Accident caused by traffic cone?

ben1191

I was driving along today,within the speed limit etc.There was a van infront and my distance was fine,he braked sharply to stop for the 2nd cone as there was a large lorry coming along the other side and he wouldnt of made it through the gap, at the point of him applying his brakes i had not even seen the sign/cones to warn me.

Upon him braking sharply,ive reacted within,say,half a second the next thing i know a cones appeared infront of me and gone under my wheel so my brakes are now skidding along the cone,foot to the floor with the break pedal,ive gone into the back of him.

Is this still my fault ?there was a perfectly good pavement that ive never seen anybody walk up in my entire life they could have placed the cones and signs thus preventing the traffic all slamming brakes on.

i was happy to settle it out of insurance to prevent premium increase,but he said he has to tell his supervisor (company van) who then tells head office and they decide what to do.I did say to him to explain to the supervisor that i was happy to pay without getting the insurance involved as my cars a fiesta and ive already found parts and can fix it all for about 70 quid.He had a small dent in the bottom passenger side rear door that could easily be pulled out and sprayed over to match.

where do i stand on the matter of the road cone?

Gutting thing was,a maintenance van came along 5 mins later and picked it all up....

im-lost

company van? it'll go through insurance... that's what insurance is for, no?

The cone issue is just a red herring, of course it was your fault.

londonTiger

A company will never agree to "sort it out without getting insurance involved". Time is money and they aren't going to spend expensive labour hours sorting this out. Whatever premium benefit there is for them will be absorbed by labour hours in trying to sort it DIY so they'll just push it through insurance.

Liability will always be on the cvar that rear ends the other. Because plain and simple if you were keeping a safe distance you will never have to rear end the car in front.

There could be a case of unsafe cone layout but unless you have photographic evidence of everything that went on and willingness to pay an expert witness to give their opinion and take it to court yourself - just give up. The insurer is not going to spend money on trying to sue the roadworks company (if there is a case to make that is)

arcon5

You couldn't see past the van and couldn't react safely to what was happening in front of you..
.. Your distance was therefore not fine.

It certainly doesn't absolve you of liability

topdaddy_2

What a terrible description.

SteveJW

I am the Fleet Manager for the largest unitary authority (by area) in the UK.
If a third party offers to pay for any damage they have caused we do look at their offer and in many cases accept the offer
Body repairs are not done in house, they can either settle the costs with the repairer or we settle the invoice and charge the third party

Good Luck

bod1467

Flip-side ... I was riding my 50cc moped/bike (Yamaha FS1E), under the speed limit, hit some diesel, couldn't stop and hit* the back of a Fiesta van. (Causing my back wheel to pop up a little, and I just fell over with the shock of it). The van was already pretty beat up.

* The only damage to my bike was the front mudguard was pressed against the wheel. A quick pull straight and it was fine. That should give an idea of the impact force.

The guy came out of the property where he was working. He looked at what happened and said not to worry - his boss would be fine with it, as there was no noticeable additional damage. (We did exchange details though).

6 weeks later I got a letter from their insurance company with a claim for a new rear bumper! I didn't contest it because:

a) It was technically my fault, even though there were extenuating circumstances
b) The letter arrived on the morning of my Mam's funeral, so I had other things on my mind at the time

I hope your experience more matches post #6 than this one.

harveybobbles

Not sure what the traffic cone has to do with anything? OP was clearly too close to the van, hence why they couldnt stop in time - imagine if the cone was a small child... Would they be blaming the child?

No doubt the OP wont bother to come back.

ben1191

The cone has everything to do with it,i came around the bend following the van,he ran the cone over which then flicked out infront of me,i braked but the cone was stuck under my front left wheel meaning i had no traction on one wheel,he simultaneously braked (he must have been foot to the floor braking) to stop for a traffic cone that was blocking him from going down the road as it was against the kerb and the line of lorries coming up the other side he couldnt get through the gap so he had to wait for them to pass.obviously his braking stopped before my braking and thats how i hit him.The cone also dragged me into the kerb which has done my tracking and tyre,had i not hit the van where would i have lied with a claim then,as the traffic cone has cause me to mount the kerb,which luckily nobody walks along or somebody could have been killed...

i dont understand why you all have to get offensive and jumped up either on a forum where ive just asked for some advice,i know the person who rear ends is always at fault.

I actually had a workman throw a traffic cone out infront of me on the a20 just before the mcdonalds where its dual carraigeway but the trafficworks had brang it into one lane,i had to swerve to dodge that and it was in the middle of the night in winter.

ben1191

and to sum it all up.WHY do they put cones in the !!!!ing road,when theres a pavement there,god forbid pedestrians walk around the cone,lets make everybody slam their breaks on because we like putting cones in the road after a long sweeping bend.

Iceweasel

Isn't it interesting that folks who are at fault and offer to pay themselves rather than involve an insurance company always seem to think that they have done little damage of no consequence.

Sorry - I forgot it was the cone's fault.

"He had a small dent in the bottom passenger side rear door that could easily be pulled out and sprayed over to match."

That could easily be a couple of hundred quid.

Any dents that I get in supermarket car parks are NEVER easily pulled out and sprayed over to match.

Perhaps the careless bar-stewards who did it though it was nothing serious of course.