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Got Clipped by a Van, need som help

StuInTokyo

Maximum Pace
Dec 3, 2010
1,662
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Today on my paddle around the palace I got clipped by the mirror of a van.

Here is where it happened....
corner_map.jpg

... at about 9:15AM this morning.

I was doing maybe 27Km/h this guy went by me very fast, and his mirror clipped my arm, not much of a hit, but it did make contact.

IMG_2746.jpg

The van, with the company name and phone number I also found their address....
鳥近
〒1030013 東京都中央区日本橋人形町1丁目18-6 
IMG_2747.jpg

Van's license plate

You can see the mirror on the side of the van is not very big, so if that hit my arm, you can imagine how close the guy came to hitting me, scared the pooh out of me I can tell you. I happened just at the apex of the corner, I was maybe 1 meter from the curb, I know this is a bad spot, many drivers clip this corner, so I don't, this usually makes them go around me, but this guy decided not to.
At the next light I pulled up beside him, and I politely asked him to drive more carefully, as he almost knocked me from my bike. He made a rude gesture and then a dismissive one, and started to ignore me. I asked him if his delivery was more important than my life? Again rude gesture and then ignore, so I got out my iPhone and took some pictures, while doing this he was really angry, I thought he was going to get out of the van at one point. When I tried to take a picture of him, he hid his face like a coward....

IMG_2748.jpg

... Then I told him I'd be contacting his boss. At this point he stopped being so rude and tried to ask for forgiveness, make the praying hands gesture, I told him that if he had started with a "Gomen" or sorry, that would have been fine, but as he was dismissive and rude, I'd not be in contact with his company. When the light turned green he quickly got out of dodge.

Now I don't want to make a phone call, that is not worth much IMHO, I want to print out the four pics above and write down what happened in Japanese, and send it to the company by mail. I want to do this anonymously, because if the guy gets fired or something I don't want him coming back to me, don't need that kind of trouble. I look at it this way, six more inches to the left and I'd most likely be in a hospital or worse, if I had a company with drivers out doing deliveries with the name of my company on the door, I'd sure want to know if they were driving dangerously. If this was a one off thing and the guy was just having a bad day, then the penalty to him at work should be minor, but if this is the most recent of many complaints, then maybe he should be working in the storehouse not doing deliveries.

Am I being unreasonable?
Am I making too much of this?

As you can guess my Japanese wife thinks I am, she thinks that because I did not get hit, then why cause a fuss, OK that is her opinion, and it is not her problem.

What I would like to ask is some help on the Japanese can someone help me out with a quickie translation?

Please and thank you :D

Cheers!
 
Bird Delivery Service?? Looks like they're in Ningycho Nihombashi. Google it!
 
If you really wanna make a stink - write up a simple 'rude driver report' , then copy paste it onto all of their blog / yahoo / navi posts.
 
Bird Delivery Service?? Looks like they're in Ningycho Nihombashi. Google it!

I would guess Chicken meat delivery?

I did google it, and found the exact location, but like I said, a letter in Japanese with the time place and the pics explaining what happened and asking them to ask him to please be more careful is what I want to do. Nothing else is warranted I think. If the guy is a habitual bad driver, this will be a problem for him, if this is a one time thing and the guy is a great employee all the time has no bad driving problems, then it will not be a big problem, but should hopefully many him think, hopefully....
 
If you really wanna make a stink - write up a simple 'rude driver report' , then copy paste it onto all of their blog / yahoo / navi posts.
I don't think they have any of that kind of thing.:(
 
i'd say you got hit. i probably would have called the police. it might not be too late to bring them in if you feel so inclined.

the guy was driving dangerously close to you and his employer should know about it. I think the best thing to do is call and explain the situation. if you don't want the guy to loose his job you can explain that, too, but that's really his employer's call. when out on the street he's representing his employer and his workplace might have rules about things like not driving dangerously or not being rude to other road users after having hit them.

it sounds like you handled yourself well and were way more calm than i would have been. i'm on a hair trigger with cars lately because of the police crackdown on fixed gears and bikes in general. cars are clearly way more dangerous and if the police aren't going to address bike safety by also looking at motor vehicles i'm going to go out of my way to report dangerous driving. i would have for sure reported this as an accident if the driver stuck around and hit and run if he took off.
 
IMHO f#¤%ers like these need to be taught a lesson. I can accept a lot of strange things from people if they are apologetic about their stupidities. On the other hand I have zero acceptance with people that has the attitude you describe.

