Quote ALL THE POSTS!
can you explain to me why you would loose your insurance ?
i am not sure i understand
oh and not being pedantic ,but being a frelance network engineer (your bio) do you not work for yourself so why quit your job ?
I am concerned about losing my insurance because I had a total write off after losing my '07 Dyna S in a weather related incident involving snow and a tree. One car incident, no injuries, just one sad looking Dyna S and me a bit shaken up. Then I had a claim made against me in December of last year having taken full responsibility for damaging a 6 month old Audi A1. Again, no injuries but it was my fault due to a momentary lapse in concentration. That alone put my insurance up sky high so I'm worried that the insurer will put it up by another massive amount, so much that I might not be able to afford it or it becomes uneconomical to insure the vehicle.
Yes I work for myself. I'm an electronic and network engineer. I also have a part time contract for IT maintenance in a school, which is 30 miles from where I live, so both jobs that I work at the moment require me to be able to drive. I would not be able to do either if I wasn't driving.
I'm not buying that last bit, he had right of way, not the van so will be 50/50, but not his fault.
Right of way is something that wasn't mentioned until you brought it up, and that would be my argument. All possible reactionary measures aside, he drove in front of me when I had right of way.
I think what Harv means is that if the OP didn't take the action expected ie emergency braking, he could be seen as being partly responsible for the collision.
Probably :dapprove:
Could it not go against him though?
At 40mph you can stop pretty much on a sixpence in a modern car. So the options were brake for the idiot van driver that you could see would/was pulling out, let him go, continue on your way and no incident occurred...
Or, think "I'll put my foot down and get around him", the last thing he with his long vehicle and scissor lift is/was expecting and it all ends in tears.
The van driver did the same in both scenarios, the OP is the one who had the choice and the choice he made meant an incident unfortunately occurred. Up to the point he decided to 'go for the gap' it would seem as though the incident was avoidable.
I really need to clarify this. I wasn't so much "going for the gap" as moving normally into the correct lane for my exit, but yes I saw the van and thought he was going for the other lane which in hindsight I should have known he wasn't doing. As someone has said though, I didn't have time to think about anything other than "s**t, switch lanes quick".
'And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver'
Bahaha... He's my racing idol and that made me chuckle
You are either very unfortunate and unlucky - or you have to take on the realisation that you're not as good as you might think. I've lived in an out of the Manchester area for pretty much all of my life - and some of the driving habits of people simply beggar belief. I've had a few close runs, some I'll happily admit to be my own mistake or oversight. I've also been in two separate car crashes - neither of which were in this country, nor was I at the wheel. In twenty-two years of driving, I've not had the situation that you mention above.
Who knows. Maybe I'll drive home tonight and get the 182 written off? Maybe my own arrogance in this situation will come back and bite me on the arse? But you have to question when you have a significant number of close calls and near misses as to whether or not the over-riding factor in all this is yourself? Everyone out there on the road can't be a complete idiot.
I'm not wishing you the worst - far from it. But take the resulting action as a learning experience and try to take the best from it. You can never 'learn' spatial awareness as such - you either have it or you don't - but everyone has the ability to ease off and let the nutters in front deal damage to themselves and each other.
D.
Nope, I'm really not a bad driver. I'm confident at the wheel, was taught by a very good instructor and passed my driving test with flying colours. I've been driving for 9 years and drive around 30k miles per year, and I've learned a lot from the bad habits and mistakes of others. When I say close calls, I mean lorries on the wrong side of the road, cars approaching me at speed along narrow country roads over blind rises in the middle of the road and as today's unfortunate incident is a fine example of, people driving out of junctions in front of me. Given that on a foggy morning here you can literally not quantify the number of people with fog lights as standard equipment on their vehicles who don't put on so much as
sidelights to make themselves visible on the road, it's entirely plausible to assume that not quite everyone but a lot of people on the road are in fact complete idiots.
You are all talking as if this all happened over a matter of minuets. the chances are the van entered the roundabout unexpected at a point where the OP was left with very little reaction time. Leave it up to the insurance company or even the courts to decide if its a 50/50 or total blame incident, your all just speculating and not even answering the OPs question! "what's this sort of damage likely to cost the insurance company?"
The cost will be based on the quotes and estimates they get to fix the car and agree a pay out price based on the average cost. They will try and get you to have the repair done at one of their "approved" garages, but by law you have the final say in who does the work. In all honesty, it doesn't look to bad, be sure to get a new door skin fitted and as much of the dent pulled out the rear quarter as possible, you don't want a car that's full of bondo/bog/filler! Get it done properly and to a good standard!
Jack
There was maybe a 3 second window where I could react to the developing situation and make a decision about what to do. I chose to change lanes (NOT go for the gap) in the subconscious hope that the van would change lanes to let me in. By the time I realized we were going to collide, I was alongside him and it was too late.
The car will be going to a local (to the school where I work) insurer approved body shop called Lennon's Car Body Repair who worked on the car after the last accident and did an immaculate job. I would be happier with the rear QP being replaced but I suppose given the cost and difficulty of that, they will just pull it out and fill it instead. I f**king hate the fact that the car will have filler in the panels now. A member of the GT4OC (GT-Four Owner's Club) had their ST205 hit whilst parked in a similar way and the insurance company wrote it off as a CAT D, meaning he had to buy it back off them
Personally I think not, if the third party never pulled out this wouldn't have happened so he is also to blame meaning 50/50
That's what I was basing my initial assessment of no liability off.
Technically I was changing lanes into the correct lane for my exit and he drove into the side of me.
There's lots to learn for the OP.
That there is, always.
If I'm on a roundabout in day light with that much viability the last thing I expect is a van to pull out in front of me, so while I might see it coming up on the slip road, my initial reaction would be that its going to stop, and only when its crossed the white line would the foot be buried in the shagpile to not collide with them.
He wasn't even coming up the slip road, he was already pulled up and stopped at the junction! He pulled out as I was approaching.
to the OP - In the future, only ever go for the gap if it looks like this!
Jack
Sound advice that
A question for the OP - how do you think the van driver's statement is going to read? Something like this perhaps:
I approached the roundabout in the left lane, indicating right to join the right lane and started to move into the gap which I'd identified both as I approached the roundabout and in my mirrors as I began my manoeuvre. For some reason the crazy Clio driver was determined to not let me in, in a blatant act of road rage & aggression, he sped up and tried to block me from joining into the gap before deliberately causing a collision, driving into the side of me. There was nothing I could do.
Without any independent witnesses how will any insurers know whether your version or his version is closest to the truth?
And mine will read completely differently. "For some reason the crazy Clio driver" is nonsense, I was changing lanes as I would normally and there is
no way that the van driver checked his right side before moving that van. If he had done that, he'd have seen a black Clio with its right indicator on and paused to allow the Clio to make its move which it had the
right of way to make before pulling his long vehicle out across both lanes of a busy roundabout at 08:50 in the morning. Could I have done something different to avoid the accident? Yes. Is it my fault that the accident happened in the first place? No.
