help with my car accident claim please

repoman123

Hello, please may I have some advice/opinions on my options with my current situation? Here are the facts.

Car accident 4 months ago. Instead of taking the exit off the roundabout (which was their only option), the other driver attempted to keep driving round the roundabout and hitting me (near my rear passenger side door/tyre). I was in the next lane also taking the exit (outside lane). Only I had the option to keep going round the roundabout. Not the driver in the left/outside lane.

My car span round away from roundabout. Car damaged, I also sustained injuries (although not right away).

My car was repaired, I paid the excess. A few days later my neck began hurting, I didn't realise it was because of the accident at the same but as it turns out I suffered a trapped nerve as a result of whiplash. Several GP's and doctors at Hospital said same thing. I have paid for private physio etc, I am now on the mend although not 100% fit as I still can't exercise/play sport etc.

I have claimed through my car insurance for the costs to be paid by other insurance (to repair my car and give my excess back). I also want the other party to claim liability so it goes down as an "accident - not at fault" for me. The insurance company have referred me to the solicitors that deal with liability/legal/injury type stuff and I am claiming back for the money I spent on physio, all of the prescriptions I paid for, some loss of earnings as a result of time off work and also compensation for all of the pain I suffered in the coming weeks.

Today I called both the legal solicitor company and the car insurance company to get an update as I haven't had one yet and both say they are still waiting for the other insurance company to respond and admit fault. At present, they are blaming me for changing lanes as they say there are no witnesses or evidence, it's just my word against theirs.

More facts about the accident. Afterwards we both got out, the other driver admitted to me they were lost, they had never been on this road before and they were trying to follow their sat-nav and didn't know which way it was directing them. I explained what had happened i.e how they were meant to take the exit. They asked me for directions and turns out they should have actually taken the exit.

I have explained all of this to the insurance company when I made the claim.

After speaking to the insurance company today, they say they would only take it further and take the claim to court if they were fully confident of winning. As things stand, they aren't sure. They said that if they decide to negotiate and I didn't agree, they would put it down as a "not prejudice" (or something along those lines) case, so that if I wished to do so, I could pay my own solicitor to help me out and take this further.

I'm deeply saddened that the insurance company are not backing me and I desperately do not want to settle this case half and half as the other driver was clearly at fault.

Is my insurance company and legal/liability solicitors allowed to make the final decision on this without my authorisation? Am I not allowed to instruct them to continue taking this further?

I really don't want to, but if my insurance company decide to try and settle or something, can I get one of these compensation solicitors involved to help me? I mean one of those "no win no fee" type solicitors, whose adverts you always see on TV. I have incurred significant cost (financially, emotionally and physically) and I want to receive some sort of compensation to help me out.

Many thanks for reading and offering any guidance.

InsideInsurance

Without Prejudice is the term they will have used, ie they will settle on a basis, most likely 50/50, without actually agreeing that as the liability for the case.

Under the law of subjugation the insurers are entitled to deal with the case as they see fit. This is normally further enshrined in the contract of the policy wording though strictly this isnt necessary. They are entitled to do things without your authorisation but at least they seem to be reasonable in offering to do it on a WP basis to thus not prevent you taking your own actions.



On the matter of liability, would really need to see the road layout and road markings to give a better view along with both versions of events but on the surface of the matter from your description, the TP was in the left hand lane and you were to the right of them. You have then cut across them to take the exit and they have collided with your vehicle. Subject to the road markings this would place you liable for the accident, if the road markings are unclear in any way then a 50/50 would be a good outcome for you.

If you do get a split settlement like a 50/50 then you would get half your uninsured losses back and 50% of the compensation for PSLA

Do you have a google maps ariel photo of the roundabout in question to see the road markings?

repoman123

Hi InsideInsurance, thanks for your help.

There are 2 lanes on the roundabout, 2 lanes on the exit. Lanes on roundabout correspond with those on the exit. The roundabout is set in such a way whereby the left lane of the roundabout only leads to the left lane of the exit. However, the right lane of the roundabout gives you the option of taking the right lane of the exit or continuing into the left lane of the roundabout past the exit.

Not sure if this helps, but this is my route home from work so I drive this way on a daily basis.

I'll try and post a birds eye view of the roundabout.

BertTheRaccoon

Where was the third party vehicle after the collision? - on the stretch of road you were intending to exit onto or further around the roundabout?

