Accident Advice

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thewanted

thewanted

thewanted

Soldato
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27 Jul 2007
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My wife had a small accident yesterday turning right out of a T-junction.

In the video it looks like she stops at the white line, and then creeps forward into the main road because the traffic approaching from the left is heavy. The blue car which was involved wants to keep it between us to avoid increased insurance premiums, but she's also mentioned "possible chassis damage" twice which worries me.

Based on the video, is it cut and dry that my wife is at fault? My wife said it looked like the blue car was giving her a gap, but then it looks like they got impatient and tried to zoom past her.

The damage to our car looks to be nothing more than it needing a bumper respray. Her car's damage is a scrape from behind the front wheel until the rear passenger door, and some sill damage. From the blurry, low quality photos she sent this morning, I can't tell if the bodywork is dented.

EDIT. I forgot to ask for advice. Is it worth the hassle of trying to deal with this privately, or is there a chance that insurance would go 50:50 based on the video?

EDIT #2: Video removed since this has been reported to the insurer.
 
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I can't imagine that video helping to go 50:50. Looks like your wife just came out a junction and drove into the side of a car already on the carriageway.

If you are worried about the attitude of the other party, then go through insurance. Probably worth that anyway. Spraying a bumper isn't cheap anymore anyway, and that's just to fix your car. Sounds like the minimum on the other car is two sprayed panels plus the sill. You'll be well over £1k out of pocket to fix all that (including your car). Adding one accident on your insurance for 5 years is unlikely to cost that in excess and extra premiums.
 
Always go through insurance. Also, your wife needs to learn how to drive, she’s not alone though, too many think that by pulling out like that and blocking the road they have right of way. It’s always a risk. She’s mostly at fault there. The other driver could have shown a bit of sense, but many just won’t care, it is still their right of way.
 
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insurance, not worth the hassle going private. if the other driver is going on about chassis damage :))) very unlikely but they may have a mates garage that can put a estimate in.
wife backed out of a parking space years ago at local doctors, caught a passing suzuki just on the wheelarch with our rubber towbar cover literally i could have rubbed the mark off. we found out 2 years later when the current insurance picked up on a claim (litterally we forgot to declare, but at start of policy so paid extra) the other party claimed nearly 2.5k for there repair.
apparently some insurance companies were not even going out to look at damage and just paying on repair bills...grrrrrr
 
As above, that's very likely to go 100% against your wife as she was turning onto a road where she didn't have right of way. Any particular reason she didn't wait? - you can never assume that a car is just letting you out unless they've fully stopped.

Interesting that they'd prefer to keep it private, it looks an oldish car so maybe they're worried about it being written off. But you don't want to get conned into a never ending repair bill.
 
Insurance just for the almost zero hassle. It's what your paying for so use it. Accidents really don't add all that much certainly not enough to be worth doing it all yourself.
I think as your wife was crossing a give way marking it's 100% on them, short of proving the other car had stopped but then decided to drive into you.
 
Give way doesn't mean push out and block the road. They're all doing the same so presumably they know they'll never get out otherwise, too many cars for the road design causing everyone to be impatient.
 
Thanks very much everyone. We both know she should have waited until both lanes were clear, but because there was a road closure, it caused a lot more traffic where she was.

We’ve reported it to the insurance company.

EDIT: Unsure whether to upload the footage.
 
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