Crashed, advice please?

aaron

aaron

aaron

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Joined
20 Nov 2008
Posts
1,040
Hi guy's

Bad day for me as had to call out the RAC earlier due to my car not starting after me and the girlfriend came back from shopping. Was just a loose battery connection so an easy fix. Jolly good we thought and went on our way.

Unfortunately crashed my car about 5 minutes after this and collided with a concrete central reservation after the tire burst because there was a load of rubbish on the road which i assume punctured the tire.

Was driving at 30mph so luckily no injury's and no one else involved. But while coming up to a corner my tire burst and i ended up skidding into the reservation.

Just seemed to be cosmetic damage at first so replaced the tire with my spare and thought all was good. Annoyingly tried to start the car up and once again it wouldn't as the battery had died so had to get my step dad out with some jump leads.

However as I set off I realised that sadly the damage wasn't only just cosmetic. The steering's completely off and its wanting to jump to the right, Its also making some very loud noises also the tire was boiling hot.

I checked under the car and it seems one of the bars that connect the car chassis to the wheel has crumpled when I slid into the concrete.

First question I wanted to ask was how much roughly do you guys reckon this will cost to fix bearing in mind I will need a new battery as well?

Also will it be best to go to some local family run garage or a place like kwikfit?

And finally am I required to inform my insurer even though I have no intention on claiming from them and if so will it affect my premiums?

Thanks for taking the time to read and any help would be fantastic as you can imagine im a bit shaken.

Its an old model Ford Ka btw.
 
I don't know know how much it might cost to fix but make sure you get it checked for damage properly! Who knows what else might have been damaged upon impact.
 
Legally you are obliged to tell your insurer when you have an accident - whether you do this or not when you are the only car involved is up to yourself.....

To try and put any sort of cost against what's wrong with the car you'd need to explain exactly what's damaged and probably stick up photos too. If you're saying the tyre was hot i'm guessing it's rubbing somewhere or you've damaged a wishbone / bent a driveshaft - suggesting you've done more than just bent a track rod for example, which would be a pretty cheap fix (£100 or so)

It sounds like you shouldn't be driving it for the moment
 
Yeah I thinks its the wishbone that's crumpled looking at pictures on the internet.

But yeah I've taken it off the road as its clearly not safe to drive and ill arrange with whichever garage tomorrow for recovery.
 
MilanoChris said:
No you're not.
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Contractually then - every policy i've ever seen has a clear statement about being required to inform the insurance company in the event of any incident, which makes sense given the op could (though i'd suggest this is unlikely) potentially be exposed to barrier repair costs etc.
 
Isn't it the highway agencies fault for so much crap on the road though? If I was OP I would have taken photos of the debris and claimed off them (or at least tried).

They're paid to maintain the highways, any damage to my car from their highway is in my mind their fault.
 
rodenal said:
Contractually then - every policy i've ever seen has a clear statement about being required to inform the insurance company in the event of any incident, which makes sense given the op could (though i'd suggest this is unlikely) potentially be exposed to barrier repair costs etc.
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Yes, more often than not it will be in the insurance policy, but there is no legal obligation for the OP to inform his insurers.
 
rexehuk said:
Isn't it the highway agencies fault for so much crap on the road though? If I was OP I would have taken photos of the debris and claimed off them (or at least tried).

They're paid to maintain the highways, any damage to my car from their highway is in my mind their fault.
Click to expand...

I really hope you're joking...

How can it be there fault if for example it appeared a couple of minutes earlier, do you expect a light on the local depot's building to start flashing and them all drive to the scene, close the road and clean it up?

The reality is you have to prove they were negligent, by not checking the road or proving the debris has been there for a long period of time.

Otherwise I could ask my mate Dave to chuck nails out of his car, I follow him and then claim for 4 new tyres.
 
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