February 1996

It was a reasonably warm day for the time of year. I was in the late shift and I was on my way to work by bike. I was a bit in a hurry, because I was late, so I went with decent speed (mind my BMX-background, so I figure I was doing some 40 km/h). I got to the city center and rode onto the roundabout there and wanted to turn left. I was on the roundabout, so, according to the rules of traffic for this type of roundabout, I was supposed to be going first before all traffic nearing the roundabout with plans to enter.
There was this white Mazda coming from the direction straight ahead. I did see the car coming, but assuming that it would know the rules and would stop, I continued my way left. I was thinking to myself that the car kept quite some speed even if it was supposed to let me pass first, so I guess I kind of anticipated a collision already.
And indeed, the car drove onto the roundabout without even slowing down. I managed to jump off my bike before it hit me, but the bike was completely destroyed. Front wheel was double and the frame was bent. And the worst thing: the driver just drove on without even stopping.
I jumped up, dragged the bike to the pavement, left it there and took a sprint after the car (yeah right, as if I would be able to keep up with the car). But note my luck: the car turned right onto the parking lot of the supermarket there. I ran to the driver, a young lady, and asked her what the hell she was thinking as to drive me off my bike and then take off without even slowing down. She just said, that she thought it better to park on the parking lot there instead of keeping up traffic on the roundabout. Then she started apologizing and saying she was wrong and that we would arrange everything with our insurance companies. If I came over tonight we would fill out the forms together and take care of everything.
So I took an hour off work in the evening and went there to fill out the papers. And like she said earlier in the afternoon she didn't make any problems and we filled out and signed the forms saying that it had been her fault and that she was responsible for the damage and that our insurance companies would settle everything.
Imagine my surprise when a week later I received a letter from her insurance company putting all responsibility with me and claiming all her damage on me.
I was too surprised to be angry, but I got on the phone with her insurance company anyway. I stated my name and asked if the guy (who signed the letter) was familiar with the case I was talking about. He said he was. Then I asked him if he took a good look at the front side of the form, especially to the drawing of the scene of the accident.
Imagine my second surprise when he said he hadn't.
I asked him that if he hadn't looked at the front side if the form, where he got the information that made me responsible for what had happened. To which he replied that there's a little space on the inside of the form where clients can comment on what happened. It appeared that the friendly lady, who drove me off my bike, had written there AFTER we signed the forms and AFTER I had left her home, that it was all my fault because I had come with incredible speed onto the roundabout and that she had never seen me coming because I was too fast.
It was then that I got very annoyed.
I started talking slowly, like explaining to a child, that we — the guy from the insurance company and me — would go over the form again, the front part of the form.
1) I was riding a bike, which according to Dutch traffic law automatically puts the responsibility with the car, because pedestrians and bikers — the slow traffic — have the right of way.
2) I was already ON the roundabout when she hit me. Traffic on the roundabout goes before all oncoming other traffic. And it doesn't matter (theoretically speaking) would I have been biking with a speed of 100 km/h, it doesn't change anything about the fact that I was already ON the roundabout.
3) Two signatures on the bottom of the form, claiming that it was her fault and that she was responsible for what happened.
4) What part of the form is the most important? The front with the information and drawing about the accident or a box for comments on the inside of the form?
I could notice the guy was majorly embarrassed for making a blunder like that and he agreed with everything I said (ofcourse) *grins*
He apologised and said matter of factly that next time he wouldn't look at the inside of the form any more before looking on the front.
I got my insurance money two weeks later.
Bureaucracy isn't ALWAYS slow :o)