Car Accident

Oonagh B

Hi,have a querie about a car accident that happened today. I was driving down a two lane road, one lane is a bus lane (left lane). Once the bus lane finished I merged into this lane. I was driving along and all of a sudden I got hit by a car coming from the lane beside me. This car knocked my mirror off and tore the side of my car. I stopped immediatey and the other driver came up to my window shouting and screaming at me. He was very aggressive. I rang the guards who came down to the scene. The other driver was even very aggressive with the guard. He is insisting that it was all my fault. I do have witnesses who stopped,one was a bus driver who was right behind me when it happened and another just a passer by. Both their accounts of the accident are identical. The guard was trying to explain to the other driver that he was at fault but he was having none of it. I am now concerned about paying for the damage, I know he will contest that it was not his fault and I may end up having to claim on my insurance! What happens in cases like this where both drivers believe they are not at fault.
Any help or advise much appreciated!
Thanks

If you are in a lane and another car comes into that lane and hits you than it is there fault.

The only way I could imagine you being at fault is if he was in the lane you merged into.

That aside it seems black and white, him in the wrong.

evlgmaojr27ypu

Leave it to the insurance to sort out, hopefully you did get the contact details of the witnesses and make sure to provide it to your insurance company with your own account..

Oonagh B

No He wasn't in the lane I merged into. Yep I got all the details of the witnesses etc. The guard gave me his name and said that insurance company can contact him also. Ive never seen the likes of the aggression this man had! My 11 yr old son was crying he got such a fright from him shouting! He was talking about bringing me to court etc!! Hopefully the insurance companies will sort it out!
Thanks!

Tea drinker

Fairly typical bully nehaviour, he wanted to get his way and wanted to ape man his way to get it.
Could only be better if managed to egg him on to be physical in front of the gaurds ;-)

Ah but seriously I know it can be very off putting and I'd say you are more put out because of the kid. I reckon you are A1 with insurance.
as all the claim will probably go against yer man I don't think you will have to pay any excess for your repairs?????????

DakarVert

Did the other driver get you on the right handside of your car?

2012paddy2012

Oonagh B wrote: »

Hi,have a querie about a car accident that happened today. I was driving down a two lane road, one lane is a bus lane (left lane). Once the bus lane finished I merged into this lane. I was driving along and all of a sudden I got hit by a car coming from the lane beside me. This car knocked my mirror off and tore the side of my car. I stopped immediatey and the other driver came up to my window shouting and screaming at me. He was very aggressive. I rang the guards who came down to the scene. The other driver was even very aggressive with the guard. He is insisting that it was all my fault. I do have witnesses who stopped,one was a bus driver who was right behind me when it happened and another just a passer by. Both their accounts of the accident are identical. The guard was trying to explain to the other driver that he was at fault but he was having none of it. I am now concerned about paying for the damage, I know he will contest that it was not his fault and I may end up having to claim on my insurance! What happens in cases like this where both drivers believe they are not at fault.
Any help or advise much appreciated!
Thanks

The first thing you should do now is find out what garage the bus is attached to and request that their cctv is preserved. Write to the station manager requesting it keep copy inform the guard who should seek copy of it all modern buses have cctv front back and side view. This is important as the insurance company will do as they please without any reference to you. It's a case of doing up the figures and agreeing blame percentage between them. The cctv is self explanatory you should inform insurance company also

Oonagh B

he hit me on the right hand side. Did not know that about buses and cctv. It was just a city bus so not sure if they will have it. The guard did contact the station to check the city traffic cameras but he said they were facing the other way. Typical!!

BohsCeltic

Oonagh B wrote: »

he hit me on the right hand side. Did not know that about buses and cctv. It was just a city bus so not sure if they will have it. The guard did contact the station to check the city traffic cameras but he said they were facing the other way. Typical!!

Most buses have multiple cameras on them now.

C.K Dexter Haven

you seem to have a lot of witnesses on your side, including the guard OP- frightening experience I'm sure but some people are like that in accidents; they think if they're aggressive enough, the other person will back down and take responsibility- sounds like you handled the experience very well given the circumstances.
Am I right in thinking he overtook you on your right hand side, as you were merging into the lane? An impatient driver by the sounds of it, going too fast and trying to get ahead by one car.

