Car crash on roundabout - who’s at fault?

[WeGoAgainIVF]

Hi, I’m wondering if anyone would mind letting me know what they think about this situation and who’s at fault.
I had a car accident last week and I’m stressing out waiting for the insurance companies to settle the claim. I know this can go on for weeks so I would be grateful for any input as to how it might go!
To be unbiased I’m not going to say which car I was driving.

Car X enters roundabout in right hand lane to go straight on (on this particular roundabout you are able to go straight on in both lanes).

The traffic in the left hand lane was queuing to get on the roundabout but had left a space for traffic approaching the roundabout from the left to enter.

Car Y entered the roundabout between the cars in the left hand lane, while Car X was already in the right hand lane, speed unknown but at a guess 30mph, maybe a bit more. Car Y collided with Car X.

Car X didn’t know exactly how fast they were going. Car Y said they had been on a long journey, it was dark and Car X was black.

Who is at fault?

Car Y is in the wrong here. But car X was probably going a bit quick on a roundabout with stationary traffic in the lane to their left? 30mph?

Car Y is at fault. I have this scenario in a roundabout I use regularly and it’s always on the car joining the roundabout to make sure the right hand lane is clear as well as the left even though the cars in left lane leave a space and often gesture you can go, it’s not a guarantee the round about is clear to join.

I agree with this

30mph is pretty wild for a roundabout that has traffic on no?

Car Y is clearly at fault, as those on the roundabout have priority. Saying that, if I was Car X, seeing queuing traffic in the left hand lane, I would have slowed down approaching the entry, as 30 on a roundabout doesn't give a lot of thinking time and people are inevitably going to nose out (or worse!) if they're trying to join the non-congested lane.

I also would have slowed down, as X, and if safe to do so (given you could go straight ahead in both lanes) moved over into the other lane to let others on

Car Y. To be fair to the OP they did say that they weren’t sure of the speed of car in the right hand lane.
Ive had so many near misses from scenarios like that where the car joining the round about just goes for it presuming the other car can stop (or even sees them joining from the road joining the roundabout).

How big was the roundabout? I'm not sure how anyone can do 30 mph on a roundabout unless it is a big motorway one?

Where’s the bloody diagram?

diagram (as per the rules)

You are at fault, @WeGoAgainIVF , for not providing the customary diagram. Them's the rules!

X driving into a car already on the roundabout is obviously at fault though.

Car Y failed to give way to traffic already on the island so is at fault.. if you can't see then you shouldn't pull out.

Clearly car Y. Joined a roundabout without checking both lanes.

Car Y - you have to give way, that’s the point! I was once a witness for the insurance in a similar situation as car Y was an aggressive cabbie screaming at the poor driver of car x.
Car Y was found at fault - and lost his licence because of the amount of points he’d racked up …

Driver of car X told me the outcome when taking me for dealing with the insurance people…we’d swapped numbers.

morally car Y, if changing lanes you look where you are going. But insurance companies start from the point of view that roundabout crashes are 50/50.

Car Y. Also the car being black is no excuse.
However an insurance company might find X to be partially at fault if they were driving a bit too fast for the road conditions

It sounds like car Y is at fault but equally doing 30 round a roundabout with traffic queuing doesn't give you much chance to stop when someone tries to change lanes.

Normally, the right hand lane approaching a roundabout is for turning right or travelling back on yourself - the left side for left and straight on. It’s likely that it will be 50/50 as Y might have acted on normal rules. Unless X can prove that Y was aware of both lanes being capable of going straight on, of course…

Car Y. You are optimistic saying a few weeks for insurance claim to be sorted. I recently had one that was sorted 3 days before the 2 year anniversary of the accident

Y.

I'm not sure it matters which way X was heading and whether Y was aware of that, given that Y pulled into the path of X

Car Y at fault. If you are X I hope it's sorted. Agree insurance companies can be a pita about roundabout crashes. Someone drove into my back corner once when I was stationary in queuing traffic at roundabout and the insurance tried to get me to agree to 50/50. Finally sorted it but took some arguing.

Car Y is at fault 100%

2 simple facts to this.

Car X was already on the carriageway and car Y regardless of the traffic was joining the carriageway (roundabout). It is always the responsibility of the car joining the carriageway to ensure its safe to do so and that doesnt mean flashing headlights or leaving a gap.

Car X speed is irrelevant. No one has radar eyes and can calculate speed so unless anyone can prove it, its not relevant. This isnt a case of driving to the speed so they can stop in an emergency. Car Y pulled out in front of Car X so speed is not a factor.

Is this a massive dripfeed where X had lights off?

Otherwise, Y needs to give up driving if they crash every time there is a black car, it is dark, or they have been driving a long time. Get off the fecking road before you kill someone