A bus hit my car but I have little evidence. Any advice?
Discussion
Hi There,
Last Tuesday I came home from work, and notice that my other car parked on the side of the road had big red scratches down it and some serious crease damage to the bodywork as well as wheel and tyre damage.
The car had been there for 6 days, so there's a 6 day window when it could have happened.
I'm on a TFL bus route, which are big red buses, so I assume it's a bus.
I've complained to TFL, who have asked GoAhead, their bus contractor that operates and manages this bus route to do an investigation.
I spoke to GoAhead and they said they will only review the CCTV at the time TFL say, which is the day I noticed the damage, and they've taken 12pm as the time of the incident.
Great if it happens to be that bus, but very unlikely I expect.
I've also since found pieces of red painted fiberglass under the car, and having spoken with the local bus depot, TFL buses have fiberglass bodywork front and back, and since fiberglass is rare on cars, almost certainly came from a bus. Case closed.
Matching it to a bus isn't possible, as they all have damage anyway.
I haven't got my insurance company involved yet as I plan on getting it repaired myself if the bus company won't do it. Is this is mistake?
Secondly, when the bus company come back saying they can't find any evidence it was their bus which is what I'm expecting, how should I take it further? I doubt my insurance company would be willing to take them to court for what is probably £1500 worth of damage, so should I consider small claims?
Do I have enough evidence?
If I lose would I have to pay the bus companies legal fees?
Thanks all.
Last Tuesday I came home from work, and notice that my other car parked on the side of the road had big red scratches down it and some serious crease damage to the bodywork as well as wheel and tyre damage.
The car had been there for 6 days, so there's a 6 day window when it could have happened.
I'm on a TFL bus route, which are big red buses, so I assume it's a bus.
I've complained to TFL, who have asked GoAhead, their bus contractor that operates and manages this bus route to do an investigation.
I spoke to GoAhead and they said they will only review the CCTV at the time TFL say, which is the day I noticed the damage, and they've taken 12pm as the time of the incident.
Great if it happens to be that bus, but very unlikely I expect.
I've also since found pieces of red painted fiberglass under the car, and having spoken with the local bus depot, TFL buses have fiberglass bodywork front and back, and since fiberglass is rare on cars, almost certainly came from a bus. Case closed.
Matching it to a bus isn't possible, as they all have damage anyway.
I haven't got my insurance company involved yet as I plan on getting it repaired myself if the bus company won't do it. Is this is mistake?
Secondly, when the bus company come back saying they can't find any evidence it was their bus which is what I'm expecting, how should I take it further? I doubt my insurance company would be willing to take them to court for what is probably £1500 worth of damage, so should I consider small claims?
Do I have enough evidence?
If I lose would I have to pay the bus companies legal fees?
Thanks all.
It was in all likelihood caused by a bus but a 6 day window presumably means a lot of buses have used the route. Identifying which one seems pretty unlikely unless TFL can say which fleet numbers were on the route and actually examine them for damage, which let's face it they will have no desire to do. Can't see a court being convinced by the limited evidence either unfortunately.
Zetec-S said:
You've got two hopes, and Bob has just left the building...
Unless you have CSI levels of trickery
This is what I need.Unless you have CSI levels of trickery
Is there any way to prove my new red paint came from a bus?
And if I could, would that be enough evidence?
My house does have CCTV, but there's a big hedge between the car and my camera. A hedge I planted I may add. Stupid hedge.
TFL have lots of red buses painted with lots of batches of similar red paint, but not necessarily identical red paint. They will get occasional reprints and areas of damage repaired. Royal mail have a few red vehicles too.
Don't think your proving anything unless the actual bus is identified and forensic sample of its paint from the damage site is analysed.
Don't think your proving anything unless the actual bus is identified and forensic sample of its paint from the damage site is analysed.
montyjohn said:
This is what I need.
Is there any way to prove my new red paint came from a bus?
And if I could, would that be enough evidence?
My house does have CCTV, but there's a big hedge between the car and my camera. A hedge I planted I may add. Stupid hedge.
I am a retired lawyer. You have absolutely zero chance of proving anything with what you have. The chances of any company admitting liability are zero.Is there any way to prove my new red paint came from a bus?
And if I could, would that be enough evidence?
My house does have CCTV, but there's a big hedge between the car and my camera. A hedge I planted I may add. Stupid hedge.
The only possible chance is a request to TfL stating you believe one of their buses struck your car and asking them to check the CCTv footage of buses on that route that you often get onboard the buses.
Make s request asking if any buses had significant damage from that route during that period. If so, it should be easy to check that bus' onboard CCTV to verify if it hit a car at that location. It could still be inconclusive though and I doubt any legal eagles for the company would admit liability, not least because the driver would be liable for failing to stop after an accident.
All i can say is good luck with that.
I had an absolute lying
of a bus driver move over into my lane, and caused damage to the NS rear of the car.
The onboard cam, on the bus, shows the bus straggling the two lanes! Yet the insurance came down to 50/50.
They will just deny everything.
I had an absolute lying
of a bus driver move over into my lane, and caused damage to the NS rear of the car. The onboard cam, on the bus, shows the bus straggling the two lanes! Yet the insurance came down to 50/50.
They will just deny everything.
To be more constructive, as it seems from your comments all the buses have cctv, you could check the timetables and make a table showing say a 10 minute period for each bus number that passes your house daily e.g.
Bus number 11
12th September
6.20-6.30am, 8.20-8.30am, 10,20-10.30am etc.
Bus number 11
13th September
6.20-6.30am, 8.20-8.30am, 10,20-10.30am etc.
