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Hi there,

A few weeks ago I was going in dense traffic (moving at 50 through a 70 zone). Cars in front of us came to a stop and so did I - comfortably. I then got hit by the car behind me. The other driver now claims I'm partially at fault for stopping short and not keeping enough distance to the car in front myself.

The situation is slightly more complex as there was a third car coming from a side road appearing to merge almost into us, ignoring give-way signs. To clear the situation I compromised some of my safety margin in front by accelerating slightly past the car coming in from the side, still leaving enough room to stop.
At this point traffic came to halt and I had to break. Then they hit me. The third car drove off on the shoulder undamaged and never joined our lane.

I was lucky and had Police attending on site. They found her to be the party at fault.

The other driver has insurance but refuses to file a claim as they repeatedly said they can not effort the excess. They offered to share the excess fee but I'm concerned this will be turned against me - If not by them insurance might. As it may look like I'm admitting partial fault.

Since we will likely refuse the offer they want the case to be reassessed to prove my fault. This seems to go to court and I was wondering what the chances of getting a nose-to-tail accident reassessed are like? From my understanding coming to a full stop in congested traffic is something they had to expect and adjust their driving.

Am I really at risk being given any fault or are they just showing muscles?

Thanks, Björn

Hi Bjorn,
In any nose-to-tail accident, the car behind (with the frontal damage) is always responsible as they must drive in such a way that they can stop without collecting the car in front.
They can try and say that you were following too close all they like but at the end of the day you didn't hit the vehicle in front of you. If you have insurance, then make a claim through them and let them handle the other car.
If you didn't have insurance, then it gets tricky, and may end in a dispute tribunal if they are not willing to pay for damages (whether they claim on their insurance or not) they must still fix your car. There is a difference between broken road rules and accident responsibility. If the police thought you had committed any infringements, they would have issued you a ticket separately. But this would not necessarily make you responsible for the accident.