Car accident at yellow box junction

Shamish

Hoping somebody can help me here.

I was in an accident I was sitting at the exit of a car park onto a normal one lane road. In front of my exit is a yellow box junction I went accross the box junction and into the road straight ahead accross the box junction. There was a car sitting behind the box junction on the road that I have crossed (think of the road as a + layout) but couldn't go accross the box junction due to traffic and lights being red.

As I crossed the box junction the car pulled off into the rear back side of my car. At the time the guy admitted fault and we agreed to swap details and deal with it then. He admitted to not being able to see me and apologised that it was his fault. A while later I heard from my insurance company stating the third party was fighting the case.

I have since heard today that the insurance company agree that I was at fault as their is no witnesses and my passenger witness statement they will not use as they were a passenger in the car. Since their is no other witnesses then basically they say I'm at fault for pulling out of the side road onto this car even though this car was stopped.

Does anybody know where I would stand on this? Surely me having a witness means that they must use it, if this was ever to go to court my witness would have to swear that the evidence they were given was true and theye would be committing fraud otherwise. The guy on the phone basically said it's a box junction people ignore them reguarly and I should know this. However did agree what's to then stop me smashing into the side of a car when no witnesses around in a similar situation.

Any advice would be greatly received. I'm awaiting a call back from my case handler to discuss it further would be good to know if their is anything I can say? Can I request an appeal? The insurance company dealing with this is zenith however I am insured by another car company so unsure if my own car insurance company would discuss this with me. Thank you

Quentin

The driver's admission at the roadside is irrelevant. Liability cannot be given by the policyholder.

You will have agreed your insurer can deal with claims as it seems fit when taking out the policy.

Without your insurer backing this you have an uphill fight to get anywhere.

Shamish

Is there any recommendations on steps to take that you could recommend?

rs65

Regardless of yellow box or passenger witnesses, it sounds like he had right of way, unfortunately.

SaLoGo

I thought witnesses had to be independent? ie. not involved in the incident.

daveyjp

If the other driver was on the main road and you entered from a side road when it wasn't clear he is in a stronger position to pin 100% fault on you.

rs65

SaLoGo wrote: »

I thought witnesses had to be independent? ie. not involved in the incident.

They don't have to be independent, but its better if they are.

Crazy_Jamie

Shamish wrote: »

Does anybody know where I would stand on this? Surely me having a witness means that they must use it, if this was ever to go to court my witness would have to swear that the evidence they were given was true and theye would be committing fraud otherwise.

It would be a small claim if there were no injuries, and oral evidence on the small claims track is not normally sworn. Admittedly your witness would have signed a witness statement with a statement of truth, but the oral evidence itself would likely not be sworn.

SaLoGo wrote:

I thought witnesses had to be independent? ie. not involved in the incident.

I have no idea how this myth has become so widespread, but as rs65 says, witnesses do not need to be independent. The bigger problem is that the witness evidence of passengers does not tend to be as good as the witness evidence of drivers, because generally speaking passengers aren't paying as much attention to the road as drivers are. The independence point is a non factor, though. Very few witnesses come to court to lie, irrespective of which of the parties they already know and in what capacity.

Shamish

Even though he was stopped behind the box junction unable to move due to traffic?

Cornucopia

I agree with your insurers that the Yellow box is something of a red herring. Not least because it is solely about keeping the junction clear, and does not confer any right of way.

Without that, this becomes a case of were you in the right to emerge onto the main road. That then brings in all kinds of consideration of road layout, lighting, road markings, etc. etc.

Generally speaking, if there is a gap in the traffic that I plan to move into without right of way, I would as a minimum want to ensure that the drivers of any conflicting vehicles had seen me.

Shamish wrote: »

Even though he was stopped behind the box junction unable to move due to traffic?

Why did he then move? Did the traffic clear unexpectedly?

Shamish

Sorry I cannot seem to work the quotes on this.

He moved off because traffic lights changed to green. The traffic was still sitting at the other end of the box junction. I moved accross him not too fast and he hit the back end of my car. Now I would presume that if I was just about past him he should have seen me. I'm quite an expierenced driver I wouldn't have went if I didn't think it was safe. It was a nice clear day the cars were blocking the other end of the box junction and the car lights were red he had been sitting there when I was at the junction and appeared to have no intention to be moving so I left the exit.