Am I responsible?

Angypangy1978

A few weeks ago I was turning right on the road(u-turn, if u like), had my indicator on and moved slowly. Someone crashed in to the side of me (driver side) as I was making the turn and after speaking with my insurers today, I have been told she is denying liability because I apologized when I got out the car. Does this make me responsible even though she crashed in to me?

Quentin

Not necessarily, but why did you apologise? Looks like an admission of liability/guilt, hence the issue being disputed by the other side.

DaveF327

If you made proper observations before making a turn from stationary, you would have only turned when nobody was nearby. If you made a turn into the path of a moving vehicle, then you have been negligent.

VfM4meplse

If enough notice in slow-moving traffic, people do generally give way for those pulling out / deviating from the expected.

Truthfully, could you have been more careful? Is that why you apologised?

I still think the liability should be hers. Were there no witnesses / might CCTV footage be available?

maninthestreet

So how did you fail to spot this car - you were performing the U-turn, it was up to you to determine it was safe to do so before executing the manoeuvre.

dacouch

maninthestreet wrote: »

So how did you fail to spot this car - you were performing the U-turn, it was up to you to determine it was safe to do so before executing the manoeuvre.

Didn't stop?

agrinnall

DaveF327 wrote: »

If you made proper observations before making a turn from stationary, you would have only turned when nobody was nearby. If you made a turn into the path of a moving vehicle, then you have been negligent.

Clearly you didn't bother to read that the OP wrote that they were hit on the driver's side, therefore it would have been by a car that was behind them. The same thing happened to me many years ago when I signalled right, pulled slightly to the left to give myself room to make the turn only to find the driver behind me ploughing into the side of my car. No happy ending for me either I'm afraid, the other driver denied any responsibility and my insurance company paid her claim.

Sgt_Pepper_2

agrinnall wrote: »

Clearly you didn't bother to read that the OP wrote that they were hit on the driver's side, therefore it would have been by a car that was behind them. The same thing happened to me many years ago when I signalled right, pulled slightly to the left to give myself room to make the turn only to find the driver behind me ploughing into the side of my car. No happy ending for me either I'm afraid, the other driver denied any responsibility and my insurance company paid her claim.

So they should have looked in the mirror and over their shoulder.

Mankysteve

When I was learning to drive I was always told that when turning in the road, you do your observation if there another car behind or oncoming you stop until either it stops and give way or passes. The op turned into the other person path so it could well be the OP fault.

Tilt

So basically the car was overtaking the OP despite the OP signalling his intention to turn right? In which case the TP is 70% at fault in my opinion.

Oli.s

Op needs to clarify because there is a world of difference between being stationary, parked up at the side of the road and then doing a u-turn in the path of oncoming traffic from the rear, and travelling along a road then turning right into a junction and a car overtaking and crashing into the offside, its not really that clear which the op was doing as they say "turning right on the road(u-turn, if u like)".