Crashed my 35is

Zforbes

Member
Hi all,

Not long been home after in incident a couple of hours ago.

Basically i have run in the back of a car after the car in front of him made a stupid move deciding not to pull off on a roundabout. Police called by the car in the middle who clearly has no blame, small hit on the front but shunted in the rear by myself. Police opinion is that the front car is 100% blame although since no injury they will leave to the insurance companys to resolve, I have an incident number to quote FWIW. Not sure if i'm going to get a claim off the lead car though, police man stated 2 stories match (the car I hit and myself) and thats that, hope so as I feel driving sensible and nowhere to go I did nothing wrong.

Anyway, Sh!t happens and i'm more concerned about my P&J and whats going to happen to it.

What do you guys and girls think - I'm gutted :cry:
crash.jpg
 
Sorry to hear this, I feel your pain and I would be totally gutted if it was my P&J

People like this should be fined and made to take responsibility, guarantee there will be a whiplash claim incoming.

Based on the replacement cost of the car (they are rocketing in price) they should repair the car but as BMW parts are expensive you never know.

I hope it gets sorted to your satisfaction.
 
As long as you’re ok :thumbsup:

Bit of a b0llocks but the two stories matching should hopefully tip the insurance in your favour.

As for your P&J 🙈🙈 OFFS!!! :poke: Do you realise how difficult it is to acquire one of those, especially nowadays? :poke:

Depends what’s going on under the bonnet, behind bumper, wheel arch etc. Even just the visible stuff you’ve a reasonably hefty parts bill there already unfortunately. You see a lot of Cat’d Z4’s with what looks like minorish damage but have been written off which indicates hefty prices for front end parts
 
Gutted for you mate, never nice to see. Looks repairable though and probably not as bad as it looks.

Don't really understand the incident from what you've said but...hate to say it, if you go into the back of someone the insurance company will almost certainly not find in your favour. :cry:
 
Ouch,that's a blow!
Should be repairable.
Usually,if you run into the back if someone
(as I did a few years back,despite the guy in the flatbed truck being stopped on a mid bend,and I was only doing 30 in a 60, when rounding the bend,and I was deemed at fault, despite taking it to court,as guy had no lights on/was getting dark!)

In your favour,is the other car that backs up your view of events....which should help no end.

Best of luck,hope it all gets resolved in your favour,and car restored to its former glory in due course :driving: :thumbsup:
 
Sorry, I don't understand this. You have gone into the back of a car and it is someone else's fault? Safe braking distance and all that?
 
AndyBeech said:
Gutted for you mate, never nice to see. Looks repairable though and probably not as bad as it looks.

Don't really understand the incident from what you've said but...hate to say it, if you go into the back of someone the insurance company will almost certainly not find in your favour. :cry:

Thats my worry, I couldn't steer onto the roundabout, probably hit about 10-15mph slowing from 30 on a 70 limit, not exactly speeding and nowhere to go, just didnt expect such a stupid move. Police opinion was 1st car fault but usually insurance take the easy option.

Car number 1 admitted the mistake to the guy I hit but changed story for the cops (denied trying to go round the roundabout and said she was pulling off). Said she was going towards Manchester but heading north towards clitheroe, she was totally lost and going the wrong way. No doubt about police opinion but its upto insurance now.

Car drove fine apart from bodywork flapping about, no airbags blown or ewt
 
Zforbes said:
AndyBeech said:
Gutted for you mate, never nice to see. Looks repairable though and probably not as bad as it looks.

Don't really understand the incident from what you've said but...hate to say it, if you go into the back of someone the insurance company will almost certainly not find in your favour. :cry:

Thats my worry, I couldn't steer onto the roundabout, probably hit about 10-15mph slowing from 30 on a 70 limit, not exactly speeding and nowhere to go, just didnt expect such a stupid move. Police opinion was 1st car fault but usually insurance take the easy option.

Car number 1 admitted the mistake to the guy I hit but changed story for the cops (denied trying to go round the roundabout and said she was pulling off). Said she was going towards Manchester but heading north towards clitheroe, she was totally lost and going the wrong way. No doubt about police opinion but its upto insurance now.

Car drove fine apart from bodywork flapping about, no airbags blown or ewt

If it's just bodywork it shouldn't be too bad though I am no expert on E89 parts so someone else will be better placed to offer advice on that. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

It's a tough break for sure, but an insurance company will almost certainly say that you should always leave enough of a reactionary gap to the car in front to be able to react to an unexpected manoeuvre and hence you should never be able to hit someone from behind if you follow that rule. I suspect even the 2nd car might fall foul of this if they hit the 1st car. Sure it's pretty raw at the moment and am not preaching at all but unfortunately insurance companies are usually ruthless when it comes to this even when the other car is clearly an idiot. Good luck with it either way, sure you'll be back in it before too long :thumbsup:
 
keving1 said:
Sorry, I don't understand this. You have gone into the back of a car and it is someone else's fault? Safe braking distance and all that?

