Victoria

On the way to work this morning a man in a van ran into the back of my Scooby. He immediately admitted liability and said he would get it sorted. It didn't look that bad at first but on further inspection on a ramp it is really bad, floor pan crumpled, boot won't shut etc. I took a local dealership who said it was about £5000 worth of damage and about three weeks work. (Whole new rear end!)

The guy who hit me works for a local body shop at a Ford dealership which doesn't have a very good reputation, but obviously they want to do the work themselves.

When I told them I wanted it done at a main dealer their insurer contacted mine to say they would not admit liability and it would take at least a week to get paperwork sorted, let alone the car fixed, and they want a full inspection of the car.

Despite them being a car dealership they wouldn't give me a courtesy car as a gesture of goodwill and the service manager I dealt with treated me like it was my fault and spoke to me like I was really stupid.

It really p*sses me off that such a stright forward accident which was not my fault in any way has caused such trouble, I didn't do anything wrong at all.

Not a good day!

Victoria.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Dont worry Victoria,
he hit the back of your car, he's liable no matter what as that says driving too close and unable to stop.
Just bill them for a courtesy car of the same category whilst your cars off the road, i think 100 quid per day will suffice

Tony

The Zohan

Agree entirely with Tony - You get hit in the back then it is the other drivers fault.

I have been on the other side of this so to speak, a driver reversed into me in a side street, It was my fault because the damage was to the back of the other car/front of mine!

Insurers never admit liabilty even if it is blindingly obvious who's fault it is. Stoick by your guns

Sorry to hear about your car

Yorkie

Sorry to hear this Victoria. White van men are the worlds worst when it comes to tailgating[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] Insist on a courtesy car and repairs at the dealer of your choice.

Yorkie

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Yorkie,
As having a white co van for work with my works stuff in the back im not really the worlds worst drivers, BMW and Vectra drivers seem to be worse than white van man (unless its a merc sprinter van which are capable of atleast 150mph ) but the guy who ran into the back of Victoria is definately at fault.

Victoria, have you any witnesses?

Tony

ash1

iTrader: (2)

Don't worry about that liability stuff- thats just talk and they only say that so that the stats don't show up on insurance records. I had the shame problem when a bus driver mounted my rear end (don't take that literally) on my Renault 5 Turbo. They paid in full with cost for hire car but said in their letter to be that they were not admitting any liability, but enclosed the cheque for the repairs....

Victoria

unfortunately no witnesses, the man in the white van next to my accident was less than forthcoming! It is a white van man conspiracy! (Present company excepted.....)

P1Fanatic

Sorry to corner a thread and especially one of this nature but I must disagree with the whole hit in the back liability issue.

Imagine you are driving in the fast lane on the motorway and at a legal speed. Driver x undertakes you at speed, realises hes going too fast and no space to pull in so cuts in front of you whilst at the same time slamming the brakes on. You hit him. Are you still telling me the fault lays with the driver behind? Not that its happened to me and one wouldnt expect it to happen often but its worth bearing in mind as Im sure there are plenty of similar scenarios.

Victoria - sorry to hear about your crash and your situation sounds as straightforward as they get. My question in no way relates to your incident.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

P1,
your always liable if you hit someone from behind, the insurance co then has to see if they can get you off the hook etc as they dont want to pay out.
If you hit someone on the motorway at x speed though cos driver x pulls infront of you and you hit them, id expect you to stop along with driver x and call the police as the queue or pileup caused by driver x which no doubt was caught on camera/has witnesses and driver x will wave bye bye to their licence for dangerous driving!
Your always liable, even if you cannot avoid the incident

Tony

Yorkie

Sorry Tony, I was making a general statement regarding the majority of white van drivers I have encountered (funnily enough mainly Mercs, LDV's). Not all van drivers are nutters, sorry for any offence caused to any readers.

Yorkie

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

Victoria,
May I recommend from personal experience of a similar accident that you contact these people http://www.helphire.com

They will tell you over the phone if they will take your case there and then. If they do (which they almost certainly will) they will sort out repair of the car, give you a hire car for the duration and recover expenses from the third party's insurance co with out your own insurance company even needing to get involved. Could save a lot of hassle

Hope this helps.........

The Zohan

Dear Mr Burns
Thank you for stealing my thunder yet again!

Yous sincerely

Paul
BTW Agree with Tony yet again (how annoying)

Victoria

The whole situation is an absolute nightmare. I went to speak to the service manager of the dealership who the guy who hit me works for today, he spoke to me like I was totally at fault. Will be contacting the dealer principal tomorrow. At no point did they ask if I was OK or have any sympathy.

Also my insurance company are being less than no help (This will also be going on the insurance thread!) and I am having to do everything myself. Why should I have to do anything? I was just minding my own business on my way to work. My beloved car will never be the same again.

V

Brown Baron

Victoria, I had an accident in April, someone ran into the back of me. My insurance company put me in touch with a company called Centrus, their number is 0800 068 66 64. They take care of the repair and provide a courtesy car while the repair is taking place, 11 weeks and counting, so far I had a Saab 95 2.3t, a Laguna 3.0 and 2 Omega 2.6, one of which I still have. These all come from Avis and are about 95 pounds a day.

Also because you are not going through your insurers you don't have to pay the excess and wait around to claim it back, also you don't lose you're no claims bonus while the claim is open.

Hope you get something sorted soon.

Mike

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Ooooooops!
Sorry Paul

Tony

bluto22b

If you talk to me nice I might let you borrow my Maxi (tuned)....Blutes

SiDHEaD

I used helphire when some1 ploughed into the back of me when i was stationary. They were very good, all in all it cost £13 (damage waiver etc) and they gave me a brandnew Astra SXi with 25miles on the clock. Which is better than a Ford KA!!!


Andy

Richard Curtis

Sorry to hear of your probs,

Going through a similar thing at the moment (although the cost of repair is much less).

The insurers are now looking to inspect the damaged panels to prove liability.

Its amazing what people say following an accident to their insurers - some poeple are just total lying toerags.

I have now got a disposable camera permantly in my glovebox just in case there is a next time, the next best thing to a witness.

Trucker Ted

These people are out of order.The guy in the van should be thankfull that you didn't get the police involved,as he would be on to a careless driving charge complete with fine and points on his license.Not to mention you could have gone for the good old whiplash claim!
As usual though its the decent honest person that loses out.

Hope you get it all sorted out.

plug

Sorry to hear about your probs Victoria,
on the subject of insurance quotes,
I always liked that one, "the pedestrian was all over the place, I had to swerve several times before I hit him"