Threatening driver caused crash?

SammiRoyle

Just to get some opinions, today myself and my partner were on our way out, he was driving. We turned a corner, not letting a car out as we were in a rush. The driver then got extremely angry and drove around us taking up the opposite side of the road and then came up infront of us! My partner then sounded his horn as it nearly caused him to crash, with it being school hour it was quite busy. The driver then got out and walked up to pull my partners door open, my partner just locking it in time. He then stood there shouting and willing my partner to get out of the car while pulling at the door handle, he did this for a few minutes, and me being pregnant was very frightened along with my partner considering we are early 20s and he was a big man in his 40s or so. My partner being terrified then reversed to try and get away but reversed into a car behind that he obviously didn't see as he wasn't in the right frame of mind after being threatened! Is there anything that can be done against the threatening driver? I was on the phone to the police as I extremely shaken and they have taken his Reg. Thanks

nearlyrich

The threatening behaviour will be addressed by the police but the crash will be down to your partner as he reversed into the other car, did you get any witness's?

Tilt

Sound like you've done everything you can. No doubt the driver of the car you reversed into will have witnessed what happened and will confirm what happened when submitting his insurance claim. What happened when your partner got out to exchange details? Was the 'assailant' still there? What are the police doing about it?

SammiRoyle

Yeah we completely understand overall it would be his fault for not paying attention even under the stressful circumstance. The driver we reversed into said that he was surprised there wasn't a crash between my partner and the angry driver because of the way he just drove infront of us, he saw everything with the angry driver which is good as we have a witness. The police have just taken adress details and the car Reg of the angry driver but I have no idea what will happen now, might have to follow it up!
The driver was still there when my partner got out but by that time two PCOs were at the scene.

red_eye

nearlyrich wrote: »

The threatening behaviour will be addressed by the police but the crash will be down to your partner as he reversed into the other car, did you get any witness's?

the car he crashed into?

forgotmyname

My opinion, Probably not what you want to hear.

Someone threatened you and you reversed without looking and crashed into someone elses car. 100% your fault.

Next time sit there and pull funny faces at him and call the police. Or crash into his car. Push his insurance premium up as well as your own.

I wonder if the other driver has a different story. You said you turned a corner?
So did he in fact have right of way?

yorkie2

SammiRoyle wrote: »

Just to get some opinions, today myself and my partner were on our way out, he was driving. We turned a corner, not letting a car out as we were in a rush.

It is unclear if you did not let a car out of a side road - which many people do as a favour but there is absolutely no requirement to do so, or if you in fact turned out of a side road into the path of the oncoming car? Which party had right of way?

rdwarr

yorkie2 wrote: »

It is unclear if you did not let a car out of a side road - which many people do as a favour but there is absolutely no requirement to do so, or if you in fact turned out of a side road into the path of the oncoming car? Which party had right of way?

It's totally irrelevant. Whether the OP originally had right of way or not does not excuse the behaviour of "angry driver".

At the worst (and we don't know if the "worst" applies) the OP may have been inconsiderate, the other guy was clearly dangerous.

DUTR

rdwarr wrote: »

It's totally irrelevant. Whether the OP originally had right of way or not does not excuse the behaviour of "angry driver".

At the worst (and we don't know if the "worst" applies) the OP may have been inconsiderate, the other guy was clearly dangerous.

Actually it does, as taking away the sob story bit "I'm expecting " blah blah, the story reads as the OP's partner is somewhat fuel to the incident.
In a hurry? mini car chase etc
Once the other driver got out of his car, then the guy should have just driven off, oh well it's a learning experience I suppose.

chris-j

From reading this there were three separate but related incidents.
1- OP's partner seems to have pulled out in front of angry driver
2 - Angry driver overtakes OP's car and stops to confront OP's partner
3 - OP's partner panics and reverses into car behind.

I do not for a second condone angry driver but from sound of things incident 1 caused by OP's partner which resulted in incident 2.
Incident 2 caused by angry driver retaliating for being cut up at incident 1.
Incident 3 caused by OP's partner because he bricked it and panicked when angry driver took action (stupidly, but he may have been just going to ask him why he thought it OK to pull out in front of him).
The OP's partner carries the blame if based on cause and effect. If he had not pulled out in front of angry driver then incident 2 and 3 would not have happened and calm would have returned to the universe (albeit for just a short time).
Before I get flamed I again state angry driver was stupid, but it is feasible that he had been subjected to a number of other idiots on his journey and the actions of OP's partner was the straw which broke the camels back.
The OP however should not hope that the driver they hit is a good witness, they were hit by the OP's partner and their interest is getting their car repaired with minimal impact on their insurance.
It would be good if the angry driver was a forum member and could give his perspective on the incident.

Lum

My partner has been in a situation very similar to this, only there were 5 men and they had weapons, she had arrived home late one night to find them attempting to steal my car. They were, lets say, somewhat displeased at being interrupted.

They had already smashed the majority of the glass on her car, and one of them was currently driving directly at her. She reversed out of the way of that car and managed to scratch an Alfa belonging to a hire car company.

The whole thing was witnessed from several people's front windows. It was also pretty clear that if she had stayed put she would have been rammed straight into the Alfa and done a lot more damage.

She was still found 100% at fault and lost her NCB. The most frustrating part is that if she had allowed her car to be rammed into the Alfa then the fault would have been with the person who rammed her and it would have gone through the MIB. She would have been able to claim for her car too (it was an old banger insured 3rd party) instead of us having to scrap it as too expensive to replace all the glass.


So I think it likely that the OP will be found liable too.