Wrote car off.

[TW]Fox;16925557 said:
No doubt eh? You seem very confident. What is going to happen, an independant engineer is going to do a post mortem on the car to work out fault?

Sure.
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Nice selective quote there.

There was an 'if' some twenty words earlier :p
 
Lovegun said:
But pulling across 2 lanes and a set of Chevrons isnt dagerous with smoke pouring out of your car?
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Going back to your OP and hazard perception, a car created a hazard when smoke started pouring out of it. I would have been off the accelerator at this point and watching to see what it would have done (my car would be decelerating quite a bit anyway by doing this). When she started veering across lanes, she was ahead of you, you should have been on the brakes leaving a distance in which you can safely stop in. This is why it is likely to be your fault in the claim. But we will wait and see what the insurance has to say as it is their decision. Please do post the results as it would be interesting to see. :)
 
Trifid said:
Going back to your OP and hazard perception, a car created a hazard when smoke started pouring out of it. I would have been off the accelerator at this point and watching to see what it would have done (my car would be decelerating quite a bit anyway by doing this). When she started veering across lanes, she was ahead of you, you should have been on the brakes leaving a distance in which you can safely stop in. This is why it is likely to be your fault in the claim. But we will wait and see what the insurance has to say as it is their decision. Please do post the results as it would be interesting to see. :)[

The car was originally behind me or atleast level with me in the other lane hence why I didnt see it till it it came across. As I say I did brake as I couldnt actually see the car or the road for that matter becuase of the smoke, shes obviosly pressed her break pedal with a great deal more pressure than me. Im pretty much resigned to gaining balls all from this but i really dont think I couldve done anything else and as she said to the police, she couldnt control the car, that msut surely count for something.
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I think unless you can show (skid marks etc) that you slammed on the anchors right away to stop as soon as possible rather than gently decelerating then you'll probably be found at fault - the insurers aren't concerned if someone then went into the back of you too, as I guess that would be their fault not yours.

That said, this sounds like a more unusual case where you will have factors like what any 'reasonable' driver would have done and the mitigating circumstances, so maybe you might end up with a 50:50 or 70:30 or something.

I would make a big deal about, for example, if there was so much smoke you couldn't see the brake lights ahead so you had no way of knowing that she had stopped so sharply and that you were braking as fast as you felt possible without losing control of the vehicle given the reduced visibility.
 
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At worst it's a learning experience, albeit potentially an expensive one, which you get to walk away from in one piece. You'll, hopefully, be a better driver for the unfortunate experience.
 
Got to side with the general consensus here. You hit her. Regardless of her mechanical situation it will be seen as you should have adjusted your speed to the driving conditions.

I know in the moment of a situation things tend to play out differently to what we interpret from behind a keyboard. But on paper, I'm pretty sure your insurance won't see it any other way.
 
Thing is, you are going to lose the insurance claim, it's not right I know.

I think her turbo let go on her car and the diesel engine burnt the oil sucked up from the turbo causing the car to increase speed, the silly cow should have just put her clutch in.

Now she's WIN WIN, as her engine is shagged now, but you have hit her up the arse her car will be written off at your expense, she will be paid out for her car and won't have an expensive job of fixing her engine.
 
[TW]Fox;16925025 said:
Sounds like your fault. He car failed, she pulled to the inside, you saw this yet maintained your original speed and course even though your visibility began to be seriously reduced. Then you crashed because you were not travelling at such a speed that you could stop in the distance you can see to be clear.
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Are you advocating an emergency stop on a motorway if your visibility is suddenly reduced?
 
TheOP said:
The white smoke coming from the back of her vehicle is now blocking my whole car i put my hazards on and start to break as im not sure what shes doing or where shes going
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Don't beat yourself up.. Considering you didn't know what the woman was doing, but faced with suddenly being blinded, braking with hazards in a controlled manner is probably the least risk option (assuming your intention was to come to a stop)
If you jam on, you are at serious risk of being rear ended yourself, and slowing in a more controlled manner means that should the worst happen (as it did), you get to walk away from the accident. In an ideal world, she'd have slowed more considerately herself, and you'd have all had chance to stop safely behind her..

And you can't blame the other driver too much, clearly with that much smoke pouring out to blind you, how much choice did she have? it's easy to say in hindsight that there is a bus stop just up the road, but I'm sure her priority was to get it stopped immediately.

The only no-no's in this situation IMO would be to just slow a little, but carry on regardless, you should have been trying to come to a controlled stop, by controlled I mean in a manner to give people behind every chance of stopping as well, whilst trying to balance this with stopping in time not to hit the unseen obstacle, it's a risky balance that clearly doesn't always end happily..

From an insurance point of view, the only right option was to jam on immediately and face being rear ended yourself, as this would then not have been your fault.
 
Unlucky, I am pretty sure that most people would also rear end a car that darts across 2 lanes and slams on.
What you dont really indicate is how far in front of you she was when this all started, that would be the determining factor in fault in my opinion although difficult to get evidence either way.
 
You should have made an allegation of poor driving/driving without due care to the policemen. I dont know if that would have helped by I was asked something along those lines when I had someone pull across my path.

If you had slowed to 30mph to avoid the accident its likely you would cause a serious issue when joining the main road at such a slow speed so its a compromise between the reponse you did in the situation, there is no right or wrong answer to this IMO. It is in your insurers interest to save themselves a payout so just keep hassling the paper pushers with facts so they have enough ammo and then just hope for the best.
 
Demon said:
From an insurance point of view, the only right option was to jam on immediately and face being rear ended yourself, as this would then not have been your fault.
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Sadly insurance sense and survival sense don't always marry up. I'd rather hit a vehicle in front in a "controlled" manner than be rear-ended out of my control.
 
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