Scenario is we are on mollison ave turning right into hertford road and are currently 4 cars back on a red lights. Your aware that the lane to your left also turns right but also goes straight on. Your in the far right lane as the straight/right turn lane traffic is not moving due to and incident after the lights. Your aware of all cars around you and the car to your left (lets call it the blue car) has no indication that they want to proceed right at the lights. As we move off at a green light the traffic in the lane to the left begins to move as the incident cleared, the blue car on our left goes down the side and into the blind spot, decides to throw an indicator which was not seen due to positioning and turns into our vehicle as they proceed to try and turn right.
The right turn on the junction is not laned, its a boxed yellow zone. So lane disapline is left to the drivers.
Hertford Road is not marked with two lanes, but is wide enough for two vehicles, the left hand âlaneâ on hertford road then ends and is forced to merge in to right lane, however, the road does not indicate this.
Who would be liable in this situation, the blue car was not indicating initially, then throws late indication with no observations then proceeds to turn into the side of the lorry. Note the vehicle is a class 2 so turning right a small amount of room is needed to make the turning, however plently of room the the left was available.
If the other driver literally ran into the side of your vehicle as you indicate Iâm struggling to see how it could not have been their fault.
Iâm assuming that you never moved over to the left and hit him ?
Did the other driver actually run into the side of your vehicle or was he in front and you drove into the back or side of the other vehicle, or did he cut in front of you and you and hit the front corner of your vehicle.
A little more clarity on the position of the vehicles when the hit happened would be helpful
The car did slightly get ahead however id have only seen his front quater of his roof panel. (Small toyota aygo thing) when doing my checks at the lights the car had no indicators on. Upon review of the footage the driver has flicked his idicator on as he has got down under my mirror. You can see from the footage as the driver indicates he initates the turn to the right and lean up againt the lorry with his rear quater.
I didnt move left at all, held my lane all the way through the lights and proceeed to take the corner appropriately for the size of my vehicle. If the car on my left had seen me on there right they could have delayed there turn in and safely made the corner.
In my eyes hes cut me up as hes just not looked in his mirrors before turning as my nose is right beside him, Id say hes Almost cutting the corner to optain my lane on the exit.
Im a new driver so im questioning myself like mad. Ultimately im telling myself in hindsight that I should have just allowed myself to get full vision on the car by holding back a little as he passed on the left just before the lights, as the last I saw of him he was proceeding straight and should have seen the visual he had done what he intended last time I saw him.
Im a driver not a mind reader, however as a HGV driver I guess just be caution of everyone.
Maybe i was a little harsh but its my pet hate. quite clearly the reason there was queuing traffic is because people are trying to slide up the right hand lane to get ahead of the queue. This happens a lot everywhere but nowhere more so than london
However the road you were turning into is clearly a single lane. You would need a little extra space due to the kerb jutting out on the offside of the road you were turning into. The âblueâ car may not of been indicating when it drove up the inside of you however as you say you could only see a portion of the top of its roof while it was alongside you. No way you could see they had an indicator on or not. You should of been watching it like a hawk and all the other traffic. As clearly once you got through the mouth of the junction you were going to take all the space like any other vehicle would.
In future in situations like that eliminate the possibilities always think to yourself is there a chance someone could do something stupid and try to counter act it
That is an excellent turn of phrase.
As a professional driver you have to make up for the shortcomings of othersâŚ
No, it shouldnât have to be like that, but it is. To avoid hassle and extra paperwork, no matter who is ultimately at fault, we need to have eyes in the back of our head and avoid all idiots at all costs.
As above, it appears to me too that the car is in the wrong, but you might just possibly have taken avoiding action if you assumed that it was numpty, not a competent driver.
Donât beat yourself up over it, but assume everyone else is an idiot, you will rarely be proved wrong.
I would also say that if your evidence is from a dashcam, and if that dashcam is high up on your screen, as mine is, donât forget to point out to the company or anybody else who has the right to see it, that the dashcam view is not your view from your position lower in the cab.
I have seen many similar American accidents (long nosed cabs) with the dashcam very obviously showing a car in view well before the contact, but the driver cannot see it at all.
I havenât studied your road plan but if, as has been said, the road you are entering to the right is only single lane, the road planners must take a measure of responsability for marking 2 lanes to funnel into it imo.
As soon as you said blue car was in YOUR bindspot and things entering, you start to have some responsibility.
We do not know if the contact was shift turning or merging
There a saying ânever die in the rightâ, even if you thought you were right, you canât just casually drive on and how they donât hit you
The lack of indicator has nothing to do with it.
Nice that we can now embed Google Maps on this board
It doesnât change my opinion based on whatâs been said but this appears to be the road junction in question, the OP was turning right at the lights and the blue car must have been in the centre lane.
This is why they brought in DVS for London, and Iâd assume the required cameras all trucks need for DVS will have caught the evidence the company needs.
Youâre a new driver, this is bound to affect you, but in the grand scheme of things itâs nothing more than an insurance matter, so chalk it up to âgetting experienceâ.
Nor mine, but your photo does show a Right Turn option on that middle lane, hence my criticism of the authority for allowing such a thing into a single lane road.
BTW @acorn, was the blue car in his blind spot before he knew it, therefore strengthening my opinion.
The OP seems to be saying they saw the blue car and then it went into the blindspot, noting comment there was no indicator (irrelevant anyway).
Fir the OP, if they knew the lane they turned into had merging lanes it could / should have Tod them with signs, that there were 2 right turn lanes it says itâs a busy junction etc
Perhaps bye carâs dashcam shows something similar / different, ie. OP swung wide into the blue carâs zone
They! So the lorry is being driven by a committee then, one steering while the other one was working the pedals. Was the third on look-out duty? He or she could have scrambled into the passenger seat to take a gander at the blue car - six eyes better than two and all that malarky. And to think I thought that modern trucks drive themselves!
