'All he had to do was say sorry' - Cyclist wins court case and £4k after being hit by driver

A cyclist has won more than £4,000 in damages after taking legal action against a car driver who struck him from behind.

Harry Gray, a 28-year-old active travel campaigner, was rear-ended by a driver while cycling in Bolton in December 2022. He had no camera footage or CCTV evidence of the incident, but chose to pursue the driver, described as a man in his late sixties, who Gray felt “showed no remorse”.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Gray recalled the incident as being “crazy”.

“I set off from the traffic lights and got ahead of the car behind me,” he said. “The road narrowed into a pinch point, and as I went into the pinch, the guy behind me obviously didn’t see me and just drove into the back of me.

“When he got out of the car – I was injured – he was basically just having a go at me and saying it was my fault. I was in agony, but I was annoyed at the fact that he’d done that, and not been sorry for what he’d done.”

Gray suffered a bruised tailbone and, as a result of his injuries, missed two weeks off work. “It also impacted my mental capacity, because I had a lot of anxiety around cycling for ages after that,” he said. “I just felt like I was always going to get hit off my bike again.”

Determined to make the driver take ownership of the crash, Gray instructed solicitors and began legal proceedings. The process, he said, involved “a lot of emails”, but “it was easy enough”. He did not have to attend the civil court date, where it was agreed the driver would pay £4,252.96 in damages.

“I just felt like he deserved his comeuppance because he [initially] just didn’t accept he was at fault at all,” Gray said. “It was the behaviour of the driver that was concerning to me.

“Maybe that kind of attitude is what I was trying to fight against.”

Gray was initially concerned that a lack of video proof would hinder his case, but in the end found the driver's insurance company offered little dispute. This, he believed, was due to the nature of the incident.

“If you get hit from behind in a car or on a bike, it’s kind of obvious who’s at fault,” he said. "It's kind of a given, isn't it?"

The 28-year-old shared news of his victory on X earlier this week, writing that he would have been happy to avoid legal action: “All he had to do was say sorry, oh well.”

Gray now recommends other cyclists who have had similar crashes follow in his footsteps. “Don’t be scared of taking this process further,” he said. “There are no-win-no-fee specialists in the sector. There’s no risk really – you go talk to them and if they think you’ve got a case, they’ll proceed.”

As for the compensation he’ll receive, a 25% cut will go to the solicitors, while Gray is hoping to put the rest towards "the trip of a lifetime" in his next cycling adventure.

“In my head I’ve been looking at trips,” he said. “I did the Pyrenees last year, so I probably want to do the Alps or something next time, and watch a bit of the Tour de France.”