My case for unluckiest driver of the year...
Posted: Sat May 25, 2013 7:51 pm
I'm here this evening for some tea and sympathy....ok maybe not the tea, but feel free to dish out sympathy to aid my sulking.
It all started at the end of January when I skipped back to work after enjoying a week in Mexico. On my way home from work on the first day back, a lady from Jersey in a Ford Ka decided that despite being in the inside lane going right on a roundabout, that she'd actually quite like to go straight on. And so she did, crossing three lanes and driving into the rear quarter of my car (plus mint condition alloy wheel). So my car looked like this:
Admittedly, the paint dust (from all the Ford Ka plastics!) and dirt didn't make it look prettier, and after a wash it wasn't too bad visually as the paint wasn't really broken. Although I'm sure you'll all agree its a very awkward place for a dent with three crease lines having been mangled.
Luckily, the other driver admitted fault and I dealt with her insurance directly who paid the circa £1300 repair charge at my personal choice of garage - Jackson Coachworks in Loughborough who I have to say did a really good job on the repair. My refurbished wheel was the same silver as the other three, and considering the panel had been pin pulled out by hand it looked good afterwards. The usual insurance runaround/delays were involved though so that repair was done about 6/7 weeks ago.
Anyway, fast forward to today when I was leisurely making my way home from a friend's house and I pull onto a different roundabout having given way going straight on in the left hand lane and *bash* someone else deciding to revert to a last minute left hand turn hits the same panel. Except this time it was a Kia Sedona and they did a proper job:
So, I pulled off the roundabout into a bus stop and got out, made eye contact with the other driver across the road who I thought was about to drive round to me so we could discuss it. I carried on thinking this until they re-joined the roundabout and kept going....all the way around it and sped back off down the road we had just driven down in the first place. At this point, some sort of anger/instinct took over and I jumped back in the car and overtook lots of people quite quickly (safely though - I am in the IAM!) and managed to catch up with the Kia at some traffic lights. Much light flashing and horning later, they realised they had not escaped me and pulled over. I was greeted with a pretend confused look from a woman who denied hitting my car. So I got out and showed her the state of my car, at which point she still denied it. So I suggested we inspect the front corner of her Kia Sedona which was indeed damaged (albeit mainly a poorly re-painted bumper and part of the wing). She then made up some story about not having realised she'd hit me (yeah right, she was behind me and it was a fair old bump) and said she had to rush off to pick her teenage son up. She refused to give me any details beyond a first name and a mobile number and offered to pay for the repair but only if it was cheap (i.e less than £300). Her passenger also told me if I went through my insurance I would 'lose' and that I should get a cheap quote (why the hell they thought I would be interested in a cheap/bodge repair is beyond me). Anyway I got home and phoned my insurance and reported it to the police. We'll have to see what happens next I guess. Sorry it's such a long post, I am very angry and upset at the moment. Rant over...you can dish out that lovely sympathy now even though this isn't even a Honda!
If anyone has any useful advice/experience with this sort of thing too I'd be really grateful for it. I hope everyone on here has a much better bank holiday weekend than I'm having
It all started at the end of January when I skipped back to work after enjoying a week in Mexico. On my way home from work on the first day back, a lady from Jersey in a Ford Ka decided that despite being in the inside lane going right on a roundabout, that she'd actually quite like to go straight on. And so she did, crossing three lanes and driving into the rear quarter of my car (plus mint condition alloy wheel). So my car looked like this:
Admittedly, the paint dust (from all the Ford Ka plastics!) and dirt didn't make it look prettier, and after a wash it wasn't too bad visually as the paint wasn't really broken. Although I'm sure you'll all agree its a very awkward place for a dent with three crease lines having been mangled.
Luckily, the other driver admitted fault and I dealt with her insurance directly who paid the circa £1300 repair charge at my personal choice of garage - Jackson Coachworks in Loughborough who I have to say did a really good job on the repair. My refurbished wheel was the same silver as the other three, and considering the panel had been pin pulled out by hand it looked good afterwards. The usual insurance runaround/delays were involved though so that repair was done about 6/7 weeks ago.
Anyway, fast forward to today when I was leisurely making my way home from a friend's house and I pull onto a different roundabout having given way going straight on in the left hand lane and *bash* someone else deciding to revert to a last minute left hand turn hits the same panel. Except this time it was a Kia Sedona and they did a proper job:
So, I pulled off the roundabout into a bus stop and got out, made eye contact with the other driver across the road who I thought was about to drive round to me so we could discuss it. I carried on thinking this until they re-joined the roundabout and kept going....all the way around it and sped back off down the road we had just driven down in the first place. At this point, some sort of anger/instinct took over and I jumped back in the car and overtook lots of people quite quickly (safely though - I am in the IAM!) and managed to catch up with the Kia at some traffic lights. Much light flashing and horning later, they realised they had not escaped me and pulled over. I was greeted with a pretend confused look from a woman who denied hitting my car. So I got out and showed her the state of my car, at which point she still denied it. So I suggested we inspect the front corner of her Kia Sedona which was indeed damaged (albeit mainly a poorly re-painted bumper and part of the wing). She then made up some story about not having realised she'd hit me (yeah right, she was behind me and it was a fair old bump) and said she had to rush off to pick her teenage son up. She refused to give me any details beyond a first name and a mobile number and offered to pay for the repair but only if it was cheap (i.e less than £300). Her passenger also told me if I went through my insurance I would 'lose' and that I should get a cheap quote (why the hell they thought I would be interested in a cheap/bodge repair is beyond me). Anyway I got home and phoned my insurance and reported it to the police. We'll have to see what happens next I guess. Sorry it's such a long post, I am very angry and upset at the moment. Rant over...you can dish out that lovely sympathy now even though this isn't even a Honda!
If anyone has any useful advice/experience with this sort of thing too I'd be really grateful for it. I hope everyone on here has a much better bank holiday weekend than I'm having
God knows how you felt.