Hi All,

 

I had an accident merging onto another lane. The driver in front of me braked abruptly so I was either to slam on the brakes or the other option was to merge onto other lane. I noticed the car was very far back and knew I would have enough time to change lane. However we clipped each other's cars. Images attached. We pulled over to exchange insurance details - he became very aggressive and insisted it was my fault. I just gave him insurance details and he passed over mine.

 

It's been a week since the incident and he hasn't made any notification to his insurance. How long does he have until invalid? 

 

My excess is £540 but have been quoted around  £260 for re paint and bumper repair. However, it's unclear yet who is at fault. The accident management company say that they will recover all costs from the at fault party (which is him as he came into me). However, insurance company do not know who is at fault yet.

 

Can't repair my car until he contacts his insurance.

 

Looking at the photos who do you think is at fault?

 

Also on the silver car - any ideas what the dirty brown mark is ?

 

The brown mark looks like tire rub to me

I'd suggest it's your fault. 

 

You say there was enough time to merge. Pictures suggest otherwise. Boiled down, you cut into his lane and struck him. Fault lies with you. 

 

 

The silver car is his presumably?

Unfortunately it's not yours to decide who's fault it is,as I've found out for myself in the past.

I think that as you were behind him originally it would be deemed your fault,but all the circumstances would need to be taken into account. The manoeuvre you made is one I see almost daily on the motorway.

The best I think you can hope for is a 'knock for knock' scenario.

Of course if there are any witnesses it could swing things either way.

I am seriously considering fitting a dashcam in my car for just this reason.

The damage doesn't look too bad and thankfully no one was injured.

 

I trust you have the Reg number of the silver car. It maybe because  you've heard nothing from his insurers as perhaps it's not insured.

 

Have a look on ASK-Mid, it might give you an Idea

In my opinion, you were to blame...  

The driver in front of you braked as if in an emergency.

You failed to leave safe stopping distance.

You then took evasive action, switching lanes. 

You then got "Hit" by another vehicle, in the lane YOU diverted to.

In the short space of time left available to you, you say you looked, saw enough safe space and swapped lanes but the other car still collided with you.

 

I don't think you had ANY safe space, if that car collided with his front corner of his car. It looks to me like you cut him up, leaving no space for them to slow down or stop. They did not even hit you square on, from behind, indicating that they were travelling fast and did not try to stop. 

 

I think you need to ask yourself, honestly, were you too close, driving too fast to stop safely and made a knee jerk reaction, rather then a safe assessment, to switch lanes. As a driving instructor, my guess would be no, you didn't. You panicked and swerved. You got unlucky and hit the other driver who was most likely innocent.

Unless he was overtaking on the inside, which is illegal or was doing exactly what you did, too close, swerved, hit yours you swerved, then I think you need to "Man-up" and admit to your insurers that you were to blame. The repairs will cost the same, the job will get done quicker and you will be hit a bit more next year for your insurance premium.

If the other driver fails to claim, you got lucky. If your insurer cannot settle the claim with them, perhaps due to them not admitting the accident, they may let you retain any NCD but the premium will still rise. Oh, and in the thread title, I think you were unfair to say "Someone bashed in my new Skoda" As I think it was you, who bashed in someones BMW! The damage to your car is incidental if its your fault!

 

Sorry if that sounds harsh but based on your own description of the accident and the damage sustained by not vehicles, I am sure the insurance company will see it this way too. They might not like to admit fault and nor should you to anyone else involved but your own insurer as it is down to the insurance companies to admit liability. I see minor accidents like this daily and the person who was at fault usually tries to blame the victim at the scene as admiting fault feels like admitting to being a crap driver, which no-one wants to do. Believe me, most drivers on the road are ****-poor, to say the least. The vast majority of road users NEVER take any additional training after passing the basic, simple 40 min driving test and when they pass, they forget so much of what they were taught, such as safe stopping distances, adequate observations, blind-spots in particular, along with lane discipline, speed limits, correctly stopping at lights, crossings, etc.

 

Hope you take something away from the accident and become a more aware driver. Best wishes.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

many a true word in the above, there must be 100s of drivers who spend all day every day on the road and see this type of thing almost daily, I'm not say who or which was to blame but as above almost all of us find it hard to admit we made a mistake

I doubt the Insurance companies will do anything other than assign fault as 50-50 and settle their own claims.  Beware of what you sign up for with the accident management company. Some are very good at running up costs that the insurance company walk away from, leaving you with the sticky end.  That big brown mark does look like tyre rub. Did your car do that or was it pre-existing?

Oh well, I don't suppose that we will hear any more about this incident, I thought about posting as soon as I had read that OP, but others have more or less said what I was going to! Its a tough world out there sometimes when things start to go wrong around you! 

It's hard to generate a view of how the accident happened from the rather disjointed version of events. But it reads to me as though the BMW might've been the one who braked suddenly in front of him.  After the OP safely changed lanes and is now going past the Beemer in the right hand lane, the Beemer pulled out to also change lanes as our poster did, misjudged or didn't look,  and hit the rear of the OP's car which is now overtaking him. In that case the BMW would be at fault.

None of us are perfect and we all do make mistakes.

Hopefully we learn,move on and are more experienced for next time it happens.

None of us are getting at you OP,just giving our opinions as you asked us to.

Soon it'll be repaired and become a distant memory.

On 8/23/2017 at 17:48, Rustynuts said:

It's hard to generate a view of how the accident happened from the rather disjointed version of events. But it reads to me as though the BMW might've been the one who braked suddenly in front of him.  After the OP safely changed lanes and is now going past the Beemer in the right hand lane, the Beemer pulled out to also change lanes as our poster did, misjudged or didn't look,  and hit the rear of the OP's car which is now overtaking him. In that case the BMW would be at fault.

