Distraction Accident!

[MSTRshenanigans]

Boring part of the story

I originally felt i was at fault because i had hit her from behind, but letters from various solicitors suggested otherwise..

Stating that because the police had run a red light at a blind intersection that i was not the only one at fault...And given that i was also distracted by the ambulance and sirens i feel i could of escaped some/all of this ..

BY not showing up to court i obviously shot myself in the foot and have sinced paid the money owed. But i am interested to now if anyone here has any enlightenment on where i actually stood in this matter

Being in the insurance side of the game you can say that the police car may have contributed to the accident but because there was no one impacting him you are at fault for running up the rear of a stopped car.

You are at fault for rubber necking instead of watching the car ahead of you. Any solicitor that claims different would get owned by Insurance Recoveries.

[xALmoN]

Now here's a question, if someone rear ends me, and he doesn't isn't insured? What can I do?

And another question, if someone rear ends me, and he has insurance but i'm not insured, do i get to file a claim against him as well?

[Mayuri Krab]

Now here's a question, if someone rear ends me, and he doesn't isn't insured? What can I do?

And another question, if someone rear ends me, and he has insurance but I'm not insured, do i get to file a claim against him as well?

1) If you have full comp insurance then you just file a claim with your insurance company & they will deal with the douche bag who have no insurance (sorry but if you can't afford at least basic 3rd party, you can't afford a car...), thats what you are paying full comp insurance for. So you will get your car fixed regardless of whether the other party is insurance or not.

If you only have 3rd party or no insurance too (bad!) then it will be up to you to make them pay for the damage, take them to court etc etc... good luck with it as those kind of stuff can drag on for ages.

2) You will have to do all the running & around & phoning up to the other party yourself, the problem arises when the other party refuses to advance or just hangs there then you have to do everything your self (even go to court if necessary) to get anywhere.

I had an accident when a RAV 4 didn't give way & rammed on my side, at that time (over 2 years ago) I only had 3rd party & my insurance won't do anything as I'm not full comp, so I had to do the whole chase up thing myself, I was quite lucky in the sense that the other party was pretty honest about the incident & just admitted fault or something as after a couple of text messages & phone calls + police report & filling up a paper the other party's insurance company had sent me, the other companys' insurance company sent me another letter asking me to select my preferred panel shop & they will authorize the repairs.

So in summary.

-3rd party insurance should be compulsory when owning a car.

-Depending on how much your car means to you & how much it is worth, full comp may or may not be worth it.

Edited May 16, 2010 by Mayuri Krab

[MSTRshenanigans]

^^^ Mostly correct.

1. If you have Third Party Property Damage up to Full Comp you can lodge a claim (most insurer's come with $5000 to repair your vehicle if uninsured driver causes dmg - with TP and Fire & Theft products), Comprehensive has no limits aside from your sum insured. If they are uninsured they are f'd.

2. If the TP (Third Party) has insurance but you don't you will need to get them to lodge a claim. If they do not no amount of chasing his insurer will do anything as they are legally bound to take no action until he lodges a claim and puts your name to it. Only option you have if they refuse to lodge a claim is seek independant legal advise.

The above is given to you with general advise and may or may not apply to the products you hold, if you have any questions or concerns with what product you have, please consult your insurer.

[sneakey pete]

Implying the truckie would not be slowing already.

I'm not talking "oh shit, there's a truck behind me, the light just went yellow, he might not stop, so i'll just floor it through" though, i'm talking more of a, braking yourself, hear a truck behnid you locking up, at that stage moving yourself forward would be a good idea. Noone is likely to be in there as its a changeover.

[MSTRshenanigans]

If the truck is going to hit you I doubt any moving forward aside from gunning it would assist, typically if they are able to stop before the line they are slowing already. I just don't see how a truckie could be fanging it so hard in traffic enough that you might need to run the red and react before he slams you. Sounds like a common excuse a constable so-and-so would hear.

[ARTZ]

Being in the insurance side of the game you can say that the police car may have contributed to the accident but because there was no one impacting him you are at fault for running up the rear of a stopped car.

You are at fault for rubber necking instead of watching the car ahead of you. Any solicitor that claims different would get owned by Insurance Recoveries.

^^^ Mostly correct.

The above is given to you with general advise and may or may not apply to the products you hold, if you have any questions or concerns with what product you have, please consult your insurer.

[ARTZ]

I was surprised by a red light oneday and hit the brakes in plenty of time all though rather abrubtly,

after stopping i noticed the guy behind me was also startled and was locked up and skewed sideways coming at me hard , i ever so gently rolled out into the intersection giving him just enough room to stop...Was lucky...

[MNTLRB]

My old man was sitting at a red light one day, idiot next to him was towing a hired trailer and on a cellphone(still legal here in NZ at that stage) the left turn arrow went green and cellphone boy thought it was general green light, floored it through the intersection, classic 1950's ford went straight into trailer, lifted it up in the air, trailer comes back down on the ford and completely totals it, luckily nobody hurt but I really felt for the guy who spent 15 years doing up this ford....plus i had to wonder if cellphone boy's trailer hire insurance covered it...lol

[MSTRshenanigans]

Arthur - nps dude

Cars its different as they can brake heaps quicker so a minor bit of space can make a big difference.

Although I have had 1 accident stopped with park brake on and had a retard slam into the back of my car at 80kms.... was f**ked... sending an sms or something then has the gall to tell me my brake lights don't work... lol

2nd was a solicitor, she ran into the back of me in the wet when also stationary with lights on lol

[xALmoN]

did you get your claim in against that solicitor? and was she hot?

[GTR-N1]

2nd was a solicitor, she ran into the back of me whilst wet...

sorry ^^^, i just got distracted now myself; and misread it

[MSTRshenanigans]

She had no leg to stand on excess waived and my insurer recovered. She was a little cougar-like i guess

[GTR-N1]

A JETSTAR pilot has been suspended from duty after being the "Human Error" cause of a near accident at Changi airport Singapore.

He had to abort the landing because he was texting.

[666DAN]

This one got me - "Spider coming out from behind sun visor"

It was a big dirty huntsman that then ran down onto my door, I managed to quickly open the door and stamp it to death on the window seal. People looked at me funny!

[R34 -_-]

Taxi drivers, they don't need to be distracted to cause an accident.

For the record changing cds is easy while driving i can do it while looking at the road but you can do it in stages if you can't do it blind. Obviously if your trying to do it all at once while not looking at the road your going to crash

[Shell]

A few months ago in the winter I was driving along the freeway at 100kmph when a plastic shopping bag was suddenly sucked through my window and suctioned onto my entire face, it was all dirty and wet as well as it had been raining. Luckily being such an awesomely awesome driver my initial reactions were to keep the steering wheel still and brake slowly until I peeled the bag off my face and threw it back out the window to attack some other unsuspecting motorist. Porbably the only instance of a close(ish) call I have to crashing from a distraction.

sorry but this cracked me up... was picturing it in my head

I've had a few close calls.... looked down at something and then back up to find a car with it's indicator on stopped to turn right in front of me... have been pretty impressed with my evasive manoeuvres though locked up, but managed to flick the car sideways and JUST miss the stopped car, and then straighten up again without losing control.

Did the same thing for a few roos, but that's not a "distraction accident"... the f**kers have just appeared in the middle of the road when I've come over a hill or around a corner.

[GTR-N1]

Driver was sentenced today after killing a cyclist whilst texting. Gaol = 3 years.

Plastic bag incident above (via Crackfox) yes, was hilarious!