not happy.

[darkhorse1001]

i had my car (probably) written off yesterday.

by a WOMAN,
by a BLONDE woman
By a BMW driving blonde woman.

she spun coming off a roundabout as i was approaching it, came right into the side of me. busy bank holiday traffic passing in both directions and not one person stopped to see if all parties were ok or offer witness statements.

what really annoys me is that the police are so busy snapping people doing 35 in a 30 and persuing a conviction for it, yet when it comes to a case like this with a driver admitting liability (there and then) for an accident caused by blatent dangerous driving/driving without due care and attention and they are not even considering taking any further action.

if i was a cyclist i would be dead, end of.

so now i have to rely on her continuing honesty to admit liability to her insurers with no witnesses or help/formal statments or reports from the police. so its going to be fingers crossed for the next few days.

raaaaaaaagh.

ok rant over.

so as this is my first time through the insurance process does anyone have any advice tips that might prove useful?

I am annoyed at myself that i didn't think at the time to get some pics as i had a camera in the car, or even try to persuade the police to take statements at least.

[Ben]

so much for perfect weight distribution, was she nice looking? some of the best relationships can start this way.

on the other hand.

Feeling sorry for you. I can relate.

Let the insurance company deal, get your courtosey car, start looking for new.

what car did you have? what was it worth? how long did you have it? did you have gap insurance?

this next question may pee you off or make you feel ok....

How full was your fuel tank. If it was full then you'll of lost it, if it was empty then it was meant to be.

sorry once again.

Tips, forget about it, its happened, no one is hurt.

courtosey car, only keep the minimum fuel in it, you never know when they want it back.

submit the last reciept for fuel if you had recently fueled your car.

Never be afraid to ask to be transfered to a uk call centre

[paul b]

This is probably what you don't want to hear. But, drivers who cause an accident are given instructions by their insurance company not to admit to a mistake, regardless of how plainly obvious it is/was. Hopefully, the person in question will admit to it. Typical BMW driver though, eh?
Another thing, your insurance company is bound to offer you slightly less than your car may have been worth. But, in my experience, if there first offer is near right, accept it. I know this isn't anything as desirable, but I had a Fiat Punto M reg automatic 4 or 5 years ago which was stolen from outside my home during the night (I know it's a Punto, but it was special, it had the very desirable, but unreliable powder clutch which I had fitted as a reconditioned unit as I bought it broken at the cost of 360 quid + VAT). It was probably stolen for it's clutch, in all honesty as they were difficult to source and expensive. At the time the car was worth about 1250 quid, and they offered my 1050. And I accepted it on the basis it could be months before they offered money again. I know your car was not stolen, but the insurance company will probably do the same.
One more thing, I was cut up by a female blonde BMW driver just 2 days ago. You're not based around Gatley in Cheshire are you?
Good luck.

Paul

[MalcQV]

It is very inconvenient, but in my experience they normally work out. There will be an incident number that one of the attending officers will of filled in. You can ring the local police station and get the info which will still help your claim.

[darkhorse1001]

well its turning out not so bad so far, her insurers are paying out which is the first hurdle successfully passed.

i did have a full tank of fuel so going to hold onto that reciept (convieniently it was what her address/car/insurance details were written on the back of at the scene!),

good advice about not fuelling the hire car above minimum, even if it is going into a zafira, yuk! seems to suffer bump steer galore, i think i'll take it back and try for a mondeo/focus/vectra

as for how she looked, not bad, but the first call was made to her boyfriend, not so good. i was a little worried that when he turned up he was going to go off on one (and start assuming the blame was laid anywhere but with his girl) but he was ok about it all.

it was a 99 facelift a4 avant 1.8, i valued it at 2500 when taking out the policy.

and yes, i am grateful that at least no one else was severely hurt. although i look back now and for the 20mins after the accident i couldn't have told you which way was up.

boy am i glad i was in a solidly built car and not in an old micra.

[Ben]

, but the first call was made to her boyfriend,

I too recieved such a phone call the other week.

[darkhorse1001]

oh and no, nowhere near cheshire so i guess there's more than one bad blonde female bmw driver around.

who would have thought it

[RickT]

sorry to hear about the bad news mate...

At least its getting sorted and she had insurance.

Any photos you could share?

Rick

[darkhorse1001]

not as yet, i'm going to visit the garage to try and get the tax disc out so i can claim a refund for the remaining nine months, so ill see if i can get some pics of the damage while i'm there.

i'm also going to try and persude them to let me have the stereo install i put in, but we'll see what they say about that. i've got the faceplate so it's not much use to them.

another point i've just thought of is that the airbags didn't go off, hence recieving a rather large bump to the head courtesy of a now cracked a pillar trim panel.

there was no airbag light on as i had just sorted out the legendary under seat connection problem. due you think this could still be a faulty controller or more likely the age of the airbags and the explosives being past their 'use by date'?

not that it makes a lot of odds, just curious really.

[RickT]

not as yet, i'm going to visit the garage to try and get the tax disc out so i can claim a refund for the remaining nine months, so ill see if i can get some pics of the damage while i'm there.

i'm also going to try and persude them to let me have the stereo install i put in, but we'll see what they say about that. i've got the faceplate so it's not much use to them.

another point i've just thought of is that the airbags didn't go off, hence recieving a rather large bump to the head courtesy of a now cracked a pillar trim panel.

there was no airbag light on as i had just sorted out the legendary under seat connection problem. due you think this could still be a faulty controller or more likely the age of the airbags and the explosives being past their 'use by date'?

not that it makes a lot of odds, just curious really.

if the inpact was not frontal or to a certain pressure they wont deploy..

i have seen cars crash at 30 mph into solid objects just off centre and they have not deployed..

You luckly they didnt in a way... nothing worse than airbag burn!

Rick

Rick