Driving offence? Interview under caution

[janet-9]

10 days ago i was involved in an accident which resulted in my hitting the back of a lorry. A van in front of me overtook a large lorry on a short straight stretch of a busy A road. It was an old van and did not accelerate very quicky and as there is a blind bend at the end of the straight stretch, I left sufficient distance for him to fall back in case he failed in his overtaking manoevre. As he overtook the lorry a car nosed out of a side turning. the van swerved to avoid him. I saw something black bouncing in the road and assumed the van had clipped the car. I also thought whatever was in the road might hit my car. the van got in front of the lorry but unknown to me had lost control and hit the wall at the side of the road. the lorry had to emergency brake but because I had been observing the incident with the car i had failed to start braking quicky enough and hit the lorry pretty hard. My car is almost certainly a writeoff, although the windscreen is not shattered nor the drivers leg well damaged. I managed to get out of my car but as my back was in pain i lay down and was subsequently taken to hospital by the ambulance for xrays. I have no damage other than whiplash and a sore back .The police woman that attended the accident came to my house about an hour after I got home from hospital and told me that we were not speeding (its a 40 limit), that the lorry tacho was at 60 kms at the time. She also told me I would be interviewed under caution , along with the van and car drivers, but did not elaborate on this - or I don't think so, as i was groggy with pain killlers and in shock. Certainly my husband and I sat and speculated what it all meant after she had gone and if she had been clear we would not have had to do this. Will I be prosecuted for careless driving? Should I take legal representation to the interview? If I am prosecuted should I just plead guilty as I hit the lorry although i think the whole accident was caused by the van and car and my braking

[Toureman]

It is entirely your fault because you did not leave enough clearance between you and the truck you hit.

You have already admitted you did not brake correctly.

You could be prosecuted for careless driving.

Legal assistance would not be any good at an interview.

[Hypognosis]

@janet-9

//although i think the whole accident was caused by the van and car and my braking//

I quite understand how you could view the whole thing as a single incident. However, I think the Police would regard this as two, or even three, incidents.

i) Someone nosed out of their driveway without much attention to the possibilty of oncoming traffic and was struck by the van (we could debate the road markings not being double white lines at this point, to which I say "tractors!")
ii) The truck hitting the out of control overtaker
iii) You arriving at an accident scene (albeit in an instant) and failing to come to a stop because of insufficient braking distance.

I can't remember the last emergency stop I did from 40mph but I might try one on a quiet road to remind myself how much road I need. In the meantime, it's the "2 second rule".

With regard to "instantaneous" occurrences, there is such a thing as "reading the road" which, in my case, includes reading the behaviour of the vehicles in front of me and adjusting what - and where - I am to cover a whole set of 'what if?s'.

In the example of an overtake on a two lane road, I am faced with 10-15 seconds of having no 'escape area', into which I could swerve or skid to avoid one or both vehicles in front doing an emergecy stop (I would be expecting traffic coming the other way, around the blind bend). So I have no choice but to fall back (safe braking distance plus a bit, for comfort).

So, my apologies for rambling but these are my thoughts but I might not have the full facts. Plead guilty to get proceedings over with quickly. If you genuinely think the truck driver did something wrong and you can prove it, then plead not guilty (which, nevertheless risks losing, with legal costs on top of anything else).

Personally, I would be grateful to still be in one piece. Stay lucky!