British cars in France

[Chancer]

A couple of years ago I stopped when an impatient  BMW overtook a stationary vehicle on my side of the road, the 17 year old behind in her Ford Ka didnt (her radio was still on full blast after the accident), needless to say the person who caused the accident did not stop, I had the unenvious task of explaining to a tearfull teenager that yes I understood that it wasnt her fault but none the less the responsibility for the damage caused in the accident was her (insurers) responsibility.

I am guessing that you are not a teenager Val2, you must by now realise that if one loses control of a vehicle and hit an oncoming one on the other side of the road you will be judged to be responsible for the accident.

[Jay]

[quote user="Val_2"]Never assume a road accident here involving vehicles will be a straightforward conclusion. A lot depends on the actual circumstances of the accident too, not just the insurance question and no one should ever confess to being at fault and never ever sign a constat unless both parties do because the one who signs is the liable party. We had a good example of how different outcomes are reached earlier this year when OH was en route to his work,driving along one of our village roads which has two nasty bends in sucession. You can't go fast, no more than 50kph at best due to the deep fosses and high depth of the tarmac which,if you do come off will not only damage your tyres and trims but cause problems getting back on again. Anyway OH is about 20m from the first bad bend when a Peugeot van comes round on his side of the road facing him and at speed with no intention of getting back on their side of the road. OH realised he had no room to get by the van if he stayed on his correct side ofthe road and hit the brakes which caused him to slide a good 15m and veer across the central solid line thus taking the front of his Berlingo completely off and damaging the driver's front side of the Peugeot. Both drivers were fine but still taken to hospital for the day for observation and then released and for some reason the gendarmes who were called out along with the pompiers plus two of their ambulances, came from the main town some 12 miles away and not the three miles from the next village. The other driver could have stopped or even got into a layby but she was 74 and could hardly see over the steering wheel.She refused to sign a constat and both parties were summoned to the gendarmerie to give their stories.The gendarme dealing with the case was very anti-british and kept going on about the brits and how most did not bother to learn french etc. Anyway we were harangued by the old girl for a couple of days who kept ringing to change her story and wanted to go through the constat again which they all did but she again refused to sign it and again ringing us next morning to change her story again but too late,we had given our constat to the insurers who took over.It was a write off but we got more than we expected because we furnished recent invoices for servicing etc. HOWEVER several weeks later we got a letter from the insurers saying they may prosecute my OH because he crossed the central line and hit the other vehicle which in all fairness he had no choice and no idea the van would react like that plus some years ago he ended up in a deep fosse and got hurt.If it does go to court we shall call for her to have a medical and eye exam as she may well be unfit to drive, have cataracts so she cannot see the side of the road etc. We were also told by her neighbours that she has had other accidents and is a trouble maker too. So far we have heard nothing but we are well covered with juridique etc BUT it does go to show how you can never underestimate a conclusion to an accident when you were the innocent party and it was not of your original doing. The insurers pointed out that this claim would not increase the new vehicle insurance and it didn't which is something and we have a new and better works vehicle now out of the whole mess.[/quote]

Val, I'm sure most people find your posts interesting, as I do, but they are sometimes terribly difficult to read. Could you please split them up into paragraphs? This is not a dig at you or meant in to be nasty in any way it's just I know I am not alone in finding posts like this more and more difficult to read (age?).

[Val_2]

Sorry Jay. I too have wonky eyes and find it hard. I think I and others get carried away with typing (I was touch typist trained so go fast). I also have a horror of computer screen boxes thinking I will run out of space too LOL

As for the speed of 50kph,that was an average speed for that stretch, whether OH was going at 53 or 55 we will never know, looking at your speedo with an impending head on coming at you isn't the priority at the time. Anyway I posted as a tale of caution about never assuming a clear cut case.

[Val_2]

[quote user="Chancer"]

A couple of years ago I stopped when an impatient  BMW overtook a stationary vehicle on my side of the road, the 17 year old behind in her Ford Ka didnt (her radio was still on full blast after the accident), needless to say the person who caused the accident did not stop, I had the unenvious task of explaining to a tearfull teenager that yes I understood that it wasnt her fault but none the less the responsibility for the damage caused in the accident was her (insurers) responsibility.

I am guessing that you are not a teenager Val2, you must by now realise that if one loses control of a vehicle and hit an oncoming one on the other side of the road you will be judged to be responsible for the accident.

[/quote]

Chancer - we now know that. What I was trying to convey was the fact that OH had no choice but to slam on the brakes because the old bat was not slowing down nor moving over to her correct side of the road and because of the emergency braking, the vehicle just slewed across the central line and he could not fight it. Maybe, just maybe the van had a technical fault or all the weight in the back provoked the result, we will never know. All of us have travelled that road for the past 21 years with never a problem until that old bat decided to drive UK style