I had an accident. My only one in 13 years driving when an 84 year old woman went through a red light. That part I caught onto, a little late as she was merging from the right in my blind spot, but as I moved to brake and let her merge in front of me she looked over at me and promptly turned straight across my car for a side street. BUMP. I was going about 10-15mph, just shifting to 2nd, she was doing about 20mph across me. I shoved the back of her car around, but she took her hands off the wheel to her face, mounted the kerb, scattered pedestrians and continued down the pavement and nearly killed a man standing at a cash machine, but luckily stopped.
Here's the thing. Sweet little old ladies lie. I didn't take the phone numbers of the two pedestrian witnesses who came to me to tell me the old lady ran the red light, nearly hitting a pedestrian crossing on the green man. To me (and everyone else) it was very obvious what happened, I thought it was a shut case.
On exchanging details she revealed that her eye sight was going and she shouldn't be driving at night. Also she had a nervous tremor which meant her hands keep jerking involuntarily. It was 6pm on the 31st of October, pitch black dark and pouring rain.
The little old lady lied to the insurance company. She said it was daylight. She said it was dry. She said she had went through a green and that I was going too fast to stop for my red.... in rush hour traffic.
In the end it went 50/50 as it was her word against mine.
I tried to get "Subject access" to the town CCTV of the junction, but was told it was the police I needed to contact. I tried them, but they said it was the town council that managed the CCTV, when I went back to them again they said the footage would have expired and they don't give it out for accidents. I remarked that was not their choice under the data-protection and subject access laws and that I would be reporting them to the data commissioner... but I never did.
My car was only 6 months old, so the total claim cost was very high for a new bumper, wing, crash bar and a respray of the bonnet, wing, drivers door and bumper... new headlight at £750!
My insurance went from £430 to £890. "But your no-claims bonus is protected sir." Grrrrr.
I would give people two bits of advice.
1. Always get as many names and numbers of witnesses as you can.
2. Get a dash cam.
Here's the thing. Sweet little old ladies lie. I didn't take the phone numbers of the two pedestrian witnesses who came to me to tell me the old lady ran the red light, nearly hitting a pedestrian crossing on the green man. To me (and everyone else) it was very obvious what happened, I thought it was a shut case.
On exchanging details she revealed that her eye sight was going and she shouldn't be driving at night. Also she had a nervous tremor which meant her hands keep jerking involuntarily. It was 6pm on the 31st of October, pitch black dark and pouring rain.
The little old lady lied to the insurance company. She said it was daylight. She said it was dry. She said she had went through a green and that I was going too fast to stop for my red.... in rush hour traffic.
In the end it went 50/50 as it was her word against mine.
I tried to get "Subject access" to the town CCTV of the junction, but was told it was the police I needed to contact. I tried them, but they said it was the town council that managed the CCTV, when I went back to them again they said the footage would have expired and they don't give it out for accidents. I remarked that was not their choice under the data-protection and subject access laws and that I would be reporting them to the data commissioner... but I never did.
My car was only 6 months old, so the total claim cost was very high for a new bumper, wing, crash bar and a respray of the bonnet, wing, drivers door and bumper... new headlight at £750!
My insurance went from £430 to £890. "But your no-claims bonus is protected sir." Grrrrr.
I would give people two bits of advice.
1. Always get as many names and numbers of witnesses as you can.
2. Get a dash cam.
