Just had a crash...

[SteveS Cup]

I can't believe it.

Had the car nearly a week.

A Van was parked on the side of the road and just pulled out on me. I wasn't speeding at all as I had only just turned onto the road so was maybe doing 20-30mph (I think it's a 40 road).

I hit the brakes and just skidded, tried pumping the pedal, natural reaction was to swerve to miss him and ended up head on with a 330ci.

I'm gutted.

Got pics on my iphone whicjh i'll upload later.

Then found out my excess is £1200 cos i'm under 25. I'm hoping they repair it as I think they repair for up to 75% of the cars value.

The Van drove off un affected the f*cking wan*er so because I crashed into the BMW and didn't get a chance to grad the vans details I'm having to take 100% liability. UNLESS...

The Van was a Vauxhall Combo van with British Gas down the side of it!!!

Anyone work for BG???

 

[Paddyhmfc]

Dull one.

Hope it works out.

 

[Revels]

Even if you chase the van and find him, you'll be hard pressed to prove it and make anything happen.

What does the car need?

Bonnet/bumper/light/grill/rad/paint will be knocking £2k

That might be bye bye tbh.

 

[Gally]

Find out who was in the area at the time and if there was any witnesses. You'll never prove it tho.

Ouch on the £1200 excess.

What insurance company are you with?

 

[Jcs]

maybe knock on the doors of the houses the van was outside?

see if they know whos the van was??

 

[EllD90]

You'll be at fault, unlucky mate. Try and find if there is CCTV in the area. Should be quite easy to track down the BG van.

 

[Will.]

Awaits lack of ABS posts.....

Unlucky dude. People that drive off dont deserve to drive

 

[daveski]

Thats really unlucky! I hope you manage to get the van drivers details but it doesn't look likely.

I was very nearly the cause of a similar accident a couple of months back when I did not check my blindspot when pulling out. Thankfully an accident was avoided, the police saw it and pulled me over so I'll never forget to check my blindspot again!

 

[fUbAr]

Unlucky, £1200 is a stupidly high excess even for your age!

However, regardless of whether you're blaming the van... you're the one who caused the crash with the BMW by swerving into it. I know you may not agree with this, and to some extent neither do I, however thats what the insurance will think.

 

[Weeman]

British Gas will have a log of where each van should or will of been at a certain time I would imagine, But I'm afraid unless the BMW driver will testify that he saw exactly what happened and it was unavoidable etc, there is not much chance of a result. Sad thing is if you had hit the back of the van, it would be the same situation most probablly

 

[Craigus]

£1200, ouch, that is bad, what company are you with? My excess has never been that much!

 

[Tav]

Honestly...I'd rather hit a near stationary van than a BMW head on.

 

[mr bognor]

No ABS in the cup and its wet at the mo Sorry to hear that Good luck mate

 

[Adam.P]

Dude that sucks, hope it gets sorted for you.

 

[Gally]

Unlucky, £1200 is a stupidly high excess even for your age!

However, regardless of whether you're blaming the van... you're the one who caused the crash with the BMW by swerving into it. I know you may not agree with this, and to some extent neither do I, however thats what the insurance will think.

Knows.

Even going into the back of the van you'd be hard pushed to priove it wasn't your fault.

Tricky business insurance repair liability.

 

[Tez.]

didnt know exess could go up that high . mines £0 couldnt belive it when i rang them and they said that to me lol

 

[mr bognor]

First one

Awaits lack of ABS posts.....

Unlucky dude. People that drive off dont deserve to drive

 

[fUbAr]

didnt know exess could go up that high . mines £0 couldnt belive it when i rang them and they said that to me lol

That'll be voluntary excess more than likely. Mine's £0.00 too, but my compulsary excess is £300.

 

[Will.]

Lmao i knew there would be at least one

 

[Tez.]

That'll be voluntary excess more than likely. Mine's £0.00 too, but my compulsary excess is £300.

apparently i put 0 on voluntary aswell when i took it online with directline

cant rember

 

[maybs 71]

sounds very unlucky,

take it the police were not called out may have made it easier to present a case of your innocence to your insurence company if there was a report from you and the driver of the bmw , also they could have easilly trakced down the van driver as leaving the site of a collision you are involved in is illegal.

 

[Sargara]

I can't believe it.

Had the car nearly a week.

A Van was parked on the side of the road and just pulled out on me. I wasn't speeding at all as I had only just turned onto the road so was maybe doing 20-30mph (I think it's a 40 road).

I hit the brakes and just skidded, tried pumping the pedal, natural reaction was to swerve to miss him and ended up head on with a 330ci.

I'm gutted.

Got pics on my iphone whicjh i'll upload later.

Then found out my excess is £1200 cos i'm under 25. I'm hoping they repair it as I think they repair for up to 75% of the cars value.

The Van drove off un affected the f*cking wan*er so because I crashed into the BMW and didn't get a chance to grad the vans details I'm having to take 100% liability. UNLESS...

The Van was a Vauxhall Combo van with British Gas down the side of it!!!

Anyone work for BG???

You might as well hope they write it off so you can purchase a small petrol or diesel run around. Even if its repaired you will be screwed when it comes to renewal time next year

 

[Weeman]

Good point, 5-0 involved and a statement from BMW driver (if they saw it) and the gas man could be classed as driving dangerously

 

[SteveS Cup]

Right... I'm at work so can't reply to you all individually but I'll try to summarise things!

