This morning on my way to work a young chap in a taxi accelerated across a rounderbout to make sure he hit me.

Thankfully I was in the car.

Now he could argue it was his right of way as he came from my right, but surely if he hit the back quarter of my car it must be his fault?

He obviously isnt going to admit it was his fault or he intended to do it.

And no one stopped so while there were lots of people no one saw what happened?

Just to add to the anoiance he was entering a box junction when his exit was blocked.

I am so anoyed……

I saw something on the news a few weeks back about people deliberately crashing into people to be able to claim compensation for injuries

If your convinced he did it on purpose then might be worth mentioning it to the police

If you really think it was deliberate there are people who run massive insurance scams from deliberate accidents, discuss it with the cops they might recognise the MO. But generally these people would try to create accidents that are 'definately' your fault, cause you to hit them by breaking sharply as they pull away at a roundabout for instance, rather than hit you and claim that technically your fault.

but surely if he hit the back quarter of my car it must be his fault?

IIRC if he hit you on the front panel you should have stopped (not pulled out – your at fault), if he hits you further back, he should have had time to stop (he's at fault)… though I don't know where I picked up this info from to be fair, talk to your insurance company.

And no one stopped so while there were lots of people no one saw what happened?

So he is in the same boat as you then. Just deny his version of events. Say that you entered the roundabout because he was stationary and you assumed that he had stalled, when he then accelerated. How is he going to prove otherwise without witnesses ?

Police realy are not interested, I found this a bit worrying as I called saying a man had driven into me deliberately.

They were only bothered if anyone was hurt.

Sorry if there are any decent coppers on here but hey were such a waste of space this morning.

NB: My feelings were hurt!

Maybe I should have mentioned this?

RTCs without injury are not a police matter

As above, no witnesses, let insurance sort it out. If he hit the back of your car you/your insurance company can easily argue you were on the carriageway.

To add a bit more spice, say you braked because you saw something run into the road and he back-ended you. Then maybe you could claim from him for injuries 😉

Sounds like it will end up knock for knock and the insurance companies won't do a thing to apportion blame unless he files a personal injuries claim.

IIRC if he hit you on the front panel you should have stopped (not pulled out – your at fault), if he hits you further back, he should have had time to stop (he's at fault)… though I don't know where I picked up this info from to be fair, talk to your insurance company

Not strictly true, although I agree it's a grey area at times.

I had an accident 10 yrs ago when some d1ckhead white van man swiped the front of my car off (bumper/grill and misc bits) on the A2/M25 roundabout. Witnesses wouldn't stop, so it was me vs him. He agreed it was his fault, then when I phoned his employer they said they'd fired him that day and weren't accepting liability. Long story cut short = I had a hire car for 8 weeks which cost something like £2000, and then I suddenly received a call saying his insurers were paying up. Happy days in the end.

Whatever you do, be thorough.

Spot on knock for knock…neither the police nor Insurance co will fight your corner…happened to me 5/6yrs ago at a roundabout guy in a merc tried to overtake me but couldn't, two lanes on exit merged into one, he drove into my rear wheel with his front wing…claimed I wouldn't let him in!…£350 xs on the impreza still grates when I think about it! Copper at the time took the same line, no injury not interested.

Go see you doctor and mention you were in a RTA, whiplash can often take a little while to kick in. There you have an injury….

I thought police were supposed to be called (and therefore be vaguely interested) in any RTA, irrespective of if people were injuried or not?

Nope – its only a police matter if there are injuries or serious traffic offences

Is accelerating into another road user and taking no avoiding action a serious enough offence.

Police dont seem to think so…

Is accelerating into another road user and taking no avoiding action a serious enough offence

They will assume that is simply your point of view. No doubt the other guy thinks you are in the wrong too. The police aren't there to mediate, they are there to police. Just speak to your insurance company.

I would say though that you must have pushed in a bit otherwise he would have been chasing you down the road to crash into you. Perhaps you are feeling a little bit annoyed with yourself for doing this as now you have a whole world of shit to sort out and will probably lose your no claims bonus…

Nope – its only a police matter if there are injuries or serious traffic offences

Surely driving in a manner that "takes out" other drivers suggests driving without due care, or dangerous driving?

Either way, if he hit your rear quarter you're in a bit of a pickle – it's perfectly possible that you just blasted out in front of him and he'd have no chance to stop, there's no "he only hit in front of the B pillar so its your fault for not stopping" laws – its not that black and white.

