Avoiding non-fault accidents

[davgen7]

Hi guys,
I was recently involved in a minor fender-bender; not my fault (I don't think?) but so easily avoidable that I'm still pissed off at myself for not reacting appropriately. In the end, I could have sworn the other party was paying attention, but he wasn't - already a mistake to be honest.
I looked for CCTV the next day but couldn't find any, so I gave the bloke the money he wanted to fix his bumper so it didn't go on the insurance, because when there's no evidence or witnesses it always ends up as a 50/50 from what I can tell, which would have royally fked me over given my age and the fact that I'm in my first year. Annoying, but st happens.

However, I am also of the belief that there is no such thing as fate, and everything is cause and effect (fair or unfair). This leads me to today's productive question of if anyone has any tips to avoid these annoying little bumps, even if it isn't your fault.

Most of these will probably be small little bits of advice that can make all the difference. For example, a couple of my own:

- Start braking early and gradually, because the sooner the brake lights come on, the sooner the driver behind will notice that he also has to slow down, to minimise the risk of getting rear-ended
- Try not to be side-by-side with anyone on a roundabout in case they decide to straighten at an inappropriate time
- Always leave a sizeable gap between yourself and the car in front when stopped at a red light, just in case the reverse lights of the car in front come on (happened to me a couple of times)

I expect that a lot of these will be common knowledge to more experienced motorists, but to a youngster like myself, I suspect that these little tips could add up to make me a much better driver.

My incident, and riding a motorbike, has opened my eyes to the fact that not causing an accident yourself is only half the game, if that; the rest is avoiding other people's errors.

I don't suppose anyone else has any little nuggets of advice?

Thanks.

Edited by davgen7 on Tuesday 6th December 18:44

[davgen7]

Thanks guys. My own experience would reinforce the old advice that you should "drive as if everyone else on the road is an idiot" - I didn't, for just a couple of seconds, thinking that the guy looking directly at me from the window of his stationary car had seen me, and we'd reached an agreement that he was going to stay where he was - and found myself with an unpleasant repair bill. Lesson learned...

Anyone else got any advice they've come up with from experience?

Thanks.

[davgen7]

dvenman said:

davgen - I'd look at RoSPA or IAM. Little tips and tricks are great but if they don't form part of a bigger picture of your driving, then they'll be wasted.

Funny you should mention that - I've recently signed up to my local IAM group and it has been immensely helpful thus far. Still feeling a bit st over the incident to be honest but hopefully I can use it to make myself better than I was before...

Aside from the IAM and RoSPA, are there any other groups I should look at? As I've said before, I want to get so good that I can even avoid people hitting me! Unlikely but certainly worth trying...