LOML Minor car accident

[RogerS]

LOML was straightening up in the Waitrose car park and as she inched back out of the space so she could straighten up a bit, a woman was driving by very close to the line of parked cars and so LOML had a slight bump. Looking at the damage done to the womans' car and that done to ours and her initial comments when my wife got out to talk to her, we smell a rat and think that she may well be being a bit opportunistic about this. So I went round to her house to take some photos and measurements.

Don't get me wrong...if we did the damage then we'll get it sorted. Just that to my eyes, the damage does not seem consistent with what happened. Would welcome your thoughts, guys.

This is the womans' car. My wife was reversing back squarely.

The door is dented in beneath the bump strip - and the bump strip is 20" off the ground.

Now this is our car.

Note the lack of damage other than a very light hint of red. The height of the rear bump strip is about 2" below the height of hers. So if we had hit it with any real force to do that damage to her car, I would have expected her wheel arch to be ripped open.

This is the higher impact point and is 25" above the ground.

And you can see a smudge of red paint here.

I'm not an expert but to my untutored eyes, I would say that her damage looks more like that from a point impact and pre-dated todays impact and was caused by someone reversing into her with a point force...like the bumper on the corner of a car. What do you guys think ?

The car has lots of other dents and bashes. When my wife got out to see what the damage was, the woman started claiming that she had broken the wing-mirror ...a physical impossibility given the height of the cars.

If she is trying it on then what next ?

 

[pren]

I can't speak for the cars involved, but our car (Pugeot 206) dents if you even look at it sternly. We slid into our neighbours van on the ice the other week. We'd stopped moving forwards but the camber of the road meant we slid about 1' sideways, bumping wings. We were hardly moving yet we picked up a dent in our wing about 5" wide The neighbours van (Merc Sprinter) had no damage whatsoever.

The car door at the point of the damage is pretty delicate. I'd think it was entirely possible to pick up that sort of damage from a low speed impact.

 

[Ironballs]

It looks reasonable enough to me, I would try to ensure that it goes nowhere near insurers though or you'll be paying for it for years. I reckon if the damage is up to 1000 quid to repair then don't go via insurers, settle it yourself

 

[Setch]

The damage doesn't look out of keeping with the collision you describe.

If she is on the make you have my sympathy. Several years ago, when I was a very inexperienced driver, I reversed my work van into a stationary car, belonging to a customers daughter. We both witnessed the impact, and examined the damage, which was a small (ie: tiny pait repair and buff out) scratch on the front bumper, and a small (approx the size of a 50p piece) but obtrusive dent on the front wheel arch. We agreed that this was the full extent of the damage, exchanged details, and I took photos of both vehicles.

A week later we received a claim for over £1,200+vat, including a new door(!). Unbelievable.

 

[Dibs-h]

It looks reasonable enough to me, I would try to ensure that it goes nowhere near insurers though or you'll be paying for it for years. I reckon if the damage is up to 1000 quid to repair then don't go via insurers, settle it yourself

I bet the other car isn't worth a £1000.

 

[theartfulbodger]

surprised they didn't write it off for 1200 plus vat :shock: was the claim direct from the other party or via an insurance company?

I always go for large excesses.. in my mind it's better to save 50 quid on a policy against the small possibility of saving a grand on a smash. I'd not claim for anything small, it just hammers your premiums and NCD and if I caused a LOT of damage or heaven forbid killed someone then paying a grand excess would seem cheap

 

[les chicken]

Roger

If the LOYL was reversing out of the space to straighten up to park correctly within the lines, then the other car must have seen her trying to park. In my opinion the other driver was too impatient to allow your missus to park correctly, and was too close or tried to drive past without allowing her to park. If I was in your position I would argue that it was not your fault but the impatient driver and tell them to get stuffed and threaten to claim for the damage to your car. ( or at worst the old famous Knock for knock )

Les

 

[pren]

Surely if she was reversing into the flow of traffic, then the oncoming driver has right of way? I've only recently passed my driving test. In my lessons, I was taught to allow parking drivers to complete their manoeuvres if they were obviously waiting to do so but this was more out of courtesy than any legal obligation.

 

[jasonB]

You also need to bear in mind that your bumper would have deformed in the impact and sprung back as its plastic, the metal door panel cannot spring back. I would get under your car and have a good look at the bumper mounting points, they could well have been bent, flaking paint around the mounting points would be the most obvious signs.

Having said that I'd say the other cars wheelarch was in contact not the door panel, if you look where the two vertical mud splashes are there seem to be a lot of fine horizontal scratches behind a clean leading edge, these would be about right for the mark above your numberplate. Not knowing what position the cars stopped in and weather your other half kept traveling back after the impact or not would explain the dent in the door

J