Ok stay with me here trying to explain this:

So driving to drop some suits off from a wedding at the weekend, pulled off a big roundabout which goes into 3 lanes of which I was in the middle Lane and running side by side with said van who was in the outside. Van driver starts cutting across the line separating us which would have been fine if I was 1 meter behind him not parallel. I speed up so he can cut in behind (no indication from him). Feel a bif in the rear of my car. drive on pull over when clear. Builder gives some reason as to why it was my fault even though his lane merged into mine, and he went into the back of me. Didn't rise to it as both cars were ok and felt slightly intimidated! So we went our separate ways.

So first question incident happens here just before the arrows happen in his lane baring in mind we were parallel and he was bullying into my lane was this my fault or his? (If I was in the wrong would genuinely like to know why)

Second question I knew he was bullying into my lane… but WTF did I challenge it by accelerating instead of breaking?!

Third Question how long till I stop beating myself up about this and stop shaking.

Last question how did my car not get more than a scuff from his tire?!

Ok I'll put on my flame proof jacket!

He's in the wrong in the sense that he hit you, so he's at fault. But he's not wrong in what he's saying in that if you place yourself alongside a van the driver can not see you and he will hit you. The blind spot on the left of a van is utterly enormous, I've been surprised to find an artic truck hiding in there at badly designed junctions. But he made the move so It'll still be his fault that he hit you, but if you keep putting yourself in that position you'll get hit again.

before anyone starts tearing into you, shock after an accident is such a surreal feeling and its pretty normal to feel flakey and unsure about everything.

eat something sugary

when reflecting it would be easy to beat yourself up for accelerating instead of breaking, but beating yourself up wont change what's happened so just gotta try and make sure you dont make the same mistake again (always assume the others drivers are blind idiots and drive safe)

hope you're alright dude.

oh yeah, MTFU, p1ss on his bombers etc etc 😉

Good point Skidartist, I supposed although I wasn't at fault what I did wasn't the right thing, which I guess is why I'm feeling gash! Shall get some sugar than strap some of Marzocchi's finest to my car!

Adrenaline is powerful stuff.

There is a constriction on my road with signage telling you to give way to oncoming traffic. The other week I was heading towards it as was another car from the opposite direction. I had right of way but the other car ignored or didn’t see the signs and we nearly had a head on. Skid marks were laid down (on the road) and pleasantries were exchanged (my little lad was saying “out of the way you cock” for the rest of the day) and that was the end of it. But I was a gibbering mess for a couple of hours afterwards.

Go for a ride, run, trip to the gym and get rid of it.

Sounds like you had a close one.

You'll get over it, but not very quickly, its perfectly fine to be shaken by both the collision and the altercation that followed. Neither of you were in the mood for a crash or a row. After the event its easy to dwell on how clever you could have been if you had the benefit of hindsight. Nobody would have reacted differently in the circumstances. It could have been worse and wasn't, so you've learned the easy way.

Next time….. rather than break or accelerate – use your horn.

The van driver will have learned to be a bit more obvious and deliberate with his moves too. When I'm moving to the left across lanes I indicate (obviously) but also make the moves pretty slowly – sort of ominous and inevitable. The trick is to scare anyone that you might not be able to see into using their horn, while giving them enough time to actually use it.

Have a look at this

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/legal-advice/at-the-accident.html

Unless you've swapped details at the scene already, get down to the local police station and report it ASAP. The tyre marks to your car is damage (and in any case, you might find something later when you've had a chance to calm down).

Best to keep everything by the book just incase!

You tried to beat him to the front of the merge, and accelerated into the space he was expecting to be free,

Some vans have crap mirrors, or crap drivers who dont use them, i was told the minute i first drove a transit, love your mirrors as a budgie loves his,

Why not just yield to the van, youre not a woman, who only sees in front of her,

Accelerating is a reasonable decision, if you feel that it'll get you out of danger faster; I'd probably have done the same thing.

From the looks of the road, he's changed lanes into you. I fail to see how that's anything other than his fault.

I've driven enough vans to know that they do indeed have large blind spots, however you make up for this by being aware of what's around you. You might not have been visible at the point of collision, but you will have been before that. Bottom line is, he wasn't paying attention.

