Oh nuts. A (bikeless) accident

ansbaradigeidfran

I was 'caught in the act' of not MingTHU this afternoon when I elected to drive my car to the train station rather than cycle. The Law of Sod appeared to be in force today, as I hadn't gone half a mile from home when, while driving across a mini roundabout an elderly gentleman drove into the passenger side of my car. Passenger wing dented, front passenger door won't open, and the wonky wheel means the steering's buggered (or 'cronked', as my brother would put it). No injury to either driver whatsoever (phew).

Thankfully, with another car (and driver) in the household, and a bike for me, it's not the end of the world. I got the other driver's details, and called the insurers. Excess comes in at £450 (with my young driver penalty ), and I don't have the money to pay that to get the repairs done. So the car can sit on my drive until the two insurance companies agree that the other driver was at fault, then the garage can have it at his cost.

My damage is on the side of the car, his is all on the front, and I was already on the roundabout. I really can't see any way in which it can't be his fault... Can anyone else?

The most annoying bit is that with it being a Friday I'll be waiting for days on end before anything happens. However, I now feel nicely ranted and somewhat de-stressed. Thank you for listening.


We now return you to the scheduled programming...

DonDaddyD

Look on the bright side. At least it wasn't the side of your bike he collided with, with you on top of said bike.

But sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you're all right though.

tailwindhome

ansbaradigeidfran wrote:

while driving across a mini roundabout an elderly gentleman drove into the passenger side of my car. .................My damage is on the side of the car, his is all on the front, and I was already on the roundabout. I really can't see any way in which it can't be his fault... Can anyone else?

Assuming 'driving across' is just a figure of speech and there are no other facts you have left out (like driving at Mach3) IMHO its entirely his fault he obviously didnt give way to traffic coming from his right.


Sorry to here of your misfortune.

DonDaddyD

Hang on....

You were on the roundabout you were to his right and he crashed into the left (passenger) side of your car.

Law states on a roundabout we give way to traffic coming from the right. Its entirely his fault, he should have given way, you had priority.

edhornby

I'd kind of agree with DonDaddy... but roundabouts aen't as clear cut as a t junction

1) if you are clearly on the roundabout and he's somehow T-Boned you then yes it's potentially his fault

2) if you are pulling onto the roundabout and he's on it then he has right of way and it's your fault

however it's tricky to really establish fault on a roundabout and insurance companies usually share fault (the longer a claim is open the longer it costs them...)

your insurance company would prefer it to be option 1, his insurance company will state opt 2 until blue in the face, so if you want to keep your NCD talk to your insurance company and try to get some pic tures of the damage to back it up so that they can argue the toss on your behalf

if you are going to dispute it - be prepared to get into lots of correspondance, be paitient and never lose your rag with anyone on the phone or in writing

if you need further advice on insurance PM me

Bikerbaboon

The length of time till pay out is all down to the insurnace company. I have had a good experiance one time when i was struck form my motorbike from behind while i was waiting for a 35toone lorry to turn, with the driver saying he though i was going to go.

The driver was insured with saga. the insurance company had called 2 time b4 i got home got the motorbike picked up and dropped off to my house and got it repaired by my choice of company with a hire bike while mine was in the shop.

the other times it was a 10 month legal battle for them to even take on that a car pulling out of a side road does not have right of way, let alone paying for anything.

ansbaradigeidfran

Thanks for the advice and support gals/guys.

Yes, WMcC, I was being figuratively with 'going across' the roundabout. I estimated (for the insurers) that I was going at 10-20mph, no more than 20.

While I didn't get any pictures of the other gentleman's car, I got several of mine illustrating the damage from several angles. I also took general scenery pictures of the roundabout, including showing it from my approach and his approach. Visibility is quite good from his direction: he can see my approach road from up to ten metres before the give way line. He's also going uphill so that adds to his opportunity to brake.

Here's a picture of the roundabout (not one of the set that'll be going to the insurers):


I was driving from the road where I'm stood, going ahead. The silver car pictured is not the one that was involved, but it's roughly the position at which my car (purple) was T-boned. I'd moved my car out of the way of traffic by the time I took the photo.

The fact that there's no damage forward of my front wheel is rather conclusive (IMO) that I could not have driven into him, and his insurance company shouldn't have a leg to stand on. On account of the initial point of impact (most forward location that was damaged) I was roughly two-thirds of the way across the roundabout when he hit me. I still feel a bit on-edge about the possibility of having to pay that ugly excess, though.

nwallace

Given the size of that "mini"-roundabout and the distance from either give way line to where the impact could have occurred, the other driver must have really misjudged it!

Your about as likely to be at fault as a claim that was made against dad a few years back.

Secretary of Meeting and Clerk of Course running ahead of Car Zero doing route checks in a Saab 96 (Not a very wide car) on roads somewhere in Perthshire.
Dead Straight road, oncoming vehicle, dad positions car well left, crunch. Oncoming vehicle now has lots of green dulux on it and Saab 96 has big scrapes along the side.
Clerk of Course unable to open door due to wall, dad unable to open door due to offside of the previously oncoming vehicle. Driver of oncoming vehicle gets out of passenger side door.

MSA Scrutineer turns up as he too is following the route to watch a bit of it.

Few weeks later a letter appears from Competition Car Insurance about the incident, drawings go back with details of witnesses. Never heard anything else.

Your pictures of the scene may be vital if there are no other witnesses (or they have buggered off)
Do insurance companies like/tolerate digital photos yet?

ansbaradigeidfran

nwallace wrote:

Your pictures of the scene may be vital if there are no other witnesses (or they have buggered off)
Do insurance companies like/tolerate digital photos yet?

I told my claim handler about the images, and he told me their legal department would ask for them if they were needed. A friend who had the rear of his car clipped while it was parked a year back sent a number of digital stills to his insurer to demonstrate the damage to the light fittings and bodywork.