Is everyone dishonest now except me?
Discussion
Some of the problem may be that insurance companies say you should not admit liability at the scene. Idiots take this to mean they should deny everything and make up a story where they are not to blame.
I had a young bloke rear end me (ooo errr) on the M4 in stop-start traffic. It was a simple rear end shunt that cost about £800 for a new bumper to be fitted to my scooby.
But, the story he came up with was that I was a hooligan in a scooby who pulled sharply in front of him and jammed on my brakes. The case eventually went to court and despite a crap solicitor on my side and a s
t-hot one on his, the magistrate found 100% in my favour and the idiot kid had £2000 to pay in costs.
I had a young bloke rear end me (ooo errr) on the M4 in stop-start traffic. It was a simple rear end shunt that cost about £800 for a new bumper to be fitted to my scooby.
But, the story he came up with was that I was a hooligan in a scooby who pulled sharply in front of him and jammed on my brakes. The case eventually went to court and despite a crap solicitor on my side and a s
t-hot one on his, the magistrate found 100% in my favour and the idiot kid had £2000 to pay in costs.garycat said:
Some of the problem may be that insurance companies say you should not admit liability at the scene.
And they also say that you should be honest and truthful. The two are not mutually exclusive.If you run into the back of someone and it was all your fault, you can say you "ran into the back of them", you do not need to add the "and it was all my fault". The former is not admitting liability (even though it may be the obvious conclusion), the latter is.
I understand what you mean though, people of poor character will nearly always go into deniability mode rather than accept responsibility for their actions.
Edited by Balmoral on Tuesday 24th December 17:14
Terminator X said:
Without an independent witness it will be settled 50/50 as it's your word vs hers, as maddening as that is. I learnt the hard way always, always grab an independent witness before everyone leaves the scene.
TX.
Unfortunately, from experience I suspect this TX.
Back in 2008 I had a woman drive into the back of me in a car park in Guildford. One way system, I stopped to look for a space and she pulled out of a space to my rear left straight into me. She was only looking right for oncoming traffic so hadn't seen me stop. Cut and dry I thought. she apologized at the scene, we went through the standard motions of details etc.. and went our separate ways with me planning to finish my days shopping and call my insurance company when I got home.
Couldn't believe it when before I even got home that day, I got a phone call from my insurers asking why I had reversed into the front of another car!
Having thought it was a simple bump I didn't get witnesses and being an old carpark there was no working CCTV. 3 years later and via court (She couldn't even make eye contact in that room!) it was settled 50/50. 
Honest people are a dying breed these days unfortunately.
Surely, as she ran into the rear of your car, she is 100% at fault. Press for this and make sure she knows you'll take her to court to get your costs back if she continues to lie. I hate it when people lie like this. My daughter was hit by a driver who jumped a set of lights and rammed into her front wing. She lied to her insurer, there were no witnesses and no CCTV we could find. The insurer went for a 50:50 and we had to take it. Made my blood boil.
the chap who hit me was claiming for whiplash despite it being a low speed side swipe on a r/bout!A young Idiot in a citroen saxo (with two mates in it) pulled out of a T junction into my path, I hit his right rear passenger door and rear wheel arch. No Idea how he thought he was going to make it out in front of me and I actually suspect he simply did not look.
Got the cars out the way and pulled over, he admitted it was his fault and we exchanged details.
Fast forward a day or so and I am having calls from my insurers saying that the other parties dad has stated that I "rammed his son off the road and now he has serious neck problems" and that my account was very different to his, did I have any witnesses ?
Trouble is I did have a witness, a lad I sort of know by sight was waiting for a bus and saw it all, this lad works on my industrial estate for the crash repair company that now had my car in to be fixed ! he wrote an account of what happened and sent it in.
Until the witness my ins. co. were up for 50/50 or maybe 75/25 in HIS favour ! Despite the damage to the cars being in such places as to have only happened if he pulled out on me.
