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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:
aiwblam · 27/05/2021 12:45

Agree - don’t contact this woman anymore. Let your insurer deal with it. They are well used to her sort.

NavigatingAdolescence · 27/05/2021 12:48

@guesswhatteapot

The car isn't a write off I don't think. It starts and I can't see any damage apart from the body work. If it wasn't for the fact that the front is hanging off and dragging on the floor I would have driven it to the garage myself. I do have courtesy car included in my insurance.
Depending on value of the car it doesn’t take much body damage to write a car off.
bigbaggyeyes · 27/05/2021 12:54

Are you fully comp insurance? If you are, your insurance company can arrange the repairs and they will pay for them and then look at claiming them back off the other person. You don't have to wait so they should be able to arrange it pretty quickly to get you back o the road

Secondly, it's the law that she provides you with her insurance details. Ring the non emergency police number and inform them you've been involved in an accident and the other party is refusing to give you their insurance details. They will go round, give her a talking to and give you the details. Doesn't matter who's at fault

DoLallyTapMum · 27/05/2021 13:00

If she hasn’t reported it to her insurance company at all then she may have voided her insurance. She may have reported it but said she’s not making a claim, though. But most policies state that you have to report within 24-72hours (varies depending on the policy) or a reasonable amount of time (I.e. if you were hospitalised that time could be longer as it would be when you were able to contact them). Claim through your insurance and if she hasn’t reported it to her insurance she’ll get a shock.

AdobeWanKenobi · 27/05/2021 13:01

You do need to be pro active. Get to the shop, see if they have CCTV, see if your neighbours have any and even post on local Facebook to see if anyone caught it on dashcam. It's only cut and dried with good evidence.

baaaaal · 27/05/2021 13:01

Some insurance defaults are theoretically sensible, but some are outrageously unfair. Such as the assumption that the driver behind - i.e. the one with the damage to the front of their car - is always to blame for not leaving enough room, even though the one in front could have reversed, put their foot down and slammed backwards right into them.

But an investigation would usually be able to tell if the front car's reverse / brake / hazard lights were on or off at the moment of collision, so that scenario could be argued in court, especially if the rear driver is claiming that is what happened.

It's why the "crash for cash" scammers would usually brake and (provided someone wasn't leaving a safe gap) hope the rear driver slammed into the back of them, rather than doing as you said and reversing with the foot down. If they reversed with foot down it could be proved by looking at the lights, and they would be at fault.

NoIdontwanttoseeyourknob · 27/05/2021 13:06

@bigbaggyeyes

Are you fully comp insurance? If you are, your insurance company can arrange the repairs and they will pay for them and then look at claiming them back off the other person. You don't have to wait so they should be able to arrange it pretty quickly to get you back o the road

Secondly, it's the law that she provides you with her insurance details. Ring the non emergency police number and inform them you've been involved in an accident and the other party is refusing to give you their insurance details. They will go round, give her a talking to and give you the details. Doesn't matter who's at fault

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.
TableFlowerss · 27/05/2021 13:12

Text her back to say that you’ve left it with your insurance company and the police.

fromdownwest · 27/05/2021 13:14

A write off does not necessarily consitute a car that can not be repaired.

If the book value of the car is less than the estiamted repair costs, then they will write it off.

The other option is that you buy the car off the insurance company, and pay for the repairs yourself. This can only work out better, if you are 100% sure of the extent of the damage, and have a well trusted body shop.

ivykaty44 · 27/05/2021 13:17

If your drive is located opposite shops, will the shops have cctv?

Can you bike the children to school? Or bus?

ivykaty44 · 27/05/2021 13:20

As a witness to a crash where the woman who caused the crash had deliberately moved her car afterwards - but refused to let anyone move all the wreckage - as it was evidence

The insurance company for the other party were really persistent for my statement

Your insurance company will realise she’s living as the front of the car and the back of the car are not the same 🙈

Hellocatshome · 27/05/2021 13:23

A write off does not necessarily consitute a car that can not be repaired.

