a police officer, injured person, or anyone else directly or indirectly involved in the accident. If the insurance certificate is asked for, but not produced at the time, the accident must be reported to a police station as soon as practicable, or in any case within 24 hours, and the insurance certificate must be taken to a police station within seven days of the accident. However if the driver is asked at the time of the accident to produce insurance details and does so, there is no further obligation to report the accident to the police, as long as they have complied with the duties described above.

For more information about personal injuries, in England and Wales see Personal injuries, and in Scotland see Personal injuries.

In the case of a damage-only accident, the driver must give insurance details to anyone who may wish to make a claim against them.

In all accidents, drivers should inform their own insurance company.

For more information in England and Wales about making a claim to your insurance company, see Motor insurance in Consumer fact sheets.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index...l/traffic_accidents.htm#what_must_a_driver_do

 

[Geri]

Basically you've just said what I did, only using a lot more words.

 

[citydreams]

My GP knew nothing of any such form. He even said he has bike accidents himself and has never filled out a form to record it. Makes you wonder how reliable those bike accident stats are

.

I asked TfL if they could start monitoring a sample of doctor's surgeries, or walk-in centres in the run up to cycle-hire and cycle highways. The response was typically self-serving.

I have discussed this possibility with members of the Cycling Working Group – the view is that the factor used to estimate unreported cycle accidents is not something that changes significantly over time. International evidence supports the fact that it takes significant intervention to improve reporting. So – it is not considered particularly useful to review this at present as 2003 is suitably recent. Other aspects of accidents and road safety will be included in the monitoring programme however, in particular looking at the impact of specific schemes etc.

Roughly translated as "we've got better things to be doing with our time."

 

[citydreams]

Statistics body orders DfT to revise road accident casualty statistics

“The under-reporting of road accident statistics is a significant and intractable problem,” says UKSA. It says it has concluded that the published statistics “may not be sufficiently reliable to meet all user needs” and that the DfT “needs to explain and contextualise the limitations of the statistics more fully at the time of publication”.

The report sets out a series of required actions for the DfT to implement by November 2009.
These include:
• Develop a best approximation of the numbers of casualties based on research into the undercounting associated with the STATS19 police accident form. These estimates should then be included in the published counts to inform the user of the scale of the problem
• Publish plans to improve the reporting of data by police forces– both to report more accidents, and to improve the classification of the severity of injuries
• Bring together as much relevant data as possible – including sources that are not currently exploited – at the time the statistics are released in order to help explain the weaknesses in the STATS19 data
• Publish a business case for investing additional resources to strengthen the evidence base in relation to road casualties. UKSA?says it believes the DfT?does not devote sufficient resources “to make rapid progress in improving the statistics and their public presentation”
• Re-title the statistics to ‘Police recorded road casualty statistics’
Failure to make the changes would mean that the Department’s road casualty statistics would not meet the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and cease to be designated as ‘national statistics’.

http://www.transportxtra.com/magazines/local_transport_today/news/?id=17083