The saxo kids dad was the liar here, he saw money to be made out of us.
Got the cars out the way and pulled over, he admitted it was his fault and we exchanged details.
Fast forward a day or so and I am having calls from my insurers saying that the other parties dad has stated that I "rammed his son off the road and now he has serious neck problems" and that my account was very different to his, did I have any witnesses ?
Trouble is I did have a witness, a lad I sort of know by sight was waiting for a bus and saw it all, this lad works on my industrial estate for the crash repair company that now had my car in to be fixed ! he wrote an account of what happened and sent it in.
Until the witness my ins. co. were up for 50/50 or maybe 75/25 in HIS favour ! Despite the damage to the cars being in such places as to have only happened if he pulled out on me.
The saxo kids dad was the liar here, he saw money to be made out of us.
Getragdogleg said:
A young Idiot in a citroen saxo (with two mates in it) pulled out of a T junction into my path, I hit his right rear passenger door and rear wheel arch. No Idea how he thought he was going to make it out in front of me and I actually suspect he simply did not look.
Got the cars out the way and pulled over, he admitted it was his fault and we exchanged details.
Fast forward a day or so and I am having calls from my insurers saying that the other parties dad has stated that I "rammed his son off the road and now he has serious neck problems" and that my account was very different to his, did I have any witnesses ?
Trouble is I did have a witness, a lad I sort of know by sight was waiting for a bus and saw it all, this lad works on my industrial estate for the crash repair company that now had my car in to be fixed ! he wrote an account of what happened and sent it in.
Until the witness my ins. co. were up for 50/50 or maybe 75/25 in HIS favour ! Despite the damage to the cars being in such places as to have only happened if he pulled out on me.
The saxo kids dad was the liar here, he saw money to be made out of us.
What bugs me about this is that often they have nothing to lose by trying it on because there seems to be little or no comeback once they are found to be liars. They need to start being very firm in cases where it's clear they have lied and tried to defraud the insurance firm.Got the cars out the way and pulled over, he admitted it was his fault and we exchanged details.
Fast forward a day or so and I am having calls from my insurers saying that the other parties dad has stated that I "rammed his son off the road and now he has serious neck problems" and that my account was very different to his, did I have any witnesses ?
Trouble is I did have a witness, a lad I sort of know by sight was waiting for a bus and saw it all, this lad works on my industrial estate for the crash repair company that now had my car in to be fixed ! he wrote an account of what happened and sent it in.
Until the witness my ins. co. were up for 50/50 or maybe 75/25 in HIS favour ! Despite the damage to the cars being in such places as to have only happened if he pulled out on me.
The saxo kids dad was the liar here, he saw money to be made out of us.
i ask myself the same questions OP.
i found myself in a similar situation about 7 years ago. i was driving onto a slip lane which filtered two lanes into one, sat in the slow lane as you do. a particularly nice bentley continental approached from behind and overtook me just as the two lanes merged to one, he misjudged it and clipped the front of my car on his way past me.
we stopped and he immediately apologised and accepted liability... there was no way he couldn't. i was driving along at 50mph driving along in the slow lane and he drove into me. we exchanged details and i contacted my insurance company. all very normal so far. there was very minimal damage to my car and i decided not to send it on for repairs... it was a Mk1 golf that cost me £500.
anyhoo, all was forgotten until i got a renewal quote for my insurance some 8-9 months down the line. low and behold it was over three times what i paid the year before! so i called to ask why. they explained that this was due to me losing my no claims bonus. i immediately thought there must have been some kind of mistake in regards to the accident. they then confirmed the details... the liability of the claim was split 50/50! the other driver claimed i swerved into him, and i claimed i was driving in a straight line at a constant 50mph.
i went back through my paperwork and found the guys number. at this point i was pretty annoyed so i decided to give him a ring... he answered and when i asked him if he recalled admitting liability he said that this was nonsense. he was suddenly adamant that it was my fault. i couldn't believe it, theres me; a 20 year old paying through the nose on insurance as it is, a child on the way, doing my best to put some money away for my family... being conned by an old chap named Gordon with "Manor" in the first line of his address.
