Glad you are ok GRR, just a point to remember if you are the right turner and you see it all the time when you look.
Have your wheels pointed straight ahead and when it is clear turn. Most people park in the middle of the road with their wheels pointed in the direction of where they are turning.
If the Audi driver had her wheels pointed straight ahead she still would have been shunted but not into traffic. Safer and a better outcome for everyone.
What an awful experience. Glad to hear youâre ok. Donât hesitate to go to the Dr if you have any soreness, especially your neck, in the coming days. I expect youâll feel shaken up for a little while yet. The third party you pay on your registration will cover all of this.
The Insurance companies will sort things out for you. I would think yours probably requested the hire car via his.
Take care
Edit: just saw that the traffic trauma people have been in touch which is good
Did the truck just swerve into you Wim?
My daughter.
But yeah, right turn from the middle lane, didnât realise she was siting there.
Edit: duh, left turn.
I hope your daughter is ok - must have been a pretty scary moment!
Looking at that itâs hard to imagine why thereâd be problem with the claim.
Hope sheâs fine. The problem is a lot of people donât realise roads are seriously risky. Myself included. The reality check is you might be doing everything to the letter of the law and then someone hits you from the side totally unpredictably. A defensive mindset helps, but as your daughter and I discovered, itâs no guarantee and itâs a pity more drivers arenât aware of this.
She is fine.
It was a couple months ago now. But she didnât get the guyâs address and apparently that was enough for Coles not to want to pay.
Had his phone number. His employer. And that photo and statement from a witness and we pretty much had to threaten going to the ombudsman in the end.
So many bad drivers out there.
Photo of the drivers licence. Every time. And check the back.
Best advice to anyone.
As others have mentioned the best you can do is get as much info on the true market value of your car. The market right now is significantly inflated for many second hand cars BUT I highly doubt the book values insurance companies use will have been updated accordingly. Donât be surprised if the initial offer is very low & something you couldnât replace what you had with. Contact your insurance company & ask them what the process will be to contest offers from his insurance. Your company should be able to give you their replacement valuation they would use if you had written the car off yourself. Keep a copy of advertised replacements to send to his insurance company for any challenge. You will need to get the details of the âadjusterâ at his insurance company as they will be the person who makes the offers & can change them based on evidence you supply.
Went to an accident once with the fire brigade, nothing major. Girl had a minor fender bender.
The mum turned up and was legitimately going into shock. She wasnât in the accident, but just couldnât think.
âWhat do I do? Iâve never had an accident before?â
âGet the other driverâs details and call your insurance company. Theyâll explain everything.â
âI just donât know what to do.â
âCall your insurance company.â
âLike, this has never happened before. What on earth am I meant to do?â
âSigh⌠call your insurance company.â
âI just⌠donât⌠what should I do?â
But I empathise. Accidents are stressful. People donât have many in their lifetime. This is probably the worst thing that has happened to many people and they donât have the experience to manage it in the moment. The number of times people donât get all the details isnât surprising considering the stress.
I would deal with my own insurance - thatâs what you pay them for. I wouldnât leave it to the tradies insurance to sort it out theyâre more interested in him/her than you. (There should also be a claim against the Audi driver because like so many if she hadnât had her wheel turned when rearend she would have gone straight ahead).
Glad youâre OK. Sounds pretty nasty.
Iâd just be contacting the hire car company to confirm that the insurance company is paying for it. Iâve heard of some pretty shifty dealings around that kind of stuff.
Every day now I see near misses and terrible driving, not saying Iâm mr perfect, and its definitely getting worse on the roads.
I reckon insurance companies should offer a discount if you put in dashcam and it helps to sort out any issues.
@GRR , glad youâre all safe and injury free. Sounds like it could have been a lot worse. Hope it all works out ok with the insurance.
I wouldnât have thought so
I had one of them about 2004. Just took the very front of the car off.
Had very similar happen to me about 500 m west of there (thatâs Johnston and Nicholson in Abbotsford I think). I was in Punt Rd turning left going walking pace waiting for pedestrian traffic to clear when a truck that had been on my right with no indication of turning suddenly indicated left (from the middle lane) and suddenly turned into me. I was honking watching the oblivious driver in his huge mirror not even look. Turns out he didnât realise it was a left turn lane that I was in at that hour (thought it was bus only, and didnât notice any buses). Now, Iâm used to big semis using the left (turning) lane and âborrowingâ some of the adjacent middle lane to get enough turning circle, but this was a medium removal sized truck so he didnât need to do that; he had just misunderstood the signs.
Initially my insurance person said âitâs your fault because you canât overtake a turning truckâ. Anyway, the direction of the scrapes on my car and the moved tie-downs on the truck, pics of the road signs and lane arrows proved he was going past me from a lane he shouldnât have turned from rather than me doing any single thing wrong, but Iâd had to pay an excess before getting it refunded later. I thought about lodging a complaint about the excess - struck me as just them bolstering working capital with a small free loan. But it got sorted in the end.
Edit - when I spoke to the second person at the insurance co they said the person initially taking the details and commenting on fault had no role in that and were talking out of lineâŚ
Just keep an eye in your aches and pains. I got knocked off a pushie by a taxi once - rolled off the corner of the windscreen and landed in a heap. I was fit at the time and thought I was ok. Couple days later had terrible joint pain in hips and shoulders. No proper injuries but I got told sometimes there are and they get masked by shock.
It is not in the road rules and she did not cause the accident, however the claims go in order of who hit who. So @GRR insurance claims against the Audi Driver insurance who claims against the person who started it.
