My First Accident

In November 2007, I finished up for work my usual time which was around 5pm. I had a five minute walk to my car that was parked in a secure car park at my work, Chase Farm Hospital. That evening there seemed to be a lot of traffic; no cars were moving out of the car park and everything was at a standstill. I should’ve just waited but like everyone else I had a family to get home to. I proceeded to the exit and waited for someone to give way so I could turn right. I was just moving off when a stupid woman decided to overtake me on the left! She damaged my front bumper and in the process, hers fell off. I was stationary when she decided to squeeze past me because she couldn’t wait her turn! I was so angry that this woman who was 15 years older than me still didn’t know that you never overtake on the left! So yes as you can image, it was my first car accident since I’ve been driving.

Dealing with the accident
Luckily I always carried a pen and notebook in my car; she got out and yelled at me but I refused to let her get to me when she was in the wrong! I took down her name and number and her insurance details together with her licence plate. Luckily the traffic wasn’t moving and we were stationary so having an accident in the middle of the road wasn’t so bad. If this was to ever happen, you should never move your car as this is evidence. I left my car as it was whilst the other women moved hers. The only other thing I didn’t do was get the names of any witnesses as this helps settle the claim faster – in future I will try and do this if there are any.

When I went home, I didn’t tell anyone as it was so embarrassing even though it wasn’t my fault. When my husband came home I told him and yep he was very angry. I was lucky in a way because it was dark so he couldn’t really see the damage until the next morning. That same evening the lady who caused the accident called to see if I was going to go through my insurance. I thought this was very strange as she had caused the accident so of course I was going to inform my insurance company. The lady refused to accept she was at fault and tried to get me to pay for the damages to her car.

Claiming for the accident
That evening I called our insurance company (Churchill) and they took down all the details. They also asked me to write a detailed statement of what happened with a diagram of how the accident happened. I did this the next day so that I don’t forget any crucial details. Because I informed the insurers, I had to have my car repaired through a garage approved by them. I was comprehensive insured so a courtesy car was arranged for me whilst my Nissan Micra was taken to be repaired. My excess was £500 and guess what, the estimated damage cost was £500 so I had to pay this and because I was a named driver my husband lost his no claims which made it worse. I later found out that if I went directly to a Nissan garage it would’ve only cost me £250 for the same work carried out by the other garage.

Settling the claim
A few months after the accident I started getting letters asking me to pay for the courtesy car. I refused and told them to contact my insurer which was Churchill at that time. The other lady still hadn’t accepted responsibility for the accident so I was in for a long ride. After two years, I have finally had it all settled – the other lady still didn’t accept fault but we managed to get half the amount I paid for the damages through a third party solicitor.