I was involved in a 3 car accident. The Ford F-150 in front of me slammed on his brakes because the car in front of him busted a U turn without warning. I hit the F 150. A Celica behind me hit me. My front bumper is damaged from hitting the truck. My back bumper/exhaust is damaged from getting hit by the Celica. The police came and made sure we exchanged information. Looks as though it may officially be my fault because I hit the F150 and then the Celica hit me from behind.

The Celica driver does not have insurance. It expired a couple of weeks ago. His car had really bad front end damage. The F150 does have insurance but his track had almost no damage, only a metal frame underneath the bumper.

Is it my fault? Should I be able to stop going 30mph if the car in front of me slams on his brakes? Isn't the Celica also at fault for hitting me?

Since the Celica does not have insurance, do I just report the incidence to my insurance company and tell them what happened?

 

It is your fault.

You should always be far enough behind a vehicle to be able to stop without hitting it.

Do you mean to tell me that your S2000 can't stop in less distance than a Ford truck? Had you allowed a 2 second distance between you and the truck you would have had no problem.

Sorry but that is the way it is.

 

When it comes to collisions like this, fault is usually given to the party that ran into the vehicle ahead. The logic behind this is that you're supposed to leave enough following distance ahead of you in order to emergency break. I've also been in an accident similar to this, and I know it sucks.

Hopefully your insurance company can hammer out the details and either repair your S2000 or get you a new one ASAP. Good luck with everything! Also, you should consider yourself lucky and be thankful for it ... you never know when an accident is going to claim a life.

 

LOL sounds very similar to the one i was involved in.

It should be this, s2000 fault for hitting the f150, then the celica is at fault for hitting you. If the celica can't stop quick enough like you, both of you are at fault for hitting the person in front. Thus Psicho54 you need to get that celica without insurance a ticket for not having it and claim as much as you can for your backend and hopefully have extra to compensate your front. The guy with f150 will be paid by ur insurance company if the person chooses to pursue some money.

How i know this is from past experience. Make this short, 2 years ago myself in a civic, my friend in front of me in SUV, and my friend behind me in buick were travelling on the left lane of a busy street. As we came to a complete stop to turn left at intersection sum old man hits my friend's buick which caused a chain reaction. The old man hits buick, buick hits me, i hit SUV. So what happen was the old man pays the guy in buick, the friend in buick pays me, and well luckily i dind't have to pay SUV cuz he said nothing looked different and left. Cop came gave the old man a ticket and we didn't get one, because we were at a complete stop. I claimed a lot for backend to compensate the front. I was very fortunate, because my insurance was never notified. I dind't have to cough up a penny and i'm clean of no accidents.

I hope this helps. If you need me to re-explain it PM and i'll try to do it better.

 

I agree with everything being said here, but I wanted to add that I think cars really really need some kind of signal that is different than the standard turn signal to indicate intention of making a u-turn.

 

At least you weren't sandwiched by two suburbans - the State Truck of Texas! Could have been a bit more of a pinch!

I think my Texas father in law would have gotten out and SHOT the driver of the car that started this mess.

Sure hope everything works out. Best of luck.

 

just one more question:

Sounds like my insurance is responsible for the damage to the F150 and because the Celica owner had no insurance, my insurance is also responsible for the damage to my car. Then I have the option of pursuing legal action against the Celica owner. Is that right?

Either way, I'm reporting it like I saw it to my insurance in the morning. Sounds like no S2000 for a while.

 

I'm not too sure this is all that helpful for where you are but this is what applies in Ontario, Canada...

Click here...

..check out rule 9 of this page.

Perhaps you can find some reference to the highway traffic act for your location online...

In my opinion, I think you can make the Celica driver pay for damaging the rear portion of your car because he did the exact same thing that you did to the f150 (i.e. followed too close in terms of allowing enough room for safe braking) ... but in your case, your insurance will pay for the f150's damage whereas the Celica driver has to pay outta his own pocket.

Good luck!

 

Ontario has no-fault insurance so that's total different. Each insurance company pays for the damage to it's insured car. The guy with no insurance has his own big problems.

 

Yes, you run into the back of another car under pretty well any circumstances whatsover, and it's your fault. Over here we call it Driving Without Care and Attention, or rather the court does!

Put it this way, if the driver in front of you does a full emergency stop to avoid a child running in front of him from between parked cars, you should be able to stop. If he kills the child, he faces no prosecution, nor should he! You would face prosecution if you hit the back of his vehicle. It's all about leaving yourself enough room!

The tailgaters we see are a blink away from this siutuation..............all the time!!