Car Accident - Third Party denying liability

jjj1980

Quick background:


I was at a junction waiting for traffic ahead to clear and allow me to move forwards without risking getting stuck in the middle of junction if lights turned to red. I was in the nearside lane, which has painted road markings showing it is for going straight ahead or turning left.


Just as the traffic started to clear ahead, I started to roll forward and a car came up my right hand side, in a lane marked right-turn only, at speed and turned left into the front offside corner of my car. This caused my car to be shoved on an angle towards the curb, damaging the front bumper and both axles.


The other driver finished turning the corner and pulled up in front of a car that was already parked up. I pulled up behind that car. On exiting her car, the driver started looking around the already parked car until I pointed out my car and in shock asked what on earth she had been thinking!


She admitted straight away she knew it was her fault, had badly judged the space and knew she had been in the wrong lane. She said she thought she had plenty of time to get round me but knew she should not have tried. She gave me her details, said she couldn't remember who her insurance was with but thought it might be LV. I started to give her my details but she refused at first, saying she didn't need them as she knew it was her fault but as I had already taken her mobile number, I text my details to her immediately and got her to show me the received text.


Once home, I received a text from her saying her insurance was actually with Hastings. I called them but they advised they do not accept third party claims from drivers, only from insurers. I then called mine and gave a full report. My car has since been repaired and I have had an initial physio assessment as I was injured trying to prevent the car being shoved on to the pathway.


My daughter and mum were passengers in my car at the time and the solicitors dealing with the accident claim have already confirmed they have received an admission of liability from the other driver regarding their claim. However, there appears to be an issue on my claim.


I have spoken with the solicitors a couple of times since yesterday and they say the only information they have from the third party insurers at the moment is that they are wanting to investigate further. The solicitors have tried to contact both the other driver and their insurers but have not managed to get a response from either as to what they are wanting to look into.


In preparation of any issues, I am going to go back to the junction and take pictures of the road markings to provide to the solicitors.


Can anyone think of anything else that would be worth doing now to help seed up any potential delays?


It's this junction here:


https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7958701,-1.5517045,3a,75y,85.56h,79.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stIrOEgOoBoibPU2tNRllkQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Aire+St,+Leeds,+West+Yorkshire+LS1/@53.7958701,-1.5517045,3a,75y,99.17h,87.42t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1stIrOEgOoBoibPU2tNRllkQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DtIrOEgOoBoibPU2tNRllkQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D235.48811%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m2!3m1!1s0x48795c1e3edf2d2d:0xf01ed271a95af2fb

I was on Whitehall RD E, at the junctions of Whitehall Rd E/Thirsk Row/Aire Street/Whitehall Quay, heading towards Aire Street. I was in the left/nearside lane which is marked for left turn or ahead, waiting to go ahead as there was traffic queuing on Aire Street back into the junction. As you can see, the right/offside lane is marked for right turn only into Whitehall Quay.

huckster

It is rarely a quick decision to admit liability and to negotiate a claim.

Companies like Hastings will receive hundreds of new claims every day, so it may take a week or so before anyone looks at it. Although the third party might say they are at fault, you have to wait for Hastings to agree. If they see the junction pictures and get confirmation of the position of the cars, it should be straightforward.

Retrogamer

Is the third party actually denying liability, or just trying to establish it?

stuart30

First question is do you have a dash cam...if not id suggest you go buy one for future incidents.
My wife had a incident on a roundabout...she was established (key point) and another driver failed to give way and slammed into her.
Pretty open and shut case...he hit her car (Ford Galaxy) with such force it was stuck on a roundabout for 4hrs while we waited for recovery.
The third party took her to court for causing the accident...crazy stuff,my insurer said it was open and shut case as the third party very helpfully drew a sketch of him attempting to driver around my wife and take the third exit using the left hand lane.
Goes to court and he tells judge he was in correct lane and that's the left lane as you give way to the left (no no im deadly serious) and after the judge says several times are you confused (well the third party was 89 yrs old and deaf) he got quite grumpy with judge and said "ive been driving 70yrs and I know what im doing"


Now the best bit...he summed up and said if thord party had been in the correct lane (right hand lane) the accident would never of happened...had he of given way it would never have happened...if he had seen my wife (he stated the roundabout was empty) it would never of happened.


Yeah he found my wife guilty as he felt she was at fault.


The reason for the long winded post above is to highlight never never assume even with concrete evidence your in the right and you will win.


