After 9 years of driving and due to no fault of mine, I have had my first accident !!

Just to give you a bit of information on the accident, I approached a roundabout to turn into my town, it has 3 lanes on the approach and there are 5 exits to the roundabout. As usual, the lane on the left is for cars to turn into the first 2 exits, the middle lane for the 3rd exit and the right hand side lane is clearly marked to turn into the 4th and 5th exits respectively.
I see the Clio in the left lane and think he is going to turn into one of the first 2 lanes. So I continue on to the roundabout in the middle lane indicating that I am turning left as I leave the 2nd exit to turn into my exit which is the 3rd exit. There was a Toyota Corolla in the same lane as me which also turned into the same exit as I wanted to.
At this point, the Clio driver suddenly decides he wants to take the 4th exit and ploughs right into the side of me !! saying that he wanted to go into my lane and
Luckily and thankfully my wife who was with me and the 2 guys in the Renault Clio were unhurt.
His right (off side) rear wing is completely smashed in but surprisingly, my FL2 has just a few scractches on the near side front wing, damage to the headlight and the foglight cover has come off.

Now I turn to the power of the FL2 Oracles for help if you can please?
1). I think it is clear that it was not my fault and the fault is that of the Clio driver. I have mentioned the details as above to my insurance company. They said it will not be necessary for me to draw pictures etc and that they will take it forward with the other insurance company. Is this normal practice having luckily never had to claim for an accident before?
2). According to my insurance company, they will get my car repaired at a workshop and use geniune LR parts to replace the required parts but not use an LR dealer.
Can anyone let me know if I can tell the insurance company that I want to get it repaired at an LR dealer and use their courtesy car and will then claim the costs back? Has anyone done this in the past and if so what is the procedure they followed?

Any help or suggestions would be welcome and I am just hoping my FL2 is back to its best soon. I feel sad its injured albeit only slightly. Land Rover Freelander 2 GS Santorini Black, 2.2 Td4-e, Rear Spoiler

Depends on the honesty of the other driver, If he/she come up with a cock n bull story of your bad driving and the ramming of the clio , you will have little way of arguing the toss. I've had people agree with me that the accident was all there fault blah blah blah, only to come back latter with a totally different spin on things

Yes you can insist on LR repairing the car At work
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"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

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I had a bus slide into the side of me in the snow whilst I was stationary, clearly the bus drivers fault. My insurance company wanted to us non LR dealer to repair but I insisted that my local LR dealer repaired it. They agreed but said if there was any issues post repair then it was up to me to sort out. I believe that legally they can only 'request' that you use their repairers but you have the right to use manufacturers approved repairer.

My dealer put me in touch with Accident Exchange which will handle the repair using LR approved repairer and will supply a like for like loan car ( I ended up with a Disco 3 as no freelander 2 autos were available ). Accident Exchange only handle no fault claims but talk to them and they will decide if they will take up the claim for you. Look them up on the internet.

chicken george wrote:

Depends on the honesty of the other driver, If he/she come up with a cock n bull story of your bad driving and the ramming of the clio , you will have little way of arguing the toss. I've had people agree with me that the accident was all there fault blah blah blah, only to come back latter with a totally different spin on things

Yes you can insist on LR repairing the car

Thanks CG .
The driver was quite insistent that he was correct to be in the left lane to take the 4th exit which I still somehow dont understand having used the roundabout everday for 3 years. I bet he will mention that to his insurance. But I am hoping that the police who briefly passed by the scene only to tell us to exchange details will mention some details. I have given his details to the insurance company but since he was just passing by didnt give me a reference number.

I will call up the insurance company and insist that it gets fixed at a LR dealer. Is this a good idea considering they are offering me warranty on the repairs for 3 years for all parts replaced. Land Rover Freelander 2 GS Santorini Black, 2.2 Td4-e, Rear Spoiler

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTrans.../DG_070338

That should cover it....

186
Signals and position.

When taking the first exit to the left, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise
signal left and approach in the left-hand lane
keep to the left on the roundabout and continue signalling left to leave

When taking an exit to the right or going full circle, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise
signal right and approach in the right-hand lane keep to the right on the roundabout until you need to change lanes to exit the roundabout signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want

When taking any intermediate exit, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise select the appropriate lane on approach to the roundabout you should not normally need to signal on approach stay in this lane until you need to alter course to exit the roundabout signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want

When there are more than three lanes at the entrance to a roundabout, use the most appropriate lane on approach and through it.

Don't think the bloke has the proverbial leg to stand on.

I see members of the grey army do this all the time. Left hand lane on a roundabout and then heading round to the exit right. Very bright.... Hi Darling, I'll be home in 10 mins. If I'm not back, please read this message again...

Many many thanks guys for your inputs. All the information given is very useful and I will get in touch with Accident Damage and see what they say.
I did think that it was the other driver's fault and now that I have the information given on the Highway Code, I dont understand how he was arguing his point.

I will try and mention all this in the paperwork that the insurance company is due to send me.

Thanks again  Land Rover Freelander 2 GS Santorini Black, 2.2 Td4-e, Rear Spoiler

Playing Devils Advocate, the guy might argue, you cut into his lane without making sure it was clear, despite the fact he shouldn't have been there. It's the old arguement like when you strike a child suddenly crossing the street, the arguement runs you should be in a position to stop no matter what.