From my view, and its hard to say without seeing the place etc, it'd be damn hard to accelerate into someone on a decent sized roundabout unless that person pulled out rather late in the first place, in which case you'd be hard pressed to blame the guy who hit you.

Go see you doctor and mention you were in a RTA, whiplash can often take a little while to kick in. There you have an injury….

FFS…
as if I don't have enough to do without scrounging fraudsters.
It isn't a police matter as TJ says. they have better things to do as well.
It's why you pay insurance, let them sort it out.
I was driving to work a few months ago and a lorry 2 cars in front of me took an overhanging branch off a tree which landed on my front wing. Caused a dent which I would have thought would be quite expensive to repair.
Who should I sue? The lorry driver (didn't get his number)? The council for not cutting the trees?
Or should I get over it and stop worrying. I wasn't hurt. Life goes on…
It's a pain but you'll get over it.

I wasn't hurt. Life goes on…

But if someone DOES have whiplash, it does hurt. And that is why people make legitimate claims. Someone crashing into you is very different from the incident you were involved in.

"They will assume that is simply your point of view. No doubt the other guy thinks you are in the wrong too. The police aren't there to mediate, they are there to police. Just speak to your insurance company.

I would say though that you must have pushed in a bit otherwise he would have been chasing you down the road to crash into you. Perhaps you are feeling a little bit annoyed with yourself for doing this as now you have a whole world of shit to sort out and will probably lose your no claims bonus… "

Not at all. I was crossing a box section of a roundabout. His exit was blocked with stationary traffic. He accelerated to hit me. Not my opinion a fact. When I leveled this acusation he smiled and said "But it was my right of way"

The gap was plenty big enough not to cause any other road user to change speed or direction. I belive the highway code says somthing about this.

Yes I am anoyed that after 18 years of driving some halfwit with some kind of I know the system you cant touch me attitude has wiped out my no claims. I am also anoyed that the car that I worked to buy now has a scraped up back bumper.

The dammage to his car was all front bumper passenger side showing he turned into me rather than away.

But thanks for your input.

Who should I sue? The lorry driver (didn't get his number)? The council for not cutting the trees?
Or should I get over it and stop worrying. I wasn't hurt. Life goes on…
It's a pain but you'll get over it.

That's an easy one, the tree owner – it's illegal to have the trees overhanging the carriageway at a height that obstructs the traffic.

Besides, as a Doc you've likely got plenty of cash to fix the repair and not worry about it. Most people on a more modest wage have much lower levels of throwaway cash, so the choice of paying for the damage themselves may be considerably more difficult. Don't assume your point of view is correct for everyone. Sure no-one was hurt, but ultimately some damage is done (possibly the car written off with a harsh side impact) and now someone must pay for the damage.

I still think it's unlikely that you could get hit in the rear quarter unless you pulled out in front of someone though. I can't quite invisage how this happened, its not making sense at the moment, but anyway:

has wiped out my no claims.

An accident doesnt wipe your no claims, it only reduces it, usually by 2 years for a big accident.

You are being very defensive about this aren't you? I think that given time, on reflection, you will think that perhaps you could have done things differently. Like not try to push onto the roundabout when there was traffic coming from the right – whether or not his exit was clear is irrelevant – he had a right to proceed (assuming there were no cross hatch boxes) where you should have given way.

It seems to me that you assumed he would stop because you had pushed in front of him. And perhaps he is as annoyed about the same thing assuming you would have stopped too.

I do not have whiplash and I do not want to claim for it.

The roundabout in question is in Brighouse the first one you come to from the M62

Have a look on google maps I was turning back up the a643 having come out of the A644 and was just clear of the box on the road when he hit me with the front left of his car. He came from the A643 and was going up the A644 toward town. He turned into me. He could have turned behind me butwith the F you attitude of many people today chose to crash into me to no doubt teach me some kind of lesson.

It took comitment on his part to actualy hit me.

When I set of from the give way he was sat still at his give way.

So you can all feel free to aportion blame.

Yes if I had waited for a bigger gap I would have been ok on the flip side he made the choice to hit me.

mastiles – have you not taken your medication today? 😆

The point I was trying to make was that when unfortunate things happen in life, there is a tendency to want to blame someone else and claim some sort of compensation.
Whether that be for whiplash (which the OP has already stated he isn't suffering from) or bodywork repairs, the issue is the same, it always ends up with solicitors getting paid and everybody's insurance premium going up.
An ongoing compensation claim for whiplash is a factor that is known to delay recovery.
Go figure…

mastiles_fanylion

In my shoes you would feel defensive.