Definately send a letter to the company he works for. I think if it is written in good polite Japanese they will take it seriously even if it is anonymous.

When I have had incidents with other people doing dangerous things my reaction very much depends on what kind of atttitude they have when confronted. If they are honestly sorry for what they done my anger usually drains off me pretty quick. How I would deal with guys like you describe in this incident is better described outside this forum I think ;)

Well done getting some pictures of the bastard anyway :thumb:
 
Stu. If he hit you with his mirror then it's a road traffic accident and should be reported to the police.

I'm glad that you're not injured. But if this 'motorist' is a dangerous driver, as seems to be the case, then chances are that he has done this before and will do it again.

It's OK to report an accident after the fact. People do that all the time - usually in order to justify a 'whiplash vacation' (鞭打ち休暇)

The police knocking on the company's door will have a lot more of the desired effect than an anonymous letter. You can ask them to do that, and report back to you when they have done so.

Failing that, Tim will go round and slash his tires.

--Mike--
 
Stu. If he hit you with his mirror then it's a road traffic accident and should be reported to the police.

I'm glad that you're not injured. But if this 'motorist' is a dangerous driver, as seems to be the case, then chances are that he has done this before and will do it again.

It's OK to report an accident after the fact. People do that all the time - usually in order to justify a 'whiplash vacation' (鞭打ち休暇)

The police knocking on the company's door will have a lot more of the desired effect than an anonymous letter. You can ask them to do that, and report back to you when they have done so.

Failing that, Tim will go round and slash his tires.

--Mike--
concur, the police are proactively pushing bikes out into the road so feedback is good for them
 
Stu, you have a good police officer friend, why not ask him for his advice? Also let me ask you, how would you feel if you did nothing and then a week from now you open the paper and see this guy has killed a cyclist?
 
Hi Stu. I'm sorry to hear you got hit.

I'd be inclined to agree with what the others here have said. This moron showed absolutely no concern for you or remorse for his mistake until he realised there just might be some consequences for his dangerous driving. I think you should follow-up, either with his company or the Police (given the latter really do go and knock on the company's door).

Good Luck!
 
Spoke to my police buddies and they said that reporting it to the drivers company will do nothing. He advised to report it to the police as this driver may have other "Motoring Offenses" outstanding and they need to be aware of other incidents.

Also as Pete rightly says, the next rider might not be so lucky!
 
I'd say due to his attitude he clipped you on purpose.
Send the report to his company.
If they don't apologize properly then go a few steps further.
 
Do what James says.

Report it to the police. Don't worry about repercussions. This **** will clearly not stop driving like a total bellend.

Reporting it to the company. You can imagine the scene; boss gets a letter with some photos and a report in it. Either he lobs it in the bin, or calls the guy in, asks him what happened, the guy says, "some foreigner jumped in front of my van, and I swerved to avoid him. I was so scard, etc etc etc." They both have a good laugh about it, and the report goes in the bin. Bleak, I know, but you know in your heart that this is what will happen.

Report it to the police. He hit you.
 
Does reporting to the police mean that the van driver will know where you live as part of the paperwork process?

(this is a big minus in my book if it does)
 
Report it tothe police. The was an until he thought he mightn't be getting away with it. In other words he will do it again when he thinks he can get away with it again.
 
Glad you came out of it ok. Like the others say, report it to the police. And to second what Owen says, the guy won`t lose his job because of one uncorroborated incident, so don`t worry about it. I understand you want to do this anonymously, but just think about it, once the complaint gets made he will know who made it, and a big gaijin cycling round the palace...simple stakeout is all it takes to find you. Hence, a report through the police is your best safeguard for any comeback.
 
Thanks for the advice fellas, I'll be heading down to the local cop shop to make an official report tomorrow, at least they should have someone that speaks English :D

Cheers!
 
Stu,

Most detectives speak English.... they have to in order to be able to take the detectives exam. Normally the larger stations will have an officer or social officer that can speak fluent English.

I know you are concerned about him losing his job, however how concerned was he with your life or your ability to provide if he had knocked you off?

To be honest, the more reports of these idiot drivers, near misses and clips the better as otherwise the police are powerless to do anything about it and the system never changes.

Also I'm a firm beleiver in karma and no doubt if this guy does lose his job due to his attitude then so be it.
 
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