Absolutely not my fault!

Takmon

I just don't understand why you don't have a Dashcam considering that this is the third accident in such a short period of time that you were involved in. For the sake of £30 it's almost silly not to have one, especially if your accident prone.

Iceweasel

Takmon wrote: »

I just don't understand why you don't have a Dashcam considering that this is the third accident in such a short period of time that you were involved in. For the sake of £30 it's almost silly not to have one, especially if your accident prone.

Get two - one for the back as well.

AlexMac

Dear KK; I feel your pain in that I had to swallow 50-50 after an even less ambiguous collision due to lack of withesses. And I didn't even get 60+ online blog responses as I didn't share my hard luck story with the interwebbyworld!

3 weeks after taking delivery of my brand-new, straight from the dealer shiny black pride and joy (bought cash with the retirement lump sum) another driver screeched to a halt in front of me, backed 10 metres (as if to park or turn) and smacked into me, by now stopped behind them and leaning on my horn.

Minor damage, dark and rainy so I swapped detail and suggested a chat by phone after they (late, flustered and panicking about their kid's pick up at the posh private school opposite) had calmed down. I assumed a £50 scratch repair at their expense could sort mine (their car was pretty old).

Instead, they ignored my calls and next day I got an email from my insurer who'd been contacted by theirs alleging an opposite story; that I'd driven into them.

So the £50 repair turned into a £450 insurance job (new cars are like that!).

I wanted to invoke Legal Protection to force them to lie in court, but with no witnesses nor dashcam, my Insurer (and my wife) said forget it, swallow the £175 excess, fix it, suck it up and move on.

So I did; but what hurt more than the £175 ( which after all, only represents 3 quid a year for each of my previously uneventful 55 years' driving; especially as, with gazillions of no-claim, my premium didn't even go up) was when I stalked the other driver on social media, as they wouldn't pick up the phone. They had had not only lied to their insurer, but had laundered the truth online too, with a revisonist description of their fate at the hands of an " old fart of a driver with a hat", and consequent virtual responses of support and sympathy.

As if a stylish trilby suddenly makes me a bad driver?

Maybe I should have sought the support of the MSE Forum Community at the time? After all, at least my saga's got to be funnier than yours?

I await 60 responses with bated breath...?

Kim_kim

shinytop wrote: »

If what you say happened did so, then you probably drove a bit inconsiderately but were not at fault for the damage. The van driver, who hit your stationary vehicle, was. The problem is, in the absence of witnesses or other evidence, unless he admits liability, you won't be able to prove that so it will probably end up, at best (and it could be worse) a 50/50 agreement.

Yes - that’s exactly how it happened & yes with no proof and him denying it, it’s my word against his.
I’d never do that, if you hit something apologise & make good.
He literally couldn’t look me in the eye, he kept staring at his shoes the whole time - I suppose he had some shame in his lies....

splishsplash

Kim_kim wrote: »

Yes - that’s exactly how it happened & yes with no proof and him denying it, it’s my word against his.
I’d never do that, if you hit something apologise & make good.
He literally couldn’t look me in the eye, he kept staring at his shoes the whole time - I suppose he had some shame in his lies....

You still need to acknowledge to yourself that you are making some pretty basic driving errors.

You stopped dead in the narrow part of the road where it was impossible for two cars to pass.

You put your handbrake on and didn't move.

Another van followed you into the narrow part and had to stop behind you.

This is called a bottleneck, created by you, leaving the oncoming van nowhere to go.

What did you expect to happen?

The oncoming driver attempted to pass and failed.

This was entirely avoidable by both of you, but YOU are the one who created the huge mess that the other driver attempted to deal with. Badly, as it happens.

It is at least 50:50.