Was rear ended - other driver blamed me and he has a witness

[Charcharm]

was Stationary for around five seconds at a t junction with a give way box, traffic ahead of me meant I couldn’t advance so I was letting one or two cars through. All of a sudden there is a crash from the impact of the car behind me driving into me.

we move over to a side road and exchange details. I’m shaking from the shock at this point. The guy had a friend in the car so has a witness to back up his story, which is that I slammed the breaks out of nowhere which caused this to happen.

This is completely untrue but that’s his story. I don’t have a witness as I didn’t have the presence of mind to get the details of the people around who saw the incident. I’ve made a police report, my husband spoke to the other driver who repeated his story. Will call insurance next.

what’s my situation? There is around £400-£1000 damage to my car and I have a light concussion (despite the low velocity). I feel sick and shouldn’t be on my phone but I’m feeling so stressed, and wanted to see if anyone else has been in a similar situation?

Thanks in advance

similar thing also happened to me. I was at a traffic light junction, turned green, cars moved forward and I followed. Ambulance came searing through across our junction, car in front of me emergency stopped and I couldn’t stop in time so went into the back of them. Very slow speed but still my fault according to law/ insurance, because you should always leave enough room to stop in an emergency regardless of speed

Perhaps if you read ALL pf my comments before quoting what I posted yesterday, you'd see that AFTER posting, OP then disclosed the KEEP CLEAR area. Whilst you claim this was "obvious", it really wasn't from the OP.

So save the driving lesson, I'm well aware of how UK roads work, given I'm actually an Advanced Driver.

The situation is that the person who crashed into you and his mate are talking out of their backsides. He should have been paying attention.

If someone hits you from behind , it is never your fault! He was driving without due care and attention. The only way it could be your fault would be if you reversed into him. Obviously you didn't. Fight your corner, you are innocent.

They will probably say pay us privately for the damage this is the scam but like others say he should have been not too close to hit you also just say to them no matter what your going through insurance and the police said cctv is available they will investigate it, they have took advantage of you being a woman on her own bet if your dh was with you it would never have happened. Don’t let them bully you.

I had an accident recently where I went into the back of someone. I briefly believed it was my fault. In most cases the person driving into someone else usually gets the blame anyway. However I later realised that the reason this happened was because the car I hit was parked on a slip road on double yellows with the double yellow hatching over. A school exit onto a dual accurate ear. The slip road is like a crawler lane to get people out. You automatically slowly pull into the slip whilst looking back over your shoulder to the right for a space to get into the dual. I firstly didn’t think there was a car in front. I was at the front of the queue and the car before me had actually left. It’s almost a t junction so anything further down the slip isn’t obvious when pulling out. It was a lot later when I when back to the school another day that I realised there were parents parked in the slip who can’t be bothered using the proper pick up points, and I realised that my damage was on my front left and his damage was on his back right. If he had been crawling along in the skip in front of me he would have been pulling out and I’d have more likely hit my front right onto his back left. The fact that it was my front left onto his back right made me pretty sure he was parked.

Anyway, long story short, I tried to explain this to the insurance and they weren’t interested. It was automatically my fault.

So it is possible that the driver in the OP who dot the hitting could still get the blame.

Firstly sorry this has happened. As others have said here, please don't worry. If he went into the back of you, he will be the at fault driver, and your insurance company should reassure you that this is the case. If they do keep trying to wriggle out of it, your insurance company should then speak to a specialist lawyer who who will help prove your case. Might take some time, but it should all be ok. Good luck.

Sounds like insurance fraud on his behalf. Stand your ground, he is completely in the wrong.

The driver behind isn't always at fault in the UK, but they usually are in a rear-end shunt because they must maintain a safe stopping distance as per the Highway Code, even if the car in front stops suddenly. Exceptions exist where the lead driver might share blame (e.g., sudden, unexplained braking, broken brake lights, or deliberately stopping without cause) or even be mostly at fault, but proving this requires strong evidence like dashcam footage or witnesses.

8k. What are you on about?

The law changed years ago. It’s peanuts now

Admiral?

Yeah, if youre stationary and he's slammed into you, it won't matter that he has a witness. He's still to blame.

As I understand it, if you go into the back of someone, you're to blame. That simple. You're meant to leave yourself enough space to brake if the person in front does an emergency stop. Imagine if you'd slammed on the brakes to avoid a cycle or pedestrian. Still his fault.

