Hit a stationary tractor and trailer.

[mjw7]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 18 October 2020 at 09:30

[anonymous-user]

Isn't the fact you were hit from behind evidence of it being a difficult situation?

[Tony1963]

I’m afraid the old adage of ‘always make sure you can stop safely well within the distance you can see to be clear’ comes into play. What if it was a group of people walking, not a vehicle and trailer?
The witnesses comments are meaningless.

Vehicles break down at night, and sometimes have no power for the lights.

Hope you mend sooner rather than later.

[OldGermanHeaps]

What part of "drive at a speed where you can stop safely within the distance you can see ahead to be clear" did you not understand?

[MikeM6]

Is a pertinent question here whether or not the registered keeper of the parked vehicle was negligent or not? Or if the reflectors on the rear of the parked vehicle/trailer were defective, thus rendering it 'invisible'?

If the answer to the above is no, then I'm not entirely sure what defence could be offered to say it was not your fault.

[Some Gump]

Dash cam man in "no foresight" shocker!

[spikeyhead]

Whilst it's very easy to repeat that we should all drive at a speed such that we can stop in the distance we can see to be clear, I suspect most of us that regularly drive on country roads would end up hitting an unlit vehicle that was stopped in an unexpected place, especially if it's just round a bend and oncoming traffic has poorly adjusted headlights.

OP, I hope you recover quickly.

[anonymous-user]

OldGermanHeaps said:

What part of "drive at a speed where you can stop safely within the distance you can see ahead to be clear" did you not understand?

That, like much of the highway code, is not an absolute.

Imagine someone wilfully parking in the middle of the road on the exit of a blind bend. The highway code would not absolve them of blame if someone driving carefully and competently came around the corner and collided with them.

[Pica-Pica]

‘Dash-cammer blames sun for going away, and the clouds for hiding the moon’

[vaud]

mjw7 said:

I recently hit a stationary tractor and trailer that had broken down in the dark. Hit at 60 MPH as they had no lights on. Was then hit by a flat bed transit van in the rear. Insurance has said it’s my fault as I hit a stationary vehicle. As normal, me the innocent parson has bad injuries and has lost the family car through no fault. My dash cam shows I have no time to react as oncoming vehicles prevented me from going past on the other side. Very angry that this has happened. Witnesses told police it was an accident waiting to happen.

What has the flat bed insurer said about the damage they caused based (except presumably you had lights on)?

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

What outcome are you looking for??? Claim on your insurance, buy a new new car, get yourself on the mend and move on.

[blueg33]

I recall s few years ago on one of the fly on the wall traffic police series, that s cyclist with no lights on was hit and killed. Driver thought they had hit a deer and drove on.

The driver was absolved of all blame.

[Monkeylegend]

mjw7 said:

I recently hit a stationary tractor and trailer that had broken down in the dark. Hit at 60 MPH as they had no lights on. Was then hit by a flat bed transit van in the rear. Insurance has said it’s my fault as I hit a stationary vehicle. As normal, me the innocent parson has bad injuries and has lost the family car through no fault. My dash cam shows I have no time to react as oncoming vehicles prevented me from going past on the other side. Very angry that this has happened. Witnesses told police it was an accident waiting to happen.

If you had broken down in the same situation what would you be saying if it was somebody else who had ploughed into you at 60 mph on a dark, presumably unlit road ?

It sometimes help to just take a step back and try to remove your emotions from the situation, which is what the insurance company are doing. The fact it is your insurance company presumably saying it is your fault should tell you something because by doing that they are also presumably accepting liability for the damage you caused to the other vehicle as well as yours.

It does also presumably means you have no claim for injuries from the other parties insurance either.

What is the insurance situation with the flat bed transit that hit you in the rear?

A lot of presumptions there

[Drumroll]

Perhaps if the OP posted the in car footage we would have a better idea.

[ellingtj]

My cousin died in an accident with a JCB that had no lights and reflectors on it, parked on the road. JCB operator was convicted. It is the reflectors which is of importance, did the trailer have reflectors?

[Pica-Pica]

From another thread yesterday

“ Michelin Crossclimate+ possibly saved my life a week ago tonight. Local temperature as 2 degrees in the early hours when I was setting out for work at 3am. Empty roads saw me come around a downhill sweeping corner only to find a full sized matured horse chestnut tree completely fallen across the road.

1800kg of BMW 5 series in a pedal to the floor stop from 65mph to full stop on a wet road at 2 degrees centigrade. After a lot of flashing ABS lights I stopped five feet from the tree trunk. On a summer tyre I'd have certainly written the car off and quite possibly have hurt myself.”

[abzmike]

OP - sounds like one of these things that can happen on a dark country road. What outcome are you looking for? That the tractor driver is to blame and you save your no claims, because that sounds highly optimistic. Are the police taking any action?
Get well soon.

[98elise]

spikeyhead said:

Whilst it's very easy to repeat that we should all drive at a speed such that we can stop in the distance we can see to be clear, I suspect most of us that regularly drive on country roads would end up hitting an unlit vehicle that was stopped in an unexpected place, especially if it's just round a bend and oncoming traffic has poorly adjusted headlights.

OP, I hope you recover quickly.

Most? I just think it's common sense not to. At some point you will meet an obstruction where you don't expect it and you will need to stop. I live in a rural area and it's quite common to meet tractors, horses, cyclists, large vehicles etc.

If you drive at a speed where you can't stop in the distance you can see, then you've got to accept that if you hit something then it's your fault.

[paintman]

I see the OP has now deleted the OP - probably because the thread wasn't going the way they expected.
So we're not going to see the dashcam footage & see what really happened.

[vaud]

abzmike said:

OP - sounds like one of these things that can happen on a dark country road. What outcome are you looking for? That the tractor driver is to blame and you save your no claims, because that sounds highly optimistic. Are the police taking any action?
Get well soon.

I think it depends... the trailer must have reflectors? Were they obscured (e.g. mud) or not present?

If the OP shared dashcam then we would be able to assess.