How do I stop people blaming me for a crash?
I dispute your claim that the collision was entirely the pedestrian's fault. Of course, the pedestrian shouldn't have stepped into the road without looking. However, you, as a road user in a busy city should have been aware that pedestrians often cross the road carelessly. You shouldn't have been travelling so fast and so close to the bus that you had no time to react if a pedestrian appeared.

Even if you don't feel you have any responsibility towards careless road users, surely this makes sense purely from the self-preservation angle. You need to consider what other users might do, not only what they will do if they obey all rules and guidelines.

Now, I wasn't there so I wont attempt to apportion blame any more precisely than "You were both at fault." But you were both at fault.



In your edit to the question, you point out that the pedestrian appeared so late that you would probably still have hit them at 1&ndash;2mph. First, if that is literally true, then you must have been riding extremely close to the buses. If you had been riding a meter away from them, you would have easily avoided the collision at walking pace. Riding very close to stationary vehicles is very dangerous: if they start moving, there's a good chance they'll move towards you; it invites other traffic to overtake, trapping you in a space barely wider than your bike; and it gives you no time to react if a pedestrian appears or a door opens. Second, if you had collided at walking pace, nothing serious would have happened but, for example, colliding at 12mph involves nine times as much energy.