To think this woman should be thoroughly ashamed of herself?

[Tarjet]

My son was driving to work at the weekend and was waiting for a car parking space. A woman in a huge Range Rover reversed out of the space at speed and hit my son’s car. He was far enough back to see what was going to happen and blast his horn. She still kept on coming.

The damage was fortunately quite minimal but my son’s little fiesta needs a panel realigned. At the time the woman was hugely apologetic, admitted fault (and when my son rang me I could hear her in the background still apologising).

They exchanged details and she asked if she could pay for the repair without going through insurance - which was perfect as I know even a ‘no fault claim’ bumps your premium up.

Fast forward to today - son messaged her with the repair update (it’s being assessed tomorrow) and she’s now changed her tune and blaming my son for the accident and is now going through the insurance as her car has a dent. Or she said he could pay to have it fixed! The fucking audacity is making my blood boil.

Anything I can do before I explode in anger?

We think there is CCTV at the retail park so that will be my first step I think.

If you reverse into someone it’s automatically your fault, right?

I believe so

A similar thing happened to me, a woman reversed out of a parking space into my car, as I was slowly passing. She very reluctantly admitted it was her fault and gave me her details. The insurance companies sorted it out and mine said hers would just cough up because she was definitely at fault.

Report it to his insurance company and give them her details. Ensure that he gives full details and plans of the circumstances of her crashing into him by reversing out of a parking space without checking the way was clear.

This is always the danger when people say "let's not go through the insurance".

Obviously tell your insurance company everything and don't speak to the woman again. Only communicate thru the insurance company. if you want to reply to her message just say you're taking legal advice and then block her.

Dear Lady in Range Rover,

I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt when you requested we avoid reporting to insurance but now you are trying to rip me off, so thankfully I have the CCTV which clearly shows that I was stopped and you reversed into my car. I will proceed with filing a claim with my insurance and reporting this to the police.

Report to the police. Suggest that a false insurance claim is being made by her.

You generally have 48 hours to report an incident to your insurers, even if you don't intend to make a claim.

Never trust a stranger to make good and pay your bills.

If your son was waiting for a car parking space, then presumably he was stationary? If so, she reversed into a vehicle that wasn't moving and that immediately puts her at fault. The alternative is she's trying to suggest your son drove into a reversing vehicle (with its reverse lights all lit up.) Unlikely, I would have thought. I'd leave the matter with the insurance company to sort out.

I would report to the insurer ASAP and get a dashcam to avoid future issues like these. Bloody chancers.

You're being unreasonable for ever agreeing not to involve insurance. This is what it's for!! Not i volving thrm is a breach of your contract, so if they found out you had an accident and hadn't told them your premiums would shoot up anyway. Tell them now and leave it to them to sort out.

Except mine went to court and I lost. I was stationary but in a BMW so that's why I think the judge decided against me. Dash cams are the only way to go Im afraid... good look getting access to cctv you might struggle with gdpr...

What he does is tell the insurers and let them fight it out.

I’ve heard of this sort of thing happening quite a lot unfortunately. Some people are just arseholes. He needs to get his insurance company involved.

So you lost because you had a BMW? 🤔

Similar happened to my mum. It went through the insurers but took ages to sort out. Mums car had a big dent on the side door and hers had a bashed bumper but the cheeky mare tried to argue that mum drove in her - what sideways!?🤦‍♀️ It went all the way to the brink of court, but she backed down the night before the deadline. She had to pay mum's excess too 😂

I wouldn’t be angry, but I would not have agreed to sort it out privately in the first place.

Just let your insurers know and they will deal with it. Try and get her insurance details first. But don't engage in any conversation about whose fault it is. The insurers shoukd be able to work it out.

Similar happened to DH. Woman wasn’t looking and veered across the white line going straight into him. She admitted she wasn’t looking and it was her fault then the next day claimed he drove into her and cctv would prove it. There was no cctv and he ended up with a ccj because his insurance company didn’t respond to hers. This was during Covid.

This often happens when they see the bill.

I would tell the police every time and go through insurance every time. You can’t trust anyone.

If your son was waiting for a car parking space, then presumably he was stationary? If so, she reversed into a vehicle that wasn't moving and that immediately puts her at fault

You'd have thought so but when I was involved in an almost identical incident my insurance company accepted a compromise 50-50 settlement. I was not best pleased. I was stationary, waiting to turn into a parking space when the woman reversed out of a space into my driver's door. She accepted it was her fault but months down the line her insurance company started paying silly buggers over it. I'm still baffled as to how it could be deemed partly my fault, it's not like I could have moved sideways into her car.

Even if you don’t make a claim you still have to tell insurers.

Ime never trust a woman who owns a RR... My parked car rolled back inches as I put the hand brake on (bank at school) RR had parked up my arse and it literally touched the bumper.. The man was more than fine about it. A slight scuff a magic sponge likely would have removed.. I agreed to get it 'fixed.. Next day he sent me a quote for £70...all good. Until he went back to work (away) and the dw started abuse via text.. Apparently she wanted the car sent back to RR and I had to pay for a check over and a courtesy car.. I told her to fuck off as I'd dealt with the driver.. Her dh. I sent him the texts and he actually apologised for her. Her dc is at my dc's school.. Same class. Not word have I ever spoken to her. She is a vile specimen. They cashed my cheque but never had the scuff removed..

Happened to me. I was stationary and the arsehole reversed into me and said it was my fault and went on to say because I was last in the chain of cars involved (there were only us two involved) the insurance company would agree it was my fault! Unfortunately there is nothing you can do without Dashcam footage it's your word against theirs unless you have a witness. It's so wrong.

I think she should be ashamed but I also think a lot of this is just common sense that you seem to lack. Before I even started driving, it was drilled into me to always go through insurance, so why haven’t you taught your son that?

For most insurance policies, it is mandatory to report such issues to them so avoiding going through insurance was terrible advice from the start. You’re in a position now where she has been able to manipulate facts, which essentially anyone does when faced with potential legal action. This is why you involve your insurance from the start, they have legal counsel to fight this.