Darren Brocklehurst was biking home along Richmond St. on Saturday afternoon when he was hit by a car taking a right hand turn onto Portland St.

The light was green, Brocklehurst was in the bike lane and he says he had the right of way.

“She saw me in her rearview mirror, I was ringing my bell,” he said. “I thought, ‘okay, I’m going through,’ and then I was on the ground. I felt my bike shift under me. Why did she not stop?”

Brocklehurst suffered only minor scrapes and bruises. But he ran into trouble when he asked the driver for her contact information.

“You’re not a cop, I don’t need to show you anything,” he recalls the driver telling him.

She finally produced a driver’s licence when pressed by witnesses at the scene, and Brocklehurst was able to take a picture of it.

The incident illustrates the confusion some people have when drivers and cyclists collide in an accident.

Police say the rules for car-on-cyclist collisions are very similar to car-on-car collisions.

If the damage is under $2,000, and no one has been injured, police say, exchange contact information and be on your way. If there is damage worth over $2,000 involved or someone has been hurt, call 911.

Toronto police Const. Giancarlo Marrelli said that “the bare minimum is to exchange contact information,” even if there is just a little damage.

Getting into a crash can leave a cyclist stunned, and the rider might not know what to do next.

“It’s fairly common that people don’t know what steps to take when they’re in a collision,” said Jared Kolb, the executive director of Cycle Toronto.

The advocacy group provides helpful tips on the back of its membership card. The card recommends that after a collision, cyclists should stay calm, call 911 if it is necessary, find witnesses and record the vehicle’s licence place number.

In Brocklehurst’s case, his collision went by the book.

“From a technical point of view, my collision was flawless,” he said, explaining that from the moment he was hit, he and those around him followed the recommended steps.

In the case of a cyclist hitting a pedestrian, police say there are no guidelines on how to proceed, because it is not defined as a collision under the Ministry of Transportation Ontario guidelines.

Const. Clint Stibbe said that police should only be called if there are serious injuries, in which case an incident report would be filed.

The only permanent damage Brocklehurst sustained in his collision were mechanical problems with his bicycle and smashed up camera equipment, which he was carrying with him on his way home. He is working with both his and the driver’s insurance firms to get the damage covered.

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Brocklehurst said police told him Friday that the driver will not be charged.

He has decided he will start ringing his bell even more as he approaches intersections, even if he has the right of way and angers drivers around him.

“At least if they’re glaring at me they see me,” he said.