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3 Car shunt

7 replies

Panda368 · 05/06/2018 22:17

Hi, question about car accidents here.

Earlier today I was the last car in a 3 car shunt.

Traffic on motorway was quite heavy, and a car ahead of car no 1 in this accident put their hazards on.

Car no 1 slams on very hard because of this but doesn’t hit anyone, car no 2 goes into the back of car 1. I go into the back of car 2 as I’m unable to stop in time.

I’m not sure what kind of fault might be applied here. Obviously I’m expecting some as they will say I hadn’t allowed enough space to break which I accept - traffic had bunched suddenly with other cars moving into the lane and I’d not been able to respace myself before it happened.

My question is as the rear car am I likely to get all the blame for this? From my perspective the middle car was following too close and the front car slammed on too hard - traffic in front of them hadnt come to a stop etc. Because middle car hit front car and stopped much more sharply I couldn’t do anything to avoid hitting middle car.

Am I clutching at straws here?
My car is definitely worst off, I’ve had to spend 3 hours waiting for the rac on the side of the m1 where as they cruised off fine. I’m 4.5 months pregnant and it’s been such a bad day. 🙈

OP posts:
ThroughThickAndThin01 · 05/06/2018 22:21

Poor you, it’s awful isn’t it, such a shock.

I was the middle car(2) in a 3 car shunt, and I’m afraid to say that the third car was at fault. I had stopped and not gone into the front one but last car hit me and made me go on to hit the first one. The insurance came from him.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 05/06/2018 22:22

Just reread yours and see your situation slightly different. You are just at fault for hittting one car.

SirRodneyEffing · 05/06/2018 22:34

Your insurance company will be liable for the damage to the rear of car 2, but not the front of their car or any damage to car 1.

Collaborate · 05/06/2018 23:37

I agree that you're only responsible for the damage to the rear of car number 2. Remember that by this time it's sustained damage to the front of it. If that front damage made it a write off then your insurance might not have to pay anything out, as by the time you hit it it was already worthless.

HarrietSchulenberg · 06/06/2018 00:08

It depends if the middle car admits they'd already hit car 1. If they claim they'd stopped and you shunted them into car 1, there's not really any way of proving otherwise unless one of you has dashcam evidence.
Insurance companies don't normally bother fighting over this so they'd be likely to go with car 2's story and heap it all on you. Sorry.
The same happened to my mum (she was like you) and they just blamed her, despite her having a witness (me) that heard and saw car 2 hit car 1 before we hit car 2.

itswinetime · 06/06/2018 00:12

It depends if car 2 hit car one before you hit car 2 they will be responsible for some of the damage to car 1 (if it can be proven). If your car shunted car 2 into car one or they can't clearly prove what order it happened in then yes it's likely to all fall on you.

ReservoirDogs · 06/06/2018 19:48

Liability as pointed out above rear damage to car you hit.

Despite what happened before you too should have been far enough behind to.stop.safely if something happens ahead although we know in reality this doesn't always happen

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