1) Thanks for all your comments.

2) I have a witness plus the lady in the BMW saw everything and will stick up for me if we can find the van as she was furious that he drove off. I didn't see it but apparently he stopped, stuck his head out the window to have a look then f*cked off.

3) I know I'm fully at fault for the collision with the BMW... even though it's going to cost me hard I tend to see things black and white and I wouldn't want the lady to have to pay a thing.

4) I'm with Elephant... I f*cked up... I thought my excess was £500... But it's not, that's my volentary excess, plus a £450 compulsary excess plus £250 excess for being under 25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily I've got the cash but I was still a bit shocked.

5) I've got the car valued at £4500 with them, so Unless it costs over £3250 (approx) to repair then it shouldn't get written off.

6) If I had of gone in to the back of the van I think I'd still be liable.

7) I doubt I will be able to find out who was driving the van, none of the witnesses got a reg number and I doubt any of them could give and facial features etc.

8) I'm very lucky that the Lady in the BMW was great and knew I couldn't do anything to avoid it.

9) ABS... Well I do think it's a bit silly in hindsight not to have ABS... I Can understand removing creature comforts from a car to make them lighter but I think safety equipment is a bit extreme.

Sorry I couldn't reply to anyone individually but thank you to everyone for feeling sorry for me!!!!!! lol.

 

[Revels]

The value you tell doesn't make any difference at all. They won't base anything on that. Or I could insure a base model at £20k then sit it on fire.

I'd say book was under £4k. Do they really repair for 75% of the value? I find that hard to believe..

 

[SteveS Cup]

Police attended but weren't that great. 2 ambulances turned up as I hurt my shoulder on the seat belt and the lady in the BMW was very shaken.

I'll be honest... I don't care what my insurance goes up to next year... I WON'T be getting a small petrol engined car! I paid £4000 a year to insure my TT when I first got it. Luckily I still leave at home with my parents and I have quite a good job in Recruitment so can afford to still do this!

The nightmare is this... I'm going on holiday to Tunisia next Sunday for a week!!! I just want to sort my car out now though.

 

[SteveS Cup]

The value you tell doesn't make any difference at all. They won't base anything on that. Or I could insure a base model at £20k then sit it on fire.

I'd say book was under £4k. Do they really repair for 75% of the value? I find that hard to believe..

I did too! I thought it was around 50% was classed as uneconimcal.

 

[Gally]

It's 65% mate.

What year is your car and what mileage i'll value it for you.

4.5k doesn't mean anything mate.

 

[Budgie]

Gutting, but BG will know who was driving the van at the time. They have to, by law.

 

[Weeman]

re the ABS for us old fcukers on here, that grew up with cars on which abs was an expensive option, its not such an issue. If you learnt to drive in an abs car, and everyone you've had since has had abs, It is a slight concern to switch to non abs. When I was learning to drive they taught you cadence braking, these days I imagine you just stand on the brake and off you go.

Sounds to me if you have witnesses etc, You should go get the police involve and go make it offical by reporting van for dangerous driving, You have time and location, i'd be surprised if BG won't tell you what van and who was driving it, as they have a log and timesheet for calls etc.


on another note 4000 pounds a year!!!!! Jesus wept.

 

[withoutabix]

sorry to hear about the accident!!

might be an idea but its very possible that the British Gas van had a tracker, i work for BG indirectly and soon to be working for them once they take my contract in house but i know they asked for all our vans to have trackers fitted and most do now,

might be worth getting on the blower to them to find out! if they do it will have logged every think about his day speed/when he stopped/ etc

 

[Mike_182]

Yup, give them time, day and location and they should be able to tell you what 'patrols' were in the area or what patrols were supposed to be in the area at least.

 

[Chili Red]

What a shitter, I'd be going after the van, especially as you know it was BG.

Good luck fella, think you deserve some!

 

[Dave..]

I paid £4000 a year to insure my TT when I first got it.

Madness. Complete and utter madness.

 

[mark_182_54]

Madness. Complete and utter madness.

ditto stupid infact !
gutted about the crash thou mate

 

[Needster]

I'd definitely ring BG and request they find out who it was from job sheets. You'll know the name of the street so it shouldn't be too much of a trouble for them to find out which vehicle.

I also thought that BG vans were fitted with the satellite tracking, so their engineers can't do bobby-half-a-shifts when they're claiming for full rates.

Just a thought mate.

 

[SBV116]

I'd definitely ring BG and request they find out who it was from job sheets. You'll know the name of the street so it shouldn't be too much of a trouble for them to find out which vehicle.

I also thought that BG vans were fitted with the satellite tracking, so their engineers can't do bobby-half-a-shifts when they're claiming for full rates.

Just a thought mate.

I will be pretty sure they will have data loggers! So will log when a van is started and stopped etc, and where it is!

There mint, our parts supplier's vans are tracked, mint when i ring up mithering, and they have a look, very very accurate!

The rep's have them and don't know, ha ha.

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

How much?

Christ

 

[SammyT]

ouch, hope your ok and get it sorted out ok mate.

 

[Slammed172]

I just read your welcome thread aswel, s**t news.

As said, ring up British gas ASAP, they should have the van tracked. Or know what vans were in the area at that time. And hopefully one of those select few drivers will cough up.

The police can get the driver of the british gas van done too for driver off at a scene of a road traffic collision/accident.