Girlfriend hit by OAP - Opinions?

Toast · 31 Mar 2006 at 16:18

This will be pretty straight forward but I thought I'd get the opinions of some of the members from here. It's also quite amusing.

Was phoned at lunch time and told she'd been hit by some old jitter in Morrisons car park. She was just driving along as normal and he reverses out of a space and hits her rear passenger door. I work 5 minutes away luckily so I told her not to move her car, not to let him leave and to get his insurance details. He was being awkward and refusing to hand them over so I told her to phone the police. I could hear him ranting at her over the phone.

She also tells me;

1) He tries to deny that he hit her AT all (he also tries to tell me this when I got there)

2) He asks her "Why are you driving down here to begin with?" At which point she points out the arrow on the road directing the traffic flow

3) His wife asks "why was she parked behind them"

4) His wife then tries to say she was going too fast (again, the wife was insisting this to me as well when i got there)

Once I arrive he soon shuts up hassling her, he then tries to tell me that there's "no way" he could have done all that damage and then concocts some far out story that the damage was already there from a previous accident, that he barely touched her and it's purely coincidental he's hit her in the same place as this 'previous accident' and that she's trying to con him. He then tries to back up this claim the damage was from a previous accident because she has a cracked wing mirror (which has been that way for some time).

Here's a layout of the 'crime scene' (hehe) courtesy of google maps:

And some images of the accident:

The police arrived and the OAP gave him his silly story and the copper (really nice btw) just looked at me and laughed. He told the old guy that it doesn't really take much to cause damage like that as the panels are thin (it is a Honda after all) and that you can clearly see paint transfer on the Accord (will get some decent pics of later) from his Fiesta, he also mentioned there was the small fact his Fiesta bumper was out of alignment. The policeman also questioned his ridiculous story of her 'previous accident' and said it would be a huge coincidence that he just happened to hit her in the same spot.

So that's my fun and games for today. Any opinions? How will the insurers deal with this? I assume he'll be completely as fault as she had right and way and for him to reverse into the rear of her car would imply he didn't even bother to look behind him?

Toast · 31 Mar 2006 at 16:28

Can you actually believe he insisted the damage didn't line up with the position of his car?

Also, in the google Maps image the spaces are at an angle, it's an old pic, since then the parking space have been painted so they're straight. So yes, he's reversing out the wrong way.

edit: actually the road goes both directions (I thought it was one way for a moment). I guess it didn't really matter which way he was going

Toast · 31 Mar 2006 at 16:33

I did try explaning to him that, as she was travelling forward this would cause the damage to be out of line in relation to his car (although not much obviously, thankfully she stopped instantly). He wasn't having any of it though.

He kept arguing there was no way he could cause that much damage to which I replied "Been in many accidents then have you?"

Toast · 31 Mar 2006 at 16:38

Dandle said:
Was your other half driving on a public road or is it part of Morrisons car park? If its part of the car park I would be suprised if the insurance company come out with knock for knock as they arent normally interested when it happens on private land. If its a public road then she has no problems and should win it.

It's Morrisons car park but we have photos of the accident so it will be pretty hard for the old git's insurance to argue anything different. That and the fact he hit her rear means she was blatantly halfway past him when he began reversing out.

Toast · 31 Mar 2006 at 16:46

kitten_caboodle said:
Sounds like you were perfectly justified and she was indeed a very silly woman.

As for the OP, i love the detail you've gone to - google maps, indications, etc. Ever thought of being a prosecutor? Either that or Andy Grays replacement on sky sports .

I think you've got no problem. He reversed into a lane of moving traffic. His faultfor not looking properly unless she was going at a gazillion miles an hour. Even then it's unlikely he'd win!

My other half keeps telling me to become a lawyer

Here's the real kicker though, after it all happened and she'd moved her car and the copper had got back in his van. I was stood in front of the OAP's fiesta and I watched as he got back in and proceeded to reverse out, not once bothering to check behind him :rolleyes: