What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? California
pretty much what happened was this.....I was merging onto a freeway on-ramp that has multiple exits and on-ramps coming on and off of it...so there was traffic in this lane already....anyways the lane I was in was merging into this other lane and before I started to merge I turned my turn signal on, checked my side mirror, then looked over my shoulder to see if the coast was clear for me to merge. Seeing that it was clear I started to merge, about half way into my merge I saw a truck coming up fast in my side mirror and before I knew it his front bumber scraped the rear left tire of my car causing some minor damage to my car. He made no attempt to slow down to allow me to finish merging...as a matter of fact he sped up more as if to try and prevent me from getting in front of him. I had no where else to go....in order for me to slow down enough to allow him to pass I would've had to slam on my brakes...then I would've been hit by the car behind me and if I had swerved to the right lane I would've been hit by cars in that lane. Everyone I talk to says he's automatically at fault cause the damage is done to the back end of my car, but his insurance people are saying it's my fault. I know that he had the right of way, but I don't think that gives him permission to try and run someone off the road. I had taken every precaution to make sure I could merge safetly and he had every opportunity to slow down to allow me to complete my merge. I guess my questions are: Does having the right-of-way give a person permission to muscle other vehicles out of the way? and who is at fault?
pretty much what happened was this.....I was merging onto a freeway on-ramp that has multiple exits and on-ramps coming on and off of it...so there was traffic in this lane already....anyways the lane I was in was merging into this other lane and before I started to merge I turned my turn signal on, checked my side mirror, then looked over my shoulder to see if the coast was clear for me to merge. Seeing that it was clear I started to merge, about half way into my merge I saw a truck coming up fast in my side mirror and before I knew it his front bumber scraped the rear left tire of my car causing some minor damage to my car. He made no attempt to slow down to allow me to finish merging...as a matter of fact he sped up more as if to try and prevent me from getting in front of him. I had no where else to go....in order for me to slow down enough to allow him to pass I would've had to slam on my brakes...then I would've been hit by the car behind me and if I had swerved to the right lane I would've been hit by cars in that lane. Everyone I talk to says he's automatically at fault cause the damage is done to the back end of my car, but his insurance people are saying it's my fault. I know that he had the right of way, but I don't think that gives him permission to try and run someone off the road. I had taken every precaution to make sure I could merge safetly and he had every opportunity to slow down to allow me to complete my merge. I guess my questions are: Does having the right-of-way give a person permission to muscle other vehicles out of the way? and who is at fault?