Totally agree with your sentiment, low speeds involved, moron pulling a stupid move and to be fair I can live with an increase of insurance as i'm paying very low premium anyway, I'll be gutted if blame isn't given to the idiot that caused the incident but only for reasons of correctness, not financially, my premiums are going up regardless of fault, £230, might be £300, not worth losing sleep over.

This is my P&J, like Andy states not that easy to replace so my main interest is to get this back on the road in a condition at least as good as it was befor it happened, back to enjoying what I should have. :driving:

Off to bed now but Ill keep you updated on what happens. It will start with and early call to the insurance. :driving:
 
Important thing is all are OK. Up to the the insurance now. Guess you use the guy in the middle to support your witness report and it"s two against one what ever the lead driver says. Hopefully Zed will be mended swiftly and won''t muck your insurance up. Seldom as simple as you hope with claims though.
 
keving1 said:
Sorry, I don't understand this. You have gone into the back of a car and it is someone else's fault? Safe braking distance and all that?
That was what I initially thought as normally its the person that goes into the back of another who is to blame but with the police siding with the Op that it was the person in fronts fault there is maybe something in the story that doesnt come across correctly.
 
Zforbes said:
Police opinion is that the front car is 100% blame
I don't no how officers came to that conclusion without thorough investigation, which the 'on call' team don't do. I know you are accepting responsibility which is realistic. The cold facts are that you hit a stationary, or slow moving vehicle. Basically you were 'driving without due care and attention'. Sorry, but I think you know that anyway.
 
Sounds like a classic case of guy in front moving off onto the roundabout but then doubting his judgment and stopping again. OP sees the car in front start to move so assumes it’s clear to go and looks at traffic on roundabout instead of what’s in front of him. Crunch.

Extremely common occurrence and something you learn with experience . If that is the case OP is 100% to blame unfortunately.
 
Police man could well be describing the cause of the incident, the first car stops the second drives into it, and then the third drives into the second car

As a pose to who is at fault
 
PDJ said:
As a pose
As opposed :thumbsup:

To the OP, hope it is an easy fix via insurance.

As to fault/blame, after any incident or near-miss you should take an honest look at any aspects of your driving and think about what you could do better, dashcams are ideal for this.
Take an example of something that could have been very similar to this, say you had managed to stop without colliding with the car in front, but the car behind still hit you (and didn't shunt). 100% non-fault, but what could you have done to make it less likely in future?

My point - even when you are 100% not at fault there are almost always aspects where you can improve. The fact people don't do this, and often will even protest they didn't nothing wrong even when proven to be at fault (no judgement on the OPs part specifically), is why a driver is 50% more likely to be involved in the same type of accident in the following 12 months.
 
I know that gutted feeling. I had a similar case on my old z4 where the car in front of the car in front of me did a completely unnecessary emergency stop (they were arsing around), and I happened to be looking elsewhere and before I knew it, I hit the car in front of me that had stopped in time. Fortunately it didn't crumple the bonnet or any cause any underlying structural damage. so the damage I think was about £2-3k for a new bumper/respray and one light.

Direct line said it was a shared fault claim which I thought was nice as I suspected they'd blame me. Didn't make a big difference to my insurance fortunately. Hopefully you'll get it back as good as new - make sure you take it to BMW or somewhere they will recognise its not a "run of the mill machine" and skimp on it. I made the mistake of using the outfit that Direct Line suggested. they were totally crap. never again!
 
PDJ said:
Police man could well be describing the cause of the incident, the first car stops the second drives into it, and then the third drives into the second car

As a pose to who is at fault
Yes, there's a lot of posing in accidents.
 
Busterboo said:
PDJ said:
Police man could well be describing the cause of the incident, the first car stops the second drives into it, and then the third drives into the second car

As a pose to who is at fault
Yes, there's a lot of posing in accidents.

Think posing may have caused a few accidents
 
Reagrdless of fault over the years I had 2 vehicles that were " written off" through No personal faults - both rear ended shunts
The first one I pursued with NFU and they subsequently paid for a full repair
The second was subsequently repairable when I said I would accept 2nd hand parts - I think they called them green or greenleaf parts.

My advice - Dont let them write off your car should they suggest it - unless the front suspension is a mess.
 
In the worst case you can always buy the car back form your insurers and arrange repairs yourself - if they write it off its 'only' going to be a 'S' not a total loss. Its often time costs; rather then parts costs (particularly if you can buy second hand) that determine the write off so a cheaper repair may be on the cards.

Are you good mates with the guy in front? Better brace yourself for the story to change to 'you pushed them into car no.1' - which would make him a no fault and your insurance company carrying the full costs. Sorry its bad news I know but you walked out of it - the car did its job :thumbsup:
 
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