Daughter's Car Accident - please help.

tesuhoha

I am think that if she gets the market value of the car we will buy her the same type of car in the meantime, and then she can pay us back when the insurance pays up. She will have to pay the excess, the higher insurance and continue to pay the car loan.

Weird_Nev

Yaris's are good cars. Stable enough! My sister (and neighbour) have them. You can get a good one for £2k or less if she wants similar again.

It's important she's honest with herself as to the causes and contributory factors, once everything has calmed down and she's over the shock.

If she genuninely was hit then indeed, it is serious. But there would be some evidence of that. As a new driver was she fully aware of the cars around her, her road position? Traffic conditions, road surface? She needs to evaluate what she does and doesn't know about the incident in order to learn and avoid it happening again. Was she changing lane or on the straight ahead? Changing gear? Taking evasive action? Debris in the road could cause a spin, but I'd expect associated wheel/suspension damage if it was something solid enough to tip the car straight into a spin.

Of course, if she was "rammed off the road" then that is entirely unavoidable and very scary, but I think she would have noticed the incoming vehicle. A car within striking distance tends to grab your attention in the mirrors.

Questions for later, once the shock has blown over.

If she feels she needs a confidence boost to get her back on the motorway and perhaps a little more alert and defensive (no critiscism - she has had a jolt!) then consider pass plus or IAM lessons. I'm also quite happy to sit in if she wants - I'm only J4 of the M40 and a police driver. Had plenty of fun tutoring my young cousins on a bit of roadcraft and they've managed not to drive into anything yet.

Blackpool_Saver

I found your comment about her being nervous and not going above 70 very interesting, 70 is the maximum, it's not a target.

I am glad she is ok, motorways are dangerous places with very little margin for error, idiots who drive to close and who are not always paying attention.

I personally think newly passed drivers should not be allowed on them without further instruction and another test.

No doubt I will be bood and hissed at but it's just my opinion.

Blackpool_Saver

Weird_Nev wrote: »

perhaps a little more alert and defensive

yes, so many people are offended by that word until it is explained to them what it means in relation to driving.

I do not envy you your job.

Humphrey10

mikey72 wrote: »

You will find her insurer will make a very low offer for the value of the car.

Not always. I was offered ~£2500 (before excess) for my Yaris, I bought it over a year earlier for £2000. I had a quick look at second hand car ads and £2500 was quite a good price. I assume the car was so wrecked that they couldn't see how tatty it was.

They're good cars, it was a head on collision between my Yaris @30mph (I assume, that's the speed limit on that road) and the other car @30mph, my Yaris ended up embedded in a fence/hedge, I didn't break anything (well apart from the cars), I could have walked away no problem.

dacouch

Did the Policeman not take into account the other car being a BMW eg no indicators and a tendency to undertake / overtake and then cut in front, the cutting in without a proper gap may explain why the witness thought the BMW had a contact with the OPs car

Strider590

My last car was hit by a Taxi, who was trying overtake on the inside at 40mph in the wet..... He just clipped my rear bumper, left no mark at all, but it was enough to send me into a spin, which I was quick enough to catch before ending up in someone's front garden.

At 70mph, it would take very little to put a car into a spin and if both cars are travelling at the same speed, there would be next to no damage at all.

tesuhoha

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

I found your comment about her being nervous and not going above 70 very interesting, 70 is the maximum, it's not a target.

I am glad she is ok, motorways are dangerous places with very little margin for error, idiots who drive to close and who are not always paying attention.

I personally think newly passed drivers should not be allowed on them without further instruction and another test.

No doubt I will be bood and hissed at but it's just my opinion.

Well all I meant to say was that she doesn't go above the speed limit. On a very long journey 70 isn't unreasonable. Not going to boo or hiss but she drives to work every day on the M25/M2 so has lots of motorway experience. She said herself that she is a very careful driver but she's had a bang on the head and so what happened is not entirely clear yet.

tesuhoha

Strider590 wrote: »

My last car was hit by a Taxi, who was trying overtake on the inside at 40mph in the wet..... He just clipped my rear bumper, left no mark at all, but it was enough to send me into a spin, which I was quick enough to catch before ending up in someone's front garden.

At 70mph, it would take very little to put a car into a spin and if both cars are travelling at the same speed, there would be next to no damage at all.

Thats what my husband said.

Contessa

Something similar happened to me two months ago. I was in lane 2 of the busy M5 at Birmingham, travelling at about 70mph, when the car in lane 1 hit me as I was parallel with it. I don't remember the make, just that it was black and bigger than me (my car was a medium size hatchback). I remember that my immediate thought on impact was that "I've had an accident now" ( having an hour earlier avoided an accident a few car lengths ahead of me and thinking myself lucky then). Then followed the most terrifying seconds of my life. I lost control of the car and snaked between lanes 2 and 3 a couple of times before hitting the crash barrier. Spun 360, hit again, maybe again? All the time waiting to hit another vehicle or to be hit by one. Then suddenly I was on the hard shoulder, facing the right way and stopped. Two cars stopped. One had seen the other car hit me, and was shocked that it had not stopped. Traffic police said the CCTV cameras would not have been able to get the car's registration. However, I (well my insurance company) would be billed for the damage I did to the crash barrier and the ambulance call out)
I walked away with bruises and slight whiplash. The seat belt probably saved my life. None of the six airbags deployed.
My car was a right off (although my insurance company offered me a very fair payment) and I am down as being at fault. I consider myself very fortunate, as it could have been so much worse, and this has mitigated my anger towards the other driver.
I am very pleased that your daughter is OK. To a recently qualified driver this will be really off-putting. The best thing she can do is to get another car as soon as possible and get back on the motorway-perhaps with another driver as passenger, or book a couple of lessons with a driving school. It helped me to know that it wasn't my fault. I've driven a few times on the motorway since and it has been absolutely fine.
Good luck to your daughter!