Had a car accident on the way to school

[Zaina89]

Was on the way to take my kids to school this morning, exited a roundabout 2nd exit with my left indicator on. I assumed my indicator had turned of because I had turned and I have played back the dash cam footage and can’t hear any indicator. Neither when I was driving could I hear the indicator hadn’t switched off.
was driving 40 on a 40 road. This was 1/2 minutes approx after putting my indicator and exiting round about.
next thing I know driving down this 40mph road a car on a give way on my left with his indicator on turns out in front of me, immediately as I see him turning I slam my brakes on and beep my horn. Because of my high speed you can hear on the dash cam footage the noise my brakes are making because I slammed down. He didn’t even attempt to move back and he hit into the left side of my car. The man wasn’t even getting out of his car he just reversed back. I got out of my car shouting “ what have you done?” “ why did you just do that?”
only then he got out of his car and even then didn’t check his car or mine and just stayed at his drivers door. When I kept asking him “ why did you do that?” He just remained calm, smiled weirdly and said “ you had your indicator on to turn left, I’ve got it all on camera”
my indicator wasn’t on when I immediately got out to check my car, he didn’t even bother to check for any damage on his car and didn’t bother to see mine.
I asked him for his phone number and details and that I would be going to drop my kids off at school because we are now late and they are in shock and upset and he refused and said “ it’s a company car, just take a picture of my reg” and got back in his car. He didn’t even move away from his drivers door, didn’t check the damage, didn’t make any pictures or videos of our cars or the damage. Refused to give me his name and phone number and just said take a picture of my reg and got back in his car and drove away like nothing happened.

im just in complete shock, my son was sat in the passengers side and im just getting a panic attack thinking if I wouldn’t have slammed the brakes as soon as I saw him doing what he did it would have been a bad accident. No one is hurt, my car isn’t badly damaged mostly just bad scratches.
I genuinely did not know my indicator was on ( if it even was!) I can hear when my indicator is on and I couldn’t hear anything even looking back at the dash cam footage you can’t hear the indicator just me and my children casually talking and then you can hear me beeping and slamming down on the brakes and then the collision. If my indicator was on, I’m not sure why it hadn’t turned off or made noise because I exited the roundabout a minute or 2 before the collision.

surely by my speed going 40mph and not slowing down or intending to turn he should have known I was not turning and shouldn’t have pulled out! Trying to remain calm but it’s just so strange he refused to give me his name and number and also very strange he didn’t seem concerned to atleast check his own car and any damage, didn’t even take any pictures or videos!

Report to police and your insurance company. Not much else you can do.

DP's had a company car for years and the great thing is if you do crash they sort it all out for you at no expense. If this guy has one why would he be so cagey? A Range Rover is a high end company car too, at DP's company you'd be pretty high status to get one, again why would you be so worried? I'm not buying it...

Sounds like he was driving a car that is untaxed/uninsured or he doesn't actually have a UK driving license and is just a bad driver who probably wants this to go away.

Just to play devil's advocate OP you were the one who turned it into a aggressive confrontational situation by immiediately shouting at the other driver.

Accidents happen.

The other driver may have not chosen to exit the vehicle because of your aggresive demeanor. His wry smile and refusal to engage in conversational is likely due to him knowing he was in the wrong.

He was commiting an offence by not providing his details but if challenged he might pull the card that he was "afraid" of engaging due to your aggresive stance (even though that would likely be a lie).

As others have said report the failure to provide details to the police and contact your insurance company with the info you do have.

Hope you and DC are ok, car accidents aren't fun and the shock can last a while.

I would hazard a guess that it's not HIS company car, or for whatever reason he shouldn't have been driving it, it could even be stolen, or taken without consent.

Without giving his name and his details, and without a picture of him how can anyone prove it was him driving? The reg will lead to an insurance company (hopefully) but it doesn't prove who was driving.

I've had real problems with a stolen car hitting my parked car, I'm still waiting for some of the payout, the insurance company STILL want to know who was driving (police detained him at the scene and have that info), only now, three years later(!) has it been referred to the MIB.

Really the police should have been contacted at the scene when he refused to give his details.

I did make it clear before, when I said I shouted I wasn’t aggressive or violent and it’s even caught on the dash cam audio. I was shocked, panicked and got upset and kept asking “ why did you do that and what have you done” I wasn’t being violent or aggressive, I never would be because my children were in the car. But obviously considering my son was in the passenger seat of the side he just pulled out on me and hit me I would be very panicked and upset because this incident could have been a whole lot worse.

Nope. OP was driving within the legal limit. Even if she had her indicator on he should have waited til she had begun to manoeuvre. That's what the highway code says.

Your insurance will provide you with Solicitors.

FYI.. check and see if there are any street/speed or other cameras near the scene, if so, they may have caught it on film. But you will need to be quick as they often reset quite soon. There should be a label on them somewhere or tell your insurance company the camera location as they will know how to find this.

