Getting Sued for an Accident I didnt Cause?

[Hoenheim]

Managed to go over 10 years before I got into my first car accident this past Saturday. Was waiting in a left turning lane but couldnt move because there was a procession of motorcyclists in the two lanes to the right of me going forward and a traffic cop had all other traffic stopped. Was in the car with 2 friends, minding my business waiting for us to get the signal from the cop to be able to finally make my left turn. Heard a loud noise, next thing I know I see a dude and a motorcylce on the ground in front of me .

The inital impact looked like it was right behind the gas cap on the passenger side. Big indention there, then heavy scatches all the way down until he finally clipped the passenger side mirror off. 

Dude had a leg injury and one of my friends is having back problems (the one that was sitting on the passenger side near the gas cap/initial impact).

Told the cops my story , that I was still and got hit. My friend sitting in the passenger seat said that he was watching the dude on the motorcylce and it seemed like HE was trying to go around the other motorcycles, got too close to my car, and hit it.

And now a few days later I'm listed as at fault of the accident with "Failure to maintain lane?" I was sitting still in the left hand lane for the whole time. I already gave them my statement days ago and this is what they came up with. Is there any way for me to actually fuging fight this? I feel like ive been blamed for something I did not have any fault in and all sorts of bs to deal with if insurance company or me being sued (multiple people injured obviously). I'm just sitting here wondering how exactly they came up with that statement in blaming me, like who are they talking to and does my statement have no impact/meaning at all ? 

i asked my friend that was in the car what happened mulitple times (since I was looking forward and not at where the accident took place), he said he was looking in the mirror, saw the motorcycle dude trying to go around the other motorcyclists , got too close to our car and hit it. 

I felt like it was odd that motorcyclists were talking alot to police before i ever got the chance to talk to them. Multiple times I try to talk to them and theres just a bunch of motorcyclists talking to police before i have the chance to get close to them to give my account. Does this have something to do with it? 

[Paa Langfart]

That is why you get auto insurance.  Hopefully you have a good auto insurance company and policy.  They should handle everything for you.

[Zaximus]

Sounds rough.    I know in Charlotte, motorcycle riders go around cars all the time to get around traffic.    They'll get on shoulders, go between, etc.    So I'm not surprised by your story.   Of course it's the same people that are probably all over facebook saying "Watch for motorcycles this spring ya'll."

Motorcycles are really cool, we've all probably wanted one, but when you get down to it, they are completely stupid.    You're on a bike, going highway speeds, it's really just absurd lol.     I feel as humans we do some stupid things to bring stuff upon us.  

[cookinbrak]

Failure to maintain lane is a moving violation (swerving into another car). You were sitting still. 

[Shocker]

If you didnt get a ticket just let the insurance take care of it.  Expect a little hike in your rates, but it depends on your carrier.  Are you sure you were at fault, maybe you misread?  Should be the cycle dude if your story is accurate.

[thefuzz]

This will lead to nothing.

As long as you have auto insurance.

 

What were you listed on?  A mailer from an attorney, the ticket, etc?

[cookinwithgas]

Make it clear to the insurance company. Go to the intersection and take pictures, annotate them.

Once I hit another car when I had to brake turning left through a big intersection when a cop car came through the stop light, around traffic with lights on.  Took a bit of white paint off her bumper, barely tapped her. The cop stopped and looked, and didnt see anything worth reporting but said if we wanted to file a claim we need to contact the other party and her. Never heard anything, but my wifes coworker convinced her to go to the other persons house and take a polaroid (this was in the mid 90s) of the back of her car just in case. Put it in a drawer and forgot about it until six months later when our insurance company told us they were dropping us for failure to report an accident - the lady we "hit" was suing for 10,000 dollars in chiropractic fees. We sent the picture to the insurance company and never heard about it again.

[Hoenheim]

Thanks for the replies guys.

No I don't personally have the insurance for the car , it was my mothers car I was driving so it would be under her insurance company USAA.  

Yeah I got a copy of the accident report emailed to me . It said failure to maintain lane , which is false b/c I never had any reason to fuging move b/c the cop had traffic blocked off. Also on the report it said speed of impact 30mph for both vehicles , which is total BS because i was not moving and had been behind another car in that same turning lane for the longest time. 

And what immediately stood out to me after the accident had taken place, I got out of my car. Not only was my car completely inside the turning lane, it was actually well to the left side of the turning lane, no where near the two strait ahead lanes to the right of me! I just don't see any logic to the cop puting me at blame on the report unless a bunch of these other cyclists were telling her that i was trying to get over or something. And who the fug would try to turn directly into a procession of motorcycles? And even if i did, why would there be an impact way in the back side of my car and scrape all the way down it? 

Mom told me that the only thing I can do is speak directly to the policewoman who wrote the report , and I'm currently waiting on the call. I can at least tell her to correct the reported accident speed which is total bs, but everything else I feel like I've said already but will say again with as much detail as i can. Something along the lines of, I was in left hand turning lane for approximately 10 min, a police person had traffic stopped to let the procession of motorcycles continue down the road, looking strait ahead, heard a noise, dude on motorycle on the ground in front of me. And I guess they aren't taking my friends testimony seriously but both passengers in my car said the exact same thing, that they were looking in the mirror and saw the motoryclist trying to weave in between my car and the other motorcycles and hit me while i was stopped in the turning lane .

My logic is that if they aren't taking my friend account to seriously then  they should do the same with the other cyclists since they were obviously all part of the same group/organization of the guy who crashed into me (had the same jackets, clothing, stuff written on their jackets). Again I wonder if the fact that the cyclists got to talk to her first had any impact on her choice to put me at fault, i had to wait quite a while for them to let her go to be able to talk to me for my account of the accident. 

So what would you think if you were the policewoman making a report at the scene? You have like 100+ motorcyle riders probably all saying "OH YEAH HE SWIPED MY DUDE  AND WAS TRY ING TO GET OVER!" What side would you take? What possible reason would i have to turn into a bunch of motorcycles? 

Oh I guess more background info is that this happend at about 12:30PM on a Saturday. I had to be at work at 2PM  (at the time I was about 10 min away) and i was droping 2 friends off at the library which is down the street from where i work.  So i had  like 1hr 30 min of time, i was not in any rush to get anywhere, so why would i have a reason to try to move into the right lanes? I also was following my friends direction to the library and they had only said turn left at the street, there was no reason for me to continue down that street at all.. 

[PhillyB]

this happened to me in vietnam a few weeks ago almost precisely the same way, only I was on a motorcycle. turning left, motorcycles illegally cut inside, one hit the other and three of them wrecked and went sailing across the opposite lane. eerie as fug watching bikes and people go flying. one girl smacked her face into the gravel and had a clear concussion with blood streaming down her face.

we were worried locals were gonna try to pin it on the two americans so as soon as the cops showed up and motorcycle drivers swarmed them with their story i wedged my ass in there and used every word of vietnamese i knew to explain what happened so if we got screwed it wouldn't be for being the quietest voice. they held us for two hours and then let us go. not at fault.

next time be the first one in line.

[cookinwithgas]

Damn Philly you could be the next intersti g man on earth if you could just hold your booze better haha