Just hit another car but who's at fault?

gitbags · 14 Dec 2011 at 20:14

Title say's it all really, on her way to pick me up from work a woman decided to open her car door with out bothering to check and was hit by my other half as she was passing. :mad:

This daft bat launched into a rant about how her door was ripped off (it wasn't but it will need replacing) and is now claiming my other half is at fault. I don't see how this can be the case as all the damage to my partners car starts from the wheel arch, thus suggesting the car door was opened as she was passing the drivers door.

So obviously we're fuming, but what I was hoping you lot could help me with is who is at fault here?

No word from the insurance company as it only happened couple of hours ago.

Opinions would be helpful.

gitbags · 14 Dec 2011 at 20:23

Nope no witnesses hung around. As for damage it's on the leading edge of the front passenger side wheel arch, not a mark on the front or headlight area.

gitbags · 14 Dec 2011 at 20:30

On the road she was on it wouldn't be possible to avoid an open car door without mounting the pavement and hitting a shop doorway or pedestrian. Small seaside town you see. But most importantly the parked cars door wasn't open at all until she pulled level leaving no time to react.

gitbags · 14 Dec 2011 at 20:40

Hyburnate said:
What road? Whats the speed limit? If its a 30 she should have been able to swerve? Was it busy? If it was then its the old bats fault.

Here's a link to the road feel free to browse street view.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=tregenna+place+st+ives&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US

fficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl

as you can see no real chance for evasive driving.

gitbags · 14 Dec 2011 at 20:57

My partner just wanted me to say thank you for the replies. It's help steady her nerves a little, unfortunately I wasn't there at the time but the other driver launched into quite a rant.

Poor cow second accident in less than 6 months (rear ended by a driver on the phone)

gitbags · 14 Dec 2011 at 21:47

That's one of the widest roads in town

I would love nothing more than to go through her insurance, but unfortunately she hadn't a clue who its with. Most likely her husbands policy, so we'll have to make do with passing her detail's on to ours.

gitbags · 14 Dec 2011 at 22:15

Thank's a lot guys She's feeling much better, tomorrow we'll try the insurance company again. Hopefully they'll see it the same way.

And as for pictures I'm sorted.

Cheers

gitbags · 15 Dec 2011 at 09:03

Dr House said:
Same thing happened to my wife, damage was to the back half her parents S-Class.

We went to court and some how lost!

Ouch! hopefully it won't go that far.

Spoke to the insurance company, looks like their going to try to get the other party to admit liability. Lets just hope she has the good grace and swallows her pride.

Shame no witnesses hung around. We've since been told by a copper it's a prosecutable offence to open your door into the path of an on coming car. :rolleyes:

gitbags · 27 Jan 2012 at 14:14

Just thought I'd throw in an update....

It's been over a month now and still going nowhere fast. :mad:

Our insurance has sided with us but her insurance are sitting on their hands playing the waiting game. Not happy.

And to top it off we've been warned that if a conclusion isn't reached soon we'll have to look into taking legal action. :rolleyes:

Oh and now we've lost 2 hub caps

gitbags · 2 Feb 2012 at 23:27

Thanks guys for the reassuring words

as for paying the excess and getting on with life, I just cant justify spending good money on a fiat punto