AIBU to think I have no liability here? (diagram attached)

No you have this reversed.

If there are no markings you use the left hand lane to go straight ahead. Whether there is any another exits past straight ahead is irrelevant.

There may well be markings that alter the position to allow the right lane to go straight ahead but the OP has not confirmed that.

Again this is confirmed in the highway code

https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/roundabouts.html

OP, I feel your frustration with some posters.

Not sure why I've bothered to spend time typing this up but I'm in the coolest room in the house so here goes.

For those at the back who are struggling to keep up……

OP and the other driver both entered the first roundabout at 6 o’clock (no, not the time, the position on the diagram) OP wanted to exit the first roundabout at 12 o’clock and the second roundabout at 3 o’clock, so she quite rightly entered the first roundabout and continued in the right hand of the two lanes going round the roundabout so she could exit that roundabout and be in the right (and correct) lane to turn right at the second roundabout. The other driver entered and stayed in the left hand lane which is for vehicles exiting at 9 o’clock or at 12 o’clock and then continuing to exit the second roundabout at 9 o’clock. Instead of staying in the left hand lane she, without indication, turned right in front of the OP once she had exited the first roundabout.

She said she wanted to go straight on (12 o’clock exit) so should have stayed in the left hand lane. If she needed to exit the second roundabout at 3 o’clock she could have moved from the left hand lane to the right hand lane on the road/bridge between the two roundabouts, if traffic permitted, or, after exiting the first roundabout in the left hand lane entered the second roundabout, in the left hand lane but indicated right and carried on round to the 3 o’clock exit.

If she’d realised she should never have entered the first roundabout in the first place then she should still have carried on, straight, to the second roundabout and indicated right to go all the way round, back to the first roundabout, exited at 6 o’clock and gone back to where she should have been in the first place which was probably the driving test centre.

We are wasting our time.

So to use your logic then, and say that the right hand lan should not have been used to go straight over, at a roundabout like this where the only exits are at "6 o'clock", "9 o'clock", and "12 o'clock", the right hand lane should only be used by people who enter at 6 o'clock who then need to go back the way they came and leave at 6 o'clock, or else arrived at 9 o'clock and wanted to leave at 6 o'clock.

If that was the case, the right hand land would be marked as being only for such, and there would be no need for two exits at 12 o'clock, as the only people using the right hand lane on the exit would be people who arrived at 12 o'clock and wanted to go back the way they came.

It seems to be a very hard thing for a lot of mumsnetters to accept, but where no signs or arrows tell you differently, there is nothing to stop you using either left or right lane to go straight on at a roundabout. God knows where I live, there's a roundabout with two lanes and arrows telling you that you can go straight over, which causes untold mayhem at times as there's only one lane on the exit.

Good grief, there is no third exit! The other driver was driving in to a crosshatched area! Op was absolutely in the correct lane

Because it's mumsnet.

I have been in your situation, where the person who hit my car was in the wrong lane, albeit we had both left the roundabout by that point and she drifted from the left lane to the right, with the front drivers side of her car hitting the rear left passenger side of mine. As is often the case when people have accidents, the impact left her speech unimpaired, as she stood there at the side of the road telling me I shouldn't have been in the right hand lane of a 2-lane dual carriageway. She demanded I settle away from the insurance, which I would never do in any event.

I was 99% sure it would go 50/50, as I've known people who had roundabout collisions and that's the norm, and in the event it did go 50/50, not that I claimed for my car because I couldn't be bothered paying the excess to do so (the damage to my car was minimal, and 4 & half years later I'm still driving round with the mark on it.

You were not in the wrong lane, the fact that her lane went to hatches will hopefully go in your favour, but if it doesn't and goes 50/50 then that could only be because you had some responsibility to make sure no one was, in fact, still on your left in a hatched area they had no business being in in error.

Ignore the others - it's clear this isn't on you, even if half of it goes that way.

I hear you Op. The issue is people can't comprehend others types of roundabouts outside of the ones they use. Some posters are commenting on how the insurance company will view it, as opposed to whether you did anything wrong. And some posters, as ever, are being deliberately obtuse

When I worked in insurance (a long time ago) I would have put that as 50/50 because you’re both at fault. She absolutely should have been in the right hand lane to take the third exit but to go straight over you should have been in the left lane so both at fault. Even if it was 80/20 you will still lose your ncb

So OP you’re the black car and the other woman was in the same lane as the van but instead of turning off instead tried to carry on around the roundabout?

Sorry @WiggyClawsThe2nd I’ve changed my mind now I’ve seen Google maps it's 50/50

it's not a two lane dual carriage way, it only separates for the roundabout, there are no arrows for you to take the left exit from the right hand lane you were in. Yes she shouldn’t have continued round the roundabout but you shouldn’t have tried to turn left from your right hand lane

Assuming this is it and you would be in the place of the pale blue car on the first picture, then from the look of the island OP it is a bit of a grey area, there is no way she should have been in the left hand lane to go around the island, but she probably missed her turn off and wanted to around the island, which is more likely than she 'lost control', you would have been in her blind spot and she never checked it obviously.

BUT, there is nothing on the island or before it that says she has to go straight on and there are 2 lanes that continue around the island (looks like three on the aerial view but it is 2), she didn't cross any white lines to cut across your path and neither did you cut across any to go straight on to join the right hand lane.

I think you were in the correct place, and she wasn't, but It looks like a very badly designed island to be honest, they should extend that hatching and make it one lane going around after the dual carriageway turn off.

There’s clearly a mantra that instructors are drumming into learners these days about left hand lane unless past 12 o’clock. A little too hard.

I had this exact accident when I was 20. The insurance said it was 50/50 as it was my duty to check my exit was clear - my exit was, the other driver side swiped me! 7 years on and the injustice still burns!!!!!!!

Were you aware of her car as you were on the roundabout? In one of your posts you say she "appeared in front of me". In my opinion she was in the wrong but you might need to be careful with your wording to the insurance company so that it doesn't seem like you were unaware of the road conditions.

I agree with others that the insurance may go 50/50 with this one.
She shouldn't have turned in front of you but there will be the argument that you were slow to react. You may not get the no liability you are hoping for.

Oh whoops. Ignore me.

The OP did not change lanes.
Cancel the cheque.

This exact thing happened to DM. Other driver sped up going round the roundabout in left hand lane to turn right.

insurance said 50/50 as DM should have checked her mirror before coming off the roundabout.

Other driver even said she was in a hurry and late for cinema, but then made a whiplash claim against my DM

all very frustrating

I thought that, even though she was in the inside lane when she shouldn’t have been, it’s the person who is changing lanes who is at fault.

Her question was about whether she had liability, not whether she was in the right. They're not the same thing.

OP may not think she was able to do anything differently, but that doesn't mean the insurers won't find her partially liable, unfortunately.

EDIT: I just realised the google maps picture I am referring to was uploaded by another poster. If this wasn’t the junction you were referring to then ignore my post - sorry, this “thread gallery” thing is new to me.

I know this junction. The right hand lane is for local traffic to go all the way round the roundabout back onto the same dual carriageway to then turn left onto Vale Avenue. The left hand lane is for traffic crossing the bridge over the A27 to the second roundabout. That exit is single lane and only takes traffic from the left hand lane.

So if you were in the right hand lane marked “local traffic” but tried to go straight on over the A27 bridge then you were wrong. If she was in the left hand lane and tried to continue round the roundabout she was also wrong but she wouldn’t have been expected to anticipate that you would try and exit the roundabout where you did, therefore the collision is partly your fault. The liability will be 50/50.