This. My car was written off and didn't even need to be repaired as none of the damage was structural or whatever they call it in cars. I bought it back from the insurance company for £500 and just drive it with the dents in. Still passes its MOT every year as there are no sharp bits.

bigbaggyeyes · 27/05/2021 13:24

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.

CheneHetre · 27/05/2021 13:27

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

Blossomtoes · 27/05/2021 13:28

[quote GreenWillow]**@DumbestBlonde

Wow, I don’t think I really need to add anything to your previous post to demonstrate my point.

You know that old saying about giving someone enough rope to hang themselves...?[/quote]
You can demonstrate your point all you like but you’re just plain wrong. Your patience is admirable @DumbestBlonde.

ChicChaos · 27/05/2021 13:28

Surely if I had reversed into her stationary car her front end would be trashed and my back end would be trashed. It's the opposite.

Only if you were reversing in a straight line - you were turning your car so the front of it would have swung out into the road. It's for the insurance to sort out from here anyway.

londonrach · 27/05/2021 13:31

Op just tell insurers and don't contact woman again. As you were reversing its highly likely you be at fault sadly but you might get away with 50:50. No one was hurt which us good news x

Christmasfairy2020 · 27/05/2021 13:35

Just ring your insurance as you have her reg no. That's all u need

Horehound · 27/05/2021 13:36

This is like Cancel the cheque and change the WiFi password...

sonjadog · 27/05/2021 13:41

I was in a similar situation years ago with someone who drove into my car and then refused to take responsibility.

  1. Do not have any more contact with her. Do not get into any discussion about who did what. Let your insurance company deal with it. They have experience and knowledge you don't.
  2. You only need to deal with your own insurance company as they will deal with the reparation of your car and your courtesy car. If you think they are being slow, then ring them and ask what is going on. It is up to your company and the other woman to sort out who pays for what, not you.

It took quite a long time for the whole thing to be sorted out when it happened to me. I had to write a few statements about what happened for the insurance company. But my car was sorted and my life was back to normal well before then.

UrAWizHarry · 27/05/2021 13:41

@CheneHetre

It helps if you go to the police within 24 hours of an accident to report this.
OP doesn't need to. She has the reg number and got a phone number off the other party so they didn't leave the scene. Not everyone has their insurance details in the car and indeed it isn't a legal obligation to carry them. If the op passes the reg number over to her insurance that is enough for them to track everything down.
WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 27/05/2021 13:55

But an investigation would usually be able to tell if the front car's reverse / brake / hazard lights were on or off at the moment of collision, so that scenario could be argued in court, especially if the rear driver is claiming that is what happened.

It's why the "crash for cash" scammers would usually brake and (provided someone wasn't leaving a safe gap) hope the rear driver slammed into the back of them, rather than doing as you said and reversing with the foot down. If they reversed with foot down it could be proved by looking at the lights, and they would be at fault.

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.

Somebody we used to know had a driver with a heavy right foot slam-reverse into her parked car, whilst she was sitting in it, and the reversing driver successfully claimed against our friend's insurance for the damage that she had done herself to her own car, because our friend's car bonnet was bashed in, hence she was deemed to have been 'behind' and thus automatically the one at fault.

JollyHolly30 · 27/05/2021 13:58

@NavigatingAdolescence

They won’t give a courtesy car if the car is written off.
Yes they will, depending on your policy. Mine was written off at 70mph by someone rear ending me and shunting me straight into the barrier. Was lucky to get out alive, albeit on a back board/stretcher. I had a courtesy car by the next day and even though it took nearly 3 months to settle tbe first part of the payout (to pay off the finance and get a new car) I had a courtesy car for almost the entire duration. Saying 'they won't give you one if it's a write off is simply not true.
MintyMabel · 27/05/2021 14:15

So she was in the blind spot you didn’t check?

Yep. Rear view wouldn’t have picked up a car coming in from the left. OP didn’t check all around.

BungleandGeorge · 27/05/2021 14:23

They will only provide a courtesy car whilst your claim is being assessed, once they have decided to write it off that’s it. Usually that process is very quick and straightforward and the person never sees a courtesy car but they should get the payout

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