Got any pics from the scene showing where their vehicle was post incident?

have the third party insurers/ representatives actually said what the other party is alleging - i.e are they saying you cut them up/ cut into their lane etc?

InsideInsurance

repoman123 wrote: »

Not sure if this helps, but this is my route home from work so I drive this way on a daily basis.

I'll try and post a birds eye view of the roundabout.

A link to the aerial view on Google Maps would help greatly.

From what you describe it would be acceptable to be in the right hand lane and take the 2nd lane of the exit but road markings would have to force the TP to turn off into that exit too for it not to be your fault at all hence needing to see the road markings.

Its also acceptable to turn right into a side road but you must give way to those oncoming vehicles as thats what the road markings show.

The problem with daily commutes is that we call get used to how things are locally done at a particular junction/ roundabout etc but that doesnt mean it is strictly how it should be done.

repoman123

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

Where was the third party vehicle after the collision? - on the stretch of road you were intending to exit onto or further around the roundabout?

Got any pics from the scene showing where their vehicle was post incident?

have the third party insurers/ representatives actually said what the other party is alleging - i.e are they saying you cut them up/ cut into their lane etc?

Thanks for responding to my thread.

The third party vehicle was pretty much where the collision happened afterwards (at the point where the roundabout meets the outside lane of the exit) although after a while they moved their car to the side in order to let traffic by as this happened at peak hours.

Sorry I have no pics, I have very shaken at the time. Thankfully they gave me a paper with their personal details on, I even forgot to write down the car reg and make/model. When I called the insurance up later to claim all I could give them was the persons personal details and describe the car! Really bad I know but I couldn't think straight at the time.

Third party insurers are saying I cut into left lane of exit hence the other car hit mine. The position of where our cars were, and ended up would say otherwise, but as we have no evidence of this my insurance company are unsure as to whether they would issue proceedings.

I'll post pics now.

repoman123

Basically I was in the right lane of the roundabout, other driver was in the left. Traffic light was green so we didn't stop at the line, we kept driving.

I continued driving in the right lane of roundabout to right lane of exit. Third party drove from left lane of roundabout and continued in this lane without taking the exit (which is not allowed).

Aerial view shows where my car was (next to that lorry) and where it ended up after I spun off (approximately in this area, difficult to tell on aerial view). I was facing the traffic which scared the living daylights out of me. The side of my car smacked the curb too and I went right over it onto grassy area.

The red box next to the lorry shows where I was when I was hit.

Third party car remained there until a little while after when they moved their car in front of mine to allow traffic to continue going by.

EDIT: I'm sorry for the double post.

InsideInsurance

repoman123 wrote: »

Third party drove from left lane of roundabout and continued in this lane without taking the exit (which is not allowed)

Why is it not allowed?

From what you have posted there are no clear road markings to support your "this is not allowed" statement in which case you have simply cut into a correctly proceeding vehicle in which case you are 100% to blame for the accident.

Obviously if there are signs or road markings which arent visible in the photos then this may support your case but the evidence to date suggests a 50/50 would be a very good result for you.

repoman123

Some roundabouts don't have any markings (or traffic lights etc) at all, however, obviously as drivers you should know what you're allowed and not allowed to do. What would be your opinion on accidents at these roundabouts?

In this instance, there aren't any arrows printed on the road but if you're driving round the left (outside) lane of the roundabout and you're approaching that exit, you have no choice but to take the exit. If you don't it defeats the purpose of there being two lanes on the roundabout and also on the exit, right?

If what the third party driver did was correct, then those on the inside (right) lane of the roundabout never have an opportunity to exit the roundabout as they risk hitting a car or being hit by a car.

After the accident, the driver also admitted to me that they had never been in that area before, including never having driven on that road. They were lost and attempting to follow their sat nav at the same time. They actually asked me for directions and as it turns out, they should have taken the exit to get to where they wanted to go.

I guess if you see it that way then others will too. It's a shame the way these things work out.

Does anybody have any opinions on using one of these no win no fee type solicitors? The ones that you see advertised on TV all the time.

Thanks in advance.

BertTheRaccoon

What point of entry did you join the roundabout (express this in clock format referring to the overhead view you have posted ) for example you joined at 9 o'clock leaving at 6 o'clock. Do you know where the other party joined from?

repoman123

Yes, we both joined at 9 o'clock, I left at 6 o'clock.

The third party attempted to continue driving on whereby they would have exited the roundabout at 9 o'clock (where they joined the roundabout in the first place), instead of 6 o'clock, where it is my opinion they should have exited.