Lawrence:
"So because you can't see well you just drive out? She should've edged out slowly til she could see it was clear."
The point I were making here was that even if she had crept forward to look, IMO the rider had no chance of seeing her either until the car was half-way out (therefore possibly causing him to swerve to avoid her anyhow), and thus the rider could have done with less acceleration than he was using, to give him time to think through the likely risks.
There always seems to be an assumption in these kind of bike accidents that the biker is *never* to blame, which I think is potentially dangerous.
IMO, every accident or near miss (regardless of whose error it was) should be an opportunity to think through ways to avoid a repeat (ie, "Was that avoidable? What could I have done differently?" etc).
I'm not saying that it'll magically stop dozy drivers from flattening a biker (some drivers really ought to get a guide dog and let the dog drive instead), but it might just help mitigate some of the risks, bearing in mind the inherent vulnerability we face on bikes.
Saying "it's someone else's fault" from a hospital bed with smashed-up bones, a smashed-up bike and possibly weeks off work with no income isn't particularly comforting.
One piece of advice I got from a mate at work a few years back (and which has stuck with me): "It isn't wet roads, or diesel spills, or dozy drivers that are a problem, it's not knowing how to deal with them that's a problem".
