White van scraped my lil bro's car and tried to drive off. Police were called and now he denies ever

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Usel said:
What if the van was actually a 7.5 tonne fully laiden lorry and his brakes failed?
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What if the OP's brother was actually a police vehicle? Guess who's fault it would be!

We can "what if" all you like, but the van driver did hit someone performing a safe everyday manoeuvre despite having ample opportunity not to. That is the crux of the matter IMO.
 
If your going to pull out and block the road expecting then to stop for you then you may as well just pull out infront of them. If this was your test then you would have failed.
 
stockhausen said:
You KNOW this how :confused:
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Because this is what the OP has said? Sure, we can all presume the OP is lying, but I am taking the OP as fact. The reality could be that there was an alien spaceship with lasers and pamphlets extolling the virtues of the martian landscape, but that isn't what the OP said has happened.
 
Robbie G said:
PMKeates you are right that this is what the OP said, but without proof that his statement is accurate, it's all peeing into the wind.
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Fine, but that's why I said what I did. If the OP is being truthful then his brother was driving pretty normally. To pull me up on making that statement because he may not have been, is totally pointless.
Usel said:
If your going to pull out and block the road expecting then to stop for you then you may as well just pull out infront of them. If this was your test then you would have failed.
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Every single car there is "blocking the road". Is it therefore OK to drive in to them if you want to be where they are? When you pull up 2nd in the queue at the traffic lights, the car in front is blocking the road. To hit them is not OK, because they have just as much right to be there as you would.
 
But they aren't, there's room for stats and passing traffic. If there's time for him to observe and stop then there's also time for you to observe and roll back.
 
Usel said:
But they aren't, there's room for stats and passing traffic. If there's time for him to observe and stop then there's also time for you to observe and roll back.
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You are perfectly within your right to remain stationary in that situation. The other driver doesn't have the right to drive in to you. If an object is obstructing your path, you do not crash in to it. To do so is negligent and careless.
 
stories like this drive me wild. Firstly, top marks for staying calm, I'm not sure I could have! Secondly, well done on calling the old bill. Thirdly, you have his name/address and company.

Fourthly, find viable witnesses by any means possible and bring him down. Once 4/5 witnessess have been found, take him to the small claims court.

People like this really do make me worry :(
 
PMKeates said:
You are perfectly within your right to remain stationary in that situation. The other driver doesn't have the right to drive in to you. If an object is obstructing your path, you do not crash in to it. To do so is negligent and careless.
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Whilst quite possibly true, this is entirely irrelevant to the OP's question which was
Is there anything we can do, other than "just do nothing"?
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Like many others here, I suspect that the realistic answer is:
Nope; just learn the relevant lessons about observation, caution and not making assumptions about other drivers :(
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Usel said:
But they aren't, there's room for stats and passing traffic. If there's time for him to observe and stop then there's also time for you to observe and roll back.
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Since that's not what happened, it is irrelevant what both drivers could have done, it's too late, it's more a question of who is in the right, and who is in the wrong.

I agree with PM Keates, the OP's brother was already in the road and was therefore an obstruction to the Van driver, the fact several seconds elapsed before the Van arrived shows that the Van driver should have had plenty of time to see any obstruction and have stopped. As it was, the Van driver didn't react at all.

As with all these situations (car pulling out of a junction in front of you, or suddenly stopping in front of you), it's only the person in front's fault if they left you no reasonable time to react, otherwise it's your fault for not seeing/reacting in time.

So, all myself and PM Keates are saying is if the Van driver had plenty of time to react (The OP states this to be the case), it's the Van drivers fault for not reacting, however, if the Van driver was not given sufficient time to react, it's the OP's brothers fault, but this is not what the OP is saying, although I'm willing to entertain that the 'timings' which would be key to liability may not be as cut and dry as the OP is suggesting.

It would seem some people are suggesting that no matter when the OP's brother edged out, the Van driver could have been 30 seconds up the road, but still had every right to hit the OP's brothers car, and would be 100% in the right to do so, which I don't agree with.

As for as insurance is concerned, with no witnesses, the Van drivers version of events would be accepted over the OP's brother IME.
 
The problem you have is that without CCTV or a witness its you and your brothers word against Mr Van and his friend's word, If it goes to court a judge will most likely rule it as 50/50 fault because its impossible to ascertain and also because both drivers could had avoided the accident (Mr Van by driving around the car, your brother by reversing back in when he saw the van coming) I saw a similar ruling when two drivers clipped wing mirrors and both claimed the other was over the white line
 
That really isn't a lot of damage so I'd just forget about going after the van driver. As annoying as it is any insurance company would just go 50/50. It'd be barely worth them fighting for especially since on a low value claim they'll probably make more money by paying out and charging you more in the future!

It looks to me like the black on the bumper will come out with some T-Cut scratch remover. The plastic trim that is more badly damaged can either be replaced with a new black one (I think I paid around £20 from a VW dealer when I replaced mine) and then you can spray paint it (I think Halfords sell the VW silver in spray-can form) or try just spraying the old one...
 
let's all write JB ASSET CARE in the thread so google bots pick it up :)

And we can host a few links to this thread and google bomb it (does that still work??)
 
No offense to the above poster, but i dont really think we should do that?

The van driver did pull over and exchange details. Regardless of whether he didn't appear to want to, he did.

Also as none of us were at the accident location, we cant really judge who was at fault, so siding with the OP and creating unwanted attention for the Van driver's business is a little over the top.

Also the only version of events we've seen is from one driver's brother....hardly an independent account of what happened.

My advice, forget about it and pay the damage yourself. If you ran this through the insurance company itd be a 50/50 all day long and you'd probably end up costing yourself more money.
 
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