Serious car incident - who was at fault?

I can't see the motoring sub forum from the mobile app so feel free to move mods.

I was driving along an A road at rush hour today doing 70Mph in the left lane (70 limit road and the road has 2 lanes).

Ahead I could see a slip road with merging traffic so I indicated right (in good time) to get out of the way but the right lane was full and the person in my blind spot wouldn't move. I slowed down a little (eased off the accelerator) so they would pass and continued to indicate - but people in the right lane kept flying past and not allowing traffic to merge. I could see the person behind me indicating too and no one was letting them in either.

The car in front of me wasn't accelerating and I had no way of speeding up. They made it past the slip road exit before the first car emerging got to the end of it but I was a number of car lengths behind him and as I got closer the first car exiting the slip road was right along side me.

Keep in mind this is all happening in a matter of seconds - this was a matter of split second decisions.

Moving into the right lane was now an option which was no longer available (no one was letting me in and at this point if they did I would have had to swerve very harshly and dangerously at high speed).

My 2 options at this point were to either brake quite harshly (but there's traffic right behind me) or accelerate harshly but my car doesn't accelerate quickly in 5th doing 70mph and the car in front is still doing 70 (can't blame them if it's the limit and they're more focussed on the road ahead than behind I guess!).

I eased off my accelerator again - hoping to create 2 situations 1. Slip road car accelerates and merges safely and I slow down safely OR 2. Right hand lane traffic allows me to switch lanes and I take the risk of swerving at 60 rather than 70.

Neither happened.

The slip road car didn't accelerate and no one let me change lanes. It got right to the point where the slip road had ended and this car hadn't merged and was still moving much to slowly (I'd say about 40 by now) to merge in front of me without causing me to break hard - I saw the passenger wave her arms at the driver and having no where safe to swerve and doing around 60 by now, all I could do was break like mad and hope he stopped and the car behind me was paying attention.

Luckily the slip road car braked down to about 20mph and the person behind me breaked hard. The front of the slip road car was about 1 foot from my bonnet as I passed him - I'd braked hard and went past at about 30/40.

Someone behind in the right lane finally got out of my blind spot and the person behind them allowed me to merge - so I swerved over and the slip road car merged with left hand lane traffic slowing behind him.

Note - I use this road regularly but not at rush hour and never had any problems but it's in the local news on a weekly basis due to accidents and fatalities. I understand why now.

So - was I wrong for not slowing right down? Should I have avoided trying to move to the right lane to avoid the slip road (which was my main priority) or was the slip road driver wrong for not speeding up to merge sooner - or should he have slowed (I think that's quite dangerous though). Or was it a catch 22 for both of us and the right hand lane traffic at fault for not allowing left hand lane traffic to move over and allow slip road traffic to merge?

This might sound dramatic but I feel like I just had a brush with death and I'd like to actually learn from this regardless of whose fault it was - so that I don't experience that again. I can't think of how I could have done anything differently without causing an accident and I suppose I must have done something right to avoid one - but it wasn't a nice experience!

Opinions? Thanks

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

KatieBlogger

Bump

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

username1799249

Original post by KatieBlogger

So - was I wrong for not slowing right down?

Posted from TSR Mobile

It is a tricky one and perhaps one shouldn't really judge having not been there. Rush hour is a horrible place to be. No one gives a hoot about anyone else on the road which is bizarre since no one actually wants to get to work either. As a result, you tend to have to bully your way into lanes rather than waiting for someone to politely allow you in. Failing that, yes, you should have slowed down to allow merging traffic in.

I was once denied access to a lane which caused me having to go past my junction. I was absolutely fuming about it but I am sure the a-hold that did it was laughing all the way to his equally dull office.
I now cycle to work. Much less stressful apart from the odd idiot that tries to cut you up, gets you fit and you can beat rush hour traffic any day of the week. Plus I save a packet by not having a car or paying to commute.

Stay safe!

