Minor Fender Bender On Round About In Ohio, Cops Blaming Me. Any Advice ?

Hello all, was involved in a fender bender while exiting a roundabout in Ohio. Dude tried to sqeeze in on the inside to overtake me and scraped my trailer tires. He blamed me, initially the cop said he couldn't decide and would have to investigate it further. A week later he called me and told me they were placing the blame on me and are in the process of sending me a citation which I have to pay. Ive only been in this game for 3 years and until this incident I have a clean driving record with no tickets. What are my options and does getting legal services involved make sense ? any advice or past experience helps. thanks in advance.

This could be fought in court. First, if you are a company driver, they will be the ones to deal with it. But you are the prime witness and the guest of honor in the courtroom.

If you are O/O, you should have some prepaid legal service.

The problem is, you can't call the plaintiff an idiot in court, though we all know he is.

In my opinion, anyone will tries to cut in on the inside of a truck turning is an idiotic moron.

If the blame for the incident was so hard to establish, a good lawyer could probably challenge the citation and, hopefully for you, do so successfully. Citations can really have a huge impact on your career if you decide to apply elsewhere in the future. Fight it if you can, but get the advice of an experienced lawyer first. Gonna cost you some of your hard earned money, win or lose unless your company fights it for you and foots the bill.

(Errol, is an idiotic moron a lot worse than a regular moron? Lol)

Without any specific information its hard to figure this out. Sounds like more too the event.

Did you get a copy of the collision report?? Any injury claimed?? Was either vehicle towed or assisted by a tow truck. How much damage was done???

The statement of rubbing trailer tires doesn’t give a total picture. Also officers not giving an opinion at the scene is normal. This is for many potential reasons and really is not an indication of anything.

What is the PCF, primary collision factor? Were there any independant witness’s??

Normally most agencies if something is as minor as you say, just write the report and let the insurance companies sort it out.

Rounabouts are not all created equal other than being round. I have seen some that are a nightmare for a big truck.

If they issue you a citation I highly doubt your company will fight that part for you. They are only concerned with any insurance claims against them as the owner of the vehicle. You will be a witness in any insurance case, but that is seperate from the traffic court. If you get the citation dismissed that might help them in an insurance case.

I have to agree with PJ. There's more to this.

How many lanes are there on this roundabout? You say you were exiting. You also say the other vehicle tried to "squeeze in."

while exiting a roundabout in Ohio. Dude tried to sqeeze in on the inside to overtake me

That's not very clear. If you are exiting from the interior lane, and they are maintaining the outer lane, your trailer will be off tracking into their space. That makes it your fault. That's not them squeezing in to overtake you.

I'm not making an accusation. I'm merely pointing out how we are missing a lot of pertinent details here. There's no question about the challenges involved while going through these roundabouts in a big rig. I don't like them one bit. Some of them are almost unmanageable.

I'm sorry this happened to you. Let it become a teaching moment. I typically slow way down before entering one of these things so I can try to time it so I enter it all alone. The less vehicles in that circle, the safer your passage.

Hello all, was involved in a fender bender while exiting a roundabout in Ohio. Dude tried to sqeeze in on the inside to overtake me and scraped my trailer tires. He blamed me, initially the cop said he couldn't decide and would have to investigate it further. A week later he called me and told me they were placing the blame on me and are in the process of sending me a citation which I have to pay. Ive only been in this game for 3 years and until this incident I have a clean driving record with no tickets. What are my options and does getting legal services involved make sense ? any advice or past experience helps. thanks in advance.

I bet the citation was "failure to yield in a roundabout" because you did not let the traffic coming from the left go first...Roundabouts with more than 1 lane are rare, although I have navigated a few, and none in Ohio...If you were exiting, he should have been behind you, if it was only 1 lane, if 2, you should have been on the curbside lane, with plenty of room for him to pass you on the roadside lane... Do you have video of the claimed mistake by the 4 wheeler? If not, and it was a 1 lane roundabout, you are screwed.You can only come in to a roundabout from the left. If you were exiting as you claim, I dont see how he was trying to pass you unless he did something crazy, which by the action of the cop, he did not do, because you got the ticket, not the 4 wheeler...