Daughter's Car Accident - please help.

fred7777

tesuhoha wrote: »

However, my husband who used to be an HGV1 driver and has 40 years driving experience felt from her description that someone hit her. It may have been that she swerved to avoid the BMW who wandered into her lane. Her car is completely smashed up by crash barriers on both sides so if another car hit her there wouldn't be much sign of it.

Loosing control whilst swerving to avoid someone and possibly braking hard at the same time would be one explanation. I spun my first car (metro) several times and have never spun any of the longer cars I have had since.
Unfortunately there is no way of proving any explanation so your daughters policy will have to pay out with her being put down as at fault.

thegirlintheattic

I also think it sounds like the BMW got too close overtaking your daughter in the middle lane and it spooked your daughter. I would have thought that if the BMW had hit your daughter's car the witness would have been more sure of it as the spin would have started immediately.

If the police have ruled out another car's involvement then the insurance company will put it down as your daughters fault. They will make a low offer, reject it and negotiate up to a better deal - although you will only get the list price not what you paid.

I would be more worried about potential criminal charges such as driving without due care and being charged for damage to the crash barriers.

RichGold

Strider590 wrote:

Something they don't teach in driving school, is how a cars centre of gravity shifts under braking and what effect that can have at speed.

Its not just braking that could cause something such as you describe. When the car is traveling at speed something as simple as a little steering wheel movement twinned with lifting off the accelerator could spin the car if driven by an inexperienced driver.

oscarward

Strider590 wrote: »

My take on this is driver A in lane 1 changing to lane 2, driver B in lane 3, changing to lane 2, then either:

Minor contact

Or

Driver B leans on the horn, Driver A panics, hits the brakes and due to the shifted centre of gravity and the car already aiming at the barrier, spins off.


Something they don't teach in driving school, is how a cars centre of gravity shifts under braking and what effect that can have at speed.

I saw this exact scenario a couple of years ago on the M62, I was 50 yds behind a car in the outside lane which indicated to move to the middle. The driver coming from outside to middle became aware of a car on the inside moving out and wrenched the wheel to avoid it , then lost control totally.

No vehicle contact but the driver on the outside went from lane 2ish to 3, back to 1, out to 2 again before ending bouncing along the crash barrier on the hard shoulder. All in the space of a few seconds. Think it was an astra, no injuries but lots of n/s body damage from the barrier.

Rather shocked me how easily and quickly things went pear shaped at 80mph.

Strider590

RichGold wrote: »

Its not just braking that could cause something such as you describe. When the car is traveling at speed something as simple as a little steering wheel movement twinned with lifting off the accelerator could spin the car if driven by an inexperienced driver.

I know this, but most modern cars are setup for OTT understeer to prevent this ever happening..... You really have to drive like a complete knob to get the back end out without using the brakes. If however you try it in a Peugeot 106/306, you'd better watch out and you'd better having good reactions:rotfl:

sunshinetours

dacouch wrote: »

Did the Policeman not take into account the other car being a BMW eg no indicators and a tendency to undertake / overtake and then cut in front, the cutting in without a proper gap may explain why the witness thought the BMW had a contact with the OPs car

yawn........

sunshinetours

OP - firstly glad your daughter is safe and well.

No one here can really on those facts give anyting other than an opinion on what might have happened. Unfortunately a nervous new driver will not have the experience to deal with such situations and understand how quickly things actually happen at 70mph. you did say she was in middle lane so presumably she was overtaking someone and hopefully not sitting there? Also the amnesia maybe should be looked at by a doctor in case of any blows to the head?

Unless any new evidence comes to light this will almost certainly be down on her insurance and I would say maybe leave a couple of thousand spare from car proceeds when buying new one to allow for next years insurance. A £7k car is a lot for a brand new driver who is bound to have a few knocks and scrapes (and unfortunately more in this case)

Does her insurance cover a hire car whilst hers is being assessed?

Finally as others ahave said a motorway lesson would be a good idea to help her confidence when she gets back on teh motorway and to understand more about road positioning etc which they don't teach you on lessons for your driving test

McKneff

As for motorways. Ive been driving 45 years and these days I avoid them like the plague, there are so many idiots in a little bubble of their own, blase, in a trance, dozing off even.

If I have to drive and use the middle lane, i just cant wait to get back into the inside lane, having an idiot on each side of me gives me the heebie jeebies.

Badger_Lady

It wasn't near J17, by any chance..?

Actually your daughter is lucky. I once span across the M4 (again thankfully I didn't hit anyone and wasn't badly injured), but mine was clearly due to a tyre blow-out. The Police who recovered me said that they could prosecute for careless driving, and that 'mechanical failure' (the tyre) would be my defence! It was very upsetting to hear that after such a traumatic incident, and whilst waiting for my ripped-apart car to be towed away and scrapped.

Thankfully they decided not to prosecute me. But they could have made the same threat to your daughter

neilmcl

McKneff wrote: »

As for motorways. Ive been driving 45 years and these days I avoid them like the plague, there are so many idiots in a little bubble of their own, blase, in a trance, dozing off even.

Statistically motorways are still the safest roads to drive on. Its the minor A and B roads that you need to be more wary of. TBH, if you're really that nervous of driving on a motorway in traffic then I'm glad you avoid them, imho nervous drivers are as bad as reckless ones.