Had a crash yesterday...who's liable?! (photos on page 2)

Thanks dunter...good to hear.

 

Did the Focus indicate he was turning right?

 

he was driving a focus, he was wrong from the second he turned the key


HTH

 

if he was indicating left..i'd not have seen it (being on the right of him)...if he was indicating right....i'd have been lucky to have seen it...tbh I hardly noticed he was even there until he went straight across my path.

 

Vento just a wee bit of advice, when you are reporting this to your insurance company, I wouldn't inform them that you seen him prior to the accident.

Although he is definatley in the wrong, as a get out they might just say, well you seen him you should have been aware what the idiot was going to do.

I would be saying to them something along the lines of, "I was in the inside lane intending to go straight ahead, as this is allowed in the highway code, as I passed the junction immediately prior to the junction I intended to take, I checked my mirrors, observed that no other traffic would conflict with my manuvere, I then indicated and began to cross the outside lane, when the Focus, drove across my path, whereupon due to the course of the Focus, I was unabel to avoid a collision, and the front of my vehicle collided with the side of the Focus."

Even if it bending the truth slightly, you have got to play insurance companies at their own game.

 

have you had a look at the road marking sometime on roundabouts the left lane filters onto the dual carrigeway making him in the wrong?

 

i unfortunatly have already reported it to the insurance company...but i told the exact truth, i in my opinion had no reason to bend the story.

The only thing I would say is that I was in the outside lane not the inside...this may change your perspective..the focus driver was on the inside.

 

Ok, just be aware of this if they come back to you.

I know what your saying about the roundabout, on the approach to the roundabout you were in the outside lane, but when you entered the roundabout, although you haven't changed lane, the lane closest the middle is now classed as the inside lane, or the lane closest to the hub of the roundabout. On the roundabout he was in the outside lane, or the lane nearsest the rim of the roundabout.

Strange I know, but do clarify this with your insurance.

 

ah of course....thanks mate!

 

And this shows exactly the benefits of having a traffic policeman on CGTI, I was about to post pretty much the same as Dunter, quoting the highway code, as I always adopt the correct lane and the amount of people who cut me up is shocking, however, having Dunter post first reaffirms my thoughts, and the highway code.

Wrong lane discipline from Focus - His fault = Great!!

 

bet I only end up with 50% back tho

 

The exact same thing happened me a few years back. I was in my dads van at the time and a silly old bat was trying to go 270 degrees round the roundabout in the outside lane.

I had just left my dad off at the local pub and had a swift one for the road so while we were exchanging details and I was trying to politely make her see what she had done was wrong she suggested we call the police. Remembering I had just had 1 pint I thought again and admitted full liability at the scene, 400 quid to repair her car and a lesson learnt by me.

 

duel carrage way roundabouts will confuse olds , sounds like he was doing the old git orbit , cutting off the inside lane by staying on the outside bad driving.

Red

 

http://www.traffic-answers.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5615.0;topicseen

Its interesting to see how 2 other Police Officer (Standard Dave and Soren) have blamed the Seat, while dunter has blamed the Focus. I guess its a tricky one to call...

 

From the description and the diagram it appears to me that he's straight lined the roundabout and hit a car which was already on the junction.

This a quote from Standard Dave, well despite him being a cop, I wonder when the last time he read the highway code, it's obvious from this statement he hasn't, where is it against the law, or against any rule of the Highway Code, to straight line a roundabout.

The Focus is perfectly within his rights to go from 8 o'clock to 3 o'clock in the LH lane, but he should take the RH lane if he came on at 6 o'clock.

Again this is a quote from Soren, the same applies here.

Sorry Paul, but if you don't like the answers here, do you just go to another forum, then another until you get the answer you want.

These two so called cops have stated items that are complete and utter false, please if you must report back to them, and please quote the section of the Highway Code, I have highlighted in an earlier thread

 

Crikey....

Lots of people seem to think im to blame!

 

Its not my concern - its not my crash. If anything I've sought to gain broader opinions by posting on another forum, where they don't know Vento Mike at all, and can only judge on the facts. Another aspect is that we've not heard the Focus' view on things. Unfortunatley for Vento_Mike, there is an independent witness against him, but we've not heard his opinion either!

Roundabouts are a common area of misunderstandings so its down to relative factors here. For example, here some questions I could ask: Was the path of the Focus' route really 8 o'clock to 3 o'clock (210), or was it closer to 185? Or perhaps 179? Why didn't or couldn't the Seat see the signals or position of the Focus, even though the Focus was on the roundabout first? The Seat would have passed him, so must have been aware of his presence? What were the lane markings? Did the Focus cross a lane marking? Did the Seat? Did the Seat signal before crossing each lane marking? etc etc

Also I can't really accept your explanation of how to describe lanes. The outside lane becomes the inside lane when you're on a roundabout, then changes to the outside lane again once you leave - all very confusing when asking someone to descibe their position when exiting a roundabout! Every other cop I've spoken to uses a standardised terminology of lane 1, lane 2, etc working from left towards right.

 

Personally I really don't care wither you accept it or not, it's the termanology that is expected by our crown office when describing a loci, or using the words nearside or offside lanes, sorry you've got this wrong.

Lane 1 could be the inside lane or outside lane trust me, this is not standardised. I have been a Traffic cop for over 15 years and not once have I described a loci as lane one or lane two.

Also as far as I can see you have your mind made up that Vento is in the wrong regardless what the Highway Code says about lane markings.

As I have said Vento may well have overtook him on the roundabout, this isn't agianst the law, whereafter the Focus driver may have started indictating, he would never have seen this.

I take from your comments that your driving is totally perfect and have done nothing wrong.

If you are going to slate somebody please get it right, I'm only offering my opinion, in order that it may be helpful to him.

As far as I can see you have him hung drawn and quartered, regardless of any totally valid points which have been put up for his defence.

If in my humble opinion I though Vento was in the wrong i would tell him that.

 

I'm surprised you've taken this so personally - why???

 

time to PM guys, kiss and make up