Who's at fault?

[eltax91]

Guys, Wifey had a minor bump in her car today, nothing too serious and she and the car are OK. Wife's car (QQ) has a small dent in the O/S/F wing and plenty of scuffing to the bumper, both plastics and paint.

The other car involved (2000 V70) drove off, but she managed to chase him down to the local tip, and discovered he had a large dent/ scuff's in his N/S/R wheel arch. The guy swapped details with her but indicated he holds her at complete fault, but as he was feeling christmassy, he would accept a "fix our own" approach and move on....

Now, the scenario happened here:- http://goo.gl/maps/2WQid

Wife was in a queue of traffic behind the golf pictured. There were "at least 10" cars behind her and she had queued at the roundabout for about 5 minutes. She was positioned about 1 & 1/2 car lengths behind the golf, in her eyes in the "only lane, it's not a two lane roundabout", indicator on, waiting for traffic to move a little so she could get in the right hand filter for the t/lights.

As room moved in front of her (lights now green) she started to move, and moved out into the filter lane a touch. The V70 came up to the roundabout in the non-existent "2nd lane", round the roundabout and then got his N/S/R clipped by wifey's front end.

Now, I pointed out people use the non-existent second lane all the time, and she accepts she should have known better. What I'd like, before we go further, is to canvass opinion on fault. I suspect, if we took it to insurers, they'd relieve us both of our excess (Wifey's in £250) and then proceed to settle 50:50 and we'd be all way out of pocket.

So, anyone think anything other than settle by mutual consent?

[Krikkit]

50/50 would be the likely outcome imo - he should have been more aware of traffic splitting to join the filter, she should have checked to see if anyone was doing the same.

[Bill]

Front of her car vs rear of his? I would guess 50:50 at best.

[N Dentressangle]

The hatchings have a broken border: 3rd party's allowed to overtake through them.

OP's wife struck the rear 3/4 of the 3rd party's car.

I would say OP's wife is to blame - she pulled out into the rear of an overtaking vehicle - although I can see how annoying this might seem.

[Hackney]

Krikkit said:

50/50 would be the likely outcome imo - he should have been more aware of traffic splitting to join the filter, she should have checked to see if anyone was doing the same.

I'd agree with this as being the "fair" result, however expect worse than that because her front hit his rear.

However, why did he drive on without stopping? I'd suggest guilt rather than Christmas spirit.

[nickfrog]

By failing to stop after the accident, didn't the other driver lost all credibility or rights ? Couldn't he be prosecuted for that if there were any witnesses and wouldn't that help on the civil front ? Just clutching at straws here obviously.

What has it got to do with xmas ?

[eltax91]

nickfrog said:

By failing to stop after the accident, didn't the other driver lost all credibility or rights ? Couldn't he be prosecuted for that if there were any witnesses and wouldn't that help on the civil front ? Just clutching at straws here obviously.

What has it got to do with xmas ?

Well My suspicions were twitching, but i've pumped the reg into askmid and the dvla enquiry sites. Its insured, taxed etc. To be honest my wife got held at the lights post incident, other guy didn't, and a friendly bus driver wandered over from the bus stops to the right, stating he heard something happened but didn't see it. However, on looking at the car it was laden with junk, so suggested my wife hunt him down around the corner at the local tip, which is where she caught up with him

He suggested she was at fault, and he insisted he'd waited around the corner for "ages" and assumed she'd turned around. Interestingly the lights phase are quite a while, but by the time she got to the tip, he'd all but emptied his entire Volvo!

I think given the circumstances we will go down the "fix our own" route, as I suspect if we stuck it to the insurers, we'd see 50:50 at best, and given the repairs are cheaper than the excess there seems little point.