Car Insurance - who's the boss, me or them?

Inactive

But none of that advises driving in to the side of a vehicle that is already in it's lane.

Also the IAM is not an officially recognised authority on driving standards, that is down to the Driving Standards Agency.

Gene_Hunt_2

Interesting to see how he posts the Highway Code as gospel and his next thread states it to be vague.

hethmar

Going back to the original question though ..........I think you will find that your policy allows your insurer to do as they think fit in the event of a claim or wash their hands of you

bigjl

Usually when there are two lanes merging into one the right lane will have arrows indicating for one lane to merge into the other, the merging shouldn't be done at the last minute as that is cutting somebody up not merging. It would seem that the IAM has little idea of how the world works on our roads, nobody is going to stay in the closing lane whilst slowing down at the same time as the traffic to their left, they will simply overtake and cut in.

The reason for the arrows on the road is to encourage early and safe merging where there is plenty of room, not leave it to the last second.

I assume that the OP is being completely honest and candid about events, especially since the Police can find out easily if the person was recieving or sending a text message around the time of the collision or if they where on the phone around that time.

As far as the IAM goes, their opinion is of little relevance to me and is normally from their self appointed "road captain" perspective. Since when is wizzing up the empty lane which is about to cease then cutting in front of those in a que of traffic a reasonable act. The quote that strider has posted from the IAM seems to encourage pushing in at the last minute, which surely would make the bottleneck worse, the easiest solution is for the traffic to begin to merge before the bottle neck, thus when the lane ends the traffic has already merged and therefore no bottleneck, overtaking all the merged traffic and pushing in at the last minute is surely the wrong way to behave.

In the OP's case the van hit his passenger door, the fact that the only collision was between his door and, presumably, the vans bumper corner, then doesn't this indicate that the car had moved across in front of the van, if they had been "merging" wouldn't the damage be all down one side of the car?

It seems to me the OP tried to wizz up the outside and duck in at the last moment, in front of somebody that was already in that lane for some time.



Don't worry about strider he will be slagging me off in a minute, as the simple fact that, "through training and experience" I am qualified to claim exemptions from the road traffic act on a daily basis, at high speed only means I am a blowhard rather than a proper advanced driver, with certificated proof that allows me to be a member of IAM if I so wanted, but since I agree with very little that the IAM spouts I haven't done so, they can keep their 5% Insurance discount.

Incidentally, I have lost count of the number of times car drivers have tried to push in front of me in a bright yellow Ambulance in much the same way as the OP has described, if a driver indicates and it is safe then I will adjust my speed to allow him to merge, but any merchant the slides up the right side and tries to push in can say hello to my front bumper, and I care little for his indicator being on or off, as it is an indicator not a self appointed right to come into my lane, the highway code also says something about not forcing other road users to have to alter their course or speed due to your actions, if somebody tries to push in at the last minute I may have to slam on the brakes which could result in a dangerous ripple effect causing all kinds of problems for traffic behind me.

Note that I haven't quoted the highway code or cut and pasted an article into my post, this is my opinion based on what I know and my experience and therefore I don't need to quote things. possibly out of context, to strengthen my position.

The_Cardinal

bigjl wrote: »

It seems to me the OP tried to wizz up the outside and duck in at the last moment, in front of somebody that was already in that lane for some time.

I did not whizz up the outside and try to cut in. Both lanes of traffic were pretty much stationary as they are joined from different sides of a roundabout. After edging down the 200 metres of two lanes they merge. He left me a gap and I started to merge just as every other car in front of me was doing. Then he drove into me.

There is not damage all the way down the side of my car because we were only doing about 3 miles an hour!

Thank you to the posters that have actually tried to answer my original question rather than lecture me on who is to blame!

The_Cardinal

Gene_Hunt wrote: »

Rubbish, the Highway Code is only a guide.

Yeah mate, that's what the driving test examiner told me when he was asking me questions about it!

Gene_Hunt_2

The_Cardinal wrote: »

He left me a gap and I started to merge just as every other car in front of me was doing. Then he drove into me.

I would suggest you say a gap and were having it regardless.;)

The fact is you changed lanes and are therefore to blame.

Glad to see your insurance company have done the decent thing and paid the innocent party.:T

Inactive

The_Cardinal wrote: »

Yeah mate, that's what the driving test examiner told me when he was asking me questions about it!

He/she obviously didn't ask you how you should change lanes safely.:)

The_Cardinal

Inactive wrote: »

He/she obviously didn't ask you how you should change lanes safely.:)

You're a funny guy.:T

Of course, he didn't need to because he had seen me do it! Just like I did when this joker drove into the side of me.:D

The_Cardinal

Gene_Hunt wrote: »

I would suggest you say a gap and were having it regardless.;)

The fact is you changed lanes and are therefore to blame.

Glad to see your insurance company have done the decent thing and paid the innocent party.:T

I'm to blame because I followed the guidelines. Good one.:rotfl: