I Hit A Dog With My Car - Advice On Court Action

catflea

Nooooooooo, dont use the ignore function, it takes all the fun out of things and you can miss some pure gold

I remember being in the car when my brother was driving, a squirrel dropped out of the tree in front of us. Looking back all that was left was the tail - rather odd that was.

To the OP. Of course, if a dog jumps out right in front of you its going to get hit whether you are doing 50mph or 5mph - so no judgement here (and a dog lover to boot :rotfl:) if the owner couldn't keep him under control he should not have been so close to what appears to be a fairly busy, fast road. If I'd hit that pooch I'd be feeling pretty torn up about it, and by the sounds of it you are too.

Of course, at 18 you wont have a great deal of road experience but this does come with time - it sounds like you take a pretty mature and responsible attitude to this driving malarky. No-one is a perfect driver (me aside, obviously ) no matter what their protestations. So ignore the trolls and good luck getting it all sorted.

Serious point re the repair - Like you, I consider myself pretty handy with the old spanners (and welder etc etc) but before doing the job yourself make sure that it is only just the bolt on parts that are damaged if there is ANY metalwork damage then get it done professionally, otherwise you risk devaluing the car when its time to sell.

BTW, the only time either of my cars see the garage is once a year for that pesky green bit of paper we all have to have. Even then, I sit in and supervise I dont trust anyone else with my cars.

propaintballa

bosseyed wrote: »

Noooo, wheres the fun in that!

This thread has been amazing reading - as far as I'm concerned the issue was dealt with pages ago with some decent advice and Propaintballa quite willing to take it - no the real value of this thread has been the frankly hilariously pious attitudes of McKneff, mollycat etc and those who leap beady eyed onto a single word and promptly attempt to make mountains out of molehills. The whole 'greasy road' thing has been great :rotfl:

God forbid the OP mentioned he had picked his nose at any point, it would have come flying back from some people here as a self righteous tirade about driving with both hands on the wheel, "what if it had been a disabled nun carrying a basket of kittens on a fun run for orphaned childrens charitys leaping cat like into the road in front of you whilst you were rolling bogies eh eh eh eh? Get off the road you disgrace!"

And so it goes on. Lots of people hate the trolls, I love em, they keep things fresh and suitably daft.

Incidentally, and only vaguely on topic, a bad memory has resurfaced after reading all this. I remember being maybe 5 and in the back seat of my Dads car - he ran over a squirrel, but apparently only partially squashed it, and so reversed down the road in order to flatten it out completely and put it out of its misery I remember crying in horror in the back seat as the rear wheels thumped over it the things our brains lock away.

Haha, some of it has been hilarious like you say, but when the same things keep coming up, it gets very hard to endure the drool that some of these people come out with.

catflea wrote: »

Nooooooooo, dont use the ignore function, it takes all the fun out of things and you can miss some pure gold

I remember being in the car when my brother was driving, a squirrel dropped out of the tree in front of us. Looking back all that was left was the tail - rather odd that was.

To the OP. Of course, if a dog jumps out right in front of you its going to get hit whether you are doing 50mph or 5mph - so no judgement here (and a dog lover to boot :rotfl:) if the owner couldn't keep him under control he should not have been so close to what appears to be a fairly busy, fast road. If I'd hit that pooch I'd be feeling pretty torn up about it, and by the sounds of it you are too.

Of course, at 18 you wont have a great deal of road experience but this does come with time - it sounds like you take a pretty mature and responsible attitude to this driving malarky. No-one is a perfect driver (me aside, obviously ) no matter what their protestations. So ignore the trolls and good luck getting it all sorted.

Serious point re the repair - Like you, I consider myself pretty handy with the old spanners (and welder etc etc) but before doing the job yourself make sure that it is only just the bolt on parts that are damaged if there is ANY metalwork damage then get it done professionally, otherwise you risk devaluing the car when its time to sell.

BTW, the only time either of my cars see the garage is once a year for that pesky green bit of paper we all have to have. Even then, I sit in and supervise I dont trust anyone else with my cars.

Like you said, i really do pride myself on my driving, i love driving, i had wanted to drive from a very young age and really take pride in my car. I park away from everyone else in car parks, even if it means having to walk further, because some people have no regard for other peoples belongings, smacking their doors against mine etc.

And at the squirrel that fell out of the tree, you could have missed that, to be honest, you should have been going slower, after all, that could have been a small child that fell out of that tree!

As far as i can tell, it's only damage to the front panel, bonnet, bumper and light, but will inspect further, my parts will be ready tomorrow and will be fitting them on the weekend, and like you, i really don't trust people with my car, i hated taking her for the MOT.

