40 replies to this topic

[Ethel]

In fact, somewhere in your policy it will say that you cannot accept liability on behalf of your insurers. He clearly hit you, unless you were going sideways, so unless he denies even being there liability seems clear. You should inform your insurers, but get a quote and contact his. They may just give you the go ahead if it's under £1k.

[5MITHY]

did you think about asking him if hed go outside of the insurance?

[pjm]

Hope you get it sorted out, if the other driver was doing something rare, stick to your guns and make sure you claim of their insurance.

[oli8925]

i would have thought seeing as he was reversing its almost certain he'll be condidered at fault. in driving tests, they make a very clear point of looking ALL around you when you reverse, as im sure you know. and this is the reason.

never accept liability, least not at the scene. and in this case im sure youre not. so you should contact yours and his insurance comapny to inform them and get your side of what happened across. get a quote from a garage of your choice that you trust to do the work to a high standard and make sure they do it there. his insurance will pay for repairs and your insurance should make sure it goes smoothly. you wont get anything bad happen to your insurance as its not your fault.

hope it all goes well and sounds like it shouldnt be too much to repair even tho it is extremely annoying and bad timing. good luck

[analogue_radio]

Christ Dan! I hope you get this sorted out.

When you brought the new exhaust from MITP did you chuck that other one or pick it up again?

[matt615]

I had 2 othe people in my car at the point it happened, so they can act as witnesses

I'm afraid they don't count. Insurance companies are only interested in independent witnesses, i.e not friends or relatives of the driver.

[dave21478]

There are no independant witnesses. It come down to his word against yours.
If he is honest, you should be ok, but like I said, if he gives a slightly different account to the insurers, it could all be seen in a very different light.
Believe me, this is something I learned the hard way.
Several years back I was involved in a crash. 100% not my fault. The other driver was all sweetness and apologies at the scene, but the statement she gave the insurers was a complete fabrication. She blamed me entirely. It was my word against hers. I was a young guy in a powerfull car that I had owned for less than a week, she was a 40-something housewife who had never had an accident in 20-odd years driving. The insurers believed her - despite the evidence I had. If what she said were true, I would have to have been driving sideways at 50mph, but the insurers werent bothered by this in the slightest, they took her statement over mine.
As it had originally been a simple case, my car had been repaired at an approved garage, and I had the use of a hire-car for this time. Once this had all come to light, I lost my NCB, I had to pay my excess, and I was never refunded the hire car costs and all my other expenses as I should have been. Overall I was left several hundred pounds out of pocket. I argued it, took it to the insurance ombudsman, took it to indipendant solicitors, but it was all for nowt. I ended up wasting a hell of a lot of good money persuing this, but no-one was interested in my version, no-one was interested in the photo evidence and no-one was intersted in the inconsistancies in her statements. The insurers made their minds up in the first 5 minutes after reading her statement against me.

[MiniMonty]

The trouble here is your age and experience.
You may fall fould of all the world thinking you are to blame because you are young and inexperienced.

To me it sounds like a "knock for knock" i.e. the other driver should have been more aware of other traffic -
and you should have waited for him to complete his maneuver.

I'd do a Napolean (calculated inaction) and do nothing at all.
If the other driver's insureres contact you then you can start writing angry letters but until anything happens
just do nothing. It's usually the best way.

Best wishes
Monty

PS - your subject title is "my first crash".
Try to make it your last crash...

Edited by MiniMonty, 04 October 2008 - 10:59 PM.

[slicksimon]

im sorry to hear that dan.
this car brings bad luck lol
when i owned it a had the drivers door smashed in aswell by a supra lol
unlucky mate hope it all gets sorted outt

[1987_ParkLane]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replys and yes we are lucky noone was hurt. I have rang my insurance company up so thats that ball rolling now, and my mum and dad arn't mad or anything, they just want to make sure I'm not to blame . So my plan of attack now is, if everything goes well and his insurance company will pay out, then I will get the work done, etc and put it off the road for the winter until the end of spring/early summer ready for most of the events. This will give me time to sort the car out properly as I want/need to do a lot of things to it. In the mean time I will be driving a Fiat Cinquecento , but gets me to and from work 5 days a week. So everyone in the area, look out lol. And here are some pics of the damage .

Cheers

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[Ethel]

I can't make out if the sill is slightly wobbly? Might just be the door not being shut. I'd carefully frame any photos you submit to keep that rusty hole out of shot

Get in touch with his insurers soonest so he has less time to think about concocting a story to avoid coughing up. Your friends may not be ideal as independent witnesses but they are better than nothing. Get some piccies of where it happened & his car if you can, especially any debris or tyre marks etc. and make some measurements. Represent the truth as fully and accurately as you can and he'll have a hard time making something up that sounds convincing.

[1987_ParkLane]

I can't make out if the sill is slightly wobbly? Might just be the door not being shut.

Its a combination of water, light and the damage to the door that makes the sill look like that, I checked that kind of damage yday, and the door is shut, it wont open know it thats twisted and damaged.

Edited by 1987_ParkLane, 05 October 2008 - 03:36 PM.

[dave21478]

uh oh, how rusty is the car around that hole? what about the heelboard?
the problem is that no decent bodyshop will repair the damage to the panel whitout having to fix the rust first, which complicates things.

[tedmcedd]

some guy drove into the back of my mum when she was waiting at a junction, his words were, i thought you were going to set off then... ill settle this, i have a mate who owns a garage, next minute he's ringing up saying it was my mum who reversed into him.... twit.... so the insurance company fix my mums scratched bumper with a new one... we wait... we still wait.. nothing happenes, so he either dropped it because he hadnt a leg to stand on, or the insurance told him he was an idiot... my mum wrotye a letter saying by no means to pay out as it seriously wasnt her fault, say you'll go to court, they wont like that because then they realise they will have to pay the fees, so it will all get settled....

hope you get him fixded

Ed

[1984mini25]

Was on the was to my girlfriends and the car in front looked like it was pulling onto a drive on the right as it went onto the kerb, so I thought I would go around the back of it, but as I did I saw the reverse lights come on.

i would have thought seeing as he was reversing its almost certain he'll be condidered at fault. in driving tests, they make a very clear point of looking ALL around you when you reverse, as im sure you know. and this is the reason.

I had a similar incident a few weeks back, coming back on long the main road to my house when the car in front just stops right in the middle of the road no were near the curb with no indication. So there’s me pulling/indicating waiting for a gap in oncoming traffic to pull past when the car stopped in front suddenly started to reverse towards a driveway. Only just stopped and realised I was there sat with my indicator on/ beeping my horn, as I couldn’t reverse because of the other cars behind in time before he hit me.

Stupid still mouthed off that I shouldn’t have bee there and it was my fault, more like try looking behind you before you start reversing

Edited by 1984mini25, 05 October 2008 - 04:24 PM.