Had an accident in driving instructors car - he said I have to pay for it

[Yupbabs]

A question for uk learner drivers

I had a driving lesson today and I had an accident, I took the wing mirror off when passing a parked car. Instructor said he’ll try to lower the price as much as possible but he’ll be in touch with how much I need to pay. Is this right? Do I need to pay? My previous driving instructor said if there was an accident then his insurance covers the damage

I feel like he’s trying to con me. This was the first lesson I ever had with the guy, I had about 50 lessons with my other instructor and he made sure I didn’t have any accidents by using the dual control. This guy today just tilted the steering wheel away from the parked car and it still hit it.

Surely then the person would be driving without insurance if they are liable for damage on a test?

If you get hit by learner who is having a driving test, have you been hit by an uninsured driver or have you been hit by a car driven by a learner in a car insured by the driving instructor?

Who would you claim against?

You've had an awful lot of lessons and still not passed...anyway insurance don't pay its not your responsibility regardless of who hit what

@Doesthepopeshitinthewoods I mean I am compliant in a situation where I am being taught something by an instructor. I'm neither a wall flower, nor a pushover - and there really is no need to worry about me :0)

@LadyJ2023 i haven’t passed because I haven’t done my test.

and people take different amounts of time to learn, you shouldn’t shame people for stuff like that.

and people take different amounts of time to learn, you shouldn’t shame people for stuff like that.

Some people do ten lessons and fly through their tests. They're few. Most people need more than that, don't worry about all the criticism you're getting.

You're completely normal.

I changed instructor because he asked invasive questions whilst I was clearly pregnant 🤦🏻‍♀️

i don’t get what your point is, I know of people who have had 100 lessons.
and if you had read properly, you’d see that I wrote that i had 50 hours of practice. I have had about 30 lessons so calm your tits.

I’ll make sure I continue doing lessons, I’ll find you and I’ll drive into you 😉 thank you very much

and good for you sunshine, seems as though you drive a car made for short arses then because the cars I’ve learnt in are all massive.
get a grip of yourself woman

There was no adjustments in any of these cars to heighten the seats.
quit judging before you know the facts.

and as I said, I’ll make sure I hit you since I’m such a crappy driver !

@cakeorwine the driving instructors insurance would still be claimed but the person driving would be liable for the excess (if you wanted to be pedantic) I've never actually known an instructor IRL who has pursued their pupil for the excess, most are just glad the pupil is ok, and their not willing to risk their business reputation for a couple of hundred pounds.

But the instructor insurance is worded as such that they are insured to teach provisional license holders and the car is insured to be driven by provisional license holders for the purposes of carrying out a UK driving test.

An instructor would only ever claim the insurance for a bad crash, the premiums are really expensive and it's hard enough to make any sort of profit without risking premiums going even higher.

An instructor i learnt with got a 6 month ban from teaching people to drive after she someone reported her for scamming more lessons out out her punters by telling them they weren't ready for the test , she tried it nearly everyone she was teaching including me . I just lost it with her and told her I knew that was coming as I heard about her at my work

Oh have a you sound like a sanctimonious arse.

People who have been driving 30 years hit wing mirrors.

Of course you should not be charged!

That is part of the school's requirement to have insurance to cover this.

Change instructor and report this one for trying to get money out of you...

OP ignore the sanctimonious twats on here.
Learning in an automatic is a great idea, best of luck!

Agree with BMW6, switching to an automatic is a great idea. The only downside is as you said, the lessons are dearer and automatic cars are dearer to buy, but on the upside they keep their value when you come to sell. Please don't lose confidence, just find an instructor who is good with nervous drivers and go for it!

OP you’ve been given a hard time by some on this thread.

Whether you decide to have more lessons in the future is up to you. Although as we move to EVs manual vehicles will disappear.

One thing strikes me from your post is that you seem to expect others to tell you what to do in life. ‘Your DI told you to drive on’ ‘the police didn’t give you a reference’. As an adult you need to think more for yourself and rely less on being directed to things by others.

