Drove through a puddle which was too deep for my car - advice with making an insurance claim

[Forgottenmyphone]

My car is now in a dreadful state - the engine and electrics don’t work. I’m fully comp, but the wording in my policy says they’ll only pay if it was unavoidable flood damage. Not sure if this counts. If it helps, I didn’t see any signs warning about a flood from the direction I was coming.

Well you don’t test it by driving through it, that’s for sure. Calling it a puddle is a bit misleading I think as the depth required to cause this damage is significant.

If a car crashes into you when you stop then that's poor driving on their part

Cars have to come to a halt even on motorways sometimes if there is an obstruction or an accident

The same is true to country lanes. The cars behind you would have to react in the same way as if you came round and bend and found an accident, or a tree down

If you can't turn around you have to reverse until you can, the same as if you found an accident, or a tree down

Do you really think the only thing to do if you come across a flood is keep going because you can't stop?

Depends on the road, obviously, but you might see if it is over the kerb, or submerging any of the verge or hedge. Obviously you have to stop and look at it carefully before you start going through it, rather than just sailing into the water at full speed.

Or just don’t go through it if you aren’t sure! DM lives in rural Sussex and yes, she does make a 3 point turn if she comes across a flooded lane. That might mean backing up to a passing place if it’s a narrow lane.

Every driver makes judgements.

Recently we and loads of people drivers have been thru loads of deep puddles, gone over hidden pot holes, it's unavoidable.

Cars driving in the middle of the road to avoid the huge waters at the side..

Sympathies, OP, I haven't done this but i think I came close. I hope you sort it out soon.

My friends car was caught in a car park during the Framlingham floods in October when the Mere burst it's banks and her insurance paid out... Hope you are lucky!

If possible I would go and take pictures so you have some evidence

A friend did this exact same thing last year and got stuck. Car was written off. Insurance paid out without quibbling!

I hate to break this to you @Forgottenmyphone , but in the floods a couple of months ago - one of my work colleagues shot straight through a 12-14 inch deep puddle at about 40 miles an hour. She didn't slow down. She got home as it was only about 500 yards after the puddle, but when she tried to restart her car half an hour later to go out, it wouldn't start. It just started phutt-phutting and making whizzing and spurting noises, and the horn kept freaking out and the alarm kept howling for AGES.

Basically, she had completely fucked up the electrics. The insurance company completely refused to pay because they said it was (I can't remember how they worded it,) basically careless/reckless driving. It was her own fault. She tried to get a couple of quotes for auto-electricians to do it, but they said it'd cost more than the car was worth as so much damage had been done to the electrics. The low 4 figures she was quoted. (It was a 10. registered Vauxhall Corsa.)

She's now had to take a £3000 loan out to get another second hand car. Fucking up your electrics by driving through puddles - that are clearly too deep, or ones that are not too deep but speeding through so the water gets into the electrics - is reckless and careless driving, and the insurance company is very unlikely to pay out.

I saw TWO cars brought home into my road yesterday on a breakdown wagon. Both neighbours had done what you - and this colleague of mine did. They will be lucky if the insurance pays up!

Good luck! But do expect them to refuse to pay up.

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This can easily be unavoidable, just say it was bloody dark or something!

At work over the last few days (the building is built on marshland) the car park has flooded so badly its almost lapping at the doors

In the last 4 days,I've counted 7 cars drive into the water after thinking its 'only a puddle' and then conk out

To be fair-its a lot deeper than it looks (from the surface-you only have to look at the lampposts and bins to get a judgement on how deep it is) but it's going to cost someone a lot of money per car

Hopefully,for op,it's the insurance that coughs up

Well of course you can't tell how deep a lake is as you don't know where the bottom is/how far down! But you know where the road is, and how far down it is, and how high/tall your car is! So you should know roughly how deep the puddle is. Especially if you are driving on familiar roads as most people are very likely to be.

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Hmm yeah, lying to the insurance company..... Coz THAT always ends well!

The floods and the depth of them HAVE been worse than average this past few days @Forgottenmyphone Hopefully, the insurance company will take that into account. I wish you well. Hope they pay out.

That makes me feel better about the fuckers that deliberately point their vehicles towards the huge shiny black expanses of water on the road by my house to send up the largest cresting waves they possibly can whilst I'm trying to get to or from the bus stop unscathed every time it rains.

@NeverDropYourMooncup YEP!

How tf are they going to check?

If it was dark you would have your lights on, so you would still see a massive puddle

My friends insurance paid out for this .

I've done it once driving through the village, slowly following several cars through what appeared to be a shallow puddle on a road I used every day. That day, the puddle was deeper than it appeared and I stalled. I pushed the car to over to the side of the road and came back once it had time to dry. It started fine.

There's another road near me that floods every year. Usually they pull out 3-6 cars that have chanced it and failed.

Exactly. And if the OP lies and says it was night-time/dark - and it wasn't - not only will they say she should have seen the puddle with her headlights, but also, if they do a full investigation, (which they will,) they will ask her what time it happened and where. There are cameras everywhere, and if she says it was say, 5.30pm today, (when it was actually 3pm,) they could well look into where she said it happened, try to obtain footage of it, and see she wasn't there.

Don't take insurance companies for fools. They have seen it all before, and HEARD it all before. Some people think they are cleverer than the insurance company - and can fool them by lying to them. They can't. The majority of people are found out. Don't pay any attention to anyone telling you to LIE @Forgottenmyphone Be truthful with the insurance company, and tell them exactly what happened, and when and where.

If you are caught lying, you could be in serious trouble, you could be charged with fraud, you will very likely be on a blacklist so you massively struggle to get insurance with any other company, and they will still not pay out!

I don't know where you all are but I have driven through at least 10 massive puddles tonight that would have floored a normal sedan car. I am a farmer and have an ancient Landrover so not a problem.. but by no means could I see them on an unlit rural road in the pitch dark. It's fucking biblical out there at the moment !,

I don't think you should have a problem OP.

I got completely caught out in the November floods (suffolk) and a road I regularly drive to work had excessive flooding which I didn't realise was as bad as it was because I couldn't see far enough ahead.

Fortunately there was little major damage to my car (although it failed it's MOT as the wing mirror light wasn't working due to water ingress which I think was from those floods and cars splashing going the opposite way) but I had no idea how bad it was at the time I ended up in them. It isn't always as simple as seeing a puddle and knowing you shouldn't drive into it.

No but I'd probably not try to drive through a lake.

I would normally agree, until today. Driving home on the same city roads I drive on every day. They never usually puddle up, but today- oh my word, they were so deep in places. I’ve never seen those roads like it.