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.

There are some harsh messages here. In some parts of the country the weather is unpredictable tonight and with heavy rain making visibility a challenge.
I saw surface water flow down a road and block a storm drain right in front of me. I was not in a car so could see it clearly but within minutes the road went from clear to flooded and drivers were less able to see that from their driving seat.
I can’t help OP but hope it is covered.

Keep wellies in your car - if in doubt you can put them on and get out and tread through the "puddle" to check the depth. Additionally, open your drivers door while driving through - if it gets deep enough to start lapping in, you're in too deep.

You won’t manage to do that on most roads in major cities @Changethetoner - the road situation was rapidly changing all evening with poor visibility and heavy traffic.

By the way i know how crazy that sounds! I haven’t experienced rain like it in this country.

Yes puddles can do that which is one of the reasons why those people driving through them fast are idiots. Water isn't supposed to get into the engine. If it does, your car's basically fucked.

OP you're not going to be able to claim for this. It's Britain, the roads aren't flat, they're bumpy, lumpy, full of dips and hollows. You creep forward and if you have any doubts about it getting too deep, you reverse out and find another route. On the bright side, at least you didn't sink! Not like the poor unfortunates I saw who drove into what looked like a shallow 30ft puddle but they obviously never drove the road before else they'd know it was a gradual 10ft dip at that point.

I did this. Engine conked out, brand new car. Diesel. I didn’t try and restart it. Pushed it out. It dried out ok at the garage, I think they unscrewed some engine parts to help the water drain out.

Also I think if you got trapped in rising flood water rather than drove through a puddle you have more chance of being covered.

Can't help but agree. But it's a bit of a double edged sword. Even if the insurance companies think - yeah conditions ARE off the scale - they may not pay out for some because there will be so many claiming IYSWIM.

Sincerely hope you get a payout @Forgottenmyphone

Well if the road and visibility was as bad as what I've just encountered, then I'm not in the least surprised that the OP couldn't see the standing water.

The roads are awash out there. I just got home from an event an hour away and the first thing I said to DH when I came in the door was that the drive home was one of the most unpleasant things I have ever experienced in my entire life.

I certainly didn't see the flood in front of me, it was only the car coming the other way flashing its lights like mad that had made me slow right down, so when I hit it, at least it didn't splash up too much. Fortunately only kerb-high, but horrible.

This happened to GFIL last year and there was no problem with a payout.

It is probably somewhat dependent to n the road and specific conditions. Where FIL lived there would have been no easy way to tell whether a puddle was 5cm or 50cm deep because it is rural with soft verges and a gentle slope.

He also had dashcam footage which showed others going through successfully. Is there any chance you might have something similar OP, if others were going through at the same time?

Unless the road was closed then if you have comprehensive insurance you will be covered . Have done it myself 2 months ago

Just be creative with how you word it. Don't lie but if for example there was a car coming the other way and couldn't stop or it was dark and didn't see it till too late they might be more likely to pay

No one ever knows how deep a puddle is going to be during a flood

So technically it is unavoidable

Was there a weather warning in place when you drove through the puddle? I'm only asking because someone I know didn't receive anything from their insurance because there was a weather warning in place that suggested they should have considered whether they needed to travel in the first place and should have known not to drive through any water. Similar to another poster, they then had to get a loan to buy another car because theirs was wrecked.

By looking at how far up the cars Infront it comes.

This happened to me yesterday. The floods here are insane! My car worked fine today; do you think I'm lucky and there is no damage? How long until it would show? It's a diesel.

You should be ok as others have said who found themselves in the same position, lots of flooding around us and in the dark (you said you drove this evening) puddle depths can certainly be misleading depending where they/if they disburse.

Are "we"?

Did the OP say where they were driving?

BBC News - UK weather: Heavy rain and flooding across England
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67878565

I think it might depend on the type of road. A friend drove through a large body of water on a small backroad at night time. It was hard to judge the depth of the puddle and it was a very narrow road to try and avoid it. Her insurance partly covered the costs but the car was pretty much a write off.
Someone else I know didn’t get covered as the road was large enough for them to make a turn and it was well lit and able to be seen from a distance so they were given an opportunity to make an informed judgment.

Only thing to do is give the insurance all the info you have and let them do their investigation. Hope it works out for you!

😂

Well, THAT answers my question 😂

I drive a sports car and live in a part of the country where flooded roads are not that uncommon.

I was stopped in a country lane looking pensively at the lake that should have been a road when a woman walking a dog appeared. She very kindly walked through the deepest part of the lake in her wellies so I could see how deep it was.

I kept my own pair in the boot myself after that and used the same technique.

There aren't too many cars in front on flooded rural lanes ....🙄

I refuse to chance this. See so many people do and break down. Took me three attempts to drive home the other day as two routes had massive "puddles", aka floods! I reversed and got home via the third route. There were even some spectators watching the idiots drive through! I wound down the window and asked if anyone had got stuck and they said they'd seen three breakdowns up the road.

Hope it dries out OP but I don't think you have a great deal of hope with your insurers I'm afraid.

If it's a road surface which regularly puddles in the rain then I would put in a complaint to the council/highways. They are responsible for maintaining roads in drivable condition- something which regularly collects water deep enough to wreck a car isn't maintaining the road. They may opt to pay out for individual incidents than pay to maintain.