£400 insurance excess running up to xmas

Ask yourself this: If you found yourself in a position to crash inot somone with nothing to gain except a dodgy insurance claim and the risk of causing harm to another human being but could claim it not your fault on a technicality. What would you do.

I know for sure I may shout but would not risk hurting anyone.

There are however some people out there who would hurt you for personal gain and smile about it.

Wonderfull world out there!

I am just trying to give a different point of view! In all these things there are more than one side to the argument and I was just musing what his side is.

If he was as determined as you say, pulling out from a give way like that he must have picked up quite some speed – that's a big roundabout to get to where you would be.

As has been said though, it will just go to a knock for knock on insurance. Unfortunately it is a risk of driving – I had someone nearly take me out when coming onto my carriageway to overtake a parked car the other night but I managed to swerve onto the pavement/sideroad and avoid him – this shit happens.

I had some limpdick tosser in a 5 series drive at me the other week. I turned right out of a T junction, into line of traffic, & my back end wasn't quite over the line. So this pedantic @#nt drives at me flashing lights & sounding his horn, then swerves round me. Amazing how brave some people get behind the wheel. W*nker.

After an afternoon of being mad I have resigned mysely to my insurance doubling in cost and having to pay excess.

I am not going to fain injury as that would add to the problem.

I am however continuing to say he did it on purpose and hope for 50:50 outcome that way he may think twice before doing it to somone else who makes a poor judgement at a roundabout.

Will be driving home like a nana now.

Oh well no new frame for me this crimbo.

Still not sure how on a roundabout this big you can pull out in front of someone. Likewise I struggle to see how he couldnt stop, to be fair.

takisawa2 – you were driving inconsiderately too, by not being over the line, dont forget. Does seem a bit excessive a response though I agree!

To be honest, telling your insurance company he deliberately drove into you probably won't get you anywhere…it'll just sound like it has here…you pulled out in front of him. I'm not saying you did, but that is how I would interpret your version of events.

It would probably be better to claim he was driving aggressively and miss-judged your speed as he came up behind you (I suspect the actual cause) or you miss-judged his speed and he approached at high speed as you crossed the box junction.

I wouldn't have thought even the worst taxi driver would deliberately hit you…if he breaks his car, he's out of work and out of pocket. Surely a 'crash for cash' driver would choose to cause a simple rear end shunt rather than a potentially messy accident at a major junction.

If I got the right roundabout there dont appear to be any boxes in the junction, which is part of my confusion on this whole matter!

If that's in Brighouse coffeeking, it's not a big roundabout at all. And people fly onto it!

I was about to post the same coffeeking! Can't even see any keep clear areas.

Sorry, just re-read the post. You're looking at the wrong roundabout there.

If that's in Brighouse coffeeking, it's not a big roundabout at all. And people fly onto it!

It is in Brighouse (the only one I could find between the 644 and 643 as the OP said), and it's (by the size of the van/wagon on it at 10 oclock) pretty damn big, at least 2 lanes width with a centre diameter of about 12m – thats a pretty large roundabout! It's no M6 J23 but it's large enough to see someone coming from a decent distance, due to the radius. <edit>I must have missed the one spooky posted.

this one?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=brighouse,+uk&sll=53.748711,-1.340332&sspn=1.263547,4.938354&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Brighouse,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.702345,-1.775341&spn=0.000657,0.002411&t=h&z=19

If so, how do you know the Taxi wasn't heading for Wakefield Road, presumably having a clear exit, and you caused him to swerve right away from his intended exit.

That's the one spooky.

I still cant picture who was going where lol.

Always made no difference whatsoever when people claimed others were speeding in accidents when i dealt with them. 1st thing i askd them was how they qualified this and was their eyesight calibrated. That usually stopped that line of attack. The only way speed can be taken into account is if the police have verified it to be so. Your eyes do not count.

So we are then down to a roundabout incident whereby you entered the guys right of way and he unfortunately didnt stop in time. At best your gonna get 50/50. At worst you will be liable for the lot.

Use it as a learning experience when entering roundabouts or just accept it as an accident. No real way of coming out of it a winner.

Nah, neither can I! Ignore my last comment, I thought the 'victim' was heading for Clifton Road but thats one way.