[Durham Giant]

RTA. Advice : Thu Nov 09, 2017 5:58 pm  

Had an RTA today.

I was pulling out onto a single carriageway after parking on the kerbside.

Behind me was a blind bend about 75 yards.


As a result I was pulling out slowly. I had travelled about 20 yards and was just fully in the road when a car went into the side of me. ( this was in a 30 zone)

He hit me so hard it completely spun my car around.

When he got out of the car he said to a witness he had been drinking a milk shake and had not even seen me in 95 yards of road.

Another witness stated that he was speeding and did not break at all ( no brake lights )

Police came breathalysed us both (zero)

Said they could not prove his speed , no tyre marks visible as road was wet.

Despite all the witnesses police said they could do nothing. It was up to insurance but because I was pulling out from the side it was my fault.

Insurance company have said the same.

It just does not seem right that I did nothing wrong but because some racer boy was not concentrating on the driving and was speeding.

Is there anything I can do morally it just seems wrong ?

Re: RTA. Advice : Fri Nov 10, 2017 9:35 am  

It does seem somewhat unfair, but unless you can prove that the other driver was at fault, the insurance companies as you say, will likely say it's your fault as you've pulled into the road.

My Mrs had a similar accident last year on a two-lane roundabout, both cars going straight on, where the car on the off-side lane pulled off the roundabout into the near-side lane & right across my Mrs's path and they collided (nobody was hurt as it was at pretty low speed).

The insurance companies ended up splitting the decision as they could agree who was at fault (no proof), the other driver threw in a whiplash claim too .

We've now got front & back dash cams. Obviously it's too late now, but I'd certainly recommend getting them for the future. Have a look on YouTube at some of the footage, they've captured fraudsters reversing into people, drivers going into the back of people whilst texting, allsorts.

Re: RTA. Advice : Fri Nov 10, 2017 10:31 am  

I had a bump about 12 years ago where a woman was waved out of a petrol station by a stationary motorist. Neither checked if it was safe for her to do so and she pulled out into the side of me. The driver who waved her out just shrugged his shoulders and drove off. It happened where the road widens and splits from one lane to two lanes for a junction of traffic lights. The insurance company found me 80% to blame because they said I had split before the road markings. I managed to provide photographic evidence of stationary traffic on the left hand side of the road, the bus stop which also forces you to split before the markings, and also traffic taking the same line as I did as they approach the traffic lights, but there was still no budge from the insurance company. I just ended up getting the car repaired out of my own pocket as not to affect my insurance.

Re: RTA. Advice : Fri Nov 10, 2017 12:08 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

Had an RTA today.

I was pulling out onto a single carriageway after parking on the kerbside.

Behind me was a blind bend about 75 yards.


As a result I was pulling out slowly. I had travelled about 20 yards and was just fully in the road when a car went into the side of me. ( this was in a 30 zone)

He hit me so hard it completely spun my car around.

When he got out of the car he said to a witness he had been drinking a milk shake and had not even seen me in 95 yards of road.

Another witness stated that he was speeding and did not break at all ( no brake lights )

Police came breathalysed us both (zero)

Said they could not prove his speed , no tyre marks visible as road was wet.

Despite all the witnesses police said they could do nothing. It was up to insurance but because I was pulling out from the side it was my fault.

Insurance company have said the same.

It just does not seem right that I did nothing wrong but because some racer boy was not concentrating on the driving and was speeding.

Is there anything I can do morally it just seems wrong ?

Hope you're ok. Have had a similar incident where someone hit me due to excessive speed (he was undertaking me on the motorway and didn't bother with his indicators) and as with you, the insurance company were very unhelpful. Seems like dash cams are the only way to protect yourself.

Re: RTA. Advice : Thu Nov 16, 2017 3:58 pm  

Just give the claim to a solicitors firm that are members of MASS (Motor Accident Solicitors Society) and sign up on a CFA (no win-no fee) and let them do their thing.

Re: RTA. Advice : Thu Nov 16, 2017 6:37 pm  

My Mrs had a bump a few years back with a guy pulling out of a side road into her path.
She wasnt speeding and there were witness statements to confirm the guy had pulled out and eventually it want to small claims court to be found 80/20 in my wifes favour.
This was pre the "no blame no claim" stuff.
These days it will probably end up with 2 lots of solicitors making good money from your mis fortune.

I hope you and the others involved are ok (which is the main thing) and you will probably end up losing out a bit financially but, you have to chalk these down to bad luck and if you are fully ok, it could have been worse ?

Always bloody annoying though when you sound to have done absolutely nothing wrong.

