I was only new to driving and got a cheap Mazda 3. Heading down Northumberland Street and this person drove out of the Greggs/garage area turning right and drove into the side of me.

Here is a screenshot of where we were going. I am the blue line and she is the yellow, the red X being where it happened.

She drove into my front right wheel area and beside my door so hit me on my side. She tells me she's sorry and I noticed she had a young child in the passenger seat (turned out he had no car seat or anything). She says to drive into the car park and she drove into it. Apologising profusely then phoned someone and her partner on the phone told me he's nearby and will come now to pay for any damages. She's just starting driving and that car was only new plus her insurance will go up.

This was all new to me I've never been in a car accident in my life let alone just getting my license then this person drives into the side of me out of nowhere. If I didn't brake when I did who knows if I would have killed her poor child who no fault of his own wasn't even in a car seat and has a Mother who drove out without even looking left.

5 or so people (all men) showed up in a van and car and circled round me, one of them especially threatening me. "You're taking advantage of a young woman who just had a baby" and all of this nonsense. I mentioned I was going to involve the police and forget about paying for it since they began saying it was my fault. "I don't like the police and the police don't like me" is what that same scumbag said to me and mentioned not involving police. They were driving by and I ran over and asked the police to come in and deal with this because they're threatening me.

I am an absolute idiot for not getting witnesses but thankfully it wasn't an awful accident and everyone had moved on by then when I realised her partner wasn't going to pay to fix it but rather threaten me. I also had no idea what to do being so new to driven and shaken up after almost (through the mother's fault) doing serious damage or killing a child and myself getting hurt too.

I had hoped the damage on the car would have shown what happened but clearly I should have known some people are pathetic enough to lie to cover themselves. It happened 2 months ago but her insurance company told my solicitors "We wish to advise that liability for this accident is in dispute."

My insurance company paid me for the car value refunded me the insurance but I haven't even got another car since then, worried about some idiot killing me driving into me even worse next time.

by AudioCinematic

12 comments

  2. All a massive setup. Those guys were waiting for the ‘accident’
    You got away lightly.
    Next time you need front back and sides video.

  3. Well 1, I’d my first accident that was my fault by a second of misjudgement and the police only came to help manage the traffic then look after me. No one else was injured thank goodness. It does really shake you up. Drive in day time and get your confidence back. 
    2, that area of town is lawless. 
    3, at the end of the day, money will solve this. No one was killed. No points on your licence. 
    4, you can dispute the liability as long as you want but be clear what cost if any there is in doing this. Then make a business decision of when to give up 

  4. A friend of mine had a minor accident and exchanged insurance details.

    He then got a visit from the police as it was alleged that he drove into them on purpose and then tried to mow down the driver and his passengers (there weren’t any passengers at the time).

    It went to court and he was fined and lost his licence for a year – all for the benefit of a dodgy insurance claim.

    His advice to me was get a dash cam – you might never need it, but it will stop people from making up ridiculous claims.

  5. Omg this sounds sooo sketchy! Thank god the police were close they could’ve been trying to steal your car or worse especially in a van. Don’t let this put you off driving after you spent so long learning to drive.

  6. You’re the one on the road and she’s the one joining. If you had hit her then the damage would be on the front of your vehicle and the side of hers. The fact it’s the side of your vehicle and the front of hers suggest she came into you. Liability should fall on her. If you didn’t get pics I would try and get CCTV from premises on that street

  8. Fuck that. Let them (her insurance) go to court. They ALWAYS push for 50/50 and will gaslight you to say you’re in the wrong too They’re just trying to minimise loss. The “other party” sound like the type of scumbag scruffs who’d put in an injury claim.

    Plus idiot drivers like that deserve to be hit hard with higher insurance.

    That exit from the GO garage is absoluetly open, i’d love to see her claim obstruction excuses or that she was already joining the road.

    OP, surely your solicitor should be seeking CCTV footage from the GO garage?

  9. Hey I work in insurance and handle motor claims and personal Injury claims. If you were correctly proceeding along a road and she has emerged from a side road into your path and hit you, she is 100% at fault. The area of impact to your vehicle should support your version of the events and it’s something that would be argued in your favour in court.

    The other insurance company are disputing liability because they’re probably just following what their policyholder told them.

    I would advise your own insurance company that you are not willing to accept a 50/50 settlement. If they have paid you for your own vehicle damage then they have an outlay to recover from the third party insurers and and if the other side continue to dispute liability, your insurers will likely issue court proceedings to determine liability. At that point it’d be useful for you to confirm to your insurers if you are willing to attend court.

    If the incident was less than 28 days ago try to see if there’s any local CCTV coverage. If the police got involved give your insurance company the police reference so they can request a copy of the report.

  10. Get a dashcam in future – without footage, if the other person disputes the cause of the crash and their insurer stands behind them (which they always will, because they don’t want to pay out), then these incidents almost always end up getting dragged out for months before eventually both parties are told to settle their own costs.

    The game is a racket and the advent of dashcam footage has pretty much given carte blanche to insurers to avoid applying proper investigative logic to these incidents and just abdicating responsibility in the absence of video evidence.

  11. “My insurance company paid me for the car value refunded me the insurance but I haven’t even got another car since then, worried about some idiot killing me driving into me even worse next time.”

    If you accepted this and didn’t dispute it at the time there’s probably very little you can do now.

  12. They can dispute it all they like, but you had right of way. Your solicitors should be offering you support, ask them for reassurance. The longer it drags out, the more of a settlement you’re going to get. Keep a diary of all the emotional stress, make sure to include all the details you’ve written about here. If your solicitors aren’t fighting the case effectively, consider getting different ones.

Comments are closed.