motorway crash

[Fergo10]

i was involved in a motorway crash,i was in the 3rd lane when suddenly the car in front decided to slam all on his brakes, i tried to stop but knew i would crash into him so i swerved into the middle lane.

there was a collision and we ended up being bounced across to the hard shoulder, i ended up in hospital and my wife and 3 kids had some bad bruising.

when we went to empty thr car judging by the impact on both cars and from what the police say it looks like he actually crashed into us, our insurance say unless we can prove he hit us we will have to take the blame.

our car was a MPV, and his was a hatchback, surely if we hit him he and his passengers would have been injured and his car wouldn't have stayed put.

a witness who stopped said he tried to drive off but we don't know what else the witness said to the police as they won't get involved unless the insurance ask for details.

has anyone any advice?

because not only am I still in a lot of pain (2 weeks later) my children are really unsettled and have been having nightmares and I am not happy about having to accept the blame when I initially avoided the crash

[Fergo10]

SORRY WHETHER I WAS OBEYING THE HIGHWAY CODE OR MAKING ILLEGAL MANOEUVRES TO TRY AND AVOID A CRASH THE BOTTOM LINE IS HE BRAKED FOR NO APPARENT REASON - THE ROAD AHEAD OF HIM WAS CLEAR - I WAS TRAVELLING AT SPEED AND HAD A SPLIT SECOND TO MAKE A DECISION - SMASH INTO THE BACK OF HIM OR TRY AND AVOID HIM BY GOING INTO THE MIDDLE LANE - I WOULD HAVE AVOIDED HIM IF HE HAD NOT CROSSED INTO THE MIDDLE LANE SO HE WAS OBVIOUSLY NOT MAKING SURE IT WAS CLEAR AND HE DENIED BRAKING WHEN HE WAS ASKED WHY HE BRAKED - I DID NOT HAVE TIME TO MEASURE WHETHER OR NOT I WAS TOO CLOSE WHEN I WAS TRAVELLING ALONG AND I DON'T REALLY CARE WHAT THE INSURANCE CO THINK I WAS ENTIRELY TO BLAME - NOR DID I REALLY THINK ABOUT THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF OVER TAKING IN THE MIDDLE LANE I JUST WANTED TO AVOID A CRASH.

[Fergo10]

thankyou redcrx for your answers instead of jumping down my throat like all the others who answered.

you are right the most important thing is sorting out the kids, I just feel angry that I am a really careful driver and for someone (and i don't care what the others who answered said) to suddenly decide to brake in the fast lane on a motorway for no apparent reason, then after the incident not even enquire how anyone is when he could see me trapped in the car with the kids, and according to an eye witness try to leave the scene of the accident has some element of guilt about it! - an I get ALL the blame and suffer injuries.

what i meant by stay put - when his car stopped he was facing the right way with minimum damage and we we shunted off the motorway. if we had hit him in our much larger car he would have be smashed into the central reservation or spun around.

[bednobs]

It really dosen't matter what everyone on here thinks. Your insurance company are the ones that matter, and if they decide you are at fault then you are at fault i'm afraid. You (understandably) give one version of the facts, but there may be others. Your insurance company will have had years of experience in sorting out "blame" so i would just leave them to it.

[Fergo10]

thanks another answer where the finger was not pointed, I just wanted to know if anyone has had a similar experience where they had the blame and managed to prove that it wasn't their fault or managed to agree 50/50 blame (as this means my insurance claim will be less as the other party insurers will have to pay out also)

[bednobs]

tbh it wont really make any practical difference to you - you don't have to pay the claim, your insurance company does. Your excess and loss of no claims will be exactly the same whether you are found at fault for all of it or 1/2 of it.

[ChuckFickens]

No need to shout. please see Site Rules: http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Info/Rules/ about typing all in capitals.

"THE BOTTOM LINE IS HE BRAKED FOR NO APPARENT REASON"

He doesn't need a reason to brake, he can jump on the brakes for no other reason than he thinks you are too close behind him or because he thought he saw a flying elephant, it makes no difference, you should have been far enough away from him to allow you to stop safely.

"I DON'T REALLY CARE WHAT THE INSURANCE CO THINK"

Strange thing not to care about, end if the day it's them that decides who's to blame.

"NOR DID I REALLY THINK ABOUT THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF OVER TAKING IN THE MIDDLE LANE"

Just because you didn't think of the legal implications doesn't suddenly make it legal.

"I JUST WANTED TO AVOID A CRASH."

I'd suggest if you want to avoid a crash in future then you leave a safe stopping distance between you and the car in front.

Anyhow, just leave it to your insurance company, I'm sure they will love to hear that you had to swerve to avoid a car because you couldn't stop in time.

You might not want to mention you couldn't stop in time to the police though, otherwise you may find your self on a charge of driving without due care and attention as well.

[boxtops]

agree with bednobs

[Fergo10]

that is not what the insurance said, they told us it will effect our no cliams even though they are protected and our premium will be more that it would have been if it was 50/50.

[bednobs]

it seems very strange - whast does protected no claims mean on your policy? Of course, your premium will go up, but that will be the same whether you are responsible 50/50 or 100%

[bednobs]

there are a couple of people who work for insurance companies that come on here. If you could email the ed and ask him/her to move this post to "insurance" where they will be more likely to see it.

[boxtops]

If you have protected NCB then - unless this is not your first claim in this financial year - your bonus should be (as it says) protected. However all premiums have gone up this year, perhaps that's what they mean.

[ummmm]

It sounds like your fault. How do you know he slammed his brakes on for no reason? There might have been something in the road.

[Fergo10]

the no claims is supposed to keep the premiums down that is why we pay extra to protect them, thanks for the advice but at the end of the day insurance companies like to try and squeeze every penny they can out of you and if you don't challenge them on issues then they are more than happy to let you pay extra.

[bednobs]

yes it does keep the premiums down, however you will still have a higher premium to begin with (which is then reduced by whatever no-claims bonus you have) So the no-claims is still there, but you will still have to pay more

[Booldawg]

in forza you can set collision to 'off'

[bundleone]

'Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule' you need at least 2 seconds breaking time,, say that little rhyme and measure how far you travel in the time it takes to say it, that is the distance you need to keep,