Lane Change Collision - Determining fault/accident diagram or reconstruction?

[afewthings]

This is what happened
I was driving on a multi-lane street, on the farthest right lane. I remained in this lane before, during, and after the collision (until we both pulled over for the formalities of license/insurance exchange). The vehicle in the lane directly left of me accelerated and suddenly merged into my lane. This resulted in damage to my driver's side fender and damage to her right rear area above the tire.

The other vehicle gave no warning or signal prior to swerving. The first time I noticed the vehicle, it was driving very close to me in the lane left of me and the vehicle was positioned so that we were driving nearly side by side in neighboring lanes, but the vehicle was still positioned a few feet behindmine. Since the vehicle was uncomfortably close to my car, my instinct was to slow down. But while I had begun to slow down, the vehicle had already started speeding and swerving in front of me, causing a minor collision. The vehicle drove off somewhat to the left, then back in front of me. This all happened in a matter of seconds, so it was barely enough time for me to react. During the entire time, I was still in the same lane.

The damages to my vehicle are more severe, the fender is dented and crushed in so I have to replace the entire thing. The area on the other driver's vehicle is hardly damaged. It looks grazed and scuffed, and some of the paint has been scraped off in the grazed/scuffed areas. These are my questions:

1. Is it possible to prove fault based on damages? How common are the kind of damages that I/the other car received, when the other vehicle attempts the lane change? I can't seem to find much information on this online.

2. Are there any examples of accident reconstructions or simulations that are already created, online? My insurance company tells me that this is a tough case of word vs. word, but I'm positive that forensic scientists/physicists could prove the way the collision occurred. However, since it's not a major accident, I don't think my insurance company will spend money to hire a accident analyst or physicist, so I was hoping to find examples created online.

Any other advice?

 

[ecmst12]

You might not be able to prove anything without a witness. There is no "examples online" of accident reconstructions that could help you and it would cost way more than your loss to hire an accident reconstructionist, so no, no one will be doing that. Let your insurance handle it, they will do what they can.

 

[justalayman]

Any other advice?

Ya, put this back in and answer it:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[afewthings]

California.

This has just been stressful, and I was just hoping to see if there was anything more concrete I could use to show what happened. Or if this kind of damage is common for this kind of collision.

 

[ecmst12]

The damage would be the same or similar whether you left your lane or he left his. It's something that would take a true expert to *possibly* shed light on, and even then it would be some degree of conjecture.

 

[afewthings]

I see. There were no other witnesses either. I guess I thought science could point out the consistencies and insistence with each persons POV (kind of similar to how criminal forensic analysts might analyze the trajectory of the gun, position, bullet, etc)).

 

[ecmst12]

Sure, but you'd need a scientific expert to testify to that. And they are EXPENSIVE.

 

[CdwJava]

CAN a proper review of the damage and the scene determine speed and angles of impact? Yes.

Is the damage worth the expense of such an analysis? No.

And, yes, there are programs on the internet that can help with some of the calculations, but it would take an experienced expert to render an opinion on the issues you want - and even then, such an analysis might not be able to determine lane positions with certainty unless the vehicles remained at the scene of the impact and good photos and measurements were taken. Unless this was a serious injury collision, chances are that dd not happen.

The expert analysis and testimony could cost at least $3,000 ... is the damage greater than that?

Your insurance company will assign fault as it sees fit.