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OK, have i been very naughty or just sensible?

Its been raining on and off all day, roads still quite slick. on the way home from dropping mates off from the pub, pass along a mile or two stretch of a-road. Follow a guy on a scooter onto it from an island, keep my distance, seems its a derestricted 50cc as he gets up to speed quickly, but tops out around 45 in a few moments. Clear road, easy overtaking manoeuver, leave plenty of room and carry on at 65. He then catches up and follows fairly close at that speed (so, ok, it's a 125 then, and he's farting around).... not to worry as i'm turning off in a minute. Do so. He follows - and flips main beam on, and it's only a bloody HID upgrade. Not happy with this. Cane it as much as the tray can. He keeps pace.

Now down this particular, narrower, unlit minor road (still 60 limit) is a not particularly friendly corner thats been in the paper recently for being an accident blackspot, already was planning to take it slower than i'm going, and matey is blinding me so i'll have to go slower still - so i brake. Not particularly hard, like.
He brakes alright for a second or two (keeping a constant "distance"), then, while i'm still coming down to a civilised cornering speed, he loses it on the wet surface. Not even in time to react, the light zooms closer and he smacks off the rear window.

Of course, I stop as quick as i can after that. This sh*t wasn't part of the game plan.

Back up a bit, open door... check he's alright and try to find out what kind of game he's playing. All limbs seem in order, as do his lungs. Bike goes upright, wheels turn, engine starts, lights come on, or at least the sidelight does. As it's an isolated country road in the middle of redneck nowhere, and I'm alone with someone who may very well be one of the notoriously abusive travellers who have been causing trouble roundabouts, in what seems like fully working order and with fair reason to stick me one in the heat of the moment, I don't feel like getting out or giving him my contact details. If he wants, he can go to the police station and give them my reg - I'm sure he's got it printed large enough on his mind.

I have reported it to the police myself (after getting home - naturally, as there's no visible injury, no more so than if he'd come right off on that corner as he would have anyway at that speed, they didn't give a tinkers toss apart from telling me to tell the insurers and come in to pick up a self reporting form) and am now looking for my insurer's notification phone number... Wonder if there's a three strikes rule for no-fault non-claims where they brand you a jinx? (two different smacks to the polo while it was parked, and now this).

Don't know what's really going to come of this, i'm hoping that matey takes his lumps and accepts it as a lesson to not ride ten yards off someone's bumper in excess of the limit, in the wet, on something with smaller tyre contact patches than the average mountain bike...... then again, he might have got my plate and go great guns. Checked the car out ... it's made of stern stuff. Not a scratch, not a dent. All that seems to have happened is he clocked the number plate light on the way down and so that's now shining off in completely the wrong direction (internally)... got a glowing bumper but an invisible plate (or, it was already busted, and he never got my number at all?).
Hopefully it's less an indication of strong construction and more one of very low impact energy. Given how hard i was braking and how far away he was, it couldn't be too much. I've had similar tumbles on my ATB when younger at all of about 15mph (appropriately, slipstreaming a car in the rain, and having the front wheel lock trying to outbrake them - same as what he said happened).

Wondering if i did a bad thing there by driving off (after checking he was ok, and could still get home, at least!) vs sticking behind, swapping details etc.

All to do, is to call 'em up, then get this form, and see what happened. Lady on the phone was right cheesed at me not having got his details, but hey... i wasnt going to leave myself exposed in that place... he wants em, he can ask for em. I did tell her where it happened. Maybe they'll go see if anyone's dead and collapsed there. There's already a few units in the area for another monster accident that's closed a road.

As if there wasn't enough stuff to deal with already

**edited by josh**

if he didnt ask you any questions, i imagine he wasnt insured/no liscence etc.

dont worry bout it

I wouldn't worry about it.. as long as you checked he wasn't badly injured, the accident wasn't your fault and you reported it to the police, I imagine it'll be ok..

Would he not be at fault Instantly for coming into the back of you.

yep in the eyes of the law its his fault

as long as their is no damage 2 ur car & he is fine then i really dont think you have anything 2 worry about. I wood say its his fault aswel

Same as evry1 else sed, dont worry bout it. teach him a lesson anyway!

i'm just torn between the two sides - the "lesson" and "his own fault" camp, and the "should have checked more"* and "the law will kick your ass" one

... yknow, legal requirement to exchange details 'n all..

* very nice lady in the oh-so-flammable looking portacabin that currently passes for our local police station (whilst the council inspectors make sure the overly-grand main building isnt going to collapse or something) told me a nice story about a guy on a scooter who pinged off the kerb on the nearby main road.... people rushed to help... he got up, dusted off, proclaimed himself fine, then fell back off the bike a half mile later from internal bleeding effects and died in hospital within the hour. Hm. Cheers love. Gonna be checking the local rags for stories of Mysterious Scooter Death at Accident Blackspot.

edit:
Funny thing about it is how easy it was today after smacking someone's mirror off (of a parked car) on a very tight, very busy road (whoops - left hand clearance always was a prob even as a learner), to quickly park up, recover the bits of our respective dongles (mine suffered bad, too), then ring the bell of the nearest house to own up and offer to fix the damage... Daylight - or the lack of - does a funny thing to your courage bone.

and...... i think this car's a jinx. well... they both are. the old one was for expensive mechanical bits. this one is as a damage magnet.

Oh great... now endsleigh's solicitors want to talk to me "to complete a short questionnaire"... yeah.. right. Already gave all the details i could over the phone to one of their random customer service desk jockeys on monday. This is something "extra", to be sure.

take your time filling it out - see if anything else turns up in the meantime

lol thats my paranoia for me. she wanted to know if i'd suffered any personal injury or time off (...damn me and my honesty) because of it, and if they'd supplied me with a courtesy car...
twas all i could do to not chortle and tell her that we were both mushrooms in different barns..... the hospital techs vs referring doctors, and their solicitor admins with the insurance company.

still there was a small undertone of seeing if i had his details etc. the most reassuring thing today was the police yet again not really appearing to give a stuff about it and just going thru the motions

lol if this is the way most moving accident reports are investigated then it's little wonder my mum had so much trouble with that motorcyclist*...

got a letter thru the post that was plainly from the solicitors so i was bricking opening it..... yknow he's badly injured and is suing me for leaving the scene etc. no....... its part full report form (draw little pictures etc), part a very thinly veiled push towards me participating in the whole no-win no-fee "he hit me and now i've had to take 6 months off work with anxiety, i'm going to sue for £20,000!" thing. despite me having already told several different officials over the phone that i personally didnt feel a thing, the car is undamaged, and my only concern is that he didnt do himself any permanent damage whilst learning this valuable lesson.

im not even sure if i should sign it, as the language seems to involve me authorising them to "pursue this claim to the full extent of our abilities" when i haven't even made one... might end up being taken on some kind of crazy ride as they try to make a week's rent worth of commission out of it

(* she was nosing out through congestion, turning right from a sideroad.. he's overtaking the stopped traffic, spots her, overreacts, loses it on a wet drain cover... comes to a halt a good 30ft away. still makes a claim against her. pffft only a nob or someone being encouraged to seek compensation in this same way would try something like that on)