Some people just seem to be incapable of holding lanes on roundabouts. I've been almost sideswiped on practically a daily basis, it's so common that it's a surprise when people drive properly. +1 for the horn, that's what it's for, to alert other drivers to your presense.

Sounds to me tha if he biffed you in the rear you had to brake after you had sped up to get in front of him. That must have meant that the traffic conditions ahead didn't allow for that speeding up. Whilt he is in the wrong for hitting you, it sounds like the better decision would have been to slow down and let him in. Vans and lorries have huge blindspots and some consideration of that goes a long way.

Hope you feel better soon, having an accident is never nice.

Why not just yield to the van

and

it sounds like the better decision would have been to slow down and let him in

Totally I'm confused too as to why I figured accelerating was the better idea!

Shall get to the police station in a bit good call!

I'd have accelerated too if parallel, braking would most likely have had you being merged into on the front end/front side. Driving a van is fairly hard, the blind spots are large. But that's why when driving one you take extra care not to change lanes without being SURE it's clear, and the mirrors on them DO allow you to see in the blind spots, if you can be arsed looking.

If you report it to the police you must report it to your insurance also, who will hold it against you. Is it worth while for a small smudge?

Police station isn't to far away, they suggested it wasn't worth pursing either provided I was happy with it.

wasn't me! Although you'd never know it with the state of my van.

My office window used to overlook one of these 2 to 1 lane mergers. There was honking horns ALL the time, and once or twice a day the traffic came to a halt and you could here people swearing at each other! all for the sake of getting a few feet further ahead in the neverending queue of road traffic.

why did you accelerate? road rage. happens to most of us at some time or another!

Why didnt you hoot your horn when he started moving over? What was wrong with lane 1?

Bit odd that you accelerated, isnt that the equivalent of undertaking, which is illegal?

How did he manage to hit you in the back if you accelerated, thats not logical, to get infront of him you must have accelerated hard and then either braked or eased off big time…

Did he shunt you from behind, or did he sideswipe your tail as he pulled in?

I assumed the latter (though how did he not see you?!) but if it's the former I'd suggest we're not hearing the full story…!

Accelerating is a reasonable decision, if you feel that it'll get you out of danger faster; I'd probably have done the same thing

Except it almost never works.

Even a crap car can stop way way more quickly than the fastest sports car can accelerate. And that's before you have to change down, get the revs right and stuff.

Always brake. Even if you could accelerate fast enough, you'd just end up going dangerously quickly.

I tried accelerating out of harm's way once or twice when driving. Perhaps because I was thinking of me on my XC bike where I could stamp on the pedals and shift… cars don't work like that!

Why didnt you hoot your horn when he started moving over?

Indeed – if you can't get out of the way then honk – that's exactly what horns are for. Proper and good use of one.

Chalk it down to experience and remember next time. Those of us who are lucky make our mistakes and learn without anyone getting hurt.

The innermost lane is initially a feeder lane from the junction prior to the exit from the roundabout I took (explained better if you look at the map), IIRC there was traffic in that lane preventing me from moving across immediately after taking the exit.

Beeping did occur but wasn't my number 1 priority admittedly it should have been in combination with hitting the breaks instead of the accelerator. However in my very small defence the horn buttons are really hard to find when in a high stress situation (much like flashing of lights normally results in me turning on the windscreen wipers!)

We both exited the roundabout running parallel so it wasn't a case of me being a goon and undertaking to get ahead, I simply saw him coming into my lane realised aversive action was required, and for some reason hit the gas instead of the brakes. His front right wheel clipped my rear right wheel as he pulled across. So perhaps "in the back of me" was a little miss leading.

@HoratioHufnagel I feel road rage is a little harsh a way to put it but I can see where your coming from. Well thanks for the reassurance STW feeling a bit more normal now!

However in my very small defence the horn buttons are really hard to find when in a high stress situation

Yep, just experience. All of that sounds exactly like me 10 years ago. Like I say, I was lucky back then. Had plenty of near-misses of varying degrees of significance.

Heh, a quick scan of the map reveals that the nearest business to that roundabout marked on the map is a driving school.. 🙂