Daughter's Car Accident - please help.

sunshinetours

No point in arguing here - OP you are understandably upset and emotional about as we would all be if our kids were involved - thankfully she is relatively OK. once the initial high emotions have settled down hopefuuly this will all be sorted out. People here can only really post based on what you write please remember whioch si why I said originally noone can tell you anything about it for definite, only what might have happened

Also hope this doesn't knock your daughters confidence too much, as you did say she was a nervous learner. Don;t dismiss the motorway lessons it may help her confidence when she returns to that road - as others have said a nervous driver at 70mph on motorways can be as dangerous as an overconfident one. You don't get taught any motorway driving on lessons whilst learning to drive

Good luck with it all

littlerat

Just to pop in and say I'm glad your daughter is ok.

I had this happen on a motorway, overtaking a van (he was doing about 60, me about 70) and he suddenly tried to come out into the outside lane (or swerved for no reason, whatever) and hit my front corner - thankfully through my excellent control (or luck, look at it how you will ) although I was spun I didn't hit anything. I don't fully remember what happened but I'm about 95% sure it wasn't my fault. Thankfully the only damage was the dent where he hit as I didn't touch the barriers and it was an otherwise empty road.
The people I've spoken to who have had similar all have had trouble remembering exactly what happened, I think it's normal! Oh and the van drove off, by the time I got onto the hard shoulder (stopped the wrong way around on the motorway!) he was gone, obviously thought he'd not fancied stopping...

I can't remember what happened really at the first accident I was in (100% the other drivers fault) and that was a simple rear end shunt - the shock just scrambled my memory.


My brother only a few days ago had it happen to him in the middle of town on a roundabout (someone not following lanes), again by the time he realised what happened the driver was gone without a trace, his car is a write-off as it twisted when it hit the barrier.



Unfortunately my bets would be on someone with poor lane discipline hitting your daughter - and while I do wonder why she was in the middle lane if not overtaking (my only wonder is if she moved over to let him out of the slip road and he accelerated past her on the inside?), it still seems likely to me he nudged her.


Hope you get it sorted quickly and your daughter isn't sore too long!

pendulum

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

yet you are a brilliant example of someone who's determined to argue against everything...

you don't own a blue BMW do you?

I just like to get at the facts, and no, I don't own a blue BMW - not that there's any evidence the BMW caused this collision.

tesuhoha wrote: »

The car could have been coming up behind her in the inside lane to overtake her from the inside and then as it reached her swayed over and hit her (maybe it was the strong wind as the policeman said.)

That's the only scenario I can think of too, and it is very unlikely manoeuvre.

If there was high wind I'd expect it to affect the Yaris more than a better planted and heavier BMW.

tesuhoha wrote: »

You are ignoring what the witness said. My daughter said he was certain of it.

A contradiction to what you first said, that the witness admitted he wasn't sure. If the witness was certain, I doubt the traffic officer would have dismissed him as an unreliable witness. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, he was probably in a daydream of his own until he noticed a car begin to spin and saw the BMW nearby, and his mind linked the two together as having collided, he later realised he did not actually see them collide. Very common (and police are taught this phenomenon with EWT).

scheming_gypsy

There's getting the facts but your previous posts were very heavy on the 'it's your daughters fault, nobody else regardless of what the evidence looks like'



although as i mentioned before; even if the other driver wasn't certain, the BMW must have been close enough to the OP's daughter to give the impression that they caught her.... That could possibly play a contributing factor and why would they be that close? I'm guessing the motorway was relatively quiet as there were only the three cars 'involved'.
you never know what happened previously, maybe the OP's daughter accidentally cut the BMW up and they went up her arse aggressively and caught her or maybe they didn't catch them but their manouver shocked the daughter into making a wrong move and steering into the central reservation?

rs65

Looks like you'll never know what happened for certain and torturing yourself about it is going to do you more harm than good. The damage to the rear bumper could have happened against the barrier or, as has been said, during or after recovery. I guess with that my damage that the recovery process didn't have to be gentle.

Did anyone else notice the irony of the reflection of a BMW behind it in the rear bumper photo?

Anyway, glad she's relatively ok. Some people aren't so lucky with a 70mph crash.

fivetide

The only thing that surprises me is that if the BMW was close enough to punt the car into a spin then:

How did they avoid being part of the crash? (Things geneally bounce off and that car is missing a large chunk of front end)

Did they stop behind the accident or in front and walk a back? (I'd think it is very difficult to stop behind a car which is going to 0mph in that space of time. If they did stop behind that might suggest they were not part of the accident.

I can't image that paint is from a blue car or that the copper would have misse dit as it would have put a fair amount of damage onto the offender. If anything it looks like white van man!

Given the reports from the scene etc I just don't think the BMW theory stacks up but unless the car hit the central reservation front and back then there is a suggestion it could have been hit by something -the issue there is no other vehicles have been referenced.

5t.

System

I can't image that paint is from a blue car

Especially since it extends under the bumper. I wouldn't think any part of the front end of a BMW is shaped to impact the bumper and the underneath that is about 6 inches further in and lower..

pendulum

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

There's getting the facts but your previous posts were very heavy on the 'it's your daughters fault, nobody else regardless of what the evidence looks like'

No, my previous posts focused on the facts as presented.

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

even if the other driver wasn't certain, the BMW must have been close enough to the OP's daughter to give the impression that they caught her....

When a car begins swerving all over the lanes and hits a few barriers the chances are it's going to get close to a few cars in the process. The BMW probably did well to avoid hitting her.

tesuhoha

Slight update. The police officer finally phoned my daughter back and she asked him about the mark on the back of her car. He said that he only noticed it after she had gone off in the ambulance and thought it was suspicious. However he was sure that it was not the BMW driver that hit her. He said the BMW driver said that she saw my daughter's car start spinning and so she stopped. He said that when things happen at high speed they can be confusing and the witness saw a car hit her and because the BMW stopped thought it must be that car.

He said we will never truly know what happened but he thinks it was another car that did not stop. There is no cctv coverage in that area. She asked about the witness details and he said to request the insurance company to request the police report. So that is what she has done. She wants to leave it up to the insurance company now.

tesuhoha

pendulum wrote: »

I just like to get at the facts, and no, I don't own a blue BMW - not that there's any evidence the BMW caused this collision.


That's the only scenario I can think of too, and it is very unlikely manoeuvre.

If there was high wind I'd expect it to affect the Yaris more than a better planted and heavier BMW.


A contradiction to what you first said, that the witness admitted he wasn't sure. If the witness was certain, I doubt the traffic officer would have dismissed him as an unreliable witness. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, he was probably in a daydream of his own until he noticed a car begin to spin and saw the BMW nearby, and his mind linked the two together as having collided, he later realised he did not actually see them collide. Very common (and police are taught this phenomenon with EWT).

Yes it is a contradiction because when he spoke to my daughter after the crash he was sure. By the time he spoke to the police officer he wasn't so certain.