Car Park Knock

[ROBB]

BTW (true story): A friend of mine today showed me a note that he found on his windscreen upon his return to it from a supermarket. Being a new driver he had minor trouble parking and clipped a wing mirror.
When he got back to the car - the aforementioned note detailed the reg no of the driver who repeatedley kicked and keyed the side of his car , as duly recorded by two supermarket employees on thier break.

I hope you get yours sorted easily

rob

 

[amwebby]

An update and a warning

Well, Mercedes Accident Management have come up trumps, they've viewed my CCTV footage and are supplying a replacement CL while mine is being repaired.

My insurance company however have tried every trick in the book to get me to proceed with their accident management company non-Mercedes repairer. They claimed I will have to lodge a claim with them (I don't, MAM will recover directly from the 3rd party), said I would have to pay my excess as I wasn't using the accident management company (I don't, MAM will recover directly from the 3rd party) and said that I would lose my NCB until such time as the monies were fully recovered (as MAM will recover directly from the 3rd party no claim will be lodged and thus my NCB will remain untouched).

Just a warning to others, don't let your insurance company try and "persuade" you into using their associated services.

 

[alanuk400]

I pulled out behind a car going around the Waitrose car park today. He paused at the give way markings, well, over them actually, then engaged reverse and ran straight into me. He first tried to say I drove into him but, as he had already said he was reversing into a space and I was stationary, waiting for him to complete what I thought was a forward manoeuvre, he quickly retracted that position and exchanged details.

Hopefully he won't change his mind as my car has suffered a crack to the front bumper, damage to the trim and paint scraped off the front lamp surround, which I don't think will be cheap. In addition, when I got a mile down the road the parking sensor on that side fell backward into the bumper and now goes off intermittently, I guess whenever it bumps against the inside of the bodywork. Any ideas on how to retrieve this?

Same thing happened to my partner a couple of years back, we got the other drivers insurance details & reported it to our insurance company, he didn't report to his & it would have cost as much to go through our own, we just took it on the chin & fixed it ourselves.

Alan

 

[amwebby]

As the accident damage has come in at £1,500 plus the cost of the replacement car it does not make sense for me to take on the chin, that is where the car has taken it already!

 

[alanuk400]

I agree, mine was only minor, but I was put out that because they didn't tell there insurance. If I went through my insurance I would have to pay the first £250, which was about the same as repairing the damage. I got my own back a couple of years down the line:bannana:

Alan

 

[amwebby]

The other party in my case didn't report it to his insurance as there was no damage to his vehicle. Luckily I had the CCTV footage, which proved his culpability and MAM contacted his insurers who had no option but to admit liability.

 

[stats007]

Can he be prosecuted for not reporting it? I hate things like this - without the CCTV footage you may have had to pay it yourself.

 

[amwebby]

As you legally have 6 years to make a claim I doubt it.

 

[stats007]

The law states 24 hours to report an accident.

 

[amwebby]

That's only if you do not exchange details at the scene, which we did.

 

[crockers]

The law states 24 hours to report an accident.

It is a condition of all insurance that you report all accidents to your insurers whether there is to be a claim or not. I don't think 24 hours is the time frame for that - but it may be the time frame that is required to report an accident to the police if personal injury or injury to certain animals has occurred.

 

[amwebby]

http://www.dft.gov.uk/collisionreporting/Law/default.asp

Note provisons 2 and 3

 

[stats007]

It is a condition of all insurance

This is the issue. As AMWebby pointed out, if you exchanged details then you don't have to report it to the police. Insurers can impose their own rules, however, and I know my last policy required any accident to be reported to them using a 24-hour line within reasonable time.

My point was that this chap appears to have just hoped it would go away as his insurers had no knowledge of it. In my mind this should be penalised.

 

[amwebby]

He definitely hoped that. As there was no damage to his car and what probably looked like superficial damage to mine (a tear in the composite fabric of the bumper) he probably hoped I would find the cost of repair trivial and not worth claiming (my excess is £450).

I was alerted to this by the circumstances and the fact that he attempted to allege that I had driven into him. Failing to find any witness I contact Waitrose who luckily had CCTV footage which they gave to me as is my right under the data protection act.

As Stats007 says without the CCTV footage I would have a hard time proving liability and would have to pay the 450 excess and lose 2 years NCB to boot.

 

[glojo]

Did this person actually put pen to paper alleging you drove into them? I hate it when people deliberately lie and sadly it is becoming more and more acceptable.

Well done for getting the CCTV footage and I wonder what this person would think if you now stated you had whiplash injuries and wanted compensating? I bet they would soon start crying foul!

Well done
regards
John

 

[amwebby]

He never got a chance to do that as MAM contacted his insurance company with the CCTV footage before he filed a claim. To be fair to him, when he said it at the scene I replied that I had stopped when I saw him put his vehicle in reverse and he went silent.

I would be disingenuous to claim whiplash injuries at the slow speeds involved in reversing although MAM did ask me if I had suffered any and the CCTV footage does show the car taking quite a thump. (I'd post it if I could figure out how to translate the proprietary footage into WMV or similar.)

He will be unhappy enough with the £1,500 bill for repairs and the £550 a day being claimed for the replacement car.

 

[glojo]

I would be disingenuous to claim whiplash injuries at the slow speeds involved in reversing although MAM did ask me if I had suffered any and the CCTV footage does show the car taking quite a thump. (I'd post it if I could figure out how to translate the proprietary footage into WMV or similar.)

He will be unhappy enough with the £1,500 bill for repairs and the £550 a day being claimed for the replacement car.

Hi Roger,
I sincerely hope my post did not imply you would have even considered making a false claim. But I got the impression this person instictively lied without batting an eyelid and I wondered how they would like it if the boot were on the other foot? It was brilliant thinking on your part regarding CCTV and thank goodness this was there.

What do our liberal 'Big Brother' members think about your actions? As it would be highly probable that without CCTV you might well have been considerably out of pocket?

Having CCTV might be an invasion of our privacy, but like we keep saying it is there to protect the innocent and if we have done nothing wrong we have nothing to fear.

Well done again
Yours sincerely
John

 

[amwebby]

Once again, to be fair to him it was a close call. I could have still been driving forward when he reversed. The fact that he didn't look before reversing meant he couldn't be sure of this and, it was only after viewing the CCTV footage, that I was assured my memory was correct. In that you clearly see me following him, then he stops and engages reverse, at which point I clearly stop. He then moves backward and thumps into me.

An interesting one for the civil libertistas. I was lucky the camera was pointing where it was. The only reason it was, was because there are ATMs in its line of sight.

I have never had a problem with images of me being captured in this way as long as the provisions of the DPA continue and I have the right to view them and have copies.