Witnessing RTA between 2 vehicles

Ian1961

Well done for helping out you could be the difference between the 2 parties in establishing the truth in this incident. It's amazing how many youtube videos there are showing incidents and the drivers who have the filmed evidence don't stop and give any helpful information, seems they'd rather rush home and post it.

Ectophile

DB1904 said:

Grey_Critic said:

***Rewatching the footage I did speculate about what caused the collision***

I hope you have not put that in writing. We may all have *personal* opinions but when you witness something like this where you may be asked in court the reply has to be - I am not an expert so I have no opinion on the rights and wrongs. All I can tell  is what I saw.

Why give a smart !!!!!! answer? Of course you can give an opinion, it's up to the court whether or not it's accepted.

It won't be accepted.  As a witness, the judge will want to know what you saw and heard.  They will not be interested in your speculations as to what might have happened.

DB1904

Ectophile said:

DB1904 said:

Grey_Critic said:

***Rewatching the footage I did speculate about what caused the collision***

I hope you have not put that in writing. We may all have *personal* opinions but when you witness something like this where you may be asked in court the reply has to be - I am not an expert so I have no opinion on the rights and wrongs. All I can tell  is what I saw.

Why give a smart !!!!!! answer? Of course you can give an opinion, it's up to the court whether or not it's accepted.

It won't be accepted.  As a witness, the judge will want to know what you saw and heard.  They will not be interested in your speculations as to what might have happened.

You're the first to introduce speculation as to what might have happened. Surely you know that's not evidence?

Ms_Chocaholic

I witnessed an accident a few months ago in a supermarket car park, a driver pulled into a car parking space but didn't turn in time and scraped the side of the neighbouring car.  The driver of the vehicle got out with the pretence of getting something out of the boot and then drove off.  I didn't want to approach the driver, you just never know, but took photos of the vehicle reversing out of the space and went and found the owner, gave the owner the footage.  The Police rang to verify what I saw etc and whether I knew the damaged vehicle's owner (I didn't) and how did I find them, I completed a witness form for insurance and it was settled.

Ms_Chocaholic

DB1904 said:

Ectophile said:

DB1904 said:

Grey_Critic said:

***Rewatching the footage I did speculate about what caused the collision***

I hope you have not put that in writing. We may all have *personal* opinions but when you witness something like this where you may be asked in court the reply has to be - I am not an expert so I have no opinion on the rights and wrongs. All I can tell  is what I saw.

Why give a smart !!!!!! answer? Of course you can give an opinion, it's up to the court whether or not it's accepted.

It won't be accepted.  As a witness, the judge will want to know what you saw and heard.  They will not be interested in your speculations as to what might have happened.

You're the first to introduce speculation as to what might have happened. Surely you know that's not evidence?

On the witness statement form the insurance company gave me one of the questions was something along the lines of how do you think this accident could have been avoided and I put - if the driver had manoeuvred their car into the parking spot more carefully.

[Deleted User]

Grey_Critic said:

***Rewatching the footage I did speculate about what caused the collision***

I hope you have not put that in writing. We may all have *personal* opinions but when you witness something like this where you may be asked in court the reply has to be - I am not an expert so I have no opinion on the rights and wrongs. All I can tell  is what I saw.

I described what I saw. I was not in court and wasn't stating rights and wrongs.

A bloke on bike (not a cyclist*) passed me at some speed (I knew from my GPS data what I was doing), he took the corner of a side road wide and hit the back of a car. However, a car had just chanced it with a turn across the oncoming traffic which might have caused the BOB to swerve into the side road to avoid it. Said BOB got up and started moving towards the car (hence I suspect he was avoiding it) which had stopped, and it immediately sped off. Hence I mentioned both factors to be neutral in my description of fault.

As I said, I had provided the footage as well but some things might be missed by someone watching it so I'd rather they took all factors into consideration e.g. an assessor who drives may not understand that BOBs and cyclists are vulnerable and something like a car turning in front might cause evasive action, so the rider might not be at fault per se because he was avoiding being killed.

The only "expert" opinion I gave was pointing out he had a fixie with no front brake which someone like a BOB or with no experience of riding might never notice, but given his bike was illegal on the road, he might well be at fault as perhaps he could have stopped if he had the required 2 independent brakes.

*The Dutch understand this concept perfectly well - a fietser is your BOB, granny going to get the morning paper, kid riding to his mate's house etc; a wielrenner (literally wheel runner) is someone who wears cycle clothing, takes it seriously, rides a road bike etc

henrygregory

Thanks everyone for the replies. I will wait to hear from the insurers, but I will do my very best to get the innocent driver some justice. I just hope if ever I am in a similar situation, someone would come forward because as several of you have said, many people drive or walk on.

I did give the victim some strong words of wisdom as I left him to wait for the the police… “Do not get in your car again without a dash cam…I learned the hard way in the past!!”. I hope they invest in one as it would have helped show how exactly who was to blame in this incident. 

Safe driving everyone. 

ontheroad1970

DB1904 said:

Ectophile said:

DB1904 said:

Grey_Critic said:

***Rewatching the footage I did speculate about what caused the collision***

I hope you have not put that in writing. We may all have *personal* opinions but when you witness something like this where you may be asked in court the reply has to be - I am not an expert so I have no opinion on the rights and wrongs. All I can tell  is what I saw.

Why give a smart !!!!!! answer? Of course you can give an opinion, it's up to the court whether or not it's accepted.

It won't be accepted.  As a witness, the judge will want to know what you saw and heard.  They will not be interested in your speculations as to what might have happened.

You're the first to introduce speculation as to what might have happened. Surely you know that's not evidence?

Isn't speculation what the witnesses opinion is exactly the issue?  The defendant side will likely object any non expert opinion as speculation.  Opinion is speculation in these circumstances.