Please I Need Help From some Expert Driver

  • Love4life's Avatar
    I had an accident in dec 2013 and have been accused on fault when im sure i was not. I was on the left hand lane, intending to take 3rd exit on a 5 exit roundabout including the one i was coming from which was a dual carriage through out the round about. I passed 1st exit and while passing 2nd exit which has 2 lane exit as well. A car came from behind me on the right of these 2 lanes, and, accelerated past me to exit left when I already passed the first lane and was paraell of the second lane of this exit, thus crossing my path and over took me.
    Therefore My driver's side front panel has damaged because of this collision and he had scrached all over on his front passenger side.
    The other driver then claimed that I was in the wrong lane amd could not go through round about from this lane but there are no road markings whatsoever to indicate that I was not allowed to be in the left hand lane.
    Now everyone saying that its 50/50 when i am pretty sure it should not be. Im so worried
  • 12 Replies

  • MrMunster's Avatar
    Sadly its a tricky one with no clear answer, if there are no lanes marked then you could not be "in the wrong lane" as there are no defined lanes. However.... Dependant on the layout of the roundabout (imagine a clock face and you always enter from the 6 o'clock position) if your exit is past 12 o'clock it would be reasonable to assume your path would be on the right (inside). However... The other party should not assume anything even if you were indicating to exit the roundabout and therefore should not pass you.

    Unfortunatly in this type of situation, without and independant witness, insurance companies and solicitors tend to take the easy (and more lucrative for them) way out......and that is "going 50/50".

    Bottom line is you will probably be stuck with a 50/50 outcome.

    In case you're wondering I am a member of the IAM and used to be a driving assessor and driver training faciltator in a previous job.
  • smudger's Avatar
    Welcome to the site Love4life, if you read through these forums, you will read many other posts similar to yours. And as previously mentioned, the insurance companies tend to settle for a 50/50 decision, when it comes to such claims, sorry about that, good luck.
  • Beelzebub's Avatar
    If your exit was to the right (which sounds likely from the description) then you should not have been in the LH lane. That does not require an expert driver, just a reading of the Highway Code.

    However, that does not make you at fault for the accident: the other driver was wrong to cut in front of you.

    Unfortunately, as said above, 50-50 is the likely outcome. In fairness to the insurance companies, it is difficult to see how there could be any other result if there are two differing accounts and no independent witnesses.
  • Love4life's Avatar
    Court case from the other party

    Thanks for all your replies. Now theres a twist come in the story when my insurance company refused all of his allegations regarding accident. What happens is, he filed an independant case against me in court. I only came to know recently when i received court documents from his private lawer. But what amazed me is that on court papers, he put my name and gender wrong. As im a female but on court papers i am mentioed as Mr with wrong first name as well even though we have exchanged details after incident and confronted each other as well so he should have known at least that what gender i am. Anyway my question is i dont know what to reply? Or if even do i got to reply this court letter or not? Because it is not issued on my name at all? Along with details his lawer has given, all are wrong. By wrong i mean, he put the road name as a round about name and changed so many other things as well? Any suggestions please? I will be very much thankfull for all of you very thoughtful people.
  • Beelzebub's Avatar
    You must not reply - send the papers to your insurer, they will deal with it.

    First, you will find it's a condition of your insurance policy that you pass all such communications to them.

    Second, it's what you pay them for!
  • MrMunster's Avatar
    Thanks for all your replies. Now theres a twist come in the story when my insurance company refused all of his allegations regarding accident. What happens is, he filed an independant case against me in court. I only came to know recently when i received court documents from his private lawer. But what amazed me is that on court papers, he put my name and gender wrong. As im a female but on court papers i am mentioed as Mr with wrong first name as well even though we have exchanged details after incident and confronted each other as well so he should have known at least that what gender i am. Anyway my question is i dont know what to reply? Or if even do i got to reply this court letter or not? Because it is not issued on my name at all? Along with details his lawer has given, all are wrong. By wrong i mean, he put the road name as a round about name and changed so many other things as well? Any suggestions please? I will be very much thankfull for all of you very thoughtful people.

    On top of beezlebubs advice, it sounds like it could be the time to get some legal advice of your own, not responding or turning up is as bad as admitting guilt.

    Your insurance company may not deal with this quickly enough to avoid further complications.
  • Santa's Avatar
    I agree - you need qualified legal advice. Pronto
  • Beelzebub's Avatar
    She does not need legal advice. She is paying the insurance company to defend any such claims and to take away the associated worries, and that is what they will do as a matter of routine.

    It is not unusual to get letters from the third party, or their lawyer, or their insurers, and they should always be passed on unanswered to your own company, whom you have already authorised to act on your behalf as a condition of the policy.
  • Santa's Avatar
    The OP says " i received court documents from his private lawer." We do not know what those papers are and, I guess, she doesn't either. My advice is that she should get an expert opinion now, rather than wait for the insurance company to take action.

    If it was just a letter from some solicitor I would simply pass it on, but I suspect that the 3rd party has gone to the small claims court in an attempt to recover their costs after being refused by their insurance.
  • MrMunster's Avatar
    As Santa says, we don't know what the Court Papers says, nor do we know the time frame available. The OP may not have time to wait for the insurance company to process, investigate and respond.

    I received some court papers some years ago (nothing to do with driving, just an ex's attempt to screw money out of me, which failed), the court hearing was three days after I received the papers!! often solicitors will not leave much time to attend/respond in the hope that you can't attend/respond in time making it much easier for them to win.

    On those grounds, get your own legal advice as well as passing the information to your insurer.

    Good Luck, although it does sound like the other party is "trying it on"
  • Dennis W's Avatar
    However, if they have your name totally wrong it may be worth attending at Court, and getting an adjournement of eight weeks on the grounds that the papers have been WRONGLY served.
  • judge dredd's Avatar
    Accident on roundabout.

    just a WORD OF WARNING.

    My daughter some years ago was involved in a simple accident and the other party was suing her and her insurers sold the accident to a solicitor. She was informing her solicitor for several weeks of how the accident happened and then she got the County Court Summons. The other party sought remuneration for the accident. She immediately informed her solicitors by phone and was advised to send the papers to them . She would been entitled to change the date of the hearing to one more suitable to her and also the address of the court to one which would have been more local and convenient.

    Having sent all the correspondence to her solicitors and waited she was astonished to find that the case had gone ahead on the original court date without her knowledge and in her absence she had been found guilty and ordered to pay about £300 damages and also court costs.

    She immediately contacted her solicitors who in defence stated that they had sent the court summons to her insurers and as they act for the insurers they were waiting for a directive from them.

    She then contacted the insurers and was told that it was nothing to do with them and to contact her solicitors again. A round Robin..

    She eventually got the insurers to agree that it was a communication problem and THEIR FAULT and that they would pay the monies owed and get a certificate of completion from the court to the effect that the fine and costs had been paid and that would be the end of the matter. This should have been done apparently within a month of the court hearing and unfortunately it was over the month and so my daughter ended up with a County Court record and as a result she had a bad financial record for 6 years. her credit became non existent and no financial company for credit or any other finance institution would touch her with a barge pole. The only way she survived was with my financial help supporting her.

    So BEWARE AND BE CAREFULL OUT THERE.