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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Car crash debacle

247 replies

guesswhatteapot · 26/05/2021 23:36

So I picked my son up from school and drove home the usual route. Pulled up outside my driveway on the left hand side of the road. We have a shop opposite and it's a main road so always busy with cars parked outside the shop. I sat in my car waiting for the traffic to go past, looked in my rear view mirror, no traffic. Started to reverse onto my driveway. Next thing a car hits the side of me and rips off the front of my car. She must have been parked across from me on the opposite side after going to the shop. She must have pulled out when no traffic coming, completely ignored my reverse lights and ploughed into the front of my car. We exchange numbers and she says she will text me later with her details... no text. I phoned my insurance company, my car is undriveable . I text her and she replies with "Your fault, I was stationary, you reversed into me, not going through insurance company, etc.
I replied that if she was stationary and I reversed into her A) why was the damage to my car at the front and not the back and B) why was she parked across my driveway blocking my access to my driveway?
AIBU to think that she just doesn't want to go through our insurance companies and is trying to blame me for this?

OP posts:
baaaaal · 27/05/2021 14:37

How can you prove what lights were or weren't on at the time of a collision, though? It might take a second or less.

A very quick explanation is that metal behaves differently based on it being hot or cold at the time it was impacted.

If the light was on, the metal would be hot. Off = cold.

Hellocatshome · 27/05/2021 14:41

@baaaaal nobody is going to bother doing that for what is probably going to end up a 50/50 claim with little or no personal injury claims.

anothernewtop · 27/05/2021 14:46

@CheneHetre

It helps if you go to the police within 24 hours of an accident to report this.

How does this help?

EarringsandLipstick · 27/05/2021 14:53

@Bigtruth

For the love of God why do people give advice if they don't have a clue what they're talking about?

Sometimes it's better to say nothing but everyone thinks their uneducated opinion is somehow important.

You typed this after I acknowledged I was wrong & apologised.

I'd usually check but it was early & I typed without realising the display of insurance & tax discs is an Irish-only thing.

Is there any need to be quite so obnoxious? 😳

BertramLacey · 27/05/2021 15:00

@EarringsandLipstick display of tax discs was compulsory in England as well until 2014. Don't beat yourself up about it.

EarringsandLipstick · 27/05/2021 15:01

[quote BertramLacey]@EarringsandLipstick display of tax discs was compulsory in England as well until 2014. Don't beat yourself up about it.[/quote]
Ah thanks! I mean I was still totally wrong but if I went back to 2014 I could have been right, I'll console myself with that 😂

Ginuwine · 27/05/2021 15:07

Are we still talking about this?!

@guesswhatteapot please don't engage in any more analysis of what this other person might or might not say.

A lot of people are disgusting liars when it comes to car insurance claims. No one EVER wants to be at fault.

My friend's wife was driving, 30mph road, indicates and moves into a right turn lane. Man behind her doesn't notice, he probably was looking at his phone. Goes into the back of her.

Guess what happens? He leaps out all aggressive, and without missing a beat he shouts to the witnesses "you were on your phone! I saw you. Yep. You were on your phone".

Luckily another driver who stopped behind the left lane, had a dash cam! The odds... but he quickly backed down when the guy offered the footage to her.

My point is that some people are little shits who will do anything not to be at fault.
*
Just go through the insurers let them straighten anything out. *

SofiaMichelle · 27/05/2021 15:25

BertramLacey
@EarringsandLipstick display of tax discs was compulsory in England as well until 2014. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Ah thanks! I mean I was still totally wrong but if I went back to 2014 I could have been right, I'll console myself with that 😂

That was only for tax discs in the UK though. We've never had insurance discs.

But no, there's no need for people to be so rude about it, especially when EarringsandLipstick very graciously apologised for being mistaken!

KikiniBamalam · 27/05/2021 15:42

@NavigatingAdolescence

They won’t give a courtesy car if the car is written off.
Not true.
NoIdontwanttoseeyourknob · 27/05/2021 15:43

@bigbaggyeyes

Zero certainty that the police will get involved like this. And the OP doesn’t need to do anything - her insurance will be able to get the info from the MID

They will, exactly the same thing happened to me, I phoned the police, they went round to her house, had a chat with her, and rang me with her insurance details.

Read upthread, there are other posters including myself who were fobbed off by the police.

The main point is the OP does not need to involve the police ti get insurance details.

MintyMabel · 27/05/2021 16:45

That was only for tax discs in the UK though. We've never had insurance discs.

Correct, but you can’t get tax without insurance.

