legal help. car crash ???

ok looking for a bit of advise and to let you guys that dont frequent 80-90 syncro about my ordeal.

usefull comments welcome. not to many jokes please. seriously.

rich and i were heading back from telford and a guy in a focus a few cars in front was speeding up and slowing down erratically. rich could see this as he was in front i could only see rich. eventually after this guy cut rich up on 2 mini roundabouts we pulled on to a dual carrigeway and rich pulled past him. i followed but once i was a 2 or 3 van lengths in front of him i got overboost fault and power loss. i had to pull in and i cut him up a little bit but not nastily.

rich pulled in and started pulling away from me. this guy then pulled past me and cut me up really badly, dabbed his brakes to scare me and after i flashed him he jammed on fully.

suffice to say i couldn`t stop 2.5 tonne of van as quickly as he could stop a focus. i swerved to try and avoid him but my right front caught his bumper just to the left of the tow hitch.

there doesn`t seem to be any pannel damage to my van but the bull bar, light and bumper are damaged. i`ll need to get it checked out asap. police were involved and i requested charges are brought against him. they said they were going to recomend that they were.

no body hurt thankfully. this guy was well in to his late 50`s.

when we got out of the car and started shouting at each other. i informed him i was not a "useless personage" and that i`d had power loss which was the reason to pull in on him and slow down. his face changed, like he realised what he`d caused. both breath tests passed. going to have to deal with legal and insurance now on top of everything else.

sad dont come close.

lee.

i have not much to add other than good luck/hope it works out!

Follow up with the police to "encourage" them to lay charges.  If it starts to look a bit of a problem for you get professional legal help ASAP.

Unfortunately these things tend to get 'sorted' by the insurance companies and you have little say but in my part of the world you'd be screwed cuz you hit him. If the fuzz want to press charges then it'll most likely end up in court and thats when justice takes a back seat to legal technicalities and mombo jumbo. Otherwise its your word against his and you admitted to having a faulty vehicle at the time ....

My mother had a prick hit her on a roundabout the insurance wanted to settle on 50/50 she said no way then they tried 75/25 . She had to keep on to her insurance co but when they said it was going to court the prick gave in and admitted it was their fault . So keep the pressure on and hope for the best. 

@Syncropaddy.

Syncropaddy wrote: Unfortunately these things tend to get 'sorted' by the insurance companies and you have little say but in my part of the world you'd be screwed cuz you hit him. If the fuzz want to press charges then it'll most likely end up in court and thats when justice takes a back seat to legal technicalities and mombo jumbo. Otherwise its your word against his and you admitted to having a faulty vehicle at the time ....

Hence vagcom logs. Although not on CSI scale of corroborating evidence, nether the less , its still supportive and indictative of your version of events being the true account.

Im pretty sure there is nothing in UK statutes that state it is illegal to drive a vehicle that has *just* broken down/become defective/being faulty.....................................

Take the advice from grogozedobe and venom, you were a victim of 'road rage' and you have a witness. Get the tosser charged with something, appeal to the police. That way it's clear to the insurance co who was to blame, otherwise they may lay some of the blame onto you (say 50/50) and your insurance will be affected as it was partially your fault. My wife had an experience where the car in front pulled away from a junction and then did an emergency stop. She pulled away at the same time and was accelerating when this happened with obvious result. We made it clear to the insurance that it was the other drivers fault, he changed his mind regarding which direction he was travelling, and there would be no way that anyone could have anticipated his action. Later, when I changed insurance company, the new insurers requested details on how much was paid out by our insurer, and on inquiring, only £50 (the other's excess) was paid. The new insurers disregarded that claim and allowed ful NCD.  Worth protecting yourself from that question......."have you had an accident... that was your fault"

I know Syncro. Judges in Ireland have a bad habit of splashing out your money to unworthy skanks  like confetti. If the incident as described had happened there, yer man would already be in Barbados or Orlando on an extended luxury holiday on the proceeds of his compensation for whiplash - with  of course the obligatory stop at Lourdes on the way home for a "miracle" cure.