Minor accident - advice needed (insurance)

Rolandtheroadie

Go to your insurer, tell them at this point it's information only, you don't want to claim for your own car, and see how it goes.

Let the guy know you've done this, it might be enough to put him off claiming.

Don't give him a penny or negotiate in any way. Leave it in the hands of your insurer after this.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Generally, the rule would be to merge in turn, while there is also an element where the side with the turn in arrow is also the subservient side and should concede. Add to that if you are on the left, then you can see what is going on whereas he is in the blind spot.

While there are two sides to the story, this does sound like someone being silly and trying to save a whole car length by being aggressive.

As you do not believe you are to blame then I would simply refuse to pay. Tell him that if he has a problem with that he has the choice of going to the police (he will get nowhere) or to his insurers.

Small bodywork damage as described can probably be sorted out by Chips Away and would not cost £500 to fix. I had two new wings and a respray of everything below the windscreen for £1000.

If he continues to contact you in an unreasonable, forceful or threatening manner without doing either of the above then you can in turn go to the police and get him warned off for harassment.

You are under no obligation to claim off your insurance but you need to notify them and it is likely that this will affect your premium, but the small amounts involved should mean you will not have much of an increase. If you do not notify them you risk being uninsured in the future.

imho

Do you think he has any insurance or tax and mot?

OnanTheBarbarian

From the description you have put in your initial post, you are admitting you have moved to the left, so you have merged into him, knowing of his presence. Based on that info, you are likely to take a hit on this one, but I would be interested to see a google street view of the location before giving final judgment on the situation.

This sounds like a lack of "give & take" and although the other guy was probably being a bit of a helmet and bullying his way through, sometimes you need to just let them get on with it rather than tangle with them and then let this type of situation arise.

All too often you see situations where someone pulls out or makes a lane change which may well conflict with the presence of another vehicle, yet the other vehicle shows no sign of braking or taking evasive action, almost to make the point that the other person was doing something wrong, thus leaving no room to avoid the situation when things really do get too close to call.

goomba

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5924115,-0.2870839,80m/data=!3m1!1e3

This is from Google maps, there is no image available on street view. Where the light blue and red car are is the lane I was in waiting to turn right, the white lorry is in the left turn lane and the other car would be in the empty lane next to mine.

Onan I did turn left to get more central in the lane but I didn't know the car was overtaking me, I saw on the corner he was behind me and expected him to wait to get in behind me. I should have checked my wing mirror, although it was only a slight movement. I still feel he shouldn't have been overtaking me anyway but I wanted to write exactly what happened.

Quentin

Be careful about dealing direct with this guy.

How did he arrive at the £500 he wants?

If you make any payment you admit liability meaning you are responsible for any other costs that turn up eg car hire taxis injury and any further damage found etc.

If you let your insurer deal with him then if they do agree you were to blame and if it's cost effective you can reimburse your insurer and keep your ncd intact.

OnanTheBarbarian

So has the collision occurred on Honeypot Lane after you have both turned right at the lights about where the word "slow" is written on the road surface?

If so it looks like it is your lane that loses road space due to the chevroned area. So your lane merges into his.

You say the damage to his car is to the driver door area? What part of your car would have made contact with his?

The other problem is that without independent witness evidence, you can't prove he was not alongside you all the time (which is what he will say no doubt).

notanewuser

goomba wrote: »

Onan I did turn left to get more central in the lane but I didn't know the car was overtaking me, I saw on the corner he was behind me and expected him to wait to get in behind me. I should have checked my wing mirror, although it was only a slight movement. I still feel he shouldn't have been overtaking me anyway but I wanted to write exactly what happened.

And your blind spot.

You didn't look to see where he was. A motorbike could have been alongside you and you wouldn't have known. You began a manoeuvre anyway. You don't know the difference between inside and outside lanes, overtaking and undertaking. And this is within a year of passing your test. I'd advise you take some more driving lessons!!

Stoke

When you say overtaking, do you actually mean undertaking? If he's in the left hand lane then it's surely an undertake?

Took me a few seconds to work this out, but if this was me, I would be absolutely refusing at the present moment, but then you've been quite vague so with more details I might be more inclined to say you're at fault.

Was he more in your lane, or were you more in his lane?

arcon5

Also note there is a difference between undertaking and the act of passing on the left as part of the flow of traffic