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?

So car Y pulled out from left lane into the right lane and hit car X?? Car Y at fault clearly although if car X was going 30 into a roundabout past queuing traffic then they are an idiot!

A vehicle already on the roundabout has priority over any joining traffic. That's it.

Car Y. Anyone on the roundabout already has right of way to persons entering roundabout.
being a black car is irrelevant.

The insurers will look at the location of the damage to the vehicles. If you were hit on the side or back of your car by the front if the other car it will likely be 'their fault'.
If you hit them with the front of your car its likely to be 'your fault' or if its a side by side trading paint collision you'll probably be jointly at fault.

If you have dashcam evidence that shows any issue with the other driver that will help, but i doubt if they came from the side it would see them

Devastated there isn’t a diagram.
The good diagrams are often the highlight of my Internetting day.
((Slopes off to console myself with a rather large gin)).

Car y should be giving way to cars already on the roundabout and cars on the right entering the roundabout. Anyone who could effectively drive into the side or back of them.
I'm assuming there are two lanes on the roundabout, both which could go straight on? The only way car x might be in the wrong is if they chopped across to the left hand lane on the roundabout when they shouldn't been on the right hand lane of roundabout, effectively removing the gap which would have legitimately been for car y.

Car Y they entered the roundabout when it was not clear, and black car or not if it’s dark the car will have lights on

The car entering the roundabout always has the responsibility to check that they are clear. This is the same if someone jumped a light, were queuing, etc. That would be the view of the Highway Code, as my driving instructor friend has just reported to me!

Generally accidents on roundabouts are 50/50 (Grace v Tanner - both parties are expected to take extra care at roundabouts).

But that can be challenged if one party is obviously and clearly at fault.

It depends on how much your insurers are willing to fight the 50/50 presumption.

I'm struggling to see how car y's passenger side hit your passenger side?

Also how many lanes coming to roundabout and leaving roundabout?

Car Y which was joining the roundabout should have given way to you as the car already on the roundabout. The fact they inched through traffic in the left hand lane shows they already knew they should be on the look out for additional traffic in the right hand lane before they crossed that lane.

Car Y is at fault. You can't enter a roundabout unsighted (by the other cars) and hit a car already on the roundabout and claim it wasn't your fault.

Car y however car x was going far too fast on a roundabout, especially given the situation here where traffic that was queuing to their left were letting cars out past them. These cars would have been partially blocking the view of cars coming on to the roundabout. Really annoys me when people with the right of way don’t slow down or take any care on entering a roundabout. That could be classed as dangerous driving even when it’s their right of way.

Car Y's bumper on the passenger side. Car Y was trying to go straight on and caught the car already on the roundabout so went into their passenger side as they crossed in front on Car Y

Car y is obviously at fault, but car X should probably be aware of their speed

It sounds like car Y is admitting fault by saying they were tired and it was dark, those are excuses for hitting something, if you aren't at fault then you being tired is irrelevant

Was anyone indicating?
Was it dark? Didn’t black car have its lights on?

While Car Y will probably be found 'more' at fault percentage wise, I think entering a roundabout doing 30 mph where there are queueing cars and heavy traffic was unsafe.

That doesn't make sense.Surely for that to happen you'd be facing opposite directions

Y

Car Y
I also had an accident on a roundabout (in my case the other car hit mine when the driver decided to change lanes)
I only mention this because it can be a long process. It took over 2 years before the other driver admitted liability. We even had a court date set although that didn't happen in the end.
My initial costs were paid straightaway and luckily I had No Claims protection and motor legal as part of my insurance but it still meant a very long wait before the increase in premiums and excess fee were settled.

Not if car X was already nearly past where car y was entering. It sounds to me like they clipped the back of car X whilst entering at speed!

I've done a rudimentary drawing of my understanding which will hopefully load up

Car Y entered the roundabout without giving way to the right. They bear the majority of the fault because it wasn't their right of way.

Car X may be assigned up to 25% of the blame purely because the speed you choose should always be appropriate so that you could stop if someone does something stupid in front of you, as far as possible. I would suggest that 30mph was too fast for this situation.

However the colour of the car and the length of the journey is utterly irrelevant and the driver of car Y was definitely driving without due care and attention. No one should be in control of a car if they are in a state of mind/capacity of visual clarity where they could cause a collision if they encounter a black car. There are loads of black cars.

I always think roundabouts become a bit of a game with people going to fast as though to prevent other cars joining. I think you should have been going slower and anticipated better so both are at fault really.

Car y, but they usually do 50/50 at roundabouts

Ate you in the UK? I don't understand her passenger side (left of her car) hit your passenger side (left of your car) if she was in the left lane and you in the right lane. Even if she was moving into the right lane, she would have had to have AWFUL road positioning (to the point of either going the wrong way on the roundabout, or driving straight over it) to make this possible surely? @mumofbun Disgram does a great job of sorting that. Are you sure if the point of impact? (Either way, it sounds like she's at fault, I'm just confused on the physics!)