Be Excellent To Each Other

As some of you may know, my car is fucked. Well, it's even more fucked now! Someone smashed into the back of me yesterday leaving a fairly large dent and myself and my girlfriend with very sore spines.

I was at a roundabout and it was pretty busy. The woman behind me must've assumed I was going to pull away into an oncoming car or something, because she just drove forward and smashed into me. I didn't even drive forwards and then brake, she literally just smashed into my stationery car...

I called Quinn Direct (my insurer), and, obviously, it's the other driver's fault which she seems to have admitted to speed up the process. Quinn have forwarded me onto Accident Exchange, an "accident management company" who are apparently going to sort everything out for me, right down to the ambulance chasing. (Which, in all honesty, is not the sort of thing I'm interested in, but my neck really is fucking knacking and my girlfriend is in agony [she is a bit a fanny at the best of times, mind]).

Anyone else been smashed from behind? Anybody been forwarded onto an accident management company before?

Pic:



Damage doesn't look too bad but bare in mind that the car is worth maybe £1500/£2000, it's quite likely to be a write off in my eyes. Talking maybe £500 for new bumpers and getting them sprayed, etc.

Worth getting checked out, rams from behind can be tricky buggers. At least there's no feeling of "if only I hadn't..." (other than "if only I hadn't been there") as it was nothing to do with you. As I said and really upset a friend the other day, the car's just a metal box, make sure there's no long-lasting effects to you and then you've got the story to dine out on.

Bad luck, chap. Hope yourself and yourself's missus feel better soon.

If it's £500 damage on a £2k car, it wouldn't be written off, I'd have thought.

See a doctor re: WHiplash. It can occur at low speeds and can be a VERY BAD THING. Also, be careful driving abut with your number plates exposed, someone might copy them and steal petrol.

A 1989/90 205 worth 2k? Seriously?

Anyway, Jonarob needs to get himself and his partner checked out for damage. The insurance company will deal with the car?

Is that what it is? I can't see the pic.

Pics or it... etc, etc

It's a GTI, man! Low mileage as well (coming up to 80k).

http://www.pistonheads.com/SALES/1153042.htm

That's a very good example, but you can see what I mean.

Bah, that sucks. Hope you're both OK and get stuff sorted out, chap.

Sorry to hear it, Jonarob, chap. Make sure you get yourself checked out, if you haven't already. Whiplash can get quite nasty. Miss Malabar was in a crash last year, where a car drove into the side of theirs. After a few days, she couldn't move her neck properly, and had to have several weeks of physio to sort it out. She got a couple of grand in injury compensation for that. Don't feel bad for claiming for injuries if they're genuine.

Get your neck checked out. I'm suffering a sore neck today so I sympathise.

If the car is old enough, point out to the insurance company that it's worth £2k to you on the scrappage scheme - this could help you get a better value if it's written off, or convince them to pay to fix it. That worked for a colleague at work who had a very similar situation.

If they're inclined to write it off, you may be able to buy it back and keep driving it with the dent, it was on its last legs anyway wasn't it?

Only cunts drive into the back of other people, etc, etc

Exactly! Fuckers.

Yeah!

What ever happened to the cunt who reversed into you on that slipway?

That'll teach the fucker not to mess with me!

Ouch. What a shame, nice car. Glad you're both mostly alright, be prepared for headaches (I've had one pretty much constantly since Saturday)

We should form a 'BETEO ACCIDENT INJURY SUPPORT GROUP' or something. I'll bring my knee, you bring your spine, they can discuss their feelings.

KNEE: OW!
SPINE: Yes.

Same thing happened to me when I was driving my Vauxhall Vectra. Fortunately it was at very, very low speed so there was no damage to either car.

It was funny, the woman driving was in her early 60s, and she looked like she was going to shit herself. I'm not the most intimidating of people but she perhaps thought I was going to fly off into an apopleptic rage and smash her car to pieces or something.

Update:

I'm getting a hire car! Woo! It seems her insurance company are paying for everything, so that gets dropped off at around four. Stand by for a report. Also, there's a guy coming to inspect my car and assess the damage, etc. As for injury claiming, I've just been to see the doc (took my girlfriend as well) and he says it sounds like whiplash but that we seem fine. To be honest he didn't seem too arsed and just made me lift my arms up a few times. It's still fucking hurting me. Once the car is sorted out, I'll be looking into some injury stuff. Might help to pay for my expensive physio/upcoming uni course ( ).

A silver Peugeot 308 1.4. Gutless as fuck.

Make someone crash into it so you can get a better one.

A Drunk kid twocked a motor and was chased into mine and five others by the police a year or two back. I was with Quinn - phoned them up as soon as I heard about it (as at work half a mile away at the time, 6am). Quinn said I'd need to call back on Monday. I asked them what I was supposed to do about my smashed car, they told me to pay someone to take it away. I didn't have any money to do that, as I'd just bought and insured a car.

Phoned back on monday, was told an investigator would call. Phoned back about once or twice a day for the next fortnight to get any further details than 'an investigator will call' and got JACK FUCKING SHIT. They wanted to know whether the car that caused the accident was insured - I explained it was impossible to tell them which car had hit mine, and indeed if it had only been one of those involved, as they were all taken away by the time I got home. Quinn said I needed to tell them whether the other guy was insured or not, ignoring my protestations that the other guy could have been loads of people. It was my responsibility to find this out apparently. I contacted the police, they said they couldn't give me the details of the stolen car's owner, though the stolen one definitely hit mine. I referred this back to quinn who said the police had a responsibility to tell me. Scroipted calls all the way.

Gave up in the end, £1100 pissed away in six weeks. Never, ever insuring with those robbing bastards again. A couple of Irish friends have had a thing or two to say about the man Quinn himself down the pub as well.

