Unusual Accident - Fault

DeltaEcho

I'd say definite negligence by the van driver. The dash cam sees the car, I don't. It's perspective.

Again I would say, if I was in the position of the van driver, I would have seen the car and been using brakes and hazards. The van driver didn't see it until it was too late, but the trucker gave him somewhere to go which blocked me out. I have no doubt if the van had crashed into the car I would have been able to stop. I still say it's like the van in front of me going from 60 to 0mph in 0 seconds. No warning, no hazards.

I would say myself and the other car were just victims of circumstance, and it's sucks having to take the blame for something that wasn't your fault in the slightest.

I just don't drive like an idiot. It's not worth it. I've got brilliant reaction time, hugely observant and give people space.

forgotmyname

Probably wont make much difference but sending them the video they will see that the car was visible at 1:43 as you were changing lanes, van driver must have been half asleep as he was on top of it before he took any action.

DeltaEcho

Good argument on blame vs fault. I'm old school. Why should I take responsibility for something that wasn't my fault.

That's why I thought come and see this from a legal perspective and try and argue the toss. In many respects, I don't mind a fight because I'm all for fairness and Justice. I don't think it right innocent people get blamed and nothing happens to that van driver.

I certainly think if nothing else the van driver needs to be prosecuted for dangerous driving. Seriously, if that trucker hadn't slowed, the van he would have killed that woman. Me though? A few scratches and a broken light on her rear.

Although I'm annoyed at what's happened in really rather pleased actually at the fact that I was able to control my car to the extent that no one was seriously injured. But I just know the whole thing was totally avoidable.

DeltaEcho

What do I mean seriously injured? No one was injured.

rudekid48

DeltaEcho wrote: »

Good argument on blame vs fault. I'm old school. Why should I take responsibility for something that wasn't my fault.
.

That's the point though - you are not taking responsibility - your insurers are, and this is the whole point of not linking 'fault' to 'blame' as it is just terminology. Every motor insurance policy contains a clause saying that you give the insurer free reign to settle any claim as they see fit. This is where it then goes straight into the realm of economics rather than 'fairness' as every insurer will take the route that they believe will cost them less money. It's just the way insurance works.

From what you say (and largely due to your actions) it sounds like this is probably quite a low cost claim. If the claim was likely to run into 10's of £1,000's then the insurer may be more inclined to go after the van drivers insurers to recover some cost, but again, only if they considered the likelihood of success high.

All you can do is give the insurer all of the evidence that you have. They will then weigh up their chances of a successful recovery against the van driver vs the cost of just settling the claim.

If you have to pay any excess then one option may be to try to recover that from the van drivers insurer and if you were successful then it may encourage your insurer to act differently but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much.

Life isn't fair sometimes unfortunately and I think that this is one of those instances...

brianposter

DeltaEcho wrote: »

I still say it's like the van in front of me going from 60 to 0mph in 0 seconds. No warning, no hazards.

You seem to be overlooking the fact that this can happen in reality and you are expected to avoid the consequences. A car may lose a wheel or hit another car or road works.
This isn't very helpful on a crowded road where everybody is driving at excessive speed but you cant expect others to take responsibility for what you decide to do.

Tallaght

One of the reasons plenty of people are using dashcams in their vehicles.

Sea_Shell

Wow. Just goes to show how large stopping distances really need to be, to enable you to avoid anything blocking the carriageway ahead.

splishsplash

Why had the woman stopped in the right hand lane, OP?

Lorian

Just wanted to say bad luck, and well done for slowing down as much as you did. Could have been much worse.