Rear-ended at low speed - is it worth getting the car looked at by a garage?

facade

The natural reaction if something suddenly appears in your eye-line in front of the car is to start braking, while you are figuring out what it is, and whether to keep braking or let up and carry on.
I certainly wouldn't want to hit anything heavier than a bee at speed (and they make a hell of a mess with all that sticky nectar)

scotsbob

As others have said, I would have the car looked at. Just to be sure there is no damage to suspension or chassis.


The other driver is at fault and you send any bill to them

jrtfan

I'm with the AA and have HomeStart, so thank you jbainbridge for suggesting that I ask them to take a quick look. I have to drive my son somewhere for 3pm on Sunday and so I'm sure they'd agree to come out, just to make sure everything is safe before we set off.

Thank you to everyone else too, for confirming that it would be sensible to have the car checked over professionally. I heard from the other driver again this evening and her car seems to be fine, other than the damage to the front grille which I mentioned earlier. She said her husband can pop this out for her though because it just clips into place, so that's good news too.

Fortunately for everyone, it wasn't necessary to do an emergency stop for the birds, nor even a quickish halt, because we all were travelling at less than the 30mph speed limit on a straight piece of road and saw them in plenty of time to slow down gently. The lady behind me was just admiring a male pheasant and didn't realise I had come to a complete stop until she felt the bump. My feeling is it could happen to anyone and it really wasn't a big deal; that's why we have insurance, in case stuff like this happens. I do agree that a judgement call needs to be made according to the particular circumstances at the time and that it isn't always appropriate to stop for an animal, especially if by doing so it could endanger other road users.

Quentin

jrtfan wrote: »

I'm with the AA and have HomeStart, so thank you jbainbridge for suggesting that I ask them to take a quick look. I have to drive my son somewhere for 3pm on Sunday and so I'm sure they'd agree to come out, ......

Doubt it.


In any case you need more than a "quick look". Take it to a local bodyshop for a full inspection.

straighttalker

I'd say it was safe to drive in the short term. Personally, I'd contact the third party insurer and get them to send their own engineer out directly. If the woman who hit your vehicle has reported the accident, this won't take long to arrange. If there is damage, it can be sorted without you having to pay your own excess. Having said that, technically you would still have to advise your own insurers for information reasons.

jrtfan

Quentin wrote: »

Doubt it.


In any case you need more than a "quick look". Take it to a local bodyshop for a full inspection.

You're right, the AA woulf probably tell me the same now I think about it. They'd want the car up on a hoist so they could check the underneath properly wouldn't they? Good thinking, thanks.

jrtfan

straighttalker wrote: »

I'd say it was safe to drive in the short term. Personally, I'd contact the third party insurer and get them to send their own engineer out directly. If the woman who hit your vehicle has reported the accident, this won't take long to arrange. If there is damage, it can be sorted without you having to pay your own excess. Having said that, technically you would still have to advise your own insurers for information reasons.

I didn't even know it was possible to go around it that way - it certainly would save some money, thank you! The other driver only knew the name of the broker who arranged the policy though, not the name of the insurers, so I'll have to contact her again for the details. Shouldn't be a problem. Thanks again.

shaun_from_Africa

Strider590 wrote: »

Because stopping for an animal at the possible expense of human life, IS NOT an acceptable reason to stop.

Seeing as an average sized pheasant will weigh somewhere in the region of 2 and a half pounds, I certainly wouldn't want to have one hitting my windscreen at any sort of speed above walking pace.

glentoran99

Strider590 wrote: »

If they've got dashcam you could be in trouble. I've had to avoid collisions on two occasions, where the drivers thought that "vermin" (squirrels) were more valuable than human beings.

And

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/18/woman-ducks-montreal-highway-sentence_n_6346034.html

You go into th eback of someone its irrelevant why they stopped your at fault

Strider590

glentoran99 wrote: »

You go into th eback of someone its irrelevant why they stopped your at fault

No, why do you think they're able to prosecute "crash for cash" scammers?
It doesn't matter who you are, if someone slams on the anchors for no good reason, your going to have a very hard time avoiding them.
The first thing you do when someone brakes is you cover your brakes and slow down, then you start looking at why they're braking, but if they stop for a bloody squirrel you won't see this.

You never know how hard someone is braking, you use the information available to determine how hard they're going to brake, but there is a point between slowing and doing an e-stop, where even if your keeping distance dictated in the HWC, your still going to hit them if you can't see why they've just slammed on the brakes.

It's why I hate being behind vans and trucks so much, you haven't got a clue what's going on ahead of them.