Reversing out of a parking space this morning & a woman decides to reverse out of a nearby space (at right angles to me & against the flow of traffic) & collides with me.
We were in a car park in a small retail complex. There's a few arrows and signs indicating a one-way system but she decided she could zoom back & jump a few yards to the two-way part rather than drive the 100 or so yards around the one way - she was busy watching for cars coming behind from her right, I was busy watching for cars coming around the one way system - behind to my left.
Thing is, it crunched the lower part of my OSR lens cluster, moved the side cap of the bumper slightly & scratched the pastic trim between the bumper & light cluster.
Her car (Vauxhall Vectra) didn't fare quite so well.
Caved her bumper as well as her tailgate - pushed it back to the glass. She couldn't open the tailgate at all.
There's me thinking the dobby was all tin & plastic.
She said 'sorry' a few times & I think a lot of it was her fault although being in a private car park I reckon insurance will say 50/50 (despite her reversing against the flow of traffic - she should have reversed out to her right in order to drive off in the right direction whereas she reversed out to her left to face oncoming traffic).
Despite protected NCB, this'll put my premiums up - but she didn't want to take it further, saying her brother works in a garage & can do her repairs - I reckon hers will be best part of £1.5k, I can sort mine for the price of a lens (no doubt somebody will come along & tell me you can't buy just the lens, it has to be a whole new bodyshell )
You can make out some of the scratches behind the side door runner.



It took me ages to pick up the bits of red lens - it shattered into many, many pieces.

Thing is...Do I replace the light bulbs now or wait 'till they blow

Oh no that's terrible.
Aren't you going to try to claim on her insurance? If they pay up, and sounds as if they would from your description, it won't affect your premium.
Don't let her get away with it.

Very bad luck.

I think you took it very well, not wanting to kill her an' all. I would have done.

When a careless tit badly scraped the rear side panel of my car in Sainsburys I took it to my dealer's paintshop and they polished it out, for about £30 (I think). In some lights I can see faint buff marks on the lacquer, but the white paint of the other car was so ingrained that I couldn't remove it myself. So, on balance I was pleased. Possibly this is an option for you?

My car is developing minute dings and dents anyway now, so I am less precious about it. Better for my blood pressure too

As for the reflector and bulbs. Why not get a sheet of plastic (a coloured envelope from a stationers) and cut and tape it until they get a replacment lens?

When another tit in a stolen car rear-ended my old 2CV I improvised a plastic egg box, painted red, until the new lens arrived. Friends laughed but it worked fine.

Good luck anyway. Very disheartening this sort of thing.

RichDoblo120 said:

Oh no that's terrible.
Aren't you going to try to claim on her insurance? If they pay up, and sounds as if they would from your description, it won't affect your premium.
Don't let her get away with it.

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Thing is, it happened in a private car park, no witnesses so I reckon the insurance will say 50/50 blame.
Realistically, we should both have been looking where we were going - what if that had been a child walking out behind me?
I had 3 dings 3 years ago, 2 were hit/runs - not my fault but when the police finally tracked the driver down in 1 he'd fled to Pakistan, the other was an unlicensed taxi driver (sign on the cab & everything, taxi firm said the driver had since left & they didn't know where he'd gone!
Despite protected NCB, my premiums are higher than they should be & I can't get a reasonable quote from other insurers because I have to declare the 3 dings - some insurers won't even give me a quote!

She hasn't really got away with it, her car looks a right mess - looks like she hit a bollard tailgate & bumper were badly creased/buckled.
If this goes through my insurance not only will I get a new lens but I reckon they'd want to replace all the plastic surround & there'll be some old pony about the rear panels being bent all out of shape then hundreds of pounds for a respray, ful valet, replace the air freshener...
I reckon a new lens & a few minutes with the brasso should sort out the scrapes on the plastic.

I'm seriously considering fitting a reversing camera & perhaps some sort of audible warning device - the camera itself will be a huge bonus for reversing into tight spaces.

