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

Yes Op he was too close to you. Always keep a car and a half length behind another car.

Don't accept that from them. They were too and probably not concentrating either.

She didn't break, she was stationery in order to let drivers pull out of a Give Way, which she should not have been doing. Obviously the driver behind should have stopped in time, but the fact she was stationery when she shouldn't have been might put her at 50/50 to blame.

Something similar happened to a friend of mine in snowy weather. She'd stopped to let someone cross at a zebra crossing. The idiot behind her tried to maintain that she'd skidded backwards uphill into him. I seem to recall that he stuck to his story and the insurance wrangling went on for a while.

Haven’t read the entire thread but unless you slammed brakes on from a reasonably high speed ie 30mph plus, you are absolutely not in the wrong, witness or not.

They’re trying it on and you are not at fault.

Pretty sure whenever someone hits you from behind it’s their fault. Of course someone in his car will agree with him!

Depends on what she means by "Give way box" - I thought she meant the yellow hashed boxes where you can't enter unless your exit is clear. Plus I have never heard of people getting in trouble for letting others go.

Either way she was stationery at the time so no, he has no excuse. She could have stalled at the junction, may be a nervous driver so doesn't pull out into a smaller gap that someone else may think is fine etc.

Whenever you get hit from the back it is never your fault. They should have anticipated an emergency brake scenario. Their fault.

@ReadingSoManyThreads this is not true at all. It doesn’t matter why you’re stationary you can’t just crash into the back of people.

Yes. Try to get hold of the CCTV... probably had one if its a T junction with a yellow box. I was also told they only keep them for a month.
What was the other driver doing - he was approaching a T Junction and he should have slowed down anyway.
See your GP and get your neck injury on record. Insurance companies may pay for physio for this kind of thing... (you can get it as an extra on your own insurance , but only if you see GP) and in any case it can cause you pain long afterwards.

People try it on all the time. And they lie. Have a look on Amazon for front and back car cameras.. for next time.

Your insurance company should be telling you all of this anyway.

If you go into the back of someone it is mostly your fault. A low speed bump like this is the driver behind either not leaving a big enough gap or being distracted when the traffic start stops. Contact your insurance and let them deal with it, ignore the bully boy tactics, he knows he's at fault going into you. Id recommend getting a dash cam, definitely helps when this sort of thing happens.

Even if you had slammed your brakes on it would still be his fault. Stop fretting op. Hand it over to your insurers and tell them everything, including his attempts to blame you.

Well obviously you cannot just crash into the back of people, but what I'm saying is it isn't always automatically the driver behind's fault. It depends on the reason as to why it happened as to whose fault it would be. E.g. if a car switched lanes on the motorway, leaving the car behind without a safe braking distance, then the car that just pulled in brakes hard and gets rear-ended, it'll actually be the car in front's fault. So it's not just a case that the car at fault is always to blame.

Even if you did slam the brakes on, they're supposed to leave adequate distance between themselves and the car in front to react in time to stop and not hit you. They're in the wrong.

I had a similar incident. I had to stop suddenly as a bus pulled out in front of me. Car rearended me with my then 3YO in the back. She was nice enough at the accident scene but then called me later that night trying to get me to admit that I'd stopped too suddenly. Silly cow then spent 2 years trying to claim it was my fault but our insurance company told us from the onset that it was clearly her at fault and that was the verdict with the insurance companies eventually. The highway code is very clear. It's 100% your responsibility to allow stopping distance for the vehicle in front of you. Unless it can be proved that you stopped maliciously (which they won't be able to do) then they don't have a leg to stand on. Just give the insurance company your POV and let them deal with it. Don't let it stress you out

Someone rear ended me when he brakes failed on the wet road, she said that at the time among many tears and apologies on seeing my child in my car, but later claimed it was my fault. I spoke to the police and they were very clear that it’s always the fault of the driver behind, who rear ends the other. You’re safe. Sorry it happened to you. Do some tapping for the shock!

Hi there,
I work in an insurance fraud team.
When we review potentially induced collisions (slam ons), we consider whether the incident was near a crossing/slip road/roundabout etc, as it is plausible one would slow down on approach.

His witness would not carry any weight (unless you’re in Scotland), as he is not classed as independent - you can disregard that.

You need to be on the front foot and let your insurers know so that they can inspect your vehicle if necessary. Sometimes true fraudsters will have cut their brake lights. Other times, fraudsters will claim for damage that wasn’t sustained during the incident. People often add extra passengers to try and succeed in additional whiplash claims. Your best protection is to engage with your insurers. It’s possible that there was cctv that caught the incident, and your insurers will request a police report if necessary, however in civil terms, the other party was fully at fault and you are entitled to be placed in a position of indemnity (position you were in before the incident occurred).

His fault. Claim against his insurance for concussion and whiplash too. £8k is average and will increase his insurance even more which a dickhead like that deserves.

Don’t worry. It’s his fault for being too close to your vehicle and his witness will be judged as bias.

Because they’re angry, male, defensive, ignorant and misogynistic. It’s a toxic mix. And sorry if I sound prejudiced but I’m bitter from years of driving around London roads, which are a magnet for total arseholes.

Very true. Especially as you may be creeping looking to join a line of traffic and about to join but then someone comes flying through in which case you’d have to emergency stop and person below should be watching you not assuming you’re definetely going to go and accelerate along with you.

I did this exact thing not long after my driving test many years ago and was mortified as I realised I was watching the traffic and assuming that the van was going to go right across some traffic and rear ended it when it decide to stop. Luckily the guys took pity on my young shaking self, dismissed the idea I’d done any damage and sent me on my way - much wiser!

Years later someone went into the back of me whilst I was stationery on a very well known major connecting road which I was shocked the insurer couldn’t get any CCTV for but apparently they couldn’t. Anyway the guy led me on a merry dance and retracted his earlier statement he was in the wrong to it never happened and he had no clue how I got his number! Took about 2 years but eventually was decided as no fault to me I can’t remember exactly why but possibly because as I was the person rear ended I was already in the default stronger position and I’d recorded it was raining so that as well as him flip flopping about his story helped I think. Unfortunately your insurance may still go up just becuase regardless of whose at fault, you’ve still been involved in a collision and so the risk of insuring you is higher than before 😑.

Even if you did brake out of nowhere, the liability is still with the car that hit you from behind. Pretty much the only way a car hit from behind can be liable is if it pulls directly into the path of another car then immediately brakes. So even if they believe the other driver's mate, which I doubt, it doesn't change liability.

His friend sitting in the car would not be considered a witness.
Even if you’d have slammed your brakes on he should have been able to stop as were supposed to keep distance and be aware of what the car in front is doing

My brother was involved in an accident where the driver in front suddenly slammed on her brakes, and he went into the back of her car. She was really upset and explained that she’d only just bought the car and didn’t realise how sensitive the brakes were. She said she’d only meant to slow down for the junction ahead.

In any case, my brother was found to be 100% liable. The view was that he should have been keeping a safe enough distance to stop in time without hitting the car in front.

i think you’ll be fine.

I went know the back of someone and the insurance said it's always the person behind who is at fault for not leaving breaking room - too fast / too close and not paying attention.

where you got average 8k from ?