i found myself in a similar situation about 7 years ago. i was driving onto a slip lane which filtered two lanes into one, sat in the slow lane as you do. a particularly nice bentley continental approached from behind and overtook me just as the two lanes merged to one, he misjudged it and clipped the front of my car on his way past me.
we stopped and he immediately apologised and accepted liability... there was no way he couldn't. i was driving along at 50mph driving along in the slow lane and he drove into me. we exchanged details and i contacted my insurance company. all very normal so far. there was very minimal damage to my car and i decided not to send it on for repairs... it was a Mk1 golf that cost me £500.
anyhoo, all was forgotten until i got a renewal quote for my insurance some 8-9 months down the line. low and behold it was over three times what i paid the year before! so i called to ask why. they explained that this was due to me losing my no claims bonus. i immediately thought there must have been some kind of mistake in regards to the accident. they then confirmed the details... the liability of the claim was split 50/50! the other driver claimed i swerved into him, and i claimed i was driving in a straight line at a constant 50mph.
i went back through my paperwork and found the guys number. at this point i was pretty annoyed so i decided to give him a ring... he answered and when i asked him if he recalled admitting liability he said that this was nonsense. he was suddenly adamant that it was my fault. i couldn't believe it, theres me; a 20 year old paying through the nose on insurance as it is, a child on the way, doing my best to put some money away for my family... being conned by an old chap named Gordon with "Manor" in the first line of his address.
ash73 said:
Dashcams reviewed here
If you get a decent one it will automatically set the time-stamp from GPS, so you can prove it was correct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qIMAONxCXMIf you get a decent one it will automatically set the time-stamp from GPS, so you can prove it was correct.
This bloke has reviews of several cameras on youtube. Some are crap in low light.
Some come with front and rear facing lenses.
Dash cams are a good idea- have a 3 year old Roadhawk that still works well other than intermittent gps fix. Have used to report a road rage incident to the police.
If you have a camera or phone camera when you stop (ideally at the site of the accident) video is good, particularly if the other party admits liability on it (as happened to me in one situation).
Had a lunatic doing 30mph on 6" of snow on a single track road, no witnesses or dash cam then so it went 50/50. Had a friend who had a head on down a similar but unsnowy road, 1' of skidmarks behind her car and 50' behind other car. Police on the scene said that it would go 50/50, had to fight in the courts for 2 years but did eventually win. Devon police generally not terribly helpful!
Spent 30m returning the one of the two tablets a company had sent me in error last week.. but it was a replacement for one that had been sent to the wrong address never to be seen again! !
If you have a camera or phone camera when you stop (ideally at the site of the accident) video is good, particularly if the other party admits liability on it (as happened to me in one situation).
Had a lunatic doing 30mph on 6" of snow on a single track road, no witnesses or dash cam then so it went 50/50. Had a friend who had a head on down a similar but unsnowy road, 1' of skidmarks behind her car and 50' behind other car. Police on the scene said that it would go 50/50, had to fight in the courts for 2 years but did eventually win. Devon police generally not terribly helpful!
Spent 30m returning the one of the two tablets a company had sent me in error last week.. but it was a replacement for one that had been sent to the wrong address never to be seen again! !
Interesting post that says a lot about people and the internet. Op makes a valid point about the general dishonesty of people and the first half a dozen responses take the p***
...Yes I sympathise with you greatly. 15 years ago I was punted off my bicycle at a roundabout by an Audi driver (oh what a surprise) who thought I had moved off and hadn't. He later blatantly lied that I had cycled up his inside on the blind side and refused to exchange insurance details. A trip by me to the police station and call by the duty sergeant changed his mind, but yes it is disillusioning when a large proportion of society these days really will do anything but the right thing. All these bogus PPI claims from people, insurance fraud etc etc....yep, as a society we need to take a look at ourselves.]
