Had a prang. Need your help PHers!

[jimxms]

Hi Guys,

On the way home from a well known shopping center a couple of days ago, some douche in an Audi A3 did a left-hand-lane-right-hand-turn in front of me. I had my kids and pregnant wife in the car at the time, but luckily nobody was hurt.

Damage to my car looks to be a new wing, front bumper respray and an alloy wheel refurb. Whereas the Audi got cut open like a tin of beans by my front passenger side alloy.

Anyway, nobody stopped to be a witness. We had to move from the scene to prevent another accident and of course the other guy isn't accepting liability. I've asked the HA to see if there is any traffic cams in the area but haven't heard back yet.

Without any witnesses or video evidence its going to be quite hard to fight my case and I'd really rather not pay £750 excess for something that wasn't my fault. But after doing a bit of random searching on the net I came across a few accident management companies that claim to fight my case for me, while also giving me £500 cash back regardless of whether they succeed or not.

I'm not after 'compo' for the accident. I just want to minimise what I have to pay out and hopefully nail the SOAB for driving like an ass and putting my family in danger.

What are your thoughts on using a management company to deal with my claim?

[jimxms]

Here's what I sent to the insurance company (personal details removed). I'm the black block

[jimxms]

julian64 said:

Not a good thing to sent to the insurance company because it makes you look like you were in the wrong. You crossed lanes not him. In that I mean the lane markings seem to indicate his lane spilts into two where your lane continues on to be the middle lane.

This may not be the case, but your diagram makes it look like the case.

Huh, I'm not sure I get what you mean? I was in the middle lane aiming for the sliproad signposted on my line. While the other driver was in the left-hand lane aiming to go right on a road that wasn't signposted on his lane.

[jimxms]

stumpage said:

Sorry, but looking at the lane you were in there are clearly two arrows showing your lane goes to the right middle lane and not straight on. Looks to me like it's your error.

Are you maybe looking at the green overlay on the road? This is simply Google Maps indication that they recognise this as a road.

[jimxms]

Unedited version:



The road that branches off to the Left is the sliproad to the M25. The road branches off to the right is the A13.

At the traffic lights (where the blocks represented our cars are on the earlier diagram) the left hand lane had M25 ONLY signposted on floor, middle lane had M25/A13 on floor, right lane had A13 ONLY on floor.

I was in middle lane, so my understanding is that I could have either joined the M25 in the right hand 'fast' lane of the sliproad, or gone round to the A13.

The other driver was in the left hand lane, so should have only taken the M25 sliproad in the left-hand lane?

Edited by jimxms on Wednesday 5th January 08:52

[jimxms]

Petrolhead_Rich said:

julian64 said:

Not a good thing to sent to the insurance company because it makes you look like you were in the wrong. You crossed lanes not him. In that I mean the lane markings seem to indicate his lane spilts into two where your lane continues on to be the middle lane.

This may not be the case, but your diagram makes it look like the case.

WTF?

Looking at the lane markings the OP has the choice of moving left and proceeding down lane 2 of the exit OR continuing round the roundabout.

Audi Mong has the choice of proceeding down lane 1 of the exit or planning and executing a lane change safely, which he failed to do?!

OP, might be worth unticking the "Roads" overlay in google earth and using a single line to show the movement so it clearly shows the lane markings.

What story is the other guy giving??

My understanding exactly. Thanks for bring back my confidence

Good call on the Google maps options. I'll send a clearer version over to insurance co. Only reason for doing arrows was because I couldn't work out how to do a line that bent with the contours of the road in my photo editor.

[jimxms]

IainT said:

Should be cut and dried. Unless the Audi numpty claims to have been in your lane and you in the right one and trying to exit. THen, without witnesses, it's anyone's guess what'll happen.

You really should have taken a photo on camera phone before moving the cars though although I can understand giving priority to getting your car and wife/child to safety.

Yeah I've been kicking myself for being a bit naive, but I just didn't want to get rear ended with the family in the car.

Only thing that makes me feel better is that his near-new Audi came off much worse.

[jimxms]

Some Gump said:

Thanks for the unedited pic.

