question about a car accident I got into last night

[bUnMaNGo]

I filed a claim with insurance already, but they won't decide who is at fault until the adjust talks to me next week. Anyhow, I'm driving down a 4 lane street, eastbound, in the #3 lane (2nd lane from the right). A car pulls out of a parking lot driveway from my right, and pulls into my lane. It's raining, and I'm going about 35-40mph in a 45mph zone, so I honk, hit the brakes, and the guy starts swerving back into the #4 lane (the lane he is originally supposed to turn into). However I can't stop quick enough, and I nail his rear left bumper with my front right bumper and fender. Who would be at fault? I've heard it go many different ways. For one, it could be totally his fault, because I have the right of way, correct? Then again, since I'm the one who rear ended him, it could be totally my fault? Also, I heard some bs call about it being an avoidable accident, thus I would be at fault? I tried calling the sheriff to get a police report, but they ended up calling the CHP, who ended up not coming because they were too busy attending to emergency calls to come file a report for a non-emergency accident. Any ideas?

 

[GeekDrew]

From what I've heard, it should be the other guy's fault. Did you remain in your lane the entire time? And he was just turning out of another area, onto this road? If all are true, then you shouldn't be at fault.

Andrew

 

[MazerRackham]

Oh man, it's not good that the police didn't come out and check the scene and log everything. Did you happen to have a disposable camera on you to take pics of his car and yours at the scene?

 

[Ylen13]

Technically it?s his fault but the guy may claim that he was going straight and you hit him, it?s your word against his and because u hit him from behind chances are they will find it to be your fault

 

[atom]

Even though a lot of people I see turn into any lane they please (I am guilty of this myself), you are really supposed to turn into the right-most lane. So I'd say he is at fault.

 

[bUnMaNGo]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew
From what I've heard, it should be the other guy's fault. Did you remain in your lane the entire time? And he was just turning out of another area, onto this road? If all are true, then you shouldn't be at fault.

Andrew

yes, he was in a parking lot, facing north (I was heading east) and turned right, made a wide turn into my lane.

 

[bUnMaNGo]

Originally posted by: MazerRackham
Oh man, it's not good that the police didn't come out and check the scene and log everything. Did you happen to have a disposable camera on you to take pics of his car and yours at the scene?

forgot the obligatory pics, http://www.modemboy.net/gallery/astrovan I just finished having dinner with a few friends, one of em lived a few miles away from the accident scene and I asked her to bring her digital cam.

edit:
how does Auto parse URLs work?

 

[johnjohn320]

Originally posted by: bUnMaNGo

Originally posted by: MazerRackham
Oh man, it's not good that the police didn't come out and check the scene and log everything. Did you happen to have a disposable camera on you to take pics of his car and yours at the scene?

forgot the obligatory pics, http://www.modemboy.net/gallery/astrovan I just finished having dinner with a few friends, one of em lived a few miles away from the accident scene and I asked her to bring her digital cam.

edit:
how does Auto parse URLs work?

Did you take any pictures of the whole scene (rather than just the damage?)

 

[bUnMaNGo]

Originally posted by: johnjohn320


Did you take any pictures of the whole scene (rather than just the damage?)

unfortunately no, we pulled into another parking lot shortly after the accident happened

 

[Legendary]

If what you say is true then it should be his fault.
However without a corroborating Police report he can lie his way into making it your fault.

 

[bUnMaNGo]

Originally posted by: Legendary
If what you say is true then it should be his fault.
However without a corroborating Police report he can lie his way into making it your fault.

Yea, the retarded thing is that the CHP wouldn't come to the scene since it was a non-injury accident. I saw two sheriff patrol cars pass by while we were waiting around because the sheriff station told me that they contacted the CHP, and that a unit would be assigned to the scene. It wasn't until a half hour later that I called the CHP myself and they informed me that they weren't coming out.

edit:
forgot to mention that there were probably a lot more accidents out there because of the rain, and that's probably why they didn't bother coming out. Also, would a report be useful if we had already moved our cars off the road after the accident?

 

[dafatha00]

Tough case. You should've called the police because they most likely would've said it was the other guy's fault. Very similar thing happened to me on a one lane road. I was driving on the number 2 lane and an old lady pooled out right in front of me. Since I had no time to honk, I had to swerve to my right to avoid an accident and consequently I hit a pole. Luckily the police showed up and deemed it her fault since I had the right away. Not to mention I had plenty of witnesses. Over $5000 worth of damages.

edit: didn't see that you already tried calling the CHP. That's strange, I thought the CHP had to investigate regardless of injury or not.

 

[toant103]

Originally posted by: MazerRackham
Oh man, it's not good that the police didn't come out and check the scene and log everything. Did you happen to have a disposable camera on you to take pics of his car and yours at the scene?

always report it to the police.

Some dude hit me from behind, cops gave him a ticket, his insurance pay me for the damages. A month later, that FU$KER sue me saying i hit him from behind.