Accident caused by traffic cone?

Shoshannah

ben1191 wrote: »

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...

I'm confused, sorry - where was the first cone? :huh:

...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.

Why not? I don't know what these cones were for (I am assuming roadworks), but I would have expected some sort of signage preceding them.

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.

It really does sound like you hadn't left enough stopping distance. In your first paragraph you say your 'distance was fine'. That has only stated an opinion. What was the distance you had left? At 30mph it should be at least six car lengths (in dry conditions), and with vans/lorries/caravans/4x4s/anything you can't see past very easily then you may need to leave more.

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.

Unfortunately, it's not up to us whether or not they put cones on the pavement. I still don't know why the cones were there. Maybe they would have served no purpose on the pavement and needed to be on the road for whatever reason.

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?

I don't think it makes any difference, TBH. You are liable.

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

That is gutting.

Sorry, but I don't see how you can get out of this one.

Shoshannah

Ohhhh, I see what happened here. They must have put the cones on the pavement, where they belong.

Stoke

Can't see how the accident can be caused by an inanimate object. It's put there, deal with it. It sounds to me like you were tailgating him and couldn't see the cone. He's braked hard, and you've hit him.

Classic shunt really.

No chance mate, sorry to be a buzz kill.

almillar

That cone could have been anything (child (please think of the children!!) dead badger, huge pothole, and could have been put there by anyone, a daft student or the highways agency. You still have to be able to (react and) stop in the distance you can see. You were driving too close to the van, and reacted and stopped too slowly. You need to stop faster, or leave a bigger distance. The vehicle in front of you has the right to do an emergency stop at any time and for any reason as far as you're concerned and you'd better be able to stop too, or it IS your fault.

bugslet

londonTiger wrote: »

A company will never agree to "sort it out without getting insurance involved".

SteveJW wrote: »

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

And I'm the manager for a much smaller entity, and yes we will accept third party offers as well, depending on the damage. Ditto what Steve JW said.