Is the "rear-ender" always to blame in a traffic collision?

Early Saturday morning saw my first traffic collision (bar the odd bump) and like nearly all rear end collisions, I’ll probably be held fully accountable. But should the blame be all mine? It was a quiet morning and I was on time, driving to my first job. I was overtaking a cyclist and further up the road a woman had her car door open so I stayed towards the centre of the road for a fluid overtake. At the same time, a driver came out from a side road on the left hand side and I jammed on the brakes but slid into their bumper with a thud.

Was I going above the speed limit? I honestly don’t know, I was certainly going a decent speed to overtake the cyclist safely and I definitely believe the other driver shouldn’t have pulled out, but in 99% of rear-end collisions, blame lies with the driver behind so it will be extremely difficult for me to prove otherwise.

I’m not really frustrated over the collisions itself as I don’t believe I’m fully to blame, but what I’m extremely frustrated over is the fact I had video evidence which could have greatly helped my case and it managed to get overwritten! I had only taken delivery of new car black box recorders the day before the collision. These basically record what can be seen from the windscreen and log GPS location and have a G-Sensor built in to monitor shocks and motion. I’ve been using a different model in the vans for the past 2 years or so. I had only briefly explored the software the night I took delivery with footage from the first van I installed the new camera to, which in the time it was in use, drove for 1 hour and parked for 4 hours. The 8GB card included with the unit was only half full. I wasn’t aware it only recorded motion sensed/shocked segments while parked, so really there was probably only 1.5 hours footage recorded to the card, not the 5 I thought. I also bought additional 32GB cards and from reading recording time levels, I remember seeing a 32GB card can hold over 8 hours footage. I mistakenly had it in my head that I’d have more than 8 hours footage before previous footage would be overwritten and thought the footage, since it was a “shock”, wouldn’t even be overwritten, as was the case with the previous unit.

The van which had the crash was installed with an iTronics ITB100HD first thing in the morning before I drove to a job. The previous unit (Xdriven DRS1100) was hardwired in and they use the same voltage and same size connector so I simply replaced it with the new unit. Unfortunately, each unit has a different overwriting system. I had the crash 5 minutes later and as I was on the way to a job, with the above assumptions, let it record as I knew I may be still in a little shock and thought it would be good to have the camera rolling. As my job involves loading the van with furniture etc, every minute the van was parked was pretty much recorded due to the high sensitivity level and customers and I moving around in the cargo bay loading items. After 6 hours I unplugged it as I didn’t want to take any chances. Unfortunately due to my mistakes and misunderstandings of the new unit, it was too late.

Below is a video recorded as I revisited the scene. The car came out just where the green car on the left is protruding.

 

Is the “rear-ender” always to blame in a traffic collision?

Early Saturday morning saw my first traffic collision (bar the odd bump) and like nearly all rear end collisions, I’ll probably be held fully accountable. But should the blame be all mine? It was a quiet morning and I was on time, driving to my first job. I was overtaking a cyclist and further up the road a woman had her car door open so I stayed towards the centre of the road for a fluid overtake. At the same time, a driver came out from a side road on the left hand side and I jammed on the brakes but slid into their bumper with a thud.

Was I going above the speed limit? I honestly don’t know, I was certainly going a decent speed to overtake the cyclist safely and I definitely believe the other driver shouldn’t have pulled out, but in 99% of rear-end collisions, blame lies with the driver behind so it will be extremely difficult for me to prove otherwise.

I’m not really frustrated over the collisions itself as I don’t believe I’m fully to blame, but what I’m extremely frustrated over is the fact I had video evidence which could have greatly helped my case and it managed to get overwritten! I had only taken delivery of new car black box recorders the day before the collision. These basically record what can be seen from the windscreen and log GPS location and have a G-Sensor built in to monitor shocks and motion. I’ve been using a different model in the vans for the past 2 years or so. I had only briefly explored the software the night I took delivery with footage from the first van I installed the new camera to, which in the time it was in use, drove for 1 hour and parked for 4 hours. The 8GB card included with the unit was only half full. I wasn’t aware it only recorded motion sensed/shocked segments while parked, so really there was probably only 1.5 hours footage recorded to the card, not the 5 I thought. I also bought additional 32GB cards and from reading recording time levels, I remember seeing a 32GB card can hold over 8 hours footage. I mistakenly had it in my head that I’d have more than 8 hours footage before previous footage would be overwritten and thought the footage, since it was a “shock”, wouldn’t even be overwritten, as was the case with the previous unit.

The van which had the crash was installed with an iTronics ITB100HD first thing in the morning before I drove to a job. The previous unit (Xdriven DRS1100) was hardwired in and they use the same voltage and same size connector so I simply replaced it with the new unit. Unfortunately, each unit has a different overwriting system. I had the crash 5 minutes later and as I was on the way to a job, with the above assumptions, let it record as I knew I may be still in a little shock and thought it would be good to have the camera rolling. As my job involves loading the van with furniture etc, every minute the van was parked was pretty much recorded due to the high sensitivity level and customers and I moving around in the cargo bay loading items. After 6 hours I unplugged it as I didn’t want to take any chances. Unfortunately due to my mistakes and misunderstandings of the new unit, it was too late.

Below is a video recorded as I revisited the scene. The car came out just where the green car on the left is protruding.

 

When do parking violations cross the line?

pay and display permit

Notice anything wrong with the parking above? I took this photo after a neighbour phoned me to say my car was blocking the entrance to an apartment complex car park. I was on a job at the time and fortunately it was local but I still had to temporarily abandon it to return to move the car, thinking maybe the handbrake wasn’t applied properly and it rolled back a few feet making it impossible for any cars to enter the car park. The lady on the phone was abrupt and hung up before I even finished speaking so I came back quickly.

It sounded like the same lady who rang me one night around 1am complaining that my van was parked outside her window. Bear in mind this is a public road and my van was parked in a regular pay and display area with a valid permit. Driving back I was hoping it didn’t roll back into another car and cause any damage and that I didn’t get a fine but when I arrived back the above photo is what I was met with, just as I had left it. I turned back around, snapped the photo and quickly drove back to the job, only a 15 minute delay thankfully. I didn’t even move the car.

Now there’s absolutely no obstruction caused by the manner in which my car is parked, I could fit my biggest van into the entrance of the car park no bother. I’m not entirely sure of the legalities of part of the vehicle body extending beyond the marked area of parking so I’m going to pop this on boards.ie and try find out!