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There are a set of, what we Injury Lawyers call, “common road accidents” and drivers pulling out from a parked position on the side of the road in to your passing vehicle is right up there with the classics. People simply forget the most basic of driving tuition rules – mirror, signal, and manoeuvre.

It’s a lot more common for the victims to be cyclists or motorcyclists. Its far easier to spot a vehicle of the size of a car or bigger, but many will fail to spot much smaller bikers, or may check their mirrors and pull out too quickly without noting the biker in their blind spot. A driver should always take caution when moving off from a parked position; even if the road looks clear.

So who is at fault in this kind of scenario? To us, it seems fairly obvious as we have years and years of experience in dealing with road accident claims. But the law is fairly simple – if you are correctly proceeding past a parked car on the side of the road and they pull out and hit you, they should be 100% to blame. So if this has happened to you, we can help you out with a claim for compensation.
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Together with roundabouts and junctions, traffic light controlled areas are up there with the most common scenes of a road traffic accident. So here are a few examples of classic crashes and a little advice about who may be at fault.

Rear End Shunt

Keep it simple to start with – when traffic slows or is stationary, rear end collisions are fairly common. If the lights change and traffic suddenly slows, it only takes one driver who isn’t concentrating as much as they should to not notice the traffic has slowed or stopped. In the vast majority of cases, the person who collided with the rear of another vehicle is at fault. The excuse that traffic slowed too suddenly isn’t normally a good enough defence!
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If you have been involved in a road traffic accident whereby the vehicle in which you were driving or travelling in was hit from the side, have you considered your eligibility to make a personal injury claim?

The basic principle is that, if you have been injured in an accident that was not your fault, then it is likely that you can make a successful claim. If you are a passenger then you cannot (bar exceptional circumstances) be at fault for causing or contributing to the accident. However an issue can arise as to who the claim is actually against. Say for example you were a passenger in a car which your friend was driving. You may think the claim would not be against your friend but would be against the driver of the other vehicle who collided into the side of the vehicle that you were a passenger in. Ordinarily this would be correct. However if during liability investigations it is found that the driver of the vehicle in which you were a passenger in (i.e. your friend) is at fault then the claim would be against them. This can cause an obstacle as people are naturally concerned about claiming against friends etc.
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Road traffic accidents proceed through something called the Road Traffic Accident Protocol, which involves your claim being electronically submitted to the other side’s insurance through an online portal. Once the claim has been submitted through this portal, they have 15 working days (so around 3 weeks) to respond formally with their admission or denial of liability.

But what happens if they don’t respond in this time frame? And what happens if they deny responsibility?

In both of these circumstances the claim “falls out” of the portal system. In the case where they just simply do not respond the claim will then proceed through the personal injury protocol. Under this protocol the Defendants have just around 4 months to investigate the claim and respond with their decision.  In many claims, such as rear end shunts or other cases where it is extremely clear that a party is at fault, it is unusual for the claim to fall out as many insurers try to get these resolved as quickly as possible (another reason that they sometimes try and contact you directly!). Insurers may want the claim to fall from the portal for their own reasons; however this is of course frowned upon and seen as insurers not complying with the “spirit of the protocol” set down by the Ministry of Justice.
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I’ve been driving for seven years now, and like to think that I am not only a confident and competent driver, I also stick to the advice my instructor gave me all those years ago. I’m of the opinion it’s better to be as safe as possible; so whilst “mirror, signal, manoeuvre” is the correct way of doing things, I tend to keep my eye on the mirror and check the blind spots to make sure I’m safe when changing lanes.

But there are still too many people out there who fail to follow the basic principle of “mirror, signal, manoeuvre” – which is why accidents involving people changing lanes are common; especially on roundabouts. So what’s the law when it comes to drivers changing lanes and causing an accident?
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Here’s a little advice about the ins and outs of a rear end shunt claim for compensation.

Generally speaking, you have a very strong claim for compensation if you are hit in the back by another driver. Being hit in the back indicates that the other driver failed to stop in time, which means they failed to react in enough time and were possibly driving too fast or not keeping a safe enough distance.

So if you are injured because someone went in to the back of you, you pretty much have a guaranteed claim for compensation. There is very rarely a good defence that the other driver could raise in these circumstances. Unless you slammed the brakes on because you are fraudulently trying to make a claim, or unless you slammed on to avoid hitting anything smaller than an average sized dog (except for a child) like a squirrel, there isn’t much of a defence they could raise.
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Accidents involving a driver pulling out a junction from a minor road on to a major road are extremely common. The right of way is on the motorist proceedings on the major road. The driver emerging from a side road must give precedence to anyone on the road they are trying to merge on to.

These accidents are very common for motorcyclists. It’s a lot easier to spot a vehicle on a major road, whereas it may not be so easy to spot a motorcyclist who is much, much smaller in size. Although the majority of motorcyclists wear reflective clothing and have Modulating Headlights which catch the eye of drivers as the flash, some drivers still fail to look out properly for motorcyclists.

The sorts of injuries motorcyclists generally receive can be fairly serious. Hitting a vehicle emerging from a side road will likely cause you to be thrown from your bike with a large amount of force. We represent a lot of motorcycle accident victims here because we specialise in these sorts of personal injury cases. Broken bones and head injuries are very common, and very worrying.
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When driving a motor vehicle, whether the motor vehicle is a car, lorry, truck, motorbike etc – you owe a duty of care to other drivers and also to pedestrians. Equally, pedestrians owe a duty of care to motorists, albeit to a lesser extent. The standard of care is that of a reasonable, competent and experienced driver. Even a learner driver is subject to the same standard of care as a driver with a full license and experience.

Giving a lower standard of care would have been a risky move by the Courts, as we have to think about other areas, such as trainee doctors etc. The standard of care is to a competent and experienced driver (or a competent and experienced doctor). However with learners and trainees other measures are of course taken such as monitoring and in the case of learner drivers, the driving instructor ordinarily has foot controls so that he or she can intervene if absolutely necessary.
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A concertina collision is a collision commonly involving three or more vehicles in which one vehicle shunts in to another with such a force that the same vehicle is in turn forced into the one in front. It isn’t a scenario where Car 1 hits Car 2, and then Car 2 Hits Car 3 – it’s a collision where the force of being hit in the rear causes a vehicle to be pushed in to one in front.

Therefore, generally speaking, if you are the front or middle vehicle, you shouldn’t be at fault. As the middle vehicle, if you are stationary and you are hit in the rear and in turn pushed in to a car in front, you are not at fault. Your stationary vehicle has been pushed in to another – the driver that hit you is liable for damages for both you and the vehicle you have been forced in to.
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Just this week I wrote about almost being in an accident when a driver cut me up on the exit of a roundabout. Last night the same sort of thing happened – but more to do with the wet weather. So I thought I’d do a quick blog about compensation claims and wet weather.

All drivers ought to know that extra care needs to be taken during periods of wet weather. The road surface is slippery and water may have accumulated in puddles or fords which pose a serious risk of skidding or aquaplaning, losing control, and crashing. A driver cannot really use the excuse that of ‘the weather’ to defend a claim – if a driver fails to stop due to skidding or losing control of the vehicle in wet weather and hits you, they are still at fault.

Last night a driver decided to cut me up and change lanes in front of me to avoid a ford that had accumulated in the road in his lane – he obviously didn’t realise that, firstly, I was there, and secondly, the water was in my lane anyway! So when I had to almost slam my brakes on and completely lost all vision as his car kicked up a tidal wave that covered my entire windscreen reducing my vision to literally nothing (it was like being in a car wash), I think avoidance of a collision was left to fate.
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