Firstly may I thank anyone who can give us some advice as everything that has happened seems so weird and ridiculous.
A few months ago my partner had a minor collision on exiting a slip road from a motorway.
This sloping downwards slip road left the East heading motorway and split into three lanes joining an underpass/ not a roundabout in the traditional sense, cars from the West heading motorway also joined the three lanes heading towards a large town.
There is only one exit at the bottom of the slip road that actually takes you anywhere different the other exit just lets you rejoin the motorway heading East that you have just left.
Each of the three lanes had a big left hand arrow on them.
Essentially you could approach the end of the slip road and head on left from each of the three lanes according to the big arrows.
This is a road and journey that my partner makes regularly.
On the occasion of the accident my partner was in the furthest to the right lane ( still with big left arrow) he had left the motorway and was absolutely not about to rejoin it.
A gentleman who had also left the motorway was in the middle lane also with big left curving arrow painted on it.
This gentleman proceeded to keep bearing right from the lane inside ( left of ) my partners vehicle. Where's my partner carried on bearing left from the third lane as the arrows indicated. The impact occurred to the gentlemans rear passenger door and my partners left front bonnet and wheelarch as in essence the gentleman cut across the path of my partner.
After stopping and while swapping insurance details the gentleman ( wife in passenger seat, to whom my partner enquired as to her welfare) admitted he was on holiday in the area and was lost.
He had in essence excited the motorway incorrectly and was rejoining it to continue heading East.
He was doing this from a middle lane with a huge left indicating arrow painted on it and if he had read the road correctly should in fact have been in the lane my partner was in to enable him to carry out his intentions.
The damage was relatively minor and both cars were completely able to be driven. My partner even wished the gentleman and his wife a nice weekend.
When my partner filled out the accident report he included photographs to show that this wasn't an ordinary roundabout, he sent off images that showed how he was completely entitled to have been driving in the lane he was.
In fact the points of impact corroborate this too.
Due to there being no witnesses and no police called because it was so minor when it came to the insurance settlement my partner reluctantly agreed on split liability as this is what his insurance company recommended even though he knew he was not at fault and the other guy didn't know the road. So he paid half his excess of £200 and thought that was the end of the matter.
Moving on a couple of months, in the post he received court papers suing him for reckless driving and driving without due care and attention for the other persons well being.
As you can imagine we were so shocked and incredulous.
My partners insurance company passed the matter on to solicitors and they have said that he can be indemnified against all charges and costs but this in essence means the gentleman is paid out and also the accident goes down as completely my partners fault meaning his insurance premiums go up!
We are at a complete loss on how to proceed and it all seems so ridiculously unfair. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
A few months ago my partner had a minor collision on exiting a slip road from a motorway.
This sloping downwards slip road left the East heading motorway and split into three lanes joining an underpass/ not a roundabout in the traditional sense, cars from the West heading motorway also joined the three lanes heading towards a large town.
There is only one exit at the bottom of the slip road that actually takes you anywhere different the other exit just lets you rejoin the motorway heading East that you have just left.
Each of the three lanes had a big left hand arrow on them.
Essentially you could approach the end of the slip road and head on left from each of the three lanes according to the big arrows.
This is a road and journey that my partner makes regularly.
On the occasion of the accident my partner was in the furthest to the right lane ( still with big left arrow) he had left the motorway and was absolutely not about to rejoin it.
A gentleman who had also left the motorway was in the middle lane also with big left curving arrow painted on it.
This gentleman proceeded to keep bearing right from the lane inside ( left of ) my partners vehicle. Where's my partner carried on bearing left from the third lane as the arrows indicated. The impact occurred to the gentlemans rear passenger door and my partners left front bonnet and wheelarch as in essence the gentleman cut across the path of my partner.
After stopping and while swapping insurance details the gentleman ( wife in passenger seat, to whom my partner enquired as to her welfare) admitted he was on holiday in the area and was lost.
He had in essence excited the motorway incorrectly and was rejoining it to continue heading East.
He was doing this from a middle lane with a huge left indicating arrow painted on it and if he had read the road correctly should in fact have been in the lane my partner was in to enable him to carry out his intentions.
The damage was relatively minor and both cars were completely able to be driven. My partner even wished the gentleman and his wife a nice weekend.
When my partner filled out the accident report he included photographs to show that this wasn't an ordinary roundabout, he sent off images that showed how he was completely entitled to have been driving in the lane he was.
In fact the points of impact corroborate this too.
Due to there being no witnesses and no police called because it was so minor when it came to the insurance settlement my partner reluctantly agreed on split liability as this is what his insurance company recommended even though he knew he was not at fault and the other guy didn't know the road. So he paid half his excess of £200 and thought that was the end of the matter.
Moving on a couple of months, in the post he received court papers suing him for reckless driving and driving without due care and attention for the other persons well being.
As you can imagine we were so shocked and incredulous.
My partners insurance company passed the matter on to solicitors and they have said that he can be indemnified against all charges and costs but this in essence means the gentleman is paid out and also the accident goes down as completely my partners fault meaning his insurance premiums go up!
We are at a complete loss on how to proceed and it all seems so ridiculously unfair. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