Oonagh B

I had moved into the lane a little further back and then he went to move into the same lane and went right into the driver side of my car. My car is damaged just by the driver door. He is claiming I crashed into him while he was moving lanes. I tried to explain to him that if I drove into him while he was moving lanes then the front of my car would be damaged. I explained this to the guard also who agreed with me!.
I know there are much more serious accidents happening where there are serious injuries, and Im thankful it was not much worse, but I have been really thrown by the whole experience and am so upset!

Nonoperational

This wasn't in Cork was it?

getaroom

Oonagh B wrote: »

Hi,have a querie about a car accident that happened today. I was driving down a two lane road, one lane is a bus lane (left lane). Once the bus lane finished I merged into this lane. I was driving along and all of a sudden I got hit by a car coming from the lane beside me. This car knocked my mirror off and tore the side of my car. I stopped immediatey and the other driver came up to my window shouting and screaming at me. He was very aggressive. I rang the guards who came down to the scene. The other driver was even very aggressive with the guard. He is insisting that it was all my fault. I do have witnesses who stopped,one was a bus driver who was right behind me when it happened and another just a passer by. Both their accounts of the accident are identical. The guard was trying to explain to the other driver that he was at fault but he was having none of it. I am now concerned about paying for the damage, I know he will contest that it was not his fault and I may end up having to claim on my insurance! What happens in cases like this where both drivers believe they are not at fault.
Any help or advise much appreciated!
Thanks

Sit down immediately and write down everything that happened in chronological order. You will need to let insurance company etc the details also if you want to sue you will have to give the info to the PIB. If you dont write it down now , this time tomorrow you will have forgotten the timeline of events.

Oonagh B

Nonoperational wrote: »

This wasn't in Cork was it?

No it wasn't Cork

Vicxas

This whole aggression from people when they're in a car crash can be excused to a degree from shock, but screaming at someone until they make children cry is disgusting.

guil

Oonagh B wrote: »

I had moved into the lane a little further back and then he went to move into the same lane and went right into the driver side of my car. My car is damaged just by the driver door. He is claiming I crashed into him while he was moving lanes. I tried to explain to him that if I drove into him while he was moving lanes then the front of my car would be damaged. I explained this to the guard also who agreed with me!.
I know there are much more serious accidents happening where there are serious injuries, and Im thankful it was not much worse, but I have been really thrown by the whole experience and am so upset!

Can you post a link to where it happened on google maps? It sounds as if you moved into the bus lane and afaik some bus lanes have to merge with the driving lane and if so you could have potentially caused the accident.

Camera on the bus will be very little use as the front facing one doesn't see that far forward, i'm nearly sure they are the same type camera that is fitted to the trucks i drive.

ToxicPaddy

OP, don't worry about it too much. It sounded like it was a fairly stressful situation with your child crying and the other driver being aggressive and blaming you.

Most accidents without witnesses are usually one persons word v the other persons word. When you suddenly add witnesses into the mix, especially one who was directly behind you (the bus driver) and others, it becomes a whole different story.

The garda in question has even said that it was the other driver at fault, so I think it's a fairly clear cut case that he was at fault and you did nothing.

Tensions are always high at accidents, people in shock, anger and sudden realisation by someone that they their careless driving has just caused an accident and going to cost them financially now, luckily thats all it cost them and no one was hurt.

There are a few things I recommend:

• Firstly, make sure you and your child are OK. Cars can be replaced, they are just lumps of metal and plastic. During the stress of all this you may not have even realised that you of your child were hurt so if need be get both of yourselves checked out (And no this is not some ploy for an insurance claim before anyone jumps on the bandwagon!!)
  
• Let your insurance company deal with it, that's what you pay an insurance premium for. They will get all the details from the garda, witnesses etc.
  
• As someone here has said, contact the bus depot and see can you get CCTV footage. Just for peace of mind and in case anyone requests it.
  
• Keep a notepad recording all information that comes your way. Any contact details, facts, figures, details of information, times dates etc when contacted from various parties involved. Saves trying to remember it last minute. Plus gives peace of mine for when you have any questions about it later on.

.

Oonagh B

Thank for all the advice. I spoke to both insurance companies this morning. Other driver is not claiming liability. His insurance company rang my witnesses and they must fill out incident report forms. I am pretty certain that they can see he was at fault due to two independent witnesses having the exact same account of the accident. Hopefully it gets sorted soon!

heroics

Can you post a link from google maps of where it happened?