Roundabout collision - who is at fault? With diagram

[Notcheekyvimto]

Involved in a collision today at a roundabout.

Both lanes go straight on. The left lane leads to a left turn only shortly afterwards hence lots of people use the right lane to go straight, road markings are clear both lanes permit going straight.

Left hand exit is a car park for a local park marked in green ‘park’.

Red car travels in the right lane to go straight on, indicates left and starts to pull off.

Blue car comes from the park and intends to turn straight or right, into the path of red car.

Red car brakes but cannot stop in time and blue car is damaged on the drivers side, red car on the passengers corner side.

Who is at fault?

Personally I think the blue car is 100% at fault. They shouldn't have entered the roundabout full stop as it wasn't clear. Obviously they REALLY shouldn't have entered the roundabout as there was someone in the lane they were travelling to

Blue car fault. Give way to cars coming from the right on a roundabout.

Blue car totally at fault, hope you and baby are ok xx

Incorrect

As so many posters seem to know the roundabout concerned, could someone post the aerial image from Google?
It would be good to see all road markings and whether there are two lanes on the roundabout and the exit concerned.
It sounds as though blue caused the accident, by not knowing where they were going. However, red should not have assumed that cars on the outside lane were going to exit at the same exist as her, and checked if she was crossing another vehicles path. (Subject to seeing road markings).

The red car did change lanes by crossing over the outside lane to get off the roundabout.

The Highway Code says:
When taking any intermediate exit, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise

• select the appropriate lane on approach to the roundabout
• you should not normally need to signal on approach
• stay in this lane until you need to alter course to exit the roundabout
• signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.

In all cases watch out for and give plenty of room to

• pedestrians who may be crossing the approach and exit roads
• traffic crossing in front of you on the roundabout, especially vehicles intending to leave by the next exit

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

Therefore it seems that my earlier belief that red car was at fault is incorrect, as the HC warns the blue car to be on the lookout for cars passing in front.

The red car hit the blue car from the damage pattern.

The blue car may have been in the wrong place and not had the ROW, but that doesn't completely excuse the red car from hitting it, in the same way if a pedestrian jumps into the road in front of you when you have the ROW, you don't automatically have the right to mow them down. All parties have a responsibility to act safely and to attempt to avoid collisions at all times.

I would have said 50:50 on the insurance, with maybe a small probability that red could end up blameless if it could be shown that they had no chance of taking avoiding action (which would be difficult without evidence).

Shame that we will not find out, but the fact that both parties seem to accept the 50:50 seems like a smart decision to me. Hopefully not too expensive and a learning experience.

@Collaborate

The red car did change lanes by crossing over the outside lane to get off the roundabout.

But it didn't. There are two lanes going off at the roundabout. The red car was in the right of the two and stayed in the right of the two. They didn't change lanes at any point

I don't think this os classed as changing lanes.
It's a roundabout with two lanes marked...you have to cross lanes to enter/exit that's not the same as changing lanes.

Even IF the blue car did not think the red car was leaving at that exit, based on position it should have been obvious red would immediately need to change lanes or exit across their path so joining alongside/slightly in front was always going to create a problem.

@Seeline I posted some pics further up the thread and so did some other posters. The left hand exit blue came from is actually very close to the exit I took so it gives less time to react. It’s not a big roundabout

Surely it's obvious from this picture that blue is totally at fault. There are 2 lanes approaching the roundabout and 2 lanes exiting it (at the exit red is taking, at any rate). Red remains in the same lane throughout and correctly executes the manoeuvre.

Blue might have got away with pulling onto the roundabout carefully when they did IF they were going to exit left (ie the same exit as red is taking). But the minute they want any other exit, straight across or turning right, they are in the wrong lane and are undercutting red.

Where red hits blue is completely irrelevant in this instance, because blue is in the wrong lane and has to wait for any car which is in the correct lane and approaching from blue's right, as they have priority.

@Notcheekyvimto it was the overhead view I was asking for, which someone else has since posted.
Having seen that, I can see it is exactly how I imagined from your description and previous photos.
I don't think you did anything wrong!

This happened to me as well but i was lucky and swerved into the third lane before he hit me. I was just very very lucky there was noone in or coming up in the third lane i was so angry though as there was no need for that driver to nearly cause an accident for no reason

That's a good outcome, in my opinion. You did absolutely nothing wrong and the accident was the other driver's fault, but insurance companies often seem to settle collisions on roundabouts as 50/50 blame, especially in the absence of evidence e.g. dashcam footage.

I always check my nearside wing mirror for idiots if I am exiting a roundabout from anywhere other than lane 1. But I don't think Red could have seen this idiot in time, because he emerges so close to the exit he would have been in Red's blindspot. It would have been so interesting to see video!

Thats a simple one tbh, if youre already on the roundabout you have right of way. The blue car is at fault.

As an instructor.... Blue car.
But again i wasn't there to see speeds etc....
Problem being is everyone in too much of a rush to get nowhere fast.

Slow down .. Read the roads your driving!!!!

I'm sure that they say anything past the driver seat it's the rear of the car so if you're hit beyond this point it's the other driver at fault