Bus number 25
12th September
6.40-6.50am, 8.40-8.50am, 10,40-10.50am etc.
Then make the request for all of that cctv footage.
They may or may not do that, but if they see you're serious (title the request "Letter Before Action", include pics of the damage), they may fold and ask you for a repair estimate rather than them have to spend too much time on it.
Bus number 11
12th September
6.20-6.30am, 8.20-8.30am, 10,20-10.30am etc.
Bus number 11
13th September
6.20-6.30am, 8.20-8.30am, 10,20-10.30am etc.
Bus number 25
12th September
6.40-6.50am, 8.40-8.50am, 10,40-10.50am etc.
Then make the request for all of that cctv footage.
They may or may not do that, but if they see you're serious (title the request "Letter Before Action", include pics of the damage), they may fold and ask you for a repair estimate rather than them have to spend too much time on it.
bunchofkeys said:
All i can say is good luck with that.
I had an absolute lying of a bus driver move over into my lane, and caused damage to the NS rear of the car.
The onboard cam, on the bus, shows the bus straggling the two lanes! Yet the insurance came down to 50/50.
They will just deny everything.
Sounds like you had significantly more evidence than me and still didn't win.I had an absolute lying
of a bus driver move over into my lane, and caused damage to the NS rear of the car. The onboard cam, on the bus, shows the bus straggling the two lanes! Yet the insurance came down to 50/50.
They will just deny everything.
How is that possible?
LuS1fer said:
The only possible chance is a request to TfL stating you believe one of their buses struck your car and asking them to check the CCTv footage of buses on that route that you often get onboard the buses.
Make s request asking if any buses had significant damage from that route during that period. If so, it should be easy to check that bus' onboard CCTV to verify if it hit a car at that location.
This is what I have done, but they've said they won't check CCTV from every bus.Make s request asking if any buses had significant damage from that route during that period. If so, it should be easy to check that bus' onboard CCTV to verify if it hit a car at that location.
457892345 said:
This is why having front and rear dashcam installed is one of most useful things you can do for your car.
The problem is you can't have them recording all the time when parked. You can get some that switch on with a big enough bump however. No idea if this would have triggered one or not.LuS1fer said:
montyjohn said:
This is what I have done, but they've said they won't check CCTV from every bus.
They don't have to, just the one that came back with damage.Just because you think it was a GoAhead bus doesn’t mean that it was a GoAhead bus. They’ll simply turn around a say it wasn’t us as the road can be used by any vehicle including buses from other companies who may be moving buses between depots or similar or even a private operator.
Op may think it’s case closed that it was GoAhead but he’ll have no chance proving it to an insurance company to pursue it and GoAhead’s pockets are infinitely deeper than the Ops who’ll simply wash their hands of it as not their fault until the op proves otherwise, which he can’t.
Edited by valiant on Tuesday 20th September 12:10
Edited by valiant on Tuesday 20th September 12:11
Sadly this is gonna go nowhere with the bus company.
If there was no serious injury involved, there's no one who's going to be interested in supporting your problem
This is what fully comprehensive insurance is for. Refer it to your insurance company, and get the car repaired ........ unless you're not too precious about cosmetics, and simply get it pulled out and touched up by a dent repairer
If there was no serious injury involved, there's no one who's going to be interested in supporting your problem
This is what fully comprehensive insurance is for. Refer it to your insurance company, and get the car repaired ........ unless you're not too precious about cosmetics, and simply get it pulled out and touched up by a dent repairer
montyjohn said:
The problem is you can't have them recording all the time when parked. You can get some that switch on with a big enough bump however. No idea if this would have triggered one or not.
I have mine recording constantly, but even with putting a much larger memory card in, I'd never get 6 days out of them.montyjohn said:
Just out of interest, do you know if I took them to small claims and lost, would I have to pay their costs also?
I'm happy to pay £100 to see if they want to settle, but if the risk of losing if paying their costs then that's a different matter.
Lol what evidence are you going to submit.I'm happy to pay £100 to see if they want to settle, but if the risk of losing if paying their costs then that's a different matter.
That you think it's a bus because its red paint.
Someone said tfl buses are fibreglass
How do you know it's not a van or a truck.
You have zero evidence at the moment it is a bus.
My wife came back to her car, parked in our village, to find the unique bus colour paint along the front wing, wheel and bumper.
We only get one bus an hour so it was clear which one it would be. Reported it to the bus company and they sent their claims handler's assessors to the house and there was no doubt in his mind it had been done by one the company's busses. Meanwhile the bus company looked at the bus's CCTV and said it wasn't clear and the driver denied it but they just seemed to accept it must have been the bus.
The assessor did a very full estimate of the damage and they suggested a couple of repairers and said they'd arrange a like-for-like car.
I then got a local bodyshop to look at it and the paint and damage 95% came off and we decided to just leave it. Asked the claims company for cash in lieu and they agreed, but annoyingly they would only pay ex-VAT.
We only get one bus an hour so it was clear which one it would be. Reported it to the bus company and they sent their claims handler's assessors to the house and there was no doubt in his mind it had been done by one the company's busses. Meanwhile the bus company looked at the bus's CCTV and said it wasn't clear and the driver denied it but they just seemed to accept it must have been the bus.
The assessor did a very full estimate of the damage and they suggested a couple of repairers and said they'd arrange a like-for-like car.
I then got a local bodyshop to look at it and the paint and damage 95% came off and we decided to just leave it. Asked the claims company for cash in lieu and they agreed, but annoyingly they would only pay ex-VAT.
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