Thankfully, he was okay but the impact smashed my fairing. The police decided not to take any action but said they could have done me for driving with out due care and attention for riding with a black tinted visor at night. The cheek of it! If the local yocal hadn’t been drunk I wouldn’t have hit him. Can I make a claim?

Answer

You could bring a claim but you will not win 100% on liability because first and foremost you were riding at night with a black tinted visor only meant for the track. The court will likely find you were partially to blame as you couldn’t see as well as you could have done with a clear and legal visor.

In addition, the court may well find that you, as a rider, should have anticipated drunken people maybe stumbling out of the local pub and you should have been on the lookout. That may sound harsh but there is a bucket-load of case law on the point and pedestrians often get something with regards to liability even if they appear to have done something stupid.

As an aside, riding with a black tinted visor at night could amount to driving without due care and attention in my view. I say this because your riding did fall ‘below what would be expected of a competent and careful’ rider.

Andrew ‘Chef’ Prendergast

Motorcycle Monthly September 2016