Someone crashed into my A8
 

As the title goes, last week I'm in the house when a neighbour knocks to tell us that someone's crashed into the car, my wife shouts to tell me and I say " I hope it's yours" I was wrong....

The lady had parked up on the hill near us to drop her child at school, the car decided to come down the hill, it hit my wife's Tiguan first then continued to the A8 :-(

Thankfully the Tiguan took the main brunt of the force (expecially as it's a company car so little skin off our noses) but the front bumper on the A8 has been pushed back on the near side, I'll upload pics when I get my lap top back (it's getting fixed BTW, it hasn't been seized!)

The damage looks quite minimal but as the bumper is out of allignment I'm guessing there's some damage to the mount.

Obviously the "other party" accepts full liability & her insurer promises me a courtesy car "like for like". They call to say it's being dropped off & I check that I'll be covered for business use as I need to run about during the day. They come back to say no, it'll be for commuting only. I point out this is no use to me then enquire on the car they're sending me.

A Vauxhall Corsa :ROFL:

So I obviously refuse & point out that I could quite easily contact "It wasn't my fault so I'm going to have your eyes out .com" 2 minutes later & I'm told the car will be a BMW 320 with full business insurance, there now, that wasn't hard was it?

I'm still waiting to find out how long it's going to take to get sorted, the BM is nice but it's no A8.

Sorry to hear that mate, hope it gets sorted to your satisfaction soon +++

As an aside, when I got side-swiped by a student type in a Corsa in April 2011 I made the mistake of letting my insurance company sort it out. I was given a Corsa, a brand new one, but nonetheless still a Corsa.

You've met me, I don't fit in a Corsa. I did take quite a liking to wearing a baseball cap back to front though ;)

Cheers for that Ron, it must've been a convertible Corsa or you've been practising your Yoga?

Nope, it was this one.

I looked proppa mint :ROFL:

Unfortunately I'm in the same situation right now - my other half parked the car by a road, and just as she was opening the door another car came from behind and hit the door. Nobody was injured so that's the main thing.

On a positive side, my car will be getting brand new door, and insurance company sorted me out with a brand new CLS :D (all paid for by the other party's insurance)

I'm a bit flabberghasted that your car door opening into the path of a passing vehicle is the fault of the other vehicle. What am I missing here:Confused:

Read here http://www.trafficaccidentadvice.co....sponsible.html

But that article just backs up what tonupkid said, if you open the door without checking for traffic, it's you to blame if you get hit

You picked one sentence from a long article, it starts like this:

"Who is at fault in this situation really depends on the circumstances, although it is generally assumed that the person who hit the door is at fault as it can be argued that they were driving without 'due care and attention' if they didn't see it in enough time to stop."

Hmm..I'm with Tonupkid and Sarg on this one (without knowing the specific circumstances…)

That's the key message of the article - without knowing specific circumstances you can't tell who's at fault...

so if you put your foot out from a desk and somebody falls over it they are to blame? hmmmm. . . :rolleyes:

If that somebody was running 50mph then yes :D

I'm so glad mine was far more clear cut, I was sitting in my kitchen eating porridge when it happened.....fairly definitive :cool:

Sorry to be contrary, but what I read was "just as she was opening the door" which implies, to me at least, that she opened the door into the path of an oncoming vehicle, without looking, and said vehicle would have too close to take evasive action.

And if it really way at 50mph, (a) you'd be needing a lot more than just a new door and (b) what was you other half thinking? :Confused:

As you say, you main thing is that nobody was hurt, but if you are actually at fault here then you should play fair, amongst other things it's dishonest claims that makes all our premiums more expensive :mad:

I must be missing something here? I wouldn't be having an opinion on audifin's claim without knowing the specific circumstances, he hasn't shared them, and doesn't need to. Surely the claim wouldn't be going ahead and paid for by the other insurance company if liability hadn't been proved or agreed?

I had to fight very hard during my one and only claim and I knew I was in the right, I'm just basing my opinion on personal experience.

Which part of this do you not understand:

"Who is at fault in this situation really depends on the circumstances, although it is generally assumed that the person who hit the door is at fault as it can be argued that they were driving without 'due care and attention' if they didn't see it in enough time to stop."

Or this:

" However if you open your car door with no traffic around and another driver comes along and hits it, then you can argue that they were not driving with due care and attention because they didn't see the door open in time to stop. "

And to suggest she made dishonest claim is totally out of order. All I will say she made full and honest statement to the insurance company and they drew the conclusion who was at fault.

OK, let me explain

You said " just as she was opening the door another car came from behind and hit the door" which is not anything like the same as "if you open your car door with no traffic around"

Maybe it was the latter and you were just embellishing the story a little?

Sure, if the door had been open for some time, I'd agree you're completely not to blame, it's just not how I read it from your description.

This is what she wrote to the statement to the insurance company: "I was opening the door to come out when the other car hit the door". The written statement was 3 pages long with photos, map, diagram etc etc. and before that she gave a verbal statement over the phone. Naturally the other party would have given their statements too.

As Norretal says, you don't know any of the circumstances, how can you form an opinion? Let alone make accusation of dishonest insurance claim, pretty serious accusation.

So I'm cycling along this road in the cycle lane when a driver opens his door and I'm doored/slammed and have to eat hospital food for the next week through a straw...Who is to blame?

The Council.
Highway Code Rule 67: Leave plenty of room when passing parked vehicles and watch out for doors being opened or pedestrians stepping into your path.

So the Council cause or permit cyclists to break rule 67.

I form an opinion from what you've posted, that's how forums work :p

I agree, but when did I accuse anyone? This is just your interpretation, or opinion if you will, of what I wrote.

All I said was that dishonest claims make it all more expensive for all of us, I didn't say yours was, did I? Maybe it's a guilty complex?

I agree. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but if you open your door in front of a moving vehicle, then IMHO it's your own fault if you lose your door. My other half once did the exact same thing in a supermarket car park just as another car pulled in to the next space - very minor damage, but I paid for the other party's repair as it was the right thing to do.

Thankfully insurance companies' decisions are not based on opinions formed by amateurs without knowing any details about the actual incident :p

Yes my interpretation was that you accused me/my partner of insurance fraud. Bolding and underlining the "if" -word doesn't really change that, but if you didn't mean it I accept that.