Claiming against a Third Party

takman

cwhaley1 wrote: »

I really appreciate the time taken to respond, but there's quite a lot of speculative presumptions flying about regarding road layout, what I was thinking, etc.

As I said, he was behind me for over a mile and I was regularly conscious of his and the other road users' presence/position as you should be. I did not expect him to overtake or cut in when he did. "Easing off the accelerator" was not an option. The way it's been described here suggests that he gradually crept up beside me, we had a mini road-battle and I wouldn't let him pass before he ends up hitting me. He overtook, swung in and hit me.

Thanks again for all of your advice. I have informed the insurers that I will get some estimates this weekend and they have asked that I send the estimates into them. Claim handler is to call me today at some point too.

So you didn't even ease off the accelerator at all?.


What you have said is this van is behind you and then as the lane end approaches he accelerates to so that he was half infront of you and cut in.


Vans are not very fast so it would have taken him atleast a few seconds to accelerate past you. When you saw him beside you and knew his lane was ending then the very least you could have done was eased off, really you should have braked slightly.


Yes he was in the wrong but you could have easily prevented this if you were paying more attention to the cars around you.

scaredofdebt

I'd recommend a course in defensive driving.

EdGasket

Its not for us to be armchair judges. OP asked for advice about claiming from TP/Insurer. If it goes to court the magistrate will decide though I have to say that damage to the rear of the van and the front of OP's car is not a strong hand.