Reply 3

Andy98

Original post by KatieBlogger

Bump

Posted from TSR Mobile

It's not terribly hard to assign blame to the slip road driver, by the end of the slip he should be at your speed and safely merging, or stopped if there was nowhere for him to go. You had right of way.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4

KatieBlogger

Original post by ByEeek

Thanks - I guess I'll just take this as a lesson to be learnt although the scary thing is I don't know exactly what I've learned or what I can take from it because every scenario is different and I don't know if I'd do anything differently if the same scenario arose again - other than maybe moving slightly out of my lane into the right lane at full speed and basically muscling my way into the right lane. Much much easier said than done though. Scary that you only truly reflect on these things when you've been lucky enough to walk away from a hairy situation.

My commute is quite long (1hr 30 min at the least) and I've decided not to do it anymore. Aside from the stress of it, I really don't want my family to be burying me before I'm 30! I think long haul a-road/m-way driving may decrease that likelihood!

Original post by Andy98

I thought it was against the law to stop on a slip road. Or is the illegality of it concerned with stopping at the side of one (as in parking up)? That was my fear as our cars got closer and closer I just kept thinking "he's not gonna stop, he's gonna hit me".

Ah, regardless of the stopping issue, you are right:

Highway code:

Rule 259Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should

•

give priority to traffic already on the motorway

•

check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

suedonim

mostly the slip road driver because you have right of way and if they cant join safely they have to stop. However the fact that you were indicating and not moving across would have encouraged them to think they could join. Still I wouldnt admit liability in the event of an accident and I'd expect the slip road driver to be judged wholly responsible.

Reply 6

TheMcSame

Worse case for you is that it'd be partially split, you could argue that the indicator could've been misleading.

In most cases though, if an accident occurred, the driver joining would've been at fault, they have the give way at the end of the day and as much as we don't want to stop on a slip road, sometimes it's the only option.

Reply 7

NX172

Original post by KatieBlogger

So - was I wrong for not slowing right down? Should I have avoided trying to move to the right lane to avoid the slip road (which was my main priority) or was the slip road driver wrong for not speeding up to merge sooner - or should he have slowed (I think that's quite dangerous though). Or was it a catch 22 for both of us and the right hand lane traffic at fault for not allowing left hand lane traffic to move over and allow slip road traffic to merge?

Don't assume you can use the right lane. You can adapt to any situation using just one lane. You have right of way but you must anticipate merging traffic, even at low speeds. When you approached the slip road and noticed a car merging slowly, you could've slowed down to an almost matching speed with him. Don't accelerate. You'll just run out of options faster. Generally on these types of roads the car behind you should have a certain amount of distance, just brake early and gradually to reduce speed, and if you must brake sharply due to the merging car hesitating, hit the hazard lights to let the person behind you know. There's always a need to stop quickly on a fast road, be it debris, roadworks or in your case, a slowly merging car, these are all obstructions that have to be dealt with by slowing down and giving the people behind you plenty of notice of your intention to do so. There's been plenty of times where I haven't been able to merge from a slip road due to the car in front going far too slow to merge, I'd just have to wait at the end of the slip road for a safe opportunity or even accelerate using the hard shoulder.

What annoys me the most are people who seem to believe they have right of way once they hit the end of a slip road, sometimes it's just not possible to let them in and they should wait instead of panicking

Reply 8

rockrunride

If someone merges into a lane when unsafe to do so, whether on a dual carriageway or joining one, then the responsibility for any incident/accident arising therefrom lies entirely upon that driver. It is polite and the generally accepted norm to allow vehicles to merge in from slip roads, but in this case it was impossible. Vehicles should not stop on slip roads where possible but they must if only to avoid an accident.

For you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with braking hard in what you perceive to be an emergency. You want to avoid the risk of the driver behind coming into you but it is their responsibility to be paying attention and keeping a safe distance.

Reply 9

mphysical

A HGV driver in your situation could not have possibly moved into the outside lane, accelerated or slowed down enough to give the driver room to join from the slip road so he would not have indicated or attempted any option.
This is what you should have done, but slowing down just in case the driver recklessly pulled out
The other driver should have read the situation, and slowed down or stopped until there was room for them to join.

Reply 10

domonict

I got lost in the original post, but you say that you backed off the accelerator

In this case I would have dabbed the brakes, or actually used them.

Your brake lights act as a warning for motorists behind you. slowing by easing off the gas or using the gearbox doesn't indicate to people behind you that you are slowing.
Yes, they should pay attention but brake lights going on can warn the whole traffic stream