Another accident, thoughts on liability and possibility of write off?

im guessing she never bothered to indicate or look before going for the 3rd exit.. unless it was going to be her 2nd exit then her staying to the left would be normal..

you must have been slightly ahead of her too, to not notice her pulling into you or else you'd have pulled right to avoid her
 
Mickie said:
im guessing she never bothered to indicate or look before going for the 3rd exit.. unless it was going to be her 2nd exit then her staying to the left would be normal..

you must have been slightly ahead of her too, to not notice her pulling into you or else you'd have pulled right to avoid her
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I pulled right to take evasive action and hit the roundabout itself, the damage to her car is on the rear bumper and on mine the front wing so I was still behind her.
 
Whatever the rights and wrongs of your passing her on the roundabout, unless she admits full liability to her insurer this is only going one way - 50/50.
 
BigT said:
Whatever the rights and wrongs of your passing her on the roundabout, unless she admits full liability to her insurer this is only going one way - 50/50.
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This. Been there, done that. Unless she admits liability (unlikely) or there are independent witnesses (ditto) then the rule amongst insurers these days is just to go 50:50. That's what my insurer told me, and they fought for five months to try to get the other side to cave. The problem is, no matter how much you paint it as her fault, she can tell a story which paints it as yours.

On a side note: have been cut up no end of times by people on the left cutting the corner, I suggest that you do the same as me, and never pull past someone to the right, as it will stop this ever happening again.


M
 
Yes, unfortunately I can only confirm that in a near identical incident to this, where it is clearly the person in the left lane being incorrect (and admitting the fact at the scene, in my case) as soon as insurance companies were involved it turned into 50/50, and with no other witnesses I could not prove the poor driving of the third party.

I hope yours turns out better.

Cheers
 
Looks to me like you undertook somebody negotiating a roundabout on a roundabout with no lane markings.

Therefore I'd say it's 100% your impatient driving - but I'd imagine that with no witnesses it'll go 50/50.
 
The accident management company say it's her fault, and have agreed to take the case on.

They were good last time, so lets hope they come up trumps again. They've agreed I was correct in my lane placement and she is at fault, but it depends if she argues the case or not.

As I'm 3rd party, if it goes 50/50 will her insurance still pay for my repairs? I'm only 3rd party fire and theft.
 
[TW]Fox;21555044 said:
Looks to me like you undertook somebody negotiating a roundabout on a roundabout with no lane markings.

Therefore I'd say it's 100% your impatient driving - but I'd imagine that with no witnesses it'll go 50/50.
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How is that an undertake? He overtook her.

But in any case, looking at in from streetview level, I doubt I'd have attempted an overtake on that roundabout, I'd have just sat on the right hand side a car length behind her:

e32Og.jpg

However I'm still going to say it's her fault. I hate people taking the 'racing line' at roundabouts because they're too lazy to stay in position.
 
Defo her fault.

I hang back from biddies/people who are driving like Mr Bean on roundabouts though for this very reason. A lot of people's approach to roundabouts is pretty much interpretive dance. They do whatever is in their heart.
 
mattyprice4004 said:
The accident management company say it's her fault, and have agreed to take the case on.

They were good last time, so lets hope they come up trumps again. They've agreed I was correct in my lane placement and she is at fault, but it depends if she argues the case or not.

As I'm 3rd party, if it goes 50/50 will her insurance still pay for my repairs? I'm only 3rd party fire and theft.
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Have you got anything in writing from the accident management company stating you will not be liable for half of the hire costs when this inevitably goes 50/50?

Trust me on this, they will take on anything if there is a sniff of money to be made and there is, out of your pocket.
 
PapaLazaru said:
Have you got anything in writing from the accident management company stating you will not be liable for half of the hire costs when this inevitably goes 50/50?

Trust me on this, they will take on anything if there is a sniff of money to be made and there is, out of your pocket.
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No hire car and no whiplash either, I don't need a hire car as my car is fine. They took some convincing though lol.
 
This is very difficult to judge, without knowing exactly what you both did.

It is a single lane-in, single lane-out roundabout, so you should NOT have been alongside her going round the roundabout. The link to the DVLA clearly shows two lanes-in on the approach, which is different.

But I can see that it is possible she may have been going straight on, then at the last minute realised she wanted to go right and so swerved across and into you.

Based on your 'elderly, Sunday driving' comments, are you sure that she wasn't just going a bit slower than you liked and that you thought you had room to overtake as you turned right, expecting her to go straight on?
 
mattyprice4004 said:
I'm purely relying on the information in this link to support my case:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070338

I hope they'll read it and agree. Fingers crossed.
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I wouldn't bank on that link. Look again at the roundabout, and lane markings on the roads. The roads have two lanes, and roundabout is not marked - this probably allows drivers to assume that the unmarked roundabout is to be treat as two lanes.

In your own link to the roundabout where you had the accident, I see no marked lanes on the roads entering and exiting the roundabout, and no markings on the roundabout either.

Myself, I think you are in the wrong.
On approaching a roundabout take notice and act on all the information available to you, including traffic signs, traffic lights and lane markings which direct you into the correct lane. You should
  • use Mirrors – Signal – Manoeuvre at all stages
  • decide as early as possible which exit you need to take
  • give an appropriate signal (see Rule 186). Time your signals so as not to confuse other road users
  • get into the correct lane
  • adjust your speed and position to fit in with traffic conditions
  • be aware of the speed and position of all the road users around you
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[TW]Fox;21557539 said:
Fair enough but whatever he did - he shouldn't have. It wasn't marked as seperate lanes therefore trying to pass somebody on a roundabout = no. It's sheer impatience and bad practice and resulted in a crash.
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That's how it sounds to me. Although I think it is possible that the woman could have gone to go straight on, then realised at the last minute and swerved across the 'dirty' part of the road, just before she actually exited.

It's not quite how it sounded from the OP's original post though. But, based on similar roundabouts here, it is something that can happen and wouldn't really be the fault of the OP in that case.
 
[TW]Fox;21557539 said:
Fair enough but whatever he did - he shouldn't have. It wasn't marked as seperate lanes therefore trying to pass somebody on a roundabout = no. It's sheer impatience and bad practice and resulted in a crash.
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Agreed.
 
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