The above is even more bizarre as the third party insurance paid out £3500 personal injury a month before court as they knew they didn't stand a chance of winning...couldn't make it up.

jjj1980

No, I don't have a dashcam I'm afraid. Might be worth a purchase though. This is now the third time someone has hit my car in less than a year! Two previous incidents were in car parks whilst my car was parked, empty but I was in sight of the car. Beginning to think my car is invisible!! This recent one was the end to a crappy night as my daughter had broken her foot earlier that day and we were just on way home from A&E with a detour to buy pain relief from the chemist at the Leeds Train Station. Only reason for that was there was a 6 hour wait for the A&E pharmacy!

The way the solicitors have explained it, it sounds like it automatically marks as denial until acceptance is issued. The other insurers are currently "investigating". After many questions, this is the only information I can get.

As this was not on a roundabout and there are very definite, visible road markings, the solicitors said pictures would be used to confirm this to the other insurers. The only way for her to have hit my car where she did was for her to come up the outside lane, marked for right-turns-only by arrow on the road and have tried to take the left turn. This means cutting across the near side lane, which is road marked for straight ahead and left turn.

I'm really annoyed that this happened a month ago and has not yet been sorted. I really, honestly cannot understand what there is for them to dispute. There was another car behind me so she had purposefully tried to overtake more than just myself. Unfortunately, no one else stopped.

Quentin

jjj1980 wrote: »

I'm really annoyed that this happened a month ago and has not yet been sorted. I really, honestly cannot understand what there is for them to dispute.......

There may not be a liability dispute at all. (The other driver's "admission" counts for little)


A month is no time for sorting simple straightforward claims - and yours looks to involve 3 separate PI claims a swell as the car repairs.


Expect months rather than weeks, so try and put it to the back burner and let your sols deal with it. But be patient.

jjj1980

I think it just panicked me a little with the solicitors saying "denial".


Promise I will try not to stress over it!

stuart30

jjj1980 wrote: »

No, I don't have a dashcam I'm afraid. Might be worth a purchase though. This is now the third time someone has hit my car in less than a year! Two previous incidents were in car parks whilst my car was parked, empty but I was in sight of the car. Beginning to think my car is invisible!! This recent one was the end to a crappy night as my daughter had broken her foot earlier that day and we were just on way home from A&E with a detour to buy pain relief from the chemist at the Leeds Train Station. Only reason for that was there was a 6 hour wait for the A&E pharmacy!

The way the solicitors have explained it, it sounds like it automatically marks as denial until acceptance is issued. The other insurers are currently "investigating". After many questions, this is the only information I can get.

As this was not on a roundabout and there are very definite, visible road markings, the solicitors said pictures would be used to confirm this to the other insurers. The only way for her to have hit my car where she did was for her to come up the outside lane, marked for right-turns-only by arrow on the road and have tried to take the left turn. This means cutting across the near side lane, which is road marked for straight ahead and left turn.

I'm really annoyed that this happened a month ago and has not yet been sorted. I really, honestly cannot understand what there is for them to dispute. There was another car behind me so she had purposefully tried to overtake more than just myself. Unfortunately, no one else stopped.

I don't wish to sound negative or give you added stress,doesnt matter where it was or road markings...means nothing until the other party insurers admit full liability.


Chances are they will but don't make the mistake we/our insurer and barrister made and that's assume anything.


Our claim for written off car was settled in 3 weeks...the court case to settle who was at fault was around 16 months and that's simply as other side wouldn't accept they did anything wrong.


Dash cam on ebay £15...great picture recording quality and certainly in our case would have been enough proof for other side to settle...for the price of them now days id recommend everyone having one.


Hope it gets settle quickly for you.

jjj1980

Just wanted to come back and update this thread.


The other driver took months to even acknowledge the contact from her insurers regarding the accident. They agreed to pay out on a "Without Predjudice" basis for my passengers - my daughter and mum- (which turned into a whole separate saga!) but denied liability for my claim.


There was medical appointments, meetings with people from the solicitors to provide statements and then another meeting to address the points from the other driver's statement. After all this, the other driver and her insurers stopped replying again! My solicitors then filed papers with the court to see if this would prompt a response. It didn't.


It then reached the stage of supplying all relevant paperwork to the court, which I did and agreed to the request of full disclosure from the other side. Within days of the other driver and her solicitors seeing the paperwork, my solicitors received a full admission of liability. I am now just waiting for the offer of settlement to be agreed between the solicitors.


They also need to sort out the settlement for my daughter's claim as it should have been dealt with and settled in September when my Mum's was but for some reason it was forgotten!

Retrogamer

Thanks for coming back to update us on this. Sorry it's dragged on for so long, but you're almost at the end of it now.