Insurance companies have their own protocols as to blame, some agreements including no matter who is to blame. They will only pay their own clients damage, others have fixed percentages. It's all down to civil liability, criminal responsibility may be a factor, but isn't a determining one.

Can use LR Garage, but if your insurance company normally provide a curtesy car, this would be denied.

In essence, so long as the approved repairers use LR parts, I can't see a problem. LR garages are normally terrible when it comes to servicing etc. so it follows their repairs won't be up to much, besides which most contract out their repair/accident work anyway.

SW, if it's in your town can you go back down and take a few photos of the Rabout set up - it reads blatently obvious that they are at fault, but what I'd suggest you do while it's fairly fresh in your mind is to make your own little report of what happened, include weather conditions rain/poor visability, dry ? daytime/evening lights on/off. You mentioned that your insurance company don't need pictures, ignore them, you need to go onto the ''Im not a pushover pile'', make a report, do a stage by stage scetch, take pictures of your car and send it to your named contact at your insurance .
Most of us have been in your situation throughout of lives and have felt the frustration - In my case the elderly gentleman wasn't insured (Bless him) and I got naff all

Reading what you have written, you hit the Clio on the Rear wing, drivers side, which would indicate that he was in front of you. The fact that he was in the wrong lane is an issue, he probably didn't check before continuing round, but I do not know how it will stand as it could be said that you drove into him.

Have you got legal cover? Hi Darling, I'll be home in 10 mins. If I'm not back, please read this message again...

xtattsbox wrote:

Reading what you have written, you hit the Clio on the Rear wing, drivers side, which would indicate that he was in front of you. The fact that he was in the wrong lane is an issue, he probably didn't check before continuing round, but I do not know how it will stand as it could be said that you drove into him.

Have you got legal cover?

google maps in satallite view

I don't think you can copy the picture, so get a screen capture by using the print screen button on you keyboard, then paste it in to a new picture in your photosuite

then paste in little pics of your car and the others with arrows showing direction and impact

I have done this in the past, found it really helps the car, streetview might even show he crossed over chevrons or similar to get into your lane Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Hi without any independent witness ( people in your vehicle do not count no matter who they are) the other driver can say what he wants, and you can't prove one way or the other. If that is the case your insurance company will proberly want to split the blame 50/50. My advice is take some phots of the scene making sure you get any lane arrows in the shot, try to get all the lanes on approch to the round about, and all the exits. This will help support your side of the event, Just hope the other driver tells the truth.

Just as a quick note of caution, unless the other party's insurers fully accept blame & pay up without issue, Accident Exchange will probably end up initiating legal action against the other party on your behalf to fully reclaim & cover their excessively high vehicle hire cost.

Insurers tend to take issue with Accident Exchange's hire costs as they're extremely high compared to "standard" car hire charges so it's possible that you'll end up in court being questioned as to whether or not the loan of a Disco was actually required or if a Fiesta or something similar would do in its place. An interesting experience to say the least!

Assuming they accept liability & you decide to use Ax, just make sure you keep a note of any offers made by the other party's insurers around loan cars etc so that you have the info filed away somewhere in case it's needed.

You shouldn't end up being liable for costs if Ax decide to launch legal action but it's worth bearing in mind that according to the small print of the contract that needs to be signed when they turn up with the loan car the hirer (i.e. you) is liable for the complete cost of the hire......

Your mileage may of course vary, and I'd suggest you engage some sort of relevant legal advice if you're unsure of what to do as the above is just a collection of observations based on my experience of a similar situation!

(My 7 month old BMW 3-series was rear-ended by a bus driven by someone on his first shift out without a instructor; engaged Accident Exchange to deal with the repair and spent 5 weeks driving around in a new 5-Series. Bus company insurer took issue with the hire cost and refused to reimburse Accident Exchange who took the bus insurers to court to reclaim. Cue lots of questions aimed at me as the driver around whether a 5-series was necessary; why did the dealer take so long to repair the car; couldn't I have made do with an Astra etc. All sorted in the end but wasn't particularly pleasant at the time.)

It will almost def be a 50 / 50 i'm afraid. I had a van reverse straight into me out of a side road when I was stationary in traffic on a main road. I had witnesses and the van driver admitted full liability and was very co-operative - he even let me photograph the fact that his firm's van had no glass in his side mirror. However, the cnuts at his insurance company still went for 50 / 50. Only when I agreed that I would go to court to contest it did they relent and pay up.

Not sure if the law has changed over the years but some years ago my brother has an accident on a roundabout where the other driver moved from the left hand lane to the right hand lane as he decided that he wanted to turn to the right at the last minute and smashed into the side of my brothers car.

The case eventually ended up it court where my brother thought that the other driver was at fault...........unfortunately that wasn't the case as at that time there was nothing in law that stated you had to be in a particular lane to turn right or left at a roundabout.

I know judges & the like normally refer to the highway code for guidance, but if he or his insurers have a good solicitor and the law hasn't changed then it will probably end up 50-50. ______________________
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