Auto Insurance Claims: Hit From Behind, impact damage, question thanks

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

My wife was recently in an auto accident. She was turning into the right lane, and got hit from behind.
The police officer and insurance company said it was her fault because had she not turned, the accident would not have happened.

The damage on the car was at the back of the car primarily on the right side. The other driver was on her cell phone and smoking at the time of the accident.

Just wondering if my wife should be held laible for this accident.

ANSWER: Hi Amit,
If I correctly understand your question, your wife was hit while merging from the left lane into the right lane.

Under these circumstances, not only is she required to signal her intentions but wait until that lane is legally open to her.  Meaning that there is sufficient room open in that lane for her to merge without endangering other cars that are already legally occupying that lane.

Based on the location of her damage, it appears that the police officer made the correct decision that your wife made a lane change with undue caution and is at fault.

I hope this information is found to be helpful.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the quick response Bennie.

I guess I was under the wrong impression that if hit from behind, it could not be her fault.

She did signal her intentions to move over, and looked over and saw the open space to move into. How does one determine  whether there is sufficient room in the lane?
The damage to her car is on the back rear bumper... I suppose because of the angle of the car at the time of impact, damage was done primarily to the right side of the rear bumper, but no damage on the right side of the car at all.

I am just hypothesising here, but if in case the person sped up when my wife was moving over, she could have caused the same impact. In that case, how does one determine who is at fault?

Thanks again for your response.
Amit.

ANSWER: ************************** FOLLOW UP ***************************
Hello Amit,
There is an old adage that says "Don't Kill The Messenger".  Based on the rating that you gave my answers, I guess that you never heard of it.  I take my responsibility to give you a correct answer seriously, even in cases when it is not the answer that you would like to hear.
You were very quick to degrade me with your rating.  Are you man enough to be quick to apologize after the insurance companies make their ruling?  Only time will tell.
Bennie

Hi Amit,
It's very possible that your wife saw what appeared to be an open space, but the other vehicle was in her "blind"spot".
I'm afraid that your hypothisis that the other driver sped up to cause an accident is something that is totally unprovable.
Since your wife was hit primarily on the right, this indicates that she had not yet gained legal control of the lane.  To me, the odds are strong that the other car was in her blind spot.
In order to make a safe lane change, you need to be traveling at the same speed of the traffic in the lane in which you wish to merge and have an opening of 3-4 car lengths.
Hope this helps.

Bennie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello Bennie,

I apologize if the grading offended you. I honestly did not think the grading was harsh. A 7 out of 10 is the worst rating I provided which was for the 'knowledge' section. Everything else was either an 8 or a 9.

I do not see how any of these are degrading (Unless of course I 10 was lowest and 1 was highest, and I mis-rated you. If that is the case, do provide me a link to change the ratings and I will do so immediately).

Given that we do not know each other or each other's qualifications, I think you were rather quick to pass judgement on what I have and have not heard. In my opinion, the "man enough" comment was also out of line.

That said, in general, unless I was truly blown away by the service provided, I would not give a 10 rating, not only for this but for anything else I am asked to rate.

From your response, it seems to me that you get some sort of benefit from high ratings. If that is that case, please do provide me the link and I will be happy to modify the ratings to your wishes, as my intention was not to deny you any benefit you may get out of this. I only gave my honest rating based on the conversations we had with the impression that ratings would be used to identify training / self-development opportunities.

Let me know if you need the reasoning behind my ratings. I will be happy to share them with you.

Once again, thank you for your assistance.

Answer
Hello Amit,
This site is not a 'blog' where anyone with a computer can decide to be an expert and answer your question.
Every expert on this site is an professional who volunteers his/her services with no type of remuneration.
If you had taken a few minutes to click on 'view profile' you would have learned that 3 of the experts on this site have between 5 and 47 years of experience in the insurance industry and one is a personal injury attorney with over 27 years of experience.  On that same page is a listing of our average ratings.  In the four categories that you are ask to rate, no one has an average rating of less than 9.87 and approximately 40% of the time the expert is nominated for expert of the month.
Our goal is to assist you in resolving an issue based on state laws and the legal wording of an insurance policy, or in cases such as yours to attempt to help you understand why and adverse decision has already been made by the insurance company and police officer.
I am a licensed professional insurance broker with over 47 years of experience and uncountable hours of continuing education to keep abreast of the changes in laws an legal wordings of insurance policies.
With my professional credentials, I am not in need of feedback for training/self-development opportunities.
True, I have no knowledge of your qualifications, but mine are posted right on the web site.  There are over 2,800 questions and answers posted on this site that you could have read for a better  understanding of the types if questions and answers that we provide.
The rating system is merely a method of you saying thank you and a
boost to our ego for providing our valuable time and experience to assist you.
No disrespect intended, but since you have made it clear that you are rarely if ever willing to provide a 10 rating for free professional advice, then perhaps you should be paying an attorney $450 per hour to answer your questions.

Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area