Car accident

[Dorkyduck]

I had a car accident recently, was driving along in slow moving traffic (no more than 5-10 mph) and veered into a parked car. The first image is what the car looked like when I inspected it. The other car had no damage to the bodywork, just the wingmirror clipped in. Obviously knocked on the woman's door and gave details. Drove away and it became apparent it wasn't steering properly and had to pull into a side road where the wheel completely locked. I am suffering with absolute guilt, I don't understand how this could have happened and insurance are writing the car off.

I keep beating myself up over this as I feel 100% to blame. My husband is saying that he thinks it's odd the other car suffered no damage and I have a big dent. His theory is another car hit me in a carpark and the wheel just gave way at this point. Is this a possibility?

Depends on what your car is and what the other car is.

I did similar hitting a lamp post in a car park. I bent the front axel and the insurance wrote the car off on the spot, purely based on my (sobbing) description of the damage on the phone. It was an 8yo Fiat Punto, so probably not worth much.

Sorry, not really answering your question there! But just to say it is entirely possible to write a car off in a one-sided, low speed collision. Don't beat yourself up over it, shit like this happens.

I did it when I was learning to drive just pulled off and was barely moving. No damage to the other car but whole wing was dented on my parents car and needed to be fully replaced.

The new photos along the bottom of yours show that you've crashed right into the other car, it's not just clipped it. I think the damage looks fairly typical for that kind of impact and it's entirely possible that the damage is greater than the value of the car. I work in vehicle insurance.

I think your husband has a point, in that the damage doesn't match. How would you hit a wing mirror with (and do that amount of damage to) your wheel arch?!

The police told me that it's an automatic write off if the axel or steering is compromised so that's why they've written it off. I crashed recently and my car was a write off but a 5mph "clip" wouldn't cause that damage in my opinion.

Surely you must have hit their wing/bumper? The wing is a crumple zone so folded back in onto the wheel. Was there really no damage to the other car?

Yes, I've just seen that one of the cars together - can you post the one of your car against the blue one please OP?

The woman came out and inspected her car. There was no obvious damage to the vehicle.

My husband is saying that he thinks it's odd the other car suffered no damage and I have a big dent. His theory is another car hit me in a carpark and the wheel just gave way at this point. Is this a possibility?

It's a massive stretch and would be an even bigger coincidence. Perhaps you juts stick with what you know happened, which is you hit another car, try to work out how/why that happened, and move forwards?

The police told me that it's an automatic write off if the axel or steering is compromised so that's why they've written it off.

That’s total nonsense.