First crash!

Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
19,182
Location
Birmingham
So, had my first crash on Friday.

Was stationary, waiting for a gap in oncoming traffic so I could turn right, a gap appears, so I check my mirror/blind spot, about to move, and an idiot in a BMW shoots past me, a few seconds (and a couple of choice words!) and I check my mirror again, all clear so I start to turn. About half way through the turn, there's a loud bang, and the back of the car starts moving rather more sideways than expected, the next bit is a bit of a blur, but next thing I remember I'm out of the car, on the phone to ambulance, because there's bits of bike strewn across the junction, and a biker on the floor. Basically it looks like he's gone to overtake me despite the fact I'm stationary opposite a junction indicating (possibly thinking "BMW got away with it, I can do the same").

Car is a W reg focus, ~140k on the clock, rear panel is dented badly, little triangle window above the parcel shelf is smashed, passenger door on driver's side is dented and skewed (interfering with driver's door slightly) and it looked like the door sill was buckled as well - I'm guessing it's going to be written off.

Thankfully I wasn't hurt at all, and the biker was released from hospital later that night with just cuts and bruises.

Couple of questions - Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm at fault on this one? The police officer who attended said the same, but what are the chances of the insurance company contesting it?

Secondly, assuming it is written off, how much am I looking at getting for it (I paid £1800 for it at the end of Feb)

Lastly, how long should I expect to wait for the payout?

My insurer is Bell if that's relevant to any of the questions :)
 
If the police were in attendance, I thought that they make a judgement call as to who is at fault. If he told you the other party were at fault, you'll be fine as the police report goes to both insurers.
 
Can anyone confirm this is the case? As I've heard stories of insurers completely disregarding the police report (even where it's resulted in one of the drivers being prosecuted for dangerous driving)
 
The police don't give a verdict on who's to blame, and even if an officer says such the insurance company will discount it.

As for blame, in theory you're right, it's 100% his fault, however due to the 'wonderful' way insurance companies are truly lazy, and don't exactly care about you're premiums, increasing if he does something as simple as claiming you weren't indicating he could probably get it down as 50:50 blame...
 
crunch.jpg


Red box is where I was waiting for traffic to clear (must have been sat for ~10-15 seconds), orange box is roughly where I must have been when the bike hit, green line is roughly the path the BMW and bike would have been taking.

When was the last time you checked your rear indicator bulb? Is it still intact? Seems odd that two people would make the same uber dangerous maneuver.

Edit: I had it parked up with the hazards on last week when I was moving some boxes, and both rear bulbs were fine, it also has the double speed dash light/click sound if there is a bulb out, which it wasn't doing.

Even so, being stationary opposite a junction, it's pretty obvious what I'm doing surely?

My guess is the BMW figured he would chance it, and the guy on the bike was just on autopilot following and it didn't register. =/
 
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I appreciate all BMW drivers are grade A cocks but I'm struggling to see if there was a constant stream of traffic how he would fit through.

as for the biker, I'm guessing filter fail, it's one of their daily gambles which in this case - failed

but I'm sceptical about the whole situation from the way you described it.
 
If the BMW had time and space to overtake why were you still waiting to turn? :confused:

The image doesn't show it clearly, but it's 2 lanes of oncoming traffic, the inside lane was clear, but there was still a car in my way in the outside lane - as I was preparing to turn after the car had gone, I see him coming up behind me at 30-40 (road being a 30 limit), straddling the line. Unlike some drivers, I tend to try and avoid crashing into things wherever possible, so I decided not to drive into his way.
 
because by the sounds of it the bmw was flooring it past at high speed and maybe there was car coming the other way towards the op?

Doesnt seem like it should go against you biker clearly was not looking properly. At least he is okay.
 
They shouldn't be overtaking at junctions anyway (stationary car or not), for precisely this sort of reason, I would have though the insurance will be fairly cut and dry.
 
The image doesn't show it clearly, but it's 2 lanes of oncoming traffic, the inside lane was clear,

unless the road has been rebuilt it is not two lanes of traffic, oncoming or otherwise

for clarity a while back I installed a load of fibre cabling behind admiral rentals so I know the road reasonably well
 
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hmm I just re-read what you have written, originally I thought the biker was overtaking you from behind, are you saying the biker was coming towards you? if so you couldn't really hope for a straighter road for visibility, not sure how you will fare if that is the case
 
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The image doesn't show it clearly, but it's 2 lanes of oncoming traffic, the inside lane was clear, but there was still a car in my way in the outside lane - as I was preparing to turn after the car had gone, I see him coming up behind me at 30-40 (road being a 30 limit), straddling the line.

That makes sense... well other than inside and outside arguably being the otherway round?

However, the image doesn't show two lanes oncoming? Either way both BMW and biker made very bad choices to overtake, the longer lines in the road would also indicate th presence of a hazard, in this case the junction.
 
hmm I just re-read what you have written, originally I thought the biker was overtaking you from behind, are you saying the biker was coming towards you? if so you couldn't really hope for a straighter road for visibility, not sure how you will fare if that is the case

That's what I thought, but then why would the beemer rag it past knowing full well he might get a car in his side?
 
hmm I just re-read what you have written, originally I thought the biker was overtaking you from behind, are you saying the biker was coming towards you? if so you couldn't really hope for a straighter road for visibility, not sure how you will fare if that is the case

Looking at the pic either the biker was overtaking from behind or he was approaching head on on the wrong side of the road.
 
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