Just been on to my local Fiat dealer. New lamp assembly (you can't just buy the lens - now there's a suprise!) is £52.37 inc vat - much cheaper than I thought considering it's a huge light fitting.
Found one on a parts website & after delivery I'd only save a fiver - not really worth the hassle.

That's cheap!!!

I was going to make a comment about the other driver... but as a moderator I must remain impartial and unbiased... so I'll leave it to your imaginations

Sorry to hear about what happened! Glad to see your already on the way to recovery though, and yes those light units are cheaper than the old ones I believe!

And in response to your question about the bulbs... if they aren't damaged then don't bother replacing them until they blow.

Same happened in halfords car park with my wife,car with towbar reversed out of space into side of Punto, lots of damage, she was driving against arrows, he had a witness saying she was on phone, ( his boss i think as there was no one around). All claimed on his insurance, got excess cheque in post, his fault reversing out without looking !!!!, was good result

Oh well, if it's just the lens and there's no serious body damage maybe it's not worth claiming. Insurance companies can make it very awkward for you.

RichDoblo120 said:

Oh well, if it's just the lens and there's no serious body damage maybe it's not worth claiming. Insurance companies can make it very awkward for you.

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I agree with you there, hopefully most of the scratches will polish out or at least be less noticeable Have you thought about a scrapyard or something like parts gateway for the lens? I saved £80 that way this week

Having at one time owned a fleet of 30 vehicles I developed a system for minor accidents when we were definitely not at fault.

1) Notify your insurance company that the accident has occured marking the claim form in BIG LETTERS across the top 'FOR INFORMATION ONLY@

2) Write to the lady in question advising her of your costs and giving her 14 days to reimburse you. (Dont write to her insurance company, it is exactly that, HER Insurance company).

3) If the money is not forthcoming, trot upto your local county court and fill in a small claims form. I think you can even do it on line now. She will end up paying the costs.

Beware Insurance companies, and remember that it is the third party that you should go after and totally disregard anything to do with their insurance company.

RichDoblo120 said:

Oh well, if it's just the lens and there's no serious body damage maybe it's not worth claiming. Insurance companies can make it very awkward for you.

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Yeah, the lens for tail lights only was smashed (never realised there's 2 bulbs in there!) but I still have to buy the whole assembly (lampholder AND lens).
The plastic trim under the lamps and at the side of the bumper has moved ever so slightly - I'm hoping that's simply the way it is fixed to the bodywork & not bent the body underneath - although that may be pullable-outable

I think the problem with me chasing the woman for my costs would be the difficulties proving she was in the wrong.

Having been back to the scene, the area of the crash isn't marked up as one way whereas the area of car park leading up to this has dividing white lines (indicating two-way traffic) and the area immediately after has a direction arrow painted on the ground. The area itself is two cars long and as wide as the length of an average car. It doesn't have any direction arrows nor does it have dividing lines...leaving it to be a somewhat 'grey' area - I guess you could take it either/or.
I've always taken this area to be one way (due to lack of space & white lines really) but in any court of law (and let's face it, she'd contest (who wouldn't)) it would be argued that I should have taken more care when reversing - especially considering the amount of 'invisible space' behind the dobbin.
I'm happy to chalk this one up to experience, buy the new lights & move on. I've also organised a reversing camera & looking at a bleeper unit (replaces the reverse bulb).

Sorry to hear you had a bump.

Have not read all posts as dont have time, so appologies if i repeat something already said but...

I work in insurance, and deal with this all the time.

Your right, it will go 50/50 unless:
1) She admits it was her fault.
2) You have witnesses (may still stay a split, but better than 50/50)
3) You can get CCTV footage.

If its only a light, and you have no proof and think she may play dumb. Just tell her that it will be better for all to pay for their own repairs, as it was a mutal fault (make it sound like your doing her a favour), at least that way it wont affect your premium and would be a relatively cheap fix.

Better than loosing 1 or 2 years no claims and paying all/part of your excess.

Fast Finger said:

Sorry to hear you had a bump.

Have not read all posts as dont have time, so appologies if i repeat something already said but...

I work in insurance, and deal with this all the time.

Your right, it will go 50/50 unless:
1) She admits it was her fault.
2) You have witnesses (may still stay a split, but better than 50/50)
3) You can get CCTV footage.

If its only a light, and you have no proof and think she may play dumb. Just tell her that it will be better for all to pay for their own repairs, as it was a mutal fault (make it sound like your doing her a favour), at least that way it wont affect your premium and would be a relatively cheap fix.

Better than loosing 1 or 2 years no claims and paying all/part of your excess.

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She didn't want to go through her insurance anyway (or was leaning that way). TBH, if I tell my insurers, they'll have me down as a worse risk than I already am - despite 2 of the last 3 claims not being my fault. My NCB is protected at maximum but the premiums are still sky high because of all the claims & mentioning this might make them worse.
Anyway, I've not heard anything from her so I don't think she's going through her insurance (assuming she has any?) but in any case, I reckon that by leaving it a few days, she may have ruined her chances?

on the subject of a reversing sounder those ones built on to the bulb arn't e-marked iirc so in which case your reversing lamp might be come illegal due to the use of an unapproved bulb. Sounds daft but we all know what insurance co's are like

probably your best bet is to get a multitone sounder from the likes of City Electrical Factors or RS i have fitted one of http://rswww.com/cgi-bin/bv/rswww/s...lgekejlfcefeceeldgondhgi.0&cacheID=uknetscape
these under the faring of my parents caravan you can set the tone you want (i'd avoid using the pedestrian crossing sound however ) these are what are fitted to most HGV's..

I fancy a set of reversing strobes in my back window like they have in the US but i haven't seen any to buy in the UK except something like http://www.deltadesign.co.uk/products/securiled/securiled.html

mounted in the rear window but im unsure if its going a bit OTT

Andy, the link to the RS page doesn't work (for me anyway).
My preferred sounder would be an audible warning "get out of the F*** way, dobbin reversing"

Sludgenuts

try going to www.rswww.com and in the search bar put "626-129" (remove the quotation marks)and change the search criteria to RS Stock number

as for your request of "get out of the F*** way, dobbin reversing"
look at this site http://www.reverseinsafety.co.uk/catalogue/product_detail.php?product=BACKCHAT - Top Messages


Ive just ordered a set of these in amber to mount in the back window if they will fit.... http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/optoelectronics/PAGE1.HTM
when they arrive i'll get some pictures up

I'm contemplating buying some of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/18-RED-5mm-le...8QQihZ009QQcategoryZ14984QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem in red and amber to follow the contours of the rear window, amber at either side with red on the inside of each, amber conected to indicators, red to brakes - to act as additional lighting.
I wonder with the strobes though if they might be a bit much with other drivers - could bring on epileptic seizures.

BTW, it's my guts that are sludgy - not my nuts!

I cant see the strobes causing a problem TBH just wonder what would happen if an epileptic drives through a set of roadworks


my local car parts shop has a light bar unit which looks like a long tube and mounts on the rear window / parcel shelf and has 2 rows of leds a row of amber for the indicators and a row of red for the brake light cant find any on the net though to show you what im trying to explain... they are trying to sell them looks like they have been sat on the shelf for years..

Andy Monty said:

I cant see the strobes causing a problem TBH just wonder what would happen if an epileptic drives through a set of roadworks


my local car parts shop has a light bar unit which looks like a long tube and mounts on the rear window / parcel shelf and has 2 rows of leds a row of amber for the indicators and a row of red for the brake light cant find any on the net though to show you what im trying to explain... they are trying to sell them looks like they have been sat on the shelf for years..

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I know what you mean. I have a similar thing, bought about 25 years ago, it's a long row of red lights divided into two sections. When you indicate, the lights on that side light in sequence from the middle to the outside. When you brake, both sections light from the middle to the outside.
Haven't had it installed for about 10 years as the rear screens have been too rounded to accommodate the length (it would just fit in the rear window of the dobbie).
Hmmmm