Last april after pulling onto a side road I spotted a guy start to reverse, so I stopped, waiting in the middle of my turn/road (he was still 8-10 metres away). There was a car behind so I couldn't move. He got closer and closer until I beeped my horn at him, which he ignored and continued to reverse straight across my n/s/f. He then pulled straight off me and pulled over, I did the same. I took loads of photos, he apologized and said he was too busy checking his nearside mirror for the kerb. We exchanged details and I left and 5 minutes later rang my insurance, told them what happened, said I had pictures and said I wasn't claiming anything as all I got was a small scratch and small dent (my car had far worse ) and that I was only reporting it to make sure he didn't say I drove into him. I phoned my insurance every 2-3 months to see if he was claiming anything, they always said no. Then 9 months later I receive a letter in my name from a county court saying I owe him 2100! I told my insurance immediately, they said they'll deal with it, I phoned them 2 weeks after to make sure it was dealt with as I had to respond within 30 days of the claim. They told me it was sorted. 3 weeks later I receive another letter saying that as I hadn't responded I owe him 2400 which includes costs. This carried on with me finally getting the insurance's solicitor and they mutually removed the 2400 claim. I sent her all my details and photos from the accident and she kind of gave me the impression that she didn't believe my story. In August she said that the other guy's solicitor had offered 50/50 - I asked if the 50/50 meant his insurance would pay his claim and my insurance would pay my claim, got told no - you each pay 50% of each others. Seeing as I wasn't claiming then I was still losing so I said I'd rather go to court. The court day was yesterday, it was the 2nd time I had ever been to court and the first time I've given evidence. My girlfriend and her mum came along as they wanted to see a guy lie in court! As the other guy was the claimant he went first, his whole statement was 5 lines long that said he was stationary about to put his car into reverse when he got hit from behind. He had no pictures. Whereas my statement was a whole page and I had 9 pictures. From the very start he dug his own hole and only made it deeper, he ended up saying that he moved his stationary car forwards after the accident! I think that if he knew how many pictures I had he wouldn't have gone to court. The highlight for me was when his counsel asked me "In what direction was he reversing?" I replied "well you can't reverse forwards" and laughed at him! In the closing statements the judge said that I was flippant but that it didn't hinder my case! The judge agreed with my story and dismissed it. Moral of the story - take loads of pictures of everything and get witnesses. (the car behind me didn't stop) I wish that I had a photo of my car where it was hit but I stupidly pulled to the side straight away to allow the car behind to move as it was dangerous to be stopped on the dual carriageway. *phew* sorry for the wall of text, just quite relieved today! Oh and that golf bumpers are far stronger than mondeos!
That's brilliant news mate. This reminds me that I really ought to do a thread regarding a couple of in-car DVRs that I recently bought off eBay. I always have one recording in my van now and I'm going to set one up in the wife's car too. Another thing is that the wife of a good mate of mine had an incident a few weeks ago that sounds remarkably similar to yours. It was some stupid woman reversing out of a parking space while my mate's wife was sat still waiting for her; the woman managed to swing round and smash into our friend's stationary car, but later down the line the woman's insurance is trying to say that our friend drove into her. My mate is now kicking himself for not having a DVR like mine because it would have totally saved him the grief. I bought two, a 30 one and a 50 one; I'll post up videos that compare the quality.
Well done on sticking to your guns with untrustworthy scum trying it on like that. - sod the Mondeo POS, it'll be in the scrappy soon!
Thanks guys. I wasn't going to sit there and pay for someone elses mistake especially after giving him so many chances. I'd definately be interested in seeing those as I'm thinking of getting some for our works vans. Our insurance company told me of the ones they use that record constantly but have gravity sensors in them, so that if they detect an impact or sharp braking/acceleration they record the last 30 seconds and 30 seconds after the incident automatically, but they were quite a bit more than the ones you've quoted. These ones also record sound and beep when they record, which also tells the driver that they could be driving badly if they have to brake sharply and are using too much fuel if accelerating sharply etc.
Yeah - the ones you are talking about there could possibly be the Roadhawk, or something similar. Those are very sophisticated in that they have various accelerometer sensors, GPS for map generation, increased frame-rate on detection of an incident, and so forth. Very expensive especially when you need to buy them for several vehicles, but very comprehensive in what they do. What I am hoping, however, is that these cheap 50 units (and I'm going to say that I would not bother with the 30 I bought as the quality is crap) are hopefully at least *sufficient* as a bare minimum for insurance protection. These devices record in loop fashion, producing up to 15 minute videos, but the larger your memory card, the more 15 minute videos can be recorded before the earliest ones are erased. (In other words, it does record many hours / days of driving if your memory card allows for it; it doesn't simply ONLY retain the last 15 minutes as the eBay blurb made me believe). The frame rate is always about 30fps. The image quality of the 50 one is quite nice but it's not really very easy to read number plates unless the car is pretty close up.
I doubt it, but he did get taken into a side room with his barrister as soon as the judge dismissed his claim, whereas I said thanks to everyone and walked out the front door. I said to my solicitor months ago that I wanted to see a grown man lie in court to cover his own mistake. I still can't believe the cheek of it, but I'm glad that he was stupid and did it this way around - he now has a claim on his own insurance, whereas he could have bought a bumper with his own money for 50 and that would have been the end of it.
It is a shame that there are dishonest people who lie and waste everyone's time and money. It costs everyone in the long run. Good result for getting the right result!
He'll have to pay costs - for both sides. That's not going to be cheap if he had a brief too. I think people usually get charged about 1400-1600 if they take us (UKBA) to court and lose.
Nice to hear someone not winning at the expense of common sense and making dodgy claims. Sure that's a huge relief. Will you be taking a civil action against him for "mental anguish" as result of the spurious court case?
Good for you!! Sometime the idiots in this life do get what's coming to them. In the dark days when I only drove Italian cars, I took a car dealer to the small claims court after he sold me a Fiat Punto Sporting with a blown head gasket and countless other faults (bought it in a hurry at dusk...that will teach me!!). Anyway I won in court got a full refund for the car plus costs and it was very satisfying!! Alpenweiss2
Cheers all, I'm still chuffed to bits with the result and quite surprised with how involved the judge/court process was, he said he wanted it to take as long as it took to go through all the evidence and we were in the room for 2 hours going over each other's stories etc. I thought there wouldn't be half as much attention as there was as the case was only for 2400ish. But after costs etc I'm sure his bill was much higher. After hearing stories from people and especially with the other guy saying he was stationary and that I drove into the back of him I fully expected the other guy to win or at least 50/50.
