Rear ended car accident?

ruslan

Hi all,

I need people's advice on a car accident that happened this morning as iv not been involved in a car accident before.

Basically it all occured as the queue of cars approached the traffic lights, as this was green, the car in front was travelling at a speed with intention to continue through. When the traffic lights turned to amber, again the car infront continued or even slightly accelerated to pass through.

I continued thinking that I'll also be able to pass through fine on Amber and not on Red. I left a safe distance between my car and the car infront and was probably doing between 15 and 20 mphs. Anyway all of the sudden the women in the car infront slammed her breaks and made what I can only say as an emergency stop even though the traffic light was still at amber when she performed her stop.

Anyway i reacted to this by following suit with my emergency stop however considering the wet conditions, my wheels locked and I skidded into the end of her vehicle.

Now i have no damages to my car other than a broken reg plate, and she was left with some bumps.

Can someone tell me who is liable here? am I wrong to dispute that even tho I rear ended her, I should not be fully responsible for her inappropriate emergency stop?

Many thanks in advance for your help in this matter.

mcjordi

m sorry but you are liable as you rear ended her,

you should allow extra stopping distance in the wet

vikingaero

If the light was on amber when she stopped then she followed the Highway Code correctly. Amber means prepare to stop. Utlimately you were at fault and I can't see why you are seeking to squirm out of it.

Dipak

Hi ruslan,

I bet your really muffied about the hole thing. I remembered something similar happened to my mate and as he hit the car in front he was liable. Unless the you managed to get the lady in front to sign a paper saying she was at fault her insure company will fight your insurance company to admit fault.

I know that's probably what you didnt wanna hear.

D

roswell

She was stationary at the point you hit her so your at fault. lessons to be learned, leave bigger braking distances in the wet, Abmer means prepair to stop not go like hell and prey.

It could also be said you were driving with out due care and attention and inappropriatly for the conditions.

espresso

You should not have been tailgating the car in front hoping to get though on amber! The accident was your fault because you were driving at a speed faster than you could safely stop, if required to do so on a wet road.

If the amber light appears you may go on only if you have already crossed the stop line.

Chippy_Minton_2

Your first post is a hard one to swallow.

Sorry as all the others have said you're to blame.

Inactive

You hit her, she didn't hit you, your fault entirely.

You should leave a big enough gap to allow you to stop in future.

Millionaire

Your at fault, Lesson learn't is not to try and run through amber when even the car in front hasn't past it.

Keith

Completely the other drivers fault, if they'd looked in their mirrors, they would have known that you were not going to stop and they should have carried on and prevented the accident.

Not sure what all the other posters are talking about tbh

BillTrac

Keith,

took a while for the smiley to appear and I initially thought.....what?

Anyway, unless the car in front reverses into you it is the following cars responsibility to allow enough room. Otherwise everytime someone did an emergency stop........well you know now

Put it down to experience, and then wait for the letter claiming for whiplash etc when she wakes up tomorrow/speaks to her husband