IMO, you;re 100% NOT at fault. Hius lane was left only, your lane was left or straight. If he cut you up that badly, there is no way anyone can reasonably say that you should have been looking left at that point - most drivers would be looking forward / right to check for upcoming hazards / their exit.

That's pretty much exactly what I was doing. He wasn't really on my radar at all until I heard him revving the bks out of his A3 at which point I just assumed he was going to fly past me on my left down the slip road.

A split second later my wife blurted out something to me, by which time he connected with me and began dragging me round to the right with him. I put the anchors on and turned to the right to break away from him and ended up in the middle lane of the road that leads round to the right.

The wife said she didn't think he was indicating at all, but its probably hard to tell given the angle of the connection.


EDIT:
@carreauchompeur - I think the above may cover your question.

Edited by jimxms on Wednesday 5th January 10:07

Edited by jimxms on Wednesday 5th January 10:08

[jimxms]

andy43 said:

Maybe he's not a slow nugget, maybe he was trying to be clever and cheat the traffic then? Fail. Audi A3 1.6 - overdone tints and 18" RS4 ripoffs?

Wish I could say so, but it was an RS3 according to ASKMID in stock attire. He told me he only just bought it too. Which to me reaks of not knowing the car well enough to pull of such a manouver safely.

[jimxms]

edo said:

OP. Speak to Europa Consultants ASAP. (Anniesdad on here). They are fab and will sort you out. Steve is the name of the chap.

Cheers. I've dropped him a PM/email via the PH forum, so will wait for a reply.

Can anybody clarify whether going 50/50 means I pay my full excess or 50% of it?

By the sounds of it, Mr Audi is probably going to get away with it Kinda makes me want to play up on the fact that my Mrs spent yesterday in hospital making sure that the baby was OK after she got tummy aches and some blood shortly after the accident.

(Baby is confirmed OK now though )

robk84 said:

I know it doesnt help - however i think this is the M25/A13 roundabout at Dartford, taking you to lakeside.....

If it is the junction - im assuming you would be in position of the Red Golf (i personally wouldnt choose to go to the m25 from this lane, however thats just from my personal experience) and the Audi driver is the google van, however he goes towards lakeside rather than the m25 (which he is indeed in the wrong)

Thats the one. TBH I would ALWAYS whenever possible be in the left lane for this kind of turn, even though middle is acceptable. But of course, on this one occasion it was bumper to bumper leading up to the traffic lights (bank holiday + everyone leaving lakeside) and I was stuck in the middle.

Edited by jimxms on Wednesday 5th January 10:41

[jimxms]

duckers26 said:

I know the junction the OP means and have had the same thing happen to me but without the impact. As you come around to go onto the A13 London bound you need to move over to the left as the OP did and the Audi should have turned off instead of continuing round so should not have been there.

Yeah it seems to be quite a hotspot for muppet driving. What's ironic is that the Audi driver doesn't live far away from me and could have easily taken the M25 home. It wasn't like he was going to end up going 100 miles in the wrong direction (not that it would excuse his act anyway).

[jimxms]

Deva Link said:

jimxms said:

Yeah it seems to be quite a hotspot for muppet driving.

If you knew that, couldn't you have avoided the accident? Not sitting right next to someone, or in their blind spot, and watching for people hesitating can avoid these things. Not always, of course.

C'mon...really?

Firstly, you assumed that I knew that it was a hot-spot before the accident.
Wrong.
I only found out that it was AFTER speaking to family about the accident.

Secondly you assumed that I was in someones blindspot?
Wrong again.
Pulling away from the lights, I was 'leading the pack'. I wasn't in anyone's blind spot and my intended direction as indicated by my...indicators was rather clear.

[jimxms]

STW2010 said:

That probably has a lot to do with the other driver 'revving the nuts off' his car. So the Audi managed to catch up, but didn't quite to get past.

Yep.

Anyways, the original intention of my thread was not to ask who was to blame, or to have anyone critique my driving. I was merely asking if it would be advisable to use an accident management company for my claim - which the 3rd and 4th replies answered

Thanks