I see your point but raise you!

 

The OP refers to the car he SAW in either his mirror or over his shoulder (Unlikely) As being far away enough to be safe to make the manoeuvre... (Very far back was the wording used). However, whilst performing the manoeuvre, the car IN the new lane and the OP CLIPPED each other. How can the car, already in the particular lane, be at fault if you pull into his lane and he hits you, unless he clearly had time to come off the gas and slow down, thus avoiding the collision but failed to take evasive action? Clearly there was NOT sufficient safe space to pull in to! If the prevailing Beemer had more space, he would more likely have driven straight in to the rear of the Skud without taking evasive action, not a front right, rear left side, wing-ding! The poster did not say if he moved left or right but reading between the lines, I would suggest it was to the left. 

In your event, the OP would have had to pull right, PASS the Beemer, who would then had to pull right too, in order to hit the Skud... I would almost say with certainty that IF the Bmw was going to pull right to avoid the initial reason for him braking suddenly, he would have did it sooner and the Skoda would have had front wing or  frontal/side damage, whilst the Beemer would have had more right hand side/rear damage. That said, the car that the OP collided with sounds in the first post, to be the one that was thought to be further away, behind the OP, but in the left lane. The original hard braking car is no longer being referred to!

 

I dont wanna **** on anyones parade but if the OP Had moved right first, he would have said so. I think he was driving fast or overtaking in the right, got caught out too close to a braking vehicle, swerved and hit the car slightly behind him, on the left hand lane. No disrespect to him but I am sure he would have clarified this after reading my post but has remained ominously silent since the first post. Easier to remain quite then to admit blame!

 

To quote RickW,  

"None of us are perfect and we all do make mistakes.

Hopefully we learn,move on and are more experienced for next time it happens.

None of us are getting at you OP,just giving our opinions as you asked us to.

Soon it'll be repaired and become a distant memory".

 

As no-one suffered any injuries, It is only plastic, metal and glass that is damaged, along with a small bit of pride. Hopefully, there is a lesson to be learned about leaving safe stopping distances. Best wishes, Gary.

 

P.S. One of the things as a driving instructor, we are meant to convey to students, is to take responsibility for ones actions, whether good or bad. That way, a good attitude and then safer driving becomes more likely!

no going to talk about blame - but the OP is unclear as to who was in which lane and what "we" he's referring to in "we collided"

 

Judging by the areas of damage, if OP was in a left lane, and went right to avoid, then the damage matches the @Rustynutstheory that there was no issue with the "car behind" in the big enough gap, and it's the beemer which the OP was originally tried to avoid which has hit him

 

if the OP was in the right hand lane, and went left, then the damage matches with the other theory that the BMW was already there/ not enough space as thought / moving faster than anticipated and the OP moved in on the BMW

54 minutes ago, mrgf said:

I see your point but raise you!

 

The OP refers to the car he SAW in either his mirror or over his shoulder (Unlikely) As being far away enough to be safe to make the manoeuvre... (Very far back was the wording used). However, whilst performing the manoeuvre, the car IN the new lane and the OP CLIPPED each other. How can the car, already in the particular lane, be at fault if you pull into his lane and he hits you, unless he clearly had time to come off the gas and slow down, thus avoiding the collision but failed to take evasive action? Clearly there was NOT sufficient safe space to pull in to! If the prevailing Beemer had more space, he would more likely have driven straight in to the rear of the Skud without taking evasive action, not a front right, rear left side, wing-ding! The poster did not say if he moved left or right but reading between the lines, I would suggest it was to the left. 

In your event, the OP would have had to pull right, PASS the Beemer, who would then had to pull right too, in order to hit the Skud... I would almost say with certainty that IF the Bmw was going to pull right to avoid the initial reason for him braking suddenly, he would have did it sooner and the Skoda would have had front wing or  frontal/side damage, whilst the Beemer would have had more right hand side/rear damage. That said, the car that the OP collided with sounds in the first post, to be the one that was thought to be further away, behind the OP, but in the left lane. The original hard braking car is no longer being referred to!

 

I dont wanna **** on anyones parade but if the OP Had moved right first, he would have said so. I think he was driving fast or overtaking in the right, got caught out too close to a braking vehicle, swerved and hit the car slightly behind him, on the left hand lane. No disrespect to him but I am sure he would have clarified this after reading my post but has remained ominously silent since the first post. Easier to remain quite then to admit blame!

 

To quote RickW,  

"None of us are perfect and we all do make mistakes.

Hopefully we learn,move on and are more experienced for next time it happens.

None of us are getting at you OP,just giving our opinions as you asked us to.

Soon it'll be repaired and become a distant memory".

 

As no-one suffered any injuries, It is only plastic, metal and glass that is damaged, along with a small bit of pride. Hopefully, there is a lesson to be learned about leaving safe stopping distances. Best wishes, Gary.

 

P.S. One of the things as a driving instructor, we are meant to convey to students, is to take responsibility for ones actions, whether good or bad. That way, a good attitude and then safer driving becomes more likely!

Same as me, you're generating a view of the events based on your own personal opinion of the facts as presented. There's not enough detail to be certain of the events, so I was merely pointing out (based on the damage to the cars in the photos and the events as the OP put them) that the scenario might not have been as everyone was assuming. Your not wrong, and I'm not wrong. At least until the OP returns and clears up the ambiguous situation he left us with.

 

Op hasn't been on since 22 1 post total 

 

 

Edited 30 August, 20178 yr by malcster