Car accident liability

[BaggyCoconut]

Brief over veiw: We are turning off a main road, brake early enough indicating, check mirrors etc. Nothing coming, so we turn.

Then out of nowhere a car smahses into the passenger side. This car, from what we saw and an independant witness saw has:
Come out from behind the van behind us
Undertaken down a bus lane
Possibly speeding (this is just the witnesses veiw of the speed they were doing)

The insurance company has not finished investigating yet, however has said fault will more than likely lay with us as we were turning over another lane. and this nhormally means they find fault. The man on the phone will speak with manager about if it is worth pursuing the witness to obtain their account. This witness pulled over and volunteered, we did not ask. (we turned at the only part you can due to the bus lane).

Is it just me or is it odd to put fault with us without this being fully looked into? Surely under taking in a bus lane should be taken into consideration?

Our car is likely to be a total write off, much damage to body, floor doors completely destroyed, and we were doing literally 15 MPH.

DH had an accident a few years ago where somebody from about 15 cars back in a slow-moving queue on a single carriageway decided to overtake everyone else and knocked him off the road into a field. Even though the bodyshop said the point of impact was the rear of our car (which I considered made an open-and-shut-case his fault) his defence was DH had "pulled into [his] lane of traffic" (ie the other side of the road WTF). Witnesses said he was also driving at about 80mph on a 60mph road, which the police said wasn't relevant. Of course it was relevant- had he not been going so fast (a) DH would have seen him and (b) he wouldn't have caught up to him so fast. The insurance company settled on 50:50 blame

So I think it is likely they will do the same to you.

One caution- we accepted the insurance companies first offer, because they said we could claim for extras later. Turned out to be a lie and left us out of pocket. Write-off does not give you anywhere near the amount you need to replace the car. I didn't know you could refuse and negotiate. Very expensive lesson learned.

Id expect it to be your fault too.

while he shouldnt have been there, he was, and its up to you to look before you cross another lane.

Just cause someone is doing something that maybe they shouldnt, doesnt make you right.
Are taxis allowed to use that bus lane (as in many they are) if so you should also have been looking out for buses and taxis (ie cars) that may have been in the lane.

You not seeing them doesnt make it their fault

But the whole reason they were not seen was due to them trying to undertake, thus why they were not there and then were.

The insurance company have chenged their minds now anyway, and are collectign evidence from witness due to circumstances.

i agree that they shouldnt have been there....

however when driving you have to be aware, and look out for the people driving correctly and those who are not.

My Dad has a phrase that I think suits: "Their fault; Your responsibilty"