...here endeth the lesson...
...Yes I sympathise with you greatly. 15 years ago I was punted off my bicycle at a roundabout by an Audi driver (oh what a surprise) who thought I had moved off and hadn't. He later blatantly lied that I had cycled up his inside on the blind side and refused to exchange insurance details. A trip by me to the police station and call by the duty sergeant changed his mind, but yes it is disillusioning when a large proportion of society these days really will do anything but the right thing. All these bogus PPI claims from people, insurance fraud etc etc....yep, as a society we need to take a look at ourselves.]
...here endeth the lesson...
Shurv said:
Surely, as she ran into the rear of your car, she is 100% at fault.
Not regarding the OP's case, but this can't always be true!!Many years ago was a passenger in friend's car, he was driving perfectly in a 30MPH zone. Silly bint came behind driving very close to rear of car, eventually decided to overtake and immediately then slammed on her brakes having veered in front of us) and turned right!
If mate hadn't had his wits about him and braked as he saw what was about to occur what would the outcome have been? (he was entirely faultless)
Amazingly quick reactions on his part thankfully.
shielsy said:
... being conned by an old chap named Gordon with "Manor" in the first line of his address.
Old chap knocked me off my motorbike a few years back. He was in a BMW with his grandson. I was indicating and waiting to turn left at the lights, the lights changed, he became impatient to drive straight on and undertook me but misjudged the room on the left side of my bike and basically rammed me, trapping my leg. When I'd managed to extricate myself and the Suzuki from under his bumper I asked him what the hell he thought he was doing and he said I was indicating right so he was trying to go round me as I was blocking the road for everyone behind me. When I pointed it out to him that I was indicating left and in fact the left indicator was still flashing as the bike was lying in the middle of the road he said I must have turned the left indicator on as I was lying in the road in order to pin the accident on him. Gobsmacked was an understatement.Bizarrely I was more outraged that this silly old bugger would lie so brazenly in front on the young boy in his car.
Captain Muppet said:
Yes, but unless it shows the woman hitting him how do you prove that the footage of being stationary is taken at the time of impact?
There would be a jolt on the footage.However I did give passing thought to a rearward facing one after looking at a setup of a black taxi I was in.
Pretty much the same thing happened to me this time last year got shunted from behind in stationery traffic... Got out with phone camera on video record and recorded the 5 minute conversation and got some video of damage of both cars. - didn't think Iwwould need it because it was just bumper damage. Low and behold the berk denied responsibility and said I reversed into them! Told my insurers about the video and sent it via email obviously this helped my case massively
Just saying we all got camera phones and in a situation like this use em!
Just saying we all got camera phones and in a situation like this use em!
OP , i feel your pain. Last year i was parked up and some old duffer reversed into me. I knew him so it was all pleasant, i'm sorry etc etc. i get an estimate to repaint my bumper, i shopped around for the cheapest price. After this he didnt want to know. He thought i was taking the p*ss with the price. He then went to his insurers and clsimed i hit his car! No witnesses so it went 50/50. My conclusion, people are c***s and will do anything they can to "get away with it" nowadays. Although i wouldnt be surprised if his insurance company to him to claim this to save money!!
Dishonesty is par for the course these days. I hit a parked car a few months back and went round knocking on doors until I found the owner. They were Gobsmacked that I had done this and in the end (given the age and condition of both vehicles) he told me not to worry.
I've acted as a witness for a chap who was in front of him when a lady in an Audi effectively t-boned him on a roundabout. It later transpired that she said it was his fault.
I wonder if the dishonesty is linked to the increase in insurance premiums that would transpire if you admitted 100% liability and lost your no claims?
I've acted as a witness for a chap who was in front of him when a lady in an Audi effectively t-boned him on a roundabout. It later transpired that she said it was his fault.
I wonder if the dishonesty is linked to the increase in insurance premiums that would transpire if you admitted 100% liability and lost your no claims?
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