DumbestBlonde · 27/05/2021 17:28

I am a patient individual, usually. But maybe what I said was some kind of trigger - andI maybe also wasn't clear enough that I met the cyclists coming the other way. Ho hum.

But then, once I get started, I can start getting a bit capital lettery - especially when assumptions are being made, and I more or less know I am mostly right. But it doesn't help matters sigh

Bigtruth · 27/05/2021 19:55

[quote EarringsandLipstick]@Bigtruth

For the love of God why do people give advice if they don't have a clue what they're talking about?

Sometimes it's better to say nothing but everyone thinks their uneducated opinion is somehow important.

You typed this after I acknowledged I was wrong & apologised.

I'd usually check but it was early & I typed without realising the display of insurance & tax discs is an Irish-only thing.

Is there any need to be quite so obnoxious? 😳[/quote]
@EarringsandLipstick

I'm so sorry. Honestly, I hadn't seen you having that back and forth about your comment. I was really talking about people earlier in the thread who were advising to call the police.

I can see that you were just trying to be helpful and I wasn't meaning to rant against that kind of thing.

Reflecting on my comment, it is a bit obnoxious and probably uncalled for, I just had the thought about people wasting police time and got annoyed, I should have taken a minute instead.

Anyway, sorry again and sorry to others for derailing the thread.

EarringsandLipstick · 27/05/2021 20:07

That's very decent of you @Bigtruth and thanks for the reply & explanation 😊

All good now ... unheard of peace & love on MN 😂

devilboughtmysoul · 27/05/2021 20:11

@guesswhatteapot

So I picked my son up from school and drove home the usual route. Pulled up outside my driveway on the left hand side of the road. We have a shop opposite and it's a main road so always busy with cars parked outside the shop. I sat in my car waiting for the traffic to go past, looked in my rear view mirror, no traffic. Started to reverse onto my driveway. Next thing a car hits the side of me and rips off the front of my car. She must have been parked across from me on the opposite side after going to the shop. She must have pulled out when no traffic coming, completely ignored my reverse lights and ploughed into the front of my car. We exchange numbers and she says she will text me later with her details... no text. I phoned my insurance company, my car is undriveable . I text her and she replies with "Your fault, I was stationary, you reversed into me, not going through insurance company, etc. I replied that if she was stationary and I reversed into her A) why was the damage to my car at the front and not the back and B) why was she parked across my driveway blocking my access to my driveway? AIBU to think that she just doesn't want to go through our insurance companies and is trying to blame me for this?
OP - AIBU to think that she just doesn’t want to go through our insurance companies and is trying to blame me for this?

Also OP - I text her and she replies with "Your fault, I was stationary, you reversed into me, not going through insurance company, etc.

OP here’s a question for you - do bears shit in the woods?

BertramLacey · 28/05/2021 09:52

I'm surprised at the way this thread has gone. From the OP:

I sat in my car waiting for the traffic to go past, looked in my rear view mirror, no traffic.

So not making proper observations or checking all around, just using one mirror. Which resulted in:

Next thing a car hits the side of me and rips off the front of my car.

On faster roads people can appear very quickly but in places where there are shops and residences it's usually a 30mph zone and the OP thinks this was someone pulling out, but she still didn't see them (because no proper obs) until they'd hit her.

Since the OP didn't see her I think we can assume she was still reversing at this point, i.e. still moving when hit. Sure the person she hit may well be avoiding going through her insurance company but really it sounds to me as if the OP is partially at fault.

sonjadog · 28/05/2021 10:16

I am more surprised at how many posters who weren't there are absolutely certain that the OP is at fault.

jetadore · 28/05/2021 10:30

Leave it to your insurance company. They will find her and deal with it. Don’t bother contacting her again. Save your text conversation with her.

mainsfed · 28/05/2021 11:19

@MintyMabel

That was only for tax discs in the UK though. We've never had insurance discs.

Correct, but you can’t get tax without insurance.

Even now, when tax is paid by direct debit? Is it checked?
AdobeWanKenobi · 28/05/2021 11:52

@sonjadog

I am more surprised at how many posters who weren't there are absolutely certain that the OP is at fault.
Did you not know mnet is absolutely full of insurance accident assessors. Well, when they have a day off from virology 😂
BertramLacey · 28/05/2021 12:38

Sadly I am not surprised that people read sentences hedged with several caveats as 'I am absolutely certain that...'.

mercuree · 28/05/2021 14:12

I am more surprised at how many posters who weren't there are absolutely certain that the OP is at fault.

You are surprised that posters are making judgement calls based on OPs info and giving their opinion on a sub-forum titled I am being unreasonable?

Does leaving your house in broad daylight and finding the sun in the sky also surprise you? Grin

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