Re: RTA. Advice : Sat Nov 18, 2017 7:15 pm  

The HC states drive at a speed you can stop well within the distance you can see to be clear, the actions of the person going into you clearly contravened that.
Get a specialist lawyer and fight it and tell your insurance company that you'll take them to the cleaners if they don't act in your best interests.
The police are basically a bunch of third rate box tickers who only enforce the law when they feel like it. The actions of the other party were at best undue care and you should press the police to take matters further and/or make a complaint against their inaction.
You can of course make a claim through the small claims system to seek financial redress.
I hope you can get a result.

Re: RTA. Advice : Sun Dec 10, 2017 7:06 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

Had an RTA today.

I was pulling out onto a single carriageway after parking on the kerbside.

Behind me was a blind bend about 75 yards.


As a result I was pulling out slowly. I had travelled about 20 yards and was just fully in the road when a car went into the side of me. ( this was in a 30 zone)

He hit me so hard it completely spun my car around.

When he got out of the car he said to a witness he had been drinking a milk shake and had not even seen me in 95 yards of road.

Another witness stated that he was speeding and did not break at all ( no brake lights )

Police came breathalysed us both (zero)

Said they could not prove his speed , no tyre marks visible as road was wet.

Despite all the witnesses police said they could do nothing. It was up to insurance but because I was pulling out from the side it was my fault.

Insurance company have said the same.

It just does not seem right that I did nothing wrong but because some racer boy was not concentrating on the driving and was speeding.

Is there anything I can do morally it just seems wrong ?

Only just read this thread. Something similar happened to me a few years ago. Basically someone went into me and I wasn’t at fault. A boy racer was. I had multiple witnesses who were willing to give statements and again the police passed the buck to the insurance company who weren’t interested in statements. Sorry to hear it happened and hope you are ok

Regards

King James

Re: RTA. Advice : Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:32 am  

It's a frustrating situation but the main thing that would be used against the third party to hold them at fault is his speed and unfortunately that can't be proven. Unfortunatley even if it could be proven you would still end up with the bigger proportion of blame. It's an annoying situation but as much as you would like your insurer to throw the book at the third party to try and get a recovery they wouldn't stand a chance if they tried to litigate. If it could be proven he was speeding then case law would be used and the solicitors would argue that him speeding mean't he didn't give himself time for evasive action to avoid the collision but the car pulling out would still take most of the blame. there's a bit more info about that particular case law here https://www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk/inju ... -case-law/ Morally you have a point, had the guy not been driving at speed like an idiot this incident wouldn't have happened but unfortunately the big wigs see it differently. I'm an insurance underwriter and previously worked in claim's and having seen so many examples of claims where liability can't be proven I decided to get a Dash Cam. Too often it simply boil's down to it being 1 word against the other but having something on Camera completely cut's the element of a third party twisting the truth, given the low cost they can be bought for I'm amazed insurer's havent started offering them with a policy.

It's a frustrating situation but the main thing that would be used against the third party to hold them at fault is his speed and unfortunately that can't be proven. Unfortunatley even if it could be proven you would still end up with the bigger proportion of blame. It's an annoying situation but as much as you would like your insurer to throw the book at the third party to try and get a recovery they wouldn't stand a chance if they tried to litigate. If it could be proven he was speeding then case law would be used and the solicitors would argue that him speeding mean't he didn't give himself time for evasive action to avoid the collision but the car pulling out would still take most of the blame. there's a bit more info about that particular case law here https://www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk/inju ... -case-law/ Morally you have a point, had the guy not been driving at speed like an idiot this incident wouldn't have happened but unfortunately the big wigs see it differently. I'm an insurance underwriter and previously worked in claim's and having seen so many examples of claims where liability can't be proven I decided to get a Dash Cam. Too often it simply boil's down to it being 1 word against the other but having something on Camera completely cut's the element of a third party twisting the truth, given the low cost they can be bought for I'm amazed insurer's havent started offering them with a policy.

Re: RTA. Advice : Mon Jan 01, 2018 6:37 pm  

I used to work in claims and if the other driver doesn’t admit fault, there’s no witnesses or camera footage, or the accident circumstances arent clear cut (eg a hit in the rear at traffic lights) then it most likely ended as 50/50.

I’d be disappointed if my insurance company wasn’t at least pushing for that though.

As others have said you could go down the small claims route with a Solicitors to get back any expenses (of course likely to only be 50/50) and depending on whether you have legal protection on your car insurance or other kind of insurance policy then you may lose 25% of that to the Solicitors. If you do have it though they should do your case for no cost to yourself.