First Crash!

Swampyseifer

Swampyseifer

Swampyseifer

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2008
Posts
511
Location
UK
So yeah, I was driving my car (Peugeot 306 1.9 XRDT) on the last day I was going to be driving it before I change to my shiny new car (2.0 Focus automatic!) and I was involved in my first crash!

I was approaching a roundabout with 4 exits, lets say I was entering from exit 1....I looked to my right and there was a car approaching exit 4 but had yet to enter the roundabout so I carried on going round in the outside lane with the intention of coming off on exit 3.

By the time I was at exit 2, the car that had been coming from exit 4 had caught me up on the inside lane. I glanced over at him, assuming he was just going to try and cut me out for exit 3 but he kept coming closer and closer....so in the end I spun the wheel to the left and ended up on the island at exit 2 and he glanced from my wing, denting that and smashing all my lights.

I can only assume that because he had got from exit 4 to exit 2 (half way round) in the time it had taken me to go from exit 1 to exit 2 (a quarter), that he was driving approximately twice my speed....and I was going 20. I can also only assume that the reason he hit me was because he was simply going too fast!

Limped home in the car and got a call in the morning from his insurers saying that I had been involved in an accident with one of their clients and he had claimed it was 100% my fault! They wanted some details but I told them I would speak to my insurers first.

I spoke to them and they said that although they cannot take his speed into account as its hard to prove. I also had a witness in another car but because it was my brother-in-law, he wasnt an independant witness and therefore doesnt count for much!

darn annoying!!
 
I was involved in a similar accident not long ago where a guy cut me up on the last minute and although it was his fault for cutting me up we ended up settling outside of insurance (We both withdrew our claim). As a good will gesture he offered me £200 to withdraw and having spoke to my insurers, they basically said that with roundabout accidents unless a witness is present then it will go 50-50!
 
yeah, when I told my insurers my version of what happened....they said that they would argue the degree of fault put on my by his insurers but the best I could get is 50/50.
 
right so even though you saw a car beside you, you turned into him? (at least thats how i read your OP).

100% your fault im affraid.
 
Overlag said:
right so even though you saw a car beside you, you turned into him? (at least thats how i read your OP).

100% your fault im affraid.
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sorry, I must have explained it badly then....

I was on the outside lane, I saw him coming up the side of me on the inside lane. when I realised he was drifting towards me and wasnt going to stop, I turned my car to the LEFT so to pull myself further away. thats why I mounted the island at the 2nd exit. However his left frontwing still glanced from my right frontwing.

EDIT----

To try and answer the other questions.....

I ended up on an island because it wa a large roundabout and at each junction onto the roundabout there was an island sepearted the flow of traffic onto and off of the roundabout. Because I was going past the junction when I steered away from him, I mounted this island.

The roundabout was a standard 4 exit roundabout (left, right and straight over)with a dual carriage way coming onto and off of each exit. i was going straight across from the left lane of the one carriage way to the other so I entered the roundabout on the left lane with the intention of going round the outside lane of the rroundabout and coming off on the left lane of the opposite carriage way
 
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Ok, i get why you hit the island, but i still don't understand why you were in the outside lane if you were going to take exit 3? :confused:
 
ah right so you was in lets say lane 1 and he was in 2 and moving towards you, and you hit the 2nd exit island?

I read it as you was in lane 2, he 1, and you turned left but somehow ended in the center of roundabout. Sorry! Sounds 100% his fault then.



Inside and outside bit confused me. On a straight road inside is 1, outside is 2 but i guess on a aroundabout thats oposite, dunno why i didnt see that
 
erm if you are in the outside lane and turned left....u end up on kerb not on the island.... thats on your right
 
Please draw a diagram as your description is nigh on impossible to understand!
 
Gaygle said:
ohhhhhhhhhh ok, totally misunderstood before.

Yeah, definately sounds like his fault then. Maybe he was going so quick he understeered into you?
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well thats what I'm thinking seeing as he managed to traverse halfway round at the point of impact and I'd only managed a quarter!

still, insurers claim that speed cant be used as a factor so it will never totally be seen as his fault.

tbh he looked no more than 20ish years old and was driving a big, newish (2004) Vauxhall Vectra....some 2litre jobby which to me makes it even more likely he was going too fast....
 
Sorry - but I too have no idea where you were on the roundabout or why you were in that lane. God knows how the Ins company understood it.

Are you also saying the other car drove off ? And did you drive off without exchanging numbers / with the other party or witnesses ?

Any chance of a diagram.
 
Swampyseifer said:
tbh he looked no more than 20ish years old and was driving a big, newish (2004) Vauxhall Vectra....some 2litre jobby which to me makes it even more likely he was going too fast....
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This means nothing & it is wrong to assume the above. How do you know the driver isn't a fully qualified instructor or even a dangerous goods vehicle HGV driver with a lot more experience than most people in here ? Who's to say the witnesses make the same assumtion about you - or think that you were being careless or impatient when you were trying to exit the roundabout. Why did you not just slow down and let him pass if he was getting aggresive ?

As with all accidents - it's usually one mans version against another (without witnesses). And if we can't hear his version - we have to base it on the person who has come off worse - unfortunately they are usually the one who straight away blames the other.
 
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And if you were only doing 20 mph what was wrong with dabbing your brakes as he headed for your offside wing?
 
If the rest of you haven't gathered it, he didn't mean the roundabout island itself, but the ones that separate the two lanes on a entrance/exit to roundabout, the little yellow ones with blue arrow on it showing direction.

Back on topic:
Sounds like he was going to fast and understeering... but how much time did you take to look at his speed, if i see a car hooning it upto the roundabout, i'd give him a bit of space...
 
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