But let him fill his boots with his fraud and fake witness. I hope they get the consequences they deserve.

True but need to be sure he doesn't lie and say OP turned in from the side road leaving him unable to stop in time. Pretty unlikely but can't be too complacent in these matters.

Strange that you were the only one it wasn't obvious to, though, isn't it?

Rest easy, there is next to no chance that it will be deemed anything other than 100% his fault whatever he and his friend might say.

The rare circumstances in which a rear end collision becomes the fault of the car in front do not apply here. He should have been driving at an appropriate speed and should have kept a safe distance from you just in case you needed to do an emergency brake stop. That's not to say his insurers won't try and play games but just stick to your story and don't let him rattle you. Best to let the insurers deal with it.

Try and see if there is cctv footage along that part of the road. Council or shops might be able to help but get on that quickly.

Insurers don't wanna pay out end of and this is text book. His witness is a friend not a random person from another car, he went into the back of you whatever he says your insurence won't back down on this one I'd prepare yourself for a long haul but you will win eventually

His ‘witness’ isn’t independent, so don’t worry about that. Regardless of whether or not you ‘slammed on the brakes’ the guy behind should be leaving enough room to stop safely. He’s obviously been too close, probably more likely just not paying attention. The suggestion earlier on about checking all cctv in the immediate area is a good one. Might also be useful to use social media to see if anyone else (independent) can give you a witness statement. And when the insurers get involved, make sure your own claim handlers pursue recovery of your damage and injury as rigorously as possible. This might even involve checking whether mobile phones were being used in the other vehicle at the time of the incident. Finally, since the other driver has taken this position, neither you or your husband should engage with him. It may even be that he is uninsured. And having said all that … I hope you’ve recovered from the shock. Shit happens. Don’t be upset and don’t let it put you off driving. Best wishes.

It's always the fault of the driver that has driven into you from behind.

I was going to leave it, but now that you’re getting arsey with people pointing out your mistake I’m going to speak up.

You were wrong anyway, regardless of the slight lack of clarity over what OP meant by a ‘give way box’. Whatever she exactly meant by that, the collision could not have been her fault because she was stationary for 5 seconds beforehand. As long as she isn’t slamming on her brakes at speed with someone close behind her, she’s entitled to let someone out of a side road. People frequently do that. There was never any basis for saying it might be 50:50, right from the very first post.

This matters, because the OP had had a nasty experience and you added to that by saying it might be 50% her fault, and then entirely blaming her for you getting it wrong because she didn’t say keep clear instead of give way box, when, as I say, that was on you.

Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s not that easy for people to see all your posts if you’re not the OP. So once you’ve got something quite badly wrong you have to wear it I’m afraid, and it’s not a good look to lay into posters who point it out, especially when you haven’t really accepted fault, you’ve just blamed the OP for saying give way box instead of keep clear.

This.

Agree. I was with my daughter when a learner driver drove onto a very busy fast roundabout, the learner braked suddenly then turned the engine off 🤦‍♀️.

My daughter rear ended their car at approximately 10mph. Because we hit them, irrelevant that the learner obviously panicked, we were deemed as being at fault.

The driving instructor accused us of pushing their car onto the roundabout, unbelievable. The whole incident cost 10k on my insurance, we didn’t claim for anything, we only had a crack on the number plate, we certainly didn’t create 10k worth of damage 😤

OP you might find watching a funny but acerbic YouTuber called Big Jobber reassuring. He works as an insurance claims handler but also does reviews of accident footage to show who's at fault and, per the Highway Code, why and how the claim is likely to be settled by the insurers. Watching a couple that are similar to your accident and listening to all the ins and outs as to fault is quite interesting and should help alleviate that anxious feeling you may have due to the behaviour of the other party.

Please do track down the cameras... and do it asap as you don't know how long they keep it. This is something insurance companies really rely on, I can't stress this enough.

You will probably need to Get photos of the area..and draw your own diagrams of what happened. Tell the insurance company you went to A and E.. with headache etc.

Then leave it up to insurance company solicitors and try not to worry so much about it. ( I know its hard not to)

Nothing to worry about, get in touch with the insurance company and relax.

Well that doesn't look like a t-junction.
If your road was clear ahead (past the Keep Clear box) then you should have progressed. If not then you have to wait (which I can see would be irritating if cars coming out of the side road keep filling the box).

Either way, it doesn't really matter, if he rear-ended you then it's his fault. Let your insurance company deal with it.