Last night a drink driver ruined my sleep...

[jimmymidnight]

...after a really good weekend at edition38 in Northampton, with very little sleep, i thought i would treat myself to a proper shower, clean up and a good early night...


... unfortunately some drunk w@nker in an old red Seat Ibiza had other ideas...

I got woken up at about 1am by my mate telling me there were 3 police men in the living who wanted to see me about a black Mercedes parked outside the house.

I went down in quite a sleep deprived daze, to be greeted with "Do you know if your black merc outside has any damage to the body work?"

"no, it's lovely and straight and just been cleaned?!?"

"oh, can you step outside please"

POW!

apparently a taxi saw this bloke swerve into my car, blowing his tyre out and then driving off, taxi guy followed him and stopped him where he told the cab driver that the black car drove into him and that it wasn't his fault, all the time absolutely stinking of booze...

fortunately the police have found the guy, but haven't got back to me about insurance etc yet, i spoke to mine and they said that unless someone proves it wasn't my fault, it's going to cost me £900 before any repairs will be made...

so now, i still haven't caught up on sleep lost over the weekend, and my beautiful shiny car is now only half so.

such a shame as i had a really good time at edition38 but im too angry to think about that at the moment!

 

[amwebby]

That's nasty but at least you've got a witness in the taxi driver and the details of the offending driver. I hope you get a speedy resolution to this.

 

[jimmymidnight]

yeha, hopefully get it all sorted in the next few days, i'll get that little rust bubble on that arch sorted too, so every cloud and all that...

 

[renault12ts]

Elbow grease and some T-Cut. It'll be right as rain.

 

[Baron_Samedi]

Anyone for a group buy of the T-Cut that renaul12ts uses?

 

[crockers]

Don't forget the Dry Ice....

Sorry to see the mess - did they breath test him?

 

[jimmymidnight]

i think it might take a bit more than elbow grease to get that door straight again!

dont know what has happend to the driver yet, apparently toxicology and police were back at the cars today, and im getting my hire car in the next 48 hours or so.

i just had it all polished and tarted up for a car show that weekend too! oh well, good thing is no one was hurt and i, or anyone else was in the car! just a bit bummed out today though if im honest!

 

[Brian WH]

Lets hope he was insured eh?

 

[Sp!ke]

Lets hope he was insured eh?

I thought insurance is invalid if drink driving.

My understanding is that you'll have to claim off your own insurance and then try and pursue your losses with the other party directly as he isn't insured to D&D.

 

[seymansey]

I thought insurance is invalid if drink driving.

My understanding is that you'll have to claim off your own insurance and then try and pursue your losses with the other party directly as he isn't insured to D&D.

They might not pay out for him, but I thought the insurance companies were legally obliged to pay out to third parties?

 

[Shude]

They might not pay out for him, but I thought the insurance companies were legally obliged to pay out to third parties?

That was the way I understood it too

 

[Baron_Samedi]

+1 for what Shude said

 

[jimmymidnight]

fortunately the other guy was insured with the same company as me (churchill) so they are not going to charge me any excess, and im not sure if they could prove he was drunk at the time as they were so busy faffing about at my house before they went over to the driver's house. they have given me a jag though as a rental until my merc is repaired!

 

[EDZ649]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

Same thing happened to me a few years back over the christmas period. Left my car outside my dads house and a drunk driver rearanged the front offside for me without asking!

Luckily my Dads neighbour went out and saw him drive off. He was insured fortunatley and I went and paid him a little visit. Did alright out of it in the end, got paid out £1850 for the car, kept the salvage so less 20%, had the car repaired for £400 and sold it on for £2000, result!

Hope you get yours sorted without too much hassle

 

[grober]

Make sure they check the rear suspension/hub/wheel/tyre since from the marks on the wheel it may have born the initial impact??

 

[jimmymidnight]

this is the damage close up, also has nasty graze on front passenger door and the wheel is looking a bit sorry for itself too:

anyone on here give me an honest oppinion of how bad this really is? i haven't had a chance to get under it and look at the hub yet.

thanks

 

[horsesuitedfool]

I would insist it goes to MB Stealer and point out every single thing you can possibly see including stuff already there!! Then it will be done properly - If they write it off you could buy it for peanuts and have it fixed by a cheaper local garage and be quids in....

 

[davidjpowell]

I had a W210 a few years ago with similar damage, but on the offside after a driver decided that it would be good ideal to vere left after some traffic lights. My partner had the car and I still do not understand how he missed it. He damaged back door, rear wheel arch (fore and aft) rear wing/valence and the wheel itself. Total cost I think was circa £2k.

Young lad was driving on mums insurance. They decided not to settle for cash when they had the quote.

Having said that your wheel does look a little worse, and I suppose could have damaged the running gear. My price included a check, but all was ok.

 

[jimmymidnight]

thanks for your info, it looks like im going to be driving around in an enterprise freelander 2 hse for a while as the police are causing all sorts of problems for my insurance company liability wise, this could take a while...

 

[219]

If you're getting the run around from your insurance - esp this £900 business !!! - I'd get on to one of those ' no fault ' claims management companies who will sort you out quickly with repairs to your own car , a loan vehicle , and stiff it royally to the other party so that he'll need a 2nd mortgage by the time they're finished .

Get your car repaired at the stealer and they'll stuff the bill to the TP with compound interest .

Oh , and all of the above WITHOUT having to claim against your own insurance - you do still have to INFORM them , though .