With Bell now. Phoned them Sunday to give them my new address. Car now parked 200 yards off the road in a double garage on private land, in the middle of the countryside, six houses in the village. One guy did have his trailer stolen a few months back but it was returned the next day. I've moved from a road where outside my house alone there's been literally NINE cars written off in the last eighteen months, not counting any minor shunts. Windows and mirrors are smashed for fun down this road every week.

My premium went up twenty quid.

I'm just going to fuck myself up the arse from now on and save these cunts the trouble.

Moving addresses mid-policy never sends the price down, and always incurs an admin charge. Look into cancelling it and taking out a new policy elsewhere.

Phone the accident management people back and say you want something more similar to what the hopeless klutz who's paying has prevented you driving. It'll put all our premiums up, etc and so on, but if some twat took my M3 out I'd be fucked if I was going to settle for a 320 or something.

Move somewhere less shit, as well.

I've heard vegetarians get cheaper insurance.

Just had a woman go right from the left lane of the roundabout, cutting us up in the process, then indicating right to leave. Idiot.

I saw something similar last night - woman hesitating for ages in the right hand lane onto a roundabout, then cut the person in the left lane up to get off at the second exit, about 10 o clock. Scary.

Hey GovernmentYard! I'm with Quinn!

That's because they are less likely to have friends, be employed or go shopping for soap or steak, so are less likely to use their cars. It's only fair, considering.

real men (who eat meat) have sensible haircuts.

That image never gets old.

Nope

I can't see that image but I'm guessing... etc.

It's a picture of your Mum eating a saveloy.

That's no saveloy!

Hi5!

Mmmm, saveloy...

That's no lady!

In case anybody is wondering. I'm still in a hire car at the moment. That's how long Zurich take to write your car off and give you money for it. They offered me £400 for it a month or so ago and I told them to get to fuck because it's worth about £1500. It got silly around three months after the crash. Nearly 6 months later and I'm in a kind of delirious twilight zone of complete gob-smacked-ness.

Also, my 205 is declared SORN and was parked in front of my house:


Fig 1 is my car, Fig 2 is my drive.

I got a knock on the door a couple of weeks ago and it was a Community Enforcement Officer asking about my "untaxed car". I explained it is SORN and he said it shouldn't be on the "public highway" when SORN. See again, attached photo. Fig 1 my car, Fig 2 my drive. My parents use the drive, which is why it was parked in front of my house.

Anyway, the lovely police officer, let's call him Const. CUNT, explained that a truck was coming to take it away and there'd be a £100 release fee from the impound place. I explained to him that this was ridiculous and could I not simply move my car onto the drive. See again, attached photo. Fig 1 my car, Fig 2 my drive. No, he said. If you move the car, you can be arrested on the spot. Great. I then explained that my car had been crashed into months before and the battery was completely dead because I've been driving a hire car. How am I supposed to drive the car back from the impound place when I go to have it released? (Which, by the way would also involve having it re-taxed and MOTd after paying the release fee, just to drive it home.)

He ummed and ahhed and literally half an hour later after arguing with him, him calling his superiors, etc., he decided to help me push the car onto my drive if I was willing to pay the £100 fine anyway. I was pretty annoyed but glad to have it over and done with. I paid the £100 and the car is now on my private property. Much to the annoyance of my parents, but presumably to the entertainment of the miserable cunt who must have shopped me - as you can see I live in a cul-de-sac and the chances of a copper just wandering by to check my car are slim.

Then, this week I received a letter from the DVLA. A £189 fine for the actual offence. I'd assumed the £100 was the end of it. Nope. £189 or we'll issue court proceedings against you. So, I sent them the cheque along with a strongly worded letter and they've reduced the £189 to £59. So, overall, £159 for parking my car, which I assumed was legally okay, in front of my own house in a quiet cul-de-sac, LITERALLY FEET AWAY FROM MY DRIVE, and getting in the way of ABSOLUTELY NOBODY, all because of a FUCKING SLOW INSURANCE COMPANY. This is especially difficult when you're back in full-time education without a job and £400 a month to live off.

In case you're wondering, I sent an A4 full-colour copy of the above satellite image, including "Fig. 1", etc. in the letter to the DVLA.

The insurance company sound like a bunch of cunts. What exactly are they doing that takes that long?

As for parking an untaxed car on the public highway, um, what did you expect to happen?

It was SORN! (Admittedly, I should've read the details.) And also, LOOK AT WHERE IT'S PARKED! A little harsh, surely?

Apparently Zurich (her insurance company) are massively backlogged and a bunch of cunts. Still, they're paying for the hire car.

Or learnt what the 'OR' stood for
I have to say that I can't see how they can charge you £100 to get a car towed away and then not get it towed away.

Hang on - is it the car that was crashed?
In that case, doesn't it belong to the insurance company?

Yes it is, and not yet! It's still mine until they give me a cheque to its value. But, I'm not allowed to do anything with it in case they want to send an engineer to have another look in relation to the claim. So, it's literally stuck on my drive unless I'm willing to pay to get it taken somewhere and stored. Hence the major fucking inconvenience and annoyance.

Your car was not "off road". So you've been caught bang to rights I'm afraid.

Nothing at all... it's Quinn Direct. They don't do anything. Ever.

Well yeah, I'm not disputing the law. After all, I study it and I understand it. But it's undeniably annoying considering the position of my car and the "road" being a completely quiet little cul-de-sac.

One of your neighbours shopped you to the DVLA, it's highly unlikely they'd have found out through the course of their own natural movements.

if that was me id start slashing people in the streets tires just for a lol the miserly crunts