Thanks again

pendulum

So a dog runs out and the driver hits it. Half the posters here are either suggesting he must have been speeding OR that he's callous to even think about the thousands of pounds worth of damage to his car when he should be in constant 24/7 mourning for the dog.

What a disgrace to the "motoring section"

catflea

propaintballa wrote: »

And at the squirrel that fell out of the tree, you could have missed that, to be honest, you should have been going slower, after all, that could have been a small child that fell out of that tree!

Of course, I must have been driving too, and lying about someone else being behind the wheel :rotfl:

propaintballa

catflea wrote: »

Of course, I must have been driving too, and lying about someone else being behind the wheel :rotfl:

No, but because you were in the car, it was your fault right? Just like it was my fault my friend had to go around me :P

catflea

Yeah, OK. Think we are evens

BTW, what is that colour called? Don't think I've ever seen a fester in that colour..... (and don't say "orange!" :rotfl:)

propaintballa

catflea wrote: »

Yeah, OK. Think we are evens

BTW, what is that colour called? Don't think I've ever seen a fester in that colour..... (and don't say "orange!" :rotfl:)

It's called Flare. She's beautiful

pelirocco

Has McKneff gone to buy a new shovel ?
I am very impressed with how articulate the OP is btw

atrixblue.-MFR-.

from looking at the pics the car is perfectly fine to drive, all the damage is cosmetic, so really there would of een no need to have time off 'uni'.
first you say theres £1500.00's worth of damage then 7-£800.00's worth WICH IS IT? i hardly see £1500 worth of damage in the pics new bumper,bonnet, light, grill,paint. i think your exagerting the price a little i'd say more around £350-400 if parts are purchased for the repairer.

i would put it down to experience rather than dragging things through court if this person genuinly has no money they cant pay for something they havent got the money for even if you did win you wont get a lump sum more like a few quid a month over so many years if defendant is genuinly broke and on benefits, so youd still be left with a bill to get the car repaired in the meantime.

at the end of it what are you going to achieve? a few quid a month for the damage to the car if won at court, more time off 'uni'.

things like this happens in life just put it down to experience, ennoying that it maybe that your out of pocket, go to scrappy pick up the parts get quotes on painting have them painted so you can use the car for 'uni' and then fit them when you have time. wont cost you time off just a bit outa pocket for the parts and painting the £100.00 the dog owner offered could be the bonnet or light or bumper saveing you 100.00 on another part to buy.

propaintballa

pelirocco wrote: »

Has McKneff gone to buy a new shovel ?
I am very impressed with how articulate the OP is btw

Thanks for the compliment, it really means a lot

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

from looking at the pics the car is perfectly fine to drive, all the damage is cosmetic, so really there would of een no need to have time off 'uni'.
first you say theres £1500.00's worth of damage then 7-£800.00's worth WICH IS IT? i hardly see £1500 worth of damage in the pics new bumper,bonnet, light, grill,paint. i think your exagerting the price a little i'd say more around £350-400 if parts are purchased for the repairer.

i would put it down to experience rather than dragging things through court if this person genuinly has no money they cant pay for something they havent got the money for even if you did win you wont get a lump sum more like a few quid a month over so many years if defendant is genuinly broke and on benefits, so youd still be left with a bill to get the car repaired in the meantime.

at the end of it what are you going to achieve? a few quid a month for the damage to the car if won at court, more time off 'uni'.

things like this happens in life just put it down to experience, ennoying that it maybe that your out of pocket, go to scrappy pick up the parts get quotes on painting have them painted so you can use the car for 'uni' and then fit them when you have time. wont cost you time off just a bit outa pocket for the parts and painting the £100.00 the dog owner offered could be the bonnet or light or bumper saveing you 100.00 on another part to buy.

Thanks for the reply. There is that sum of damage, it doesn't look it, but there is. This is a quote from numerous garages including VAT and labour. I have achieved the price of around £700 by buying non genuine Ford parts and buying the bumper second hand. Spraying is going to be £200-250 alone, and then there is about 500 worth of materials. Going to the scrappy to get parts isn't really that simple, there is one or two near me, none of which have cars s new as mine (I know it's not that new).

And i didn't say i've been missing Uni, i said i missed a University open day. I think i know how much damage there is, the light is completely detached from the vehicle, meaning it could fall out, and if it gets dark, the alignment is out, therefore it could cause other drivers to me dazzled. My Air conditioning condenser is also bent, although i'm leaving it because it doesn't appear that the surface has been breached, the slam panel is also broke, which you can't see.

You obviously know nothing about how much body shops charge for new part, spraying and labour. So please don't come hear and make out that i'm fabricating these prices from nothing.