Don't Think This Will End Well

[wymberley]

Friends of my wife retired early from business and bought a bungalow beside the estuary where they've lived for some years.The other morning driving from Exeter in broad daylight they stopped indicating to turn right into the village. A very busy road and the traffic was building up nicely behind but they're fully aware that patience is necessary. Then an oncoming car 'flashed' them - although the husband was driving, both drive and both were absolutely certain that they'd been given 'the nod' - so they moved off only to have the oncoming car plough into them. The wife is black and blue - mainly black according to my wife - from head to toe on her left side and today it's been confirmed that their car is an insurance right-off. Before they could get out, the driver of the car following the one that hit them was out and giving that driver a right verbal seeing to. It seems that he's followed that vehicle from Exmouth and it had been all over the road and its speed highly erratic. However, it transpired that he was wasting his breath as the target of his venom was of the, "me no speaky English" variety. When my wife's friends finally managed to get out of their wreck and join the throng, as far as can be made out, "I did not flash you I was just turning my lights on". This does not make a great deal of sense.

That's the limit of my knowledge and on the face of it her friend could well be at fault. I don't know if the police were called - certainly there were no casualties requiring an ambulance.

[bostonmick]

I would guess at the blame will be put onto your friend as he turned into the path of an oncoming vehicle,i doubt the flash of lights will carry any weight,it might be a case of the foreign chap developing whiplash and also he might want to be prepared for a settle in private call from the non English speaker.happens quite a lot around here.

[wymberley]

7 minutes ago, bostonmick said:

I would guess at the blame will be put onto your friend as he turned into the path of an oncoming vehicle,i doubt the flash of lights will carry any weight,it might be a case of the foreign chap developing whiplash and also he might want to be prepared for a settle in private call from the non English speaker.happens quite a lot around here.

Good point, especially as the whole thing doesn't make sense. They're a nice couple and would never have thought about that in a million years although as you say it's commonplace.

[scobydog]

Iirc , passed test years ago but a flash of the lights is meant as a warning so you can see that driver/vehicle, not as is assumed nowadays that it is to let someone out of a junction etc. Hope your friends recover quickly.

 

S

[bornfree]

I got a new van last year and twice now I've had someone turn right across me. The last time it was so close we stopped and the other driver said " you flashed me " it turns out that it was the daytime running lights , 

[panoma1]

Regrettably your friend turned across oncoming traffic, although thought to be so, I do not believe the driver of an oncoming vehicle (who has the right of way) flashing their lights, is in law, an accepted signal that they are giving way? I also do not believe such a signal is described within the Highway Code?

If the above is correct? My view is that your friend will be deemed to be at fault! There could well be legal as well as financial consequences?

 

 

[wymberley]

33 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

Regrettably your friend turned across oncoming traffic, although thought to be so, I do not believe the driver of an oncoming vehicle (who has the right of way) flashing their lights, is in law, an accepted signal that they are giving way? I also do not believe such a signal is described within the Highway Code?

If the above is correct? My view is that your friend will be deemed to be at fault! There could well be legal as well as financial consequences?

 

 

Which is as I indicated in my final paragraph.

I'm pretty sure that all your other comments are also valid. However, hazard warning lights which when used are more often than not an attempt to disguise the fact that the vehicle is illegally parked but also as a thank you to a considerate driver are also being similarly abused. Without a positive clamp down to stop these forms of signalling, then both, along with others we might have missed out, will continue to increase.

As an aside, it's just a pity that as now the evenings are pulling in and whereas at one time the emphasis was to get people to light up, there's no such action to get them to switch off - particularly when parked on the side of the road facing the on coming traffic - failure to do so is I believe mentioned in the Highway Code.

[mossy835]

if you flash your lights, its meant you to know that they are there. but we all take it that  it is to let you out. its not.

[Lord O War]

I don't take any notice of flashing light now because it is far too easy to get into bother with scammers, plus you never know with the state of the roads if it was just a bumpy road making it look like a flash.

[countryman]

5 hours ago, Lord O War said:

I don't take any notice of flashing light now because it is far too easy to get into bother with scammers, plus you never know with the state of the roads if it was just a bumpy road making it look like a flash.

Agree, some years ago I was on a busy junction and saw what I thought was a flash to let me out, turned out to be a bump in the road flash. We missed by inches.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I can't remember the last time someone slowed down and flashed their lights to allow me to complete the turn and free up the traffic waiting behind me.

Just doesn't seem to happen these days.

[wymberley]

9 hours ago, Lord O War said:

I don't take any notice of flashing light now because it is far too easy to get into bother with scammers, plus you never know with the state of the roads if it was just a bumpy road making it look like a flash.

