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

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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.

And that's exactly why you are advised not to drive into water unless you can assess how deep it is.

This nearly happened to me in a supermarket car park last night. It was late and very quiet. The normal route everyone takes in to get a space was so flooded. It was not particularly well lit and the water was as black as the tarmac. I think the fact you travel on the road frequently will work to your advantage. It was obviously a very abnormal situation that was hard to predict.

I used to work in insurance. I've seen many a claim paid out for driving through puddles. The defining factor is usually that you didn't realise how deep it was, turned back but by then it was too late and the damage was done. Alternatively, it wasn't that deep but the prick coming the other way drove too fast and showered your car...

I think they would pay, especially if there were no warning signs.

We get badly flooded around here every winter and there's always cars getting damaged. It seems to be pure luck whether insurance pays or not.

It happened to my husband & the insurance paid out. It’s very difficult to judge how deep the water is and as you say there were no signs so how were you supposed to know.

Happened to me. Wrote off the electrics although the engine still worked. It didn't even occur to me to claim. 🤦 I now am super careful and avoid even shallow puddles

Puddles on the whole don't tend to be deep enough to knacker the engine and electrics

They definitely can be.

I assume everyone berating the OP knows the exact depth of water their car can drive though? It’s not as simple as “how wall the vehicle is” either, my old pick up truck was 45cm but my current 4x4 is 70cm, the difference between a big puddle and a small flood!

As long as the road wasn’t closed you should be fine, it was an accident and that’s why you have insurance.

After the journey I took the other night, I have every sympathy for anyone who finds themselves in the OP's position. It has been horrendous out there. Talk to your insurers, OP. It's all you can do.

@EleanorLucyG your tip of reversing out of a flood means water would go up the exhaust and wreck the car. 👍

Me too, so you’re not the only one Op. Dark narrow rural lane, wasn’t flooded on the way. Made it through, but conked out further down the road.
Gentleman that kindly gave me a lift said he’s never known the road to flood in 20 years.
I’m hoping it will have dried out and will be ok once I take a walk down there after my coffee. Won’t be claiming on insurance as car only cost £600. And probably won’t make it through mot this month. Had it cost 20 grand I would try my luck.

On the whole maybe but a lot of the UK is currently very flooded. I drove in the Coventry area on Monday and it was madness.

If it's too deep for your car then it's flood water not a puddle!

I made a similar mistake yesterday except I knew what I was about to drive through just misjudged the depth. I went through close behind someone else and benefited that way and made it ok but it was stupid mistake because it was way to deep for my car and quite scary.

How visible was the flood? If there were no signs and bad visibility, raining or dark, I would think you would be covered. If you saw other cars struggling to get through and followed them in anyway maybe not. Although you might have assumed that if other cars got through OK you would too.

I hope you get it sorted on your insurance OP. There have been loads of cars near where I live that this has happened to. The flooding is worse than I’ve ever seen it and it’s difficult to avoid it sometimes. I had a scary moment a few weeks ago when I found myself nearly in your situation so I have every sympathy.

I think you'd be okay as long as you explained you didn't see how deep the puddle was, until it was too late and it was probably dark too?

This happened to me last week. Rain and howling wind, country lane, late at night, and I have astigmatism which make driving at night tricky anyway. I didn't see a huge puddle until it was too late and went straight through causing a tidle wave. Thankfully my old banger is still going 🤞

If the car was parked up and unattended when the land it was parked on was flooded, then that is unavoidable.

Driving through floodwaters on your route is avoidable. What would OP have done if the obstruction was a fallen tree or RTA across the whole width of the road?

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads not necessarily. They could argue that you didn't take appropriate action especially if you're parked on a known floodplain. There's a real issue with the JLR dealership in chesterfield from the last time we got big floods.

It can happen. We were driving home the other night and the puddle we hit was huge. It was dark and looked like a piece of filled in road like every other part of the road that’s patchwork from filled in pot holes. Fortunately we are in a high vehicle so it was fine but went straight to report it because a smaller car would be flooded.

@Elderflower14 I live just down the road from Framlingham!

update - my insurance company has processed my claim and an assessor is going out to the vehicle to see how bad the damage is. Surely that’s a good sign - they didn’t just laugh in my face and say I should it could have been avoided.

You have to reverse until you reach a place you can manoeuvre to turn around? Just like you would reverse to a passing place if a car came the other way, because if it’s too narrow to turn it’s too narrow to pass another car. It’s the other car’s responsibility not to crash into you, it’s your responsibility to drive safely and not enter a hazard (flood) if you aren’t sure it’s safe.

I turned around in this exact scenario the other day on a single lane country road. If I’d known the road I might have gone through - but then I might have been caught out like the OP if I’d thought it’s usually OK. In general I’d always prefer a longer detour because a lot of the time flood damage to cars is not paid out by insurers as it’s reliant on your judgement.

I only got 2.5 hours sleep last night. Worse than when the dc were tiny! So now I’m asking for tips on how to get through….