Involved in an accident- Advice needed please

[shiftin_gear98]

Hope you get it sorted. If you are fully comp get them involved. If you are third party fire and theft - DO NOT LET ANYONE TAKE YOUR BIKE. Learnt that the hard way. The side panel is more than £300.00. Good luck.

The way you've drawn it on the google maps doesn't show him pulling onto a roundabout into your path, it shows you being side by side on a two lane roundabout and you exiting the roundabout across his path.

The collision is not shown as happening when he enters, it's shown as happening when you exit, which would be your fault.

If you had your left indicator on he probably shouldn't have entered the roundabout and come up your inside in the first place, but it's difficult to prove whether you had the indicator on or not, whether you switched from right to left indicator before or after he entered, and they may unbeknowst to you not have been working, so you are expected not to rely on somebody else having seen them, so if the white line lane markings continue round the roundabout (which they do in this case), then at the point of you exiting, the law sees it as though you crossed his lane.

If you'd hit him at the point where he joined the roundabout that would be different, that would be his fault. But the way you've drawn it, it happened on exit.

Next time you've got a vehicle on your inside when you want to exit, abandon the exit and do another loop round the roundabout.

[SV650rules]

IMHO the diagram show the car pulling across in front of OP bike and blocking off his exit as the blue line extends across exit lane.

Don't know if this is the case here but I have had quite a few occasions when there is a double lane off the island where people will pull out on you even when you are indicating left to go off at that exit, seems like they are pushing you to use the RH lane off the island while they think they can sneak straight into the LH lane of the exit. I was always of the opinion that vehicles already on the island have right of way - period. I have abandoned turn-off and gone round again a few times when someone came on to island unexpectedly in front of me - or looked as though they were going too fast to stop in time - discretion being the better part of valour and all that. I have also had people in front of me on an island with a double lane off and I have been in LH lane of island indicating left while they are in RH lane, they just signal left and pull right across your bows into LH lane of exit, completely ignoring the second lane off (makes me wonder how aware these drivers are of anything that may be happening around them and how often, if ever they use their mirrors).

It's difficult to say without being there and it could just be a badly drawn diagram.

I've drawn a new diagram.

If the bike took the black road positioning, and started switching to the left hand lane at the green X, and the car pulled onto the roundabout and the collision happened with the black car at the red X, then the accident was the cars fault. The indicator should have been switched from right to left indicator at the green X, but doesn't necessarily have a bearing on fault because neither driver should be relying upon them. Note also that the black path would not have allowed a car the space to get up his inside.

If the bike took the blue path, as it seems to me from the OP's diagram that it did, and it collided with the purple car at the orange X, then it's the bikes fault for crossing the purple cars lane to get to his exit, his road positioning didn't help tell the driver where he was going, and faced with a potential collision from a car on his inside should have abandoned the exit and gone round again.

Only the OP or the car driver can tell us which one actually happened.

[Blapper]

I'd say the green X is too late in your diag, it should be just as he passed the exit before the one he wanted not in no mans land where you've drawn it. If he did, there is no excuse for the car entering the roundabout when he is clearly indicating that he is coming off at the next exit.

[SV650rules]

Truth is there are too many people who seem highly annoyed when they have to actually stop and wait at any junction, and who will pull onto an island when someone is approaching them, this is asking for trouble as some people don't even indicate when they are leaving the island and will happily pull straight across from RH lane into the exit.

I used to indicate RH going round the island and LH when I was leaving - I got so fed up of people cutting onto the island in front of me that I have stopped indicating at all until I am ready to leave island, people don't tend to 'cut me up' anywhere near as much now. Leave 'em guessing seems to be the way to go.

Originally Posted by Blapper

I'd say the green X is too late in your diag, it should be just as he passed the exit before the one he wanted not in no mans land where you've drawn it. If he did, there is no excuse for the car entering the roundabout when he is clearly indicating that he is coming off at the next exit.

It is intended to be in no mans land as it's a dual carriageway. Maybe you could put it 3-4mm further to the left (a split second earlier), but opposite that bit of central reservation grass is where the indicator needs to be.

Obviously to have your indicator flashing and visible at the green X, you need to have thought about it and moved the handlebar switch a moment earlier.

No mans land as you call it is where DSA, IAM and ROSPA all expect to see it and where is it on the diagrams in the highway code section on roundabouts. That's so cars waiting to join the roundabout at that exit can see where you are intending to go. See the diagram below section 185 on the following linky

http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/using...84-to-190.html

All that matters is it's clear to the vehicles waiting to join the roundabout that you are going to leave at the next exit.

[daktulos]

There are no lane markings between where the car entered and the bike was due to exit. I was taught that this was a single lane the width of two cars, so the bike would not have been changing lanes before exiting.

Either way, the bike would have been positioning itself before the car entered the roundabout, and the car has to give way to traffic on the roundabout.

Originally Posted by daktulos

There are no lane markings between where the car entered and the bike was due to exit. I was taught that this was a single lane the width of two cars, so the bike would not have been changing lanes before exiting.

Either way, the bike would have been positioning itself before the car entered the roundabout, and the car has to give way to traffic on the roundabout.

Maybe just obscured on google maps by the opaque overlay, but if you look at other bits of the roundabout, like at my green x or behind the white van, its marked as two lane.

The car has to give way to vehicles already on the roundabout, but if he's joined safely in the inside lane, because another vehicle is in the outside lane, once they are both on the roundabout side by side, it's a different story.

Originally Posted by daktulos

There are no lane markings between where the car entered and the bike was due to exit. I was taught that this was a single lane the width of two cars, so the bike would not have been changing lanes before exiting

Just looked at it on Google Streetview and you may have a point there, those lane markings you see on satellite view are there where the car entered, but they are not all the way round, and not past the junction where he exited.

So if it's still like that, the car driver should have treated it as a single lane and shouldn't have got up his inside, but he can be forgiven for thinking it's two lane as he see's lane markings when he's looking right towards the traffic on the roundabout as he's joining.

So actually is the council to blame here??

But the theory of what I've written is correct, in that if you have two lanes, you are on a roundabout alongside another vehicle, regardless of where they joined, it's your responsibility to change lane for your exit safely.

Sometimes you can't call these things on a forum, you have to be there, and sometimes even when you are there it's not clear cut and you can have knock for knock. What's for sure in any accident is it's very rarely 100% one parties fault. There is always SOMETHING one party could have done differently to avoid it.

In any case, in this scenario, I'd have been countersteering hard on the right bar and going for another loop of the roundabout as it doesn't really matter who's at fault once you are on your ar$e.