Accident in Holland, no idea who was in the wrong

QueenOfTheDesert

I'm looking for advice/opinion on how I should proceed on this, sorry it's long, one for the experts I feel but all opinions appreciated!

I was driving in Monster, Holland, with my daughter in the passenger seat and had been off the boat for about an hour during which I drove round the back streets of the Hook of Holland in my right hand drive car to get my head round driving on the right. I'm sticking religiously to the speed limit (30kmh) and eyes in the back of my head, as you would be!

It's about 9am, the roads are deserted, approach a roundabout with 4 exits laid out like a gun site, 2 lanes. I'm going straight on so I'm in the right hand lane, I check left right left, see nothing coming then start onto roundabout. Then after a count of 4 (so I'm almost opposite the first exit to the right) there's a long screech of brakes and impact from another car on my passenger door. I was hit at about a 45 degree angle by a young lad in a Golf 3. I didn't see where he came from but my daughter says he was coming straight at us at a 90 degree angle.

We pull off the roundabout into the industrial estate on that 1st exit, he keeps saying something about "2 lanes" although his English is not good and another driver pulls over and says to me in English that he saw what happened. I'm busy calming my daughter so I ask him to give me a minute but he disappears. The damage is I have a dented door and he has a dented front right bumper and broken headlight. We fill in all the paperwork on the Dutch lad's insurance forms and he draws a diagram of what he says happened which appears to show him starting out on the inside lane next to me and trying to cut across me to turn right but might also show him already on the roundabout when I joined it. I'm convinced it's my fault as we're in his country and his town so I just keep saying sorry, means the same in Dutch.

So we drive on to Amsterdam, have our break, come home and I get in touch with my insurance who've heard nothing from Dutch lad, in fact it's been 10 days and they can't trace him. Seems he neglected to fill in all his details on the form. I'm left with a £1,300 bill and the potential to pursue him through the legal cover on my insurance except I really don't know who was to blame. It is possible that my daughter obscured my view of the roundabout to my left but had I joined when he was already on the roundabout then why a 4 second delay before the screech of brakes, surely that's enough time for him to have avoided hitting me? The other possibility, that he joined when I did and tried to undertake me/get round me on the roundabout seems more plausible and it would make more sense that the witness approached me in English rather than him in Dutch. It would also put him squarely in the wrong but my sense of fairness will not let me pursue it if I think it was my fault - I'd rather take the hit and hopefully learn from it.

So we have played the various scenarios through again and again and reached no firm conclusion, can anybody help, at all?

neilmcl

Are roundabouts in Holland treated the same way they are in other European countries like France or Italy where you give way to vehicles joining the roundabout, in which case you will be in the wrong. Also, which lane of the two where you in, bearing in mind that in LHD countries they overtake on the left. It may be that he was coming up on your inside and you cut him off.

cajef

The only country where people entering the roundabout have priority is Greece, all other countries are like the UK i.e. motorists on the roundabout have priority.

http://www.roadtransport.com/Articles/2008/01/23/129609/How-the-rules-of-road-differ-across-Europe.htm

jrrowleyws

Not always true, for example, in Italy you have to look out for road markings as it changes from roundabout to roundabout!

Did you get the witness' details? Any photo's of the roundabout? Could you find the roundabout on google maps -might be able to see road markings etc from the overhead view.

cajef

jrrowleyws wrote: »

Not always true, for example, in Italy you have to look out for road markings as it changes from roundabout to roundabout!

I do know Italy is different and there are always odd exceptions where signs can change the priority even in the UK, having driven on the continent for many years nearly all countries now have priority to traffic on the roundabout.:)

If anyone reads the link I gave it does say

while in Italy right of way depends on signage

QueenOfTheDesert

Thanks very much for the the replies! Yes, roundabouts in Holland are much the same as here only the other way round.

The only two possibilities are that he joined the roundabout when I did but in the other lane (which would be the wrong lane for turning right which is where he was going) or that he was already on the roundabout when I joined and I failed to see him because my daughter's body and head blocked my view. He has drawn himself on the roundabout, aiming to turn right, with dots possibly showing him having joined the roundabout where I joined but in the left hand lane or possibly already on the roundabout, colliding with me in the correct lane going straight on. I've spent ages looking at it and you really could read it either way, it's been doing my head in! (And of course there is no guarantee that it's a truthful depiction anyway!)

Lack of insurance details and contact would suggest he believed/believes himself to be in the wrong but shock and delay in getting a quote might account for that. He was young, under 20 I'd say, in a little Golf - screech of brakes suggests speed, easy to pigeonhole. However, I'm an hour off the boat, driving so carefully I'm like a learner and still not sure who has priority, where we're going or which way the traffic is coming from plus I'm in a right hand drive car. It takes two to cause an accident after all!