I say this because I was hit when I was parked in a public car park and the person (who I videoed ) said he didn't see me... This didn't matter in the end as he then lied about it and I couldn't get hold of the public camera footage by then which would have proved he was at fault.

Yes it did also occur to me that if it’s a company car he knows they will just sort it out for him, and if OP was having a go at him felt he had no interest in passing his number to her for her to potentially harass him afterwards for private settlement or whatever which he wouldn’t be able to do with a company car anyway.

Which isn’t right of course, but might be why.

I sometimes watch ‘BigJobber’ clips. He is an insurance claims liability expert who reviews dash cam footage. One thing I have learnt is that liability is not the same as legality and that dash cams can alter liability significantly. I think he covered an indicator left
on case and concluded that with no dash cam (and remember they have a wide field of view) it doesn’t impact liability. With dashcam
footage it may change liability but it would depend on the context. It’s an interesting watch and a bit of a rabbit hole.

Agree. Liability for insurance is the act that causes the accident. Doesn’t matter if OP was travelling 30/40/60. It’s the responsibility of the person exiting the junction to check it is clear to do so.

Great you have a dash cam, this should show the pertinent information, he pulled out into your path.

Whether you were indicating or not, or what he was expecting, or what he thought is irrelevant and a distraction to the fact, he pulled out into your path and committed a criminal offence by leaving the scene of the accident without leaving his details (or reporting it at a police station within 24 hours)

As previously suggested I would go and report it yourself as you also "failed to exchange details".

But I wasn’t violent, aggressive or planning to harass him or having a go at him. He pulled out and hit into me and my son was in that side of the car. I was obviously very upset and panicked. I had 3 kids in the car not just my son, my girls were in the back one of whom is only 2 and he pulled out and hit into me. I was upset and panicked and only asked him why did he do that ( as in why did he pull out and hit me) and what have you done.

It may or may not be stolen; it may or may not be a scam. That's for your insurance company to sort out. I'd mention that he said your indicator was on, give them your dash am footage and they can deal with it. Also give them a photo of the damage.

Once that's done, try not to worry. That's what we pay insurers to do.

When I learned to drive, I was taught not to assume that a driver was turning until you saw their wheels start to turn towards the corner.

No way was this your fault, OP.

Not true. A guy crashed into me, refused to give his details so i reported it to the police and they prosecuted him. I had his reg and a witness.

Well this is definitely not your fault, and the insurance company won’t hold you liable. He is supposed to give way until you’re passed

He's pulled out of a give way onto the major road, without giving way to you, causing you to brake sharply - even if there had been no collision, he is at fault.

Indicators and minor speed quibbles are irrelevant here (so whether you were doing 5 miles under or even 5 miles over the speed limit) the cause of the collision was him not giving way. (Yeah I watch Big Jobber!)

Your insurance co. should deal with it but I would not be surprised to find his behaviour is due to him being an uninsured or possibly even banned driver, rather than it being a company vehicle, because if it is a company vehicle, why not just hand over the details? I also wonder if his reluctance to step away from his vehicle is because he was trying to avoid appearing on your dash cam.

This sounds so scary OP, I'm glad no one was hurt.

He's in the wrong for pulling out on you, even if your indicator was on. So his smarmy little comment about it being on camera is irrelevant. Insurance companies say that indicating is a signal of intent, not a guarantee, and the person who pulls out is at fault.

I never, ever pull out at a junction even if the car is indicating and appears to be slowing down to turn for this very reason. I only go when they have actually started to make the turn. This is because a few weeks after passing my driving test someone pulled out on me because my indicator was on (I'd just come off a mini roundabout and there was a side street almost immediately afterwards, my indicator hadn't had chance to turn off automatically and I hadn't turned it off manually myself). Luckily I was going slowly enough to avoid hitting them, but it was still a good lesson learned early on in my driving career!

It doesn't matter.

Yes absolutely claim . If he isn't insured it will be dealt with by the Motor Insurance Bureau. I was hit by an uninsured driver and it was swiftly dealt with by my insurer and the MIB.

Also I think your response was tame, OP. If someone hit my car with my kids in it I would struggle to manage such a controlled reaction. I would have wanted to shout and scream at him for putting my babies at risk and I would have wanted to make him apologise to them directly for scaring them.

They take a chance you haven’t got dashcam, no witnesses. Come back later having totally rewritten the narrative. Claim they left the scene because you were aggressive etc. it’s a minor collision and no one hurt so insurance companies don’t bother investigating. Fighting it often causes more agro than people want to deal with so they get away with it. I knew someone who managed to find a house that caught the accident on ring doorbell and you could see they were sitting waiting for someone to pull into the road.

A company car can be driven by someone who is self employed. It doesn’t need to be a high status individual within a big corporate. Although I guess, Mr should have looked where he was going might have been more upset if he would be bearing the increased insurance costs.

Apologies.
thought at some point she said she didn’t
clearly she does
my mistake !