NSW Motor vehicle accident liability?

[Shand442]

My wife was driving and there were two left turn lanes, she was in the right of these lanes. The other car was in the left lane and sitting stationary long after the light had gone green so his lane was clear ahead of him. My wife merges left into his clear lane and had almost completed her merge when she was rear-ended. We assume that because he sat for a long time after the cars ahead of him moved that he wasn’t paying attention and when he noticed the lane was clear accelerated hard and didn’t see my wife’s merging car.

We notified our insurer and based on the above they have determined that my wife is liable because she was merging at the time of the collision. We obviously don’t agree with this outcome as my wife made her merge safely but was rear ended, so I am seeking some alternate advice.

 

[Rod]

Both parties would be at fault.

 

[Clancy]

Usually the default conclusion is the person who rear ended you is in the wrong.
Even where some idiot cut in front of you from another lane and forced you to rear end them - YOUR considered to be in the wrong unless you had a dash cam and could prove they changed lanes dangerously.

Did the other driver have a dash cam?

 

[Shand442]

Usually the default conclusion is the person who rear ended you is in the wrong.
Even where some idiot cut in front of you from another lane and forced you to rear end them - YOUR considered to be in the wrong unless you had a dash cam and could prove they changed lanes dangerously.

Did the other driver have a dash cam?

Unfortunately no.

Apparently the rules are that the merging person is at fault unless the person already in the lane accelerated into them - which is what happened, my wife went around him because he was sitting stationary, but it’s his word against hers, no dash cam, and our insurer basically said they’re not going to fight it. :/

 

[Clancy]

Unfortunately no.

Apparently the rules are that the merging person is at fault unless the person already in the lane accelerated into them - which is what happened, my wife went around him because he was sitting stationary, but it’s his word against hers, no dash cam, and our insurer basically said they’re not going to fight it. :/

Ic - well it must be because you already admitted to changing lanes? Whereas people who recklessly changed lanes and caused an accident would lie about everything and automatically get off Scot free because the other person hit the back of them.

 

[Shand442]

Ic - well it must be because you already admitted to changing lanes? Whereas people who recklessly changed lanes and caused an accident would lie about everything and automatically get off Scot free because the other person hit the back of them.

Damage was rear left vs front right so it was pretty obvious from the outset unfortunately.

 

[Clancy]

Damage was rear left vs front right so it was pretty obvious from the outset unfortunately.

Oh, well, that's a significant detail! lol

What happens quite often that scares me allot is when i want to change lanes and the lane is clear but then suddenly someone from behind me in my original lane slingshots into the new lane and nearly rear ends me in a similar fashion. And often they will carry on as if i cut them off, but they know full well what they did. The other one is people further back in the lane you want to merge into will speed up when they realize you want to merge and try to block your merge. I got a speeding fine once from that happening because i sped up to maintain the safe merging distance from the car behind that decided they wanted to try and race me to stop my lane change. I told the police officer.... naturally he did not give a s**t and handed me the fine -double demerit points too!

Another scary one is when you want to turn or merge onto a main road which has two or more lanes. The left lane is clear, so you merge, but at the same time someone dives into the left lane from the other lane and nearly rear end you!

 

[lancemac]

Hi Clancy! I realise this is an old thread but the latter example just happened to me.

There is a corner in Sydney where a there are 3 lanes that turn a corner; a single lane turns from the right from the south and two lanes turn left from the north.

I was exiting a road adjacent from the left (it's about 50m from the corner) and a stopped and let a car passed, did a shoulder check, nothing in the left hand lane and I pulled out.

As this occurred someone came tearing around the corner from the south (right lane) aggressively merged across two lanes of traffic into the left lane and bounced off the front of my car as I was turning into the left hand lane. Car was about 4/5's in the lane.

My contention is he was merging recklessly and my lane was clear.

Waiting on the review.

What does the law say? He has right of way as he was on the ROAD already even if he wasn't in the lane when I pulled out?

 

[Scruff]

Usually the default conclusion is the person who rear ended you is in the wrong.
Even where some idiot cut in front of you from another lane and forced you to rear end them - YOUR considered to be in the wrong unless you had a dash cam and could prove they changed lanes dangerously.

Did the other driver have a dash cam?

Total nonsense. The road rules are clear. When changing lanes, you must give way to traffic already in the lane you are moving into.

The only exception is when a lane ends and the line markings end before the lane ends, meaning that neither vehicle crosses a "lane line" when merging. In that case, the vehicle that is ahead has the right of way.

Unfortunately, the majority of road users think that putting their indicator on gives them right of way and other vehicles have to let them merge - which is total rubbish.
If you change lanes and get rear-ended, then 99% of the time you'll be booked for an unsafe lane change. Ask any cop.

Merging and changing lanes - NSW Government