 

3 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I can't remember the last time someone slowed down and flashed their lights to allow me to complete the turn and free up the traffic waiting behind me.

Just doesn't seem to happen these days.

Yep, beginning to look as though these have finally made their way to this previously sleepy hollow.

[Rewulf]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23717575

[dead eye alan]

 

  A few years ago i was behind a car at a road junction he was indicating to turn right, on the road to the right was a railway bridge over the road. As the oncoming car from the right came from under the bridge his lights came on so the driver in front of me started to pull out , thinking that he had been flashed to do so. The resulting coalition was horrendous, my wife still has nightmares about this. Turns out the flash was the automatic lights switching on due to the dark under the bridge. 

[Sha Bu Le]

We've had the 'crash for cash' scenario for some time. Now apparently we have similar in the 'flash for cash' insurance scam. 

Don't know what the scammers will come up with next, they are bound to think of something.  

Edit = pressed the go button too soon.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Sha Bu Le

[Hamster]

It would be good to get an update on this, insurance companies have got very smart on potential "me no speaky English" type of fraud and on first glance one would have to doubt someone would be daft enough to self engineer an impact so huge as to write off the cars. 

Sadly as much as we all do it, flashing to let someone in or out of traffic has no basis in law, legally it is merely a signal to let others know you are there so as others have said your friends are in the wrong unless it can be proved categorically that they were victims of a scammer. As for the hero following behind he sounds as foolish as anyone here, after all he would not have known whether the foreign driver had flashed, regardless of his prior erratic behaviour he had been the victim of incorrect driving. When I get stuck behind dangerous fools I will either change route, drop back a mile on purpose or overtake, what I wouldn't do is stop and lay into them verbally in the aftermath of an accident. 

The erratic/poor driving manner of the foreign driver can have a perfectly innocent explanation if they were using a hired car for instance and unsure of the roads etc,. 

[Rewulf]

1 hour ago, Hamster said:

It would be good to get an update on this, insurance companies have got very smart on potential "me no speaky English" type of fraud and on first glance one would have to doubt someone would be daft enough to self engineer an impact so huge as to write off the cars. 

Sadly as much as we all do it, flashing to let someone in or out of traffic has no basis in law, legally it is merely a signal to let others know you are there so as others have said your friends are in the wrong unless it can be proved categorically that they were victims of a scammer. As for the hero following behind he sounds as foolish as anyone here, after all he would not have known whether the foreign driver had flashed, regardless of his prior erratic behaviour he had been the victim of incorrect driving. When I get stuck behind dangerous fools I will either change route, drop back a mile on purpose or overtake, what I wouldn't do is stop and lay into them verbally in the aftermath of an accident. 

The erratic/poor driving manner of the foreign driver can have a perfectly innocent explanation if they were using a hired car for instance and unsure of the roads etc,. 

I agree with you on some points but...
Poor or erratic driving, is poor erratic driving, I dont really care what the excuse is.
It wont make a victim of it any less injured or dead.
Its like saying sorry I crashed into you/ run you over ,I was drunk, or my eyesights rubbish, so its not really my fault .

[Hamster]

19 minutes ago, Rewulf said:

I agree with you on some points but...
Poor or erratic driving, is poor erratic driving, I dont really care what the excuse is.
It wont make a victim of it any less injured or dead.
Its like saying sorry I crashed into you/ run you over ,I was drunk, or my eyesights rubbish, so its not really my fault .

I don't deny there is such a thing as erratic driving but merely saying that it happens to have plausible reasons at times, in this particular case the driver appears to have been foreign which has immediately brought about the assumption that it was some sort of insurance scam ,  (like the natives never cheat the system or insurance) I am saying it's also possible the guy was simply ill at ease in this country, it happens to the best of us when in strange surroundings. 

The victim here was in fact the foreign driver, his previous behaviour is not the cause for the accident. The hero behind him may well have just missed going into the back of him and let off steam in frustration without knowing the full story, that too happens at times, most of what we're discussing here is conjecture hence my enquiring as to the police investigation and outcome, hopefully with a link. 

[Rewulf]

20 minutes ago, Hamster said:

I don't deny there is such a thing as erratic driving but merely saying that it happens to have plausible reasons at times, in this particular case the driver appears to have been foreign which has immediately brought about the assumption that it was some sort of insurance scam ,  (like the natives never cheat the system or insurance) I am saying it's also possible the guy was simply ill at ease in this country, it happens to the best of us when in strange surroundings. 

The victim here was in fact the foreign driver, his previous behaviour is not the cause for the accident. The hero behind him may well have just missed going into the back of him and let off steam in frustration without knowing the full story, that too happens at times, most of what we're discussing here is conjecture hence my enquiring as to the police investigation and outcome, hopefully with a link.