Originally Posted by
pallen
Yeah, any accident discussion always comes down to this. Sounds to me like this was an accident. The jogger could have helped by not turning abruptly, the biker possibly could have helped by slowing around peds. Whatever. It was an accident and I'm glad everyone is ok.
Not really sure what you're getting at here. Though I, too, am glad the damage and pain was negligible.
Yes, it is an accident. I don't think anyone intended it to happen.
It is an accident where the
jogger is at fault.
I won't immediately say 100% because I don't know OPs speed, just how radical the U-turn was, etc., but the jogger did have a responsibility to NOT make the radical move. In the end, CCrew is probably right about it netting out to contributory negligence / wash in court, unless there was God-cam video showing that this jogger's stupidity was on par with that we see all the time then it would be victory for Steely Dan. Good thing it looks like this doesn't need to and isn't going there.
The only way I would point even a fingernail at Steely Dan was if he was going recklessly fast, passing recklessly close to the jogger's original track, or this happened right to be at a junction or such where the jogger was making a predictable "legal left turn" and not from the right hand lane. I doubt any of those are true. Random no look U-turn at the point where he has run far enough or remembered he left the oven on doesn't shift fault.
I think this below is well said, pallen. People do stupid things, accidents will continue to happen. I'll be a part of fewer at 10-15mph than 20+. And when they do happen, and they will, I'll have done my part, and the other guy will be at fault, whether I would win in court or not. And I'm praying that the other "guy" is not some kid in a baby stroller with a clueless mom / nanny.
Originally Posted by
pallen
Since most of us here are cyclists and not joggers, the thing we can take from the discussion is keep our speed down around joggers on MUPs because sometimes they do things erratically. Slowing down wont fix everything obviously, but it helps. You might be 100% in the right, but that doesn't really make you feel better when someone gets hurt. I'm not at all accusing the OP of going too fast. He may have been crawling and still had no way to avoid the accident. None of us were there.