When making calls to officials, businesses etc it’s always a good to keep a record of the date, time and name of who you spoke to. Yes, it’s tedious, but worth it if you need to chase things up or need proof of something.

Unfortunately being an adult i.e. over 18 you are expected to take responsibility for a lot of very boring things, even if others do stuff for you. You are often still ultimately responsible for things and need to make sure things are done correctly.

OP, are you in the DA postcode area?
Learning to drive these days is much harder than it was, and not everyone is a 'natural' at it. Don't listen to the naysayers, it's a very useful skill, especially if you have children. Keep at it, don't be put off.
From what you said, I do think you would find automatic much less stressful-you don't need to think about gear changes so can concentrate on the roadcraft aspect of driving.
I wish you well!

Don't let the arseholes panic you on this thread, OP. I remember my boss laughing when I said I'd had 35 driving lessons before passing my test, and I felt such a chump until I realised he assumed I'd had plenty of practice at driving outside the lessons. For some of us, there is no family car we can knock about in with L plates on. We have to pay for every minute of our driving practice.

Also, don't panic that you'll never be able to drive a manual car. Go for an automatic if you prefer, but look around you on the road and you will see that learning to drive a manual is perfectly possible even for complete orks 😁

Learning to drive, and then first driving alone, can be really terrifying. You're just so hyper-aware of all the risks and fearful of outstepping your own abilities. This is completely normal, and does go away as you get used to it.

What happened here must have really dented (!) your confidence, especially people taking a pop at you. Try not to worry about it, these things happen. Just get back in the saddle and keep going!

Don’t give up driving because of some trolls on Mumsnet. They probably post mean things to everyone’s posts. Just book another instructor and have a few sessions of CBT so you can drive without anxiety. He should have noticed you were too near. 50 hours is not a lot at all. I probably had 100. Passed 3rd time. My sister passed 4th time. A friend passed 5th time. This was your 1st lesson in 18 months. You were not an experienced driver. You will be a better driver as a result of this mishap. Experienced drivers drive over kerbs, reverse into posts and itto other people’s cars. I bet some of the horrible people who have posted mean things on here have had several crashes and are really miserable in their lives, so they enjoy writing mean comments on the Internet. Honestly, book your next lesson today. Don’t let the b**ches get you down!

OP just remember that learning to drive is like learning to walk. Everyone worries about how long it takes but 10 years later nobody knows whether you started walking at 10 months or 20.

Someone I knew was just not a natural driver, she must have hundreds of lessons and failed her test over a dozen times. She apparently had a habit of taking her hands off the wheel to gesticulate when speaking which I imagine didn't go down well. Also she was well over 40 and I understand that learning when you're older is more difficult.
You much younger and you certainly don't sound anywhere near as bad as her, just try again, you'll get there in the end. But do make sure that you use a recommended driving instructor, your's sounds truly awful.

So he doesn’t have insurance? Is there a professional body of instructors you can talk to? That or the DVLA.

@Yupbabs absolutely not your fault at all. A shitty driving instructor who didn't want to claim on his insurance. What a wanker. You should report him to the official driving instructor body.

Ignore all the wankers on here who have clearly forgotten what it's like to be young and a learner driver. I'm very glad you sorted it out😀

Wow, what a savaging op got at times! Give people a break, nobody's perfect, no one was harmed, hope this thread hasn't put any woman off learning to drive, get down off your soap box and let's have some possitive empowerment

Under no circumstances pay anything to this person and I would suggest finding someone else . Is he under a school ? If so make sure you contact them asap . Do you have an agreement send to you or the terms and condition of your booking ?

Should definitely be covered by instructor’s insurance. I guess it’s pretty high given the job but that’s running a business! Wing mirror not that expensive given other car damage which can occur in this situation. My driving instructor back then also has dual controls. It’s not just to cover car damage but possibly getting hurt.