Faith in Humanity Restored

That's a (kind of) good result. About three years ago someone reversed into my (brand new!) Vectra elite, making a complete mess of the passenger door, and drove away.

Fortunately, someone saw it happen, the driver had atually got out and gone to see a neighbour who wasn't home. did a bit of digging, and with the descritption of the car the neighbour knew who it was (didn't mention the wrecked door!). Went to see the driver, asked if they'd been to see my neighbour last night "no." so, you don't know here then? "well yeah, but i wasn't there last night" did you realise your back bumper is damaged? "whatever" funny, my car has some damage at exactly that height "yeah, well, so what if you have got a brand new vectra?" oh, how do you know what i drive? "well so what if i did hit it, you got CCTV?" by this point her husband is shouting "just shut the door!" from inside. eventually i got her to admit liability and give me her insurance details, but it was hard work! next day i got a text "why don't you take it to the garage down the road, they do scratches and dents". no, i don't think so!

Some people are just absolute scum, and won't accept ANY responsibility for their actions.

 

Thats good news cabbie

A couple of years ago I was sitting at a set of traffic lights, stationary because of a red light above the M60.

I see a Coca Cola truck in my mirror and think "He ain't stopping", and he didn't. I was in my car, with a trailer on and my bike (a ZX9R Kawasaki) on the trailer. There was a bike cop on the opposite side of the lights. I was knocked out cold for a few seconds by the impact, my bike was totalled and the trailer flew over the armco and onto the M60 narrowly missing some other cars.

The long and short of it was that the Coca Cola driver said he never saw me, and he never saw my brake lights (I was stationary, hand brake applied) and even with the bike cop taking statements and those being called up in court, Coca Cola refused to admit liability and it took 2 years to get that sorted out in court that it was 100% their drivers fault and their liability.

I finally then got my bike sorted and got my NCD restored because whilst there is wrangling going on, the scum that are the british insurance industry take your NCD off you (a good move to protect it, I learnt the hard way LOL)

It's a good result you got there, someone doing the right thing, which is a rarity these days.

 

I had a similar thing happen in a parking lot, and knew who the driver was without knowing her name or license (it's a long story relating to medical privacy laws). Without boring you with details, the doctor's office called the woman. She had no idea she had backed into our Prius, and had no damage to her car. She immediately called me and apologized profusely, and called her insurance agent to admit responsibility.

There are good people out there. I'd like to think most of us on PC would do the same. Unfortunately there are enough bad apples to spoil our collective opinion of humanity.

Tom

 

A bad habit I had picked up after getting our first Prius, backing into a parking place between two cars, went away when my Prius bumper slid along the door of a co-worker's car. I could see the scuff mark, no evidence of bent metal but the paint damage was evident. I soon identified the owner and gave her a check for $250 and said, "Let me pay for any more damages to fix the door." She was surprised yet never came back with any additional bills and I did remind her I was ready to pay whatever it took to fix the door.

Jesus said that if you wrong another, race to correct the wrong before going to court. IMHO, it is the best policy as bad news is never improved by delay.

Bob Wilson

 

I had a friend's daughter, who had also just gotten her license, hit our car that my son was driving. It cost about $700 to fix our car and I was going to cover it since they were friends.

The parents would not hear of it and wanted to teach the girl a good lesson. They had her pay me for the car while working during the summer. Each week she would bring me a check for $100. You could tell she hated to part with that hard earned money but after she graduated from college she told me at my son's wedding that it was one of the best lessons she could have learned.

 

On the other hand....

Several years ago I was travelling home with my son from a Home Depot visit one Saturday afternoon. The two lane road on which I was doing normal speed of about 40mph had a red light at the intersection of a church parking lot and a cross road.

The light turned green and the line of traffic ahead of me began to move forward, I turned to say something to my son, but suddenly the line of traffic stopped as the driver in the lead waited to turn left. I missed that detail and clipped the back corner of a Mercedes pushing it into the car in front. My fault definitely.

The driver was the Asst Dist Attorney for our town. His son was in the front seat with him.

I was distressed because of it being my fault but there didn't seem to be any serious injuries. My insurance covered everything and I heard nothing more.....for 6 months.

Then I was served at home with a lawsuit for $12000 ... from his wife!! Huh? She was nowhere around the accident.

Well it seems that she was suing me for the loss of his sexual services while he recuperated from his neck 'injury'!!! HUH???? I started laughing because I thought a buddy was pulling a fast one on me. I called my insurance company.

When I explained that I'd been served and what it was for the agent said...'How much was it? $12000 or $15000?' Apparently if the amount is less then $20000 then the insurance company doesn't contest the issue and just pays it. True story.

 

I've experienced more honesty than dishonesty in these kinds of situations. The one time I was at fault I called my insurance agent and told her I was at fault, and most of the incidents I've had there was no quarrel over the facts. Maybe it's because I've lived in small cities (Fargo, Spokane) where people are generally more civilized.