How do I stop people blaming me for a crash? I regualrly communte to work in central London and am a careful cyclist. I am a quite guy and mind my own business - I hardly talk and try not to get into confrontations. The other week I was involved in a serious crash that was entirely the fault of the pedestrian who decided to walk out in between 2 buses and was on her phone whilst crossing a busy road - I saw here really late and crashed right into her at a high speed; I was flown forward into the road - she collapsed and thankfully after a few minutes she got up albeit with a number of injuries herself; I also still have injuries to bear but has not stopped me from cycling.

The problem was that when the crash happened a lot of people came to help (mainly her) but there were one or two who said "why was I not looking" and "you need to be more careful". I do not talk much and I was also in slight shock (the wind was taken out of me) however, once the lady got up she apologized a lot and said it was entirely her fault and the bus driver also agreed. 

However, some people still gave me dodgy looks and I was thinking what else could I have done or said to make them believe it was not my fault? If I said anything it may have aggravated the situation and with me being silent it kind of still aggravated the situation...its a no win situation.

If only she had walked a few meters to the traffic lights this whole mess would never have happened and if only she had been watching the road instead of her phone - I hope she is fine and learnt a valuable lesson but I am yet to decide how else I could have handled this.

UPDATE:

Didn't think this would blow up the way it would...thanks for the posts. 

Some points...


Am I at fault - yeah, probably, and I am one of the first to apologise (if you know us British people we say sorry even when it is not our fault) - however I am yet to see how I could have possibly seen her hidden between two buses and squeezing past them running to reach the other side. Even if I was going at 1 mph or 2 0mph - I just would not have seen her until the very last second - granted a lower speed means greater reaction time however (read later on) after 10 years of cycling this I never expected to see this in any day of the week.
I travel this path everyday (weekday) for the past 10 years - its not like this was new to me. 
I am not a racer, nor do I have a racing bike - I do not have the fancy gadgets some poeple have - asking me "how fast I was travelling" will not bring any fruition as I have no idea...which leads me to the point of the "high speed" I mention is something I would consider in myself that I am doing - I am one of the slowest in a group of riders so I think you guys seem to think I was going at some crazy speed - I am a commuter rider, not a racer - so not sure if this came across.
This happened between Bank and Chancery Lane - if anyone knows this place there is a slope down to the traffic lights whereby you can easy go above your normal speed (however, not too much high speed as traffic tends to turn left at the lights so your constantly on your brakes anyway...I can't be too sure but I reckon I may have been braking as I apprached the green lights.
There was no bus stop nor any people coming off buses - I am not sure why some of you think this? Even the bus driver who came off the bus sided with me (which surprised me as Buses can be an pain with cyclist) - if there were people coming off a bus then why would anyone cycle fast? That would be self-defeating.
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.