UK SPACECRUISERS

Whilst travelling along a dual carriageway in Kent between Isle of Grain and Rochester I happened to be involved in an accident and this is my story of the events that evening.

I was in the left hand lane and there were 3 cars in front of me to the right, a white van, a navy blue escort, and a red car. A lane was merging from the left so I moved to the right behind the other 3 vehicles to allow a white car to join the carriageway. As they were still building up speed I over took the joining car and pulled back over to the left ready to take the slip road. The white van in front of the line of cars on the right seemed to slow down on approaching the roundabout ahead and I slowly started to go past the cars on the right. As I pulled almost level with the navy blue escort they indicated and pulled out at the same time. I bibbed but still got pushed against the kerb wrecking the pair of wheel trims.

She got out further along the road and our meeting went as follows :

She : I'm very sorry, are you okay. I'm sorry

Me : (opening the door with a crunch) Yeah I'm okay just a little shaken

She : I'm sorry, the kids were screamin' in the back. Do you want my details

Me : (examining the damage : wing mirror hanging off, 3 wheel trims wrecked, front wing and door dented and scratched) I suppose so.

She : I haven't got my insurance details with me but I'll give you my number, If you give me a call with the costs I'll pay for the damage.

Me : okay

Names and phone numbers were exchanged and I made a note of her registration number as well, just in case.

A few days later, I spent the morning driving around getting 5 quotes for the damage, telling the garage I was paying for it myself, to keep the quotes down. The highest was £500 + parts + vat, the lowest was £300 total. I called the woman up in the afternoon and the conversation went as follows :

Me : Hello, is Kerry Robins there?

She : yeah, speaking

Me : Oh hi, you don't know me but I'm the person you had the accident with the other night. I've had some quotes for the damage.

She : What damage?.

Me : A new wing and a few dents and scratches in the front drivers door, the wing mirror just clipped back into place.

She : Oh right.

Me : The best quote I've had is £300

She : Okay, if you get the work done, I'll give you my address so you can send me the receipt and I'll pay for the damage.

Me : Well no, I need the money in order to get the repairs done.

She : I'm on social, I can't afford to pay for it.

Me : In that case we'll have to go through the insurance companies then.

She : Okay, give me a minute and I'll call you back with my details.

Me : okay.

The call ended but a few things struck me. If she had no way of paying for the damage then why ask me to waste my time getting quotes. If she had no way of paying for the damage then why ask me to get the repairs done and send her the receipts. The best was yet to come, she called back about 10 minutes later :

She : Hello, I've spoken to my dad and he says your car isn't worth £300.

Me : I'm not too concerned what the cars worth, the repairs will cost £300.

She : My dad says he'll do the repairs.

Me : Well no, we'll go through the insurance companies, have you got your details?

She : I'll call you back.

Me : Okay.

And that was the last I heard from her on Friday. From these conversations I can see that she has no intentions of paying for my damage and the "get the repairs done and send me the receipts" would have resulted in no reply at all.

I have since left the situation with my insurance company who informed me it was an offence not to supply insurance details to those involved in an accident but they could trace her through a vehicle check. I wait with baited breath but I'm sure the result will not be good. Unfortunately, the insurance system relies on peoples honesty and some people have no morals at all to own up to their mistakes or pay for them, leaving anyone apart from themselves out of pocket.

So what do I learn from this incident. I could go out and buy a heap of s**t with tax and insure it 3rd party. This would allow me to drive along a road and smash into somebody elses car and as long as nobody stops as a witness, I could deny it was my fault. The insurance companies agree a knock for knock situation and if I don't claim, because my car isn't worth it, my policy remains unchanged. The driver of the decent car claims and their policy increases next year.

A bit of a rant but comments always appreciated.