My Martha might be dead....

[wellzee]

glad to hear you are both ok, gutted for martha though!

Excuse my ignorance, but what actually happens when you are hit by an uninsured driver? Are you completely liable for the costs?

[colb666]

Not so good mate but,cars can be replaced.So long as everyone in your car is ok then its not all doom and gloom.

Excuse my ignorance, but what actually happens when you are hit by an uninsured driver? Are you completely liable for the costs?

I believe in that sort of case your own insurance does foot the bill but,the BIB gets involved?

[RedRobin]

....DirectLine have been recently advertising insurance which takes account of a non-insured party.

[DaveN]

Lads

The story here in Ireland is there is a thing called the "Uninsured Drivers Bord", they cover cases where the party at fault has no insurance.
I just deal with my company and they get the money from the UDB.

Just been up to see Martha, her bum is not as curvy as it should be more of a crumple. The chassis is okay but the sub-frame is damaged and the drivers side rear wishbone is pushed and a kink in the rear quarter panel so its a wait and see.

What are peoples opinion on taking back repaired cars, I'm a bit concerned about it seeing as the pre-tensioners went off so I was hit hard. Suppose I'll just have to see what they say in the accessment.

Thanks for all the comments, hopefully Martha will be back to her gorgeous self soon.

Dave N

[Max Q]

Glad everyone is ok but gutted for you and your car.

The same thing happened to my friends mother on the M50 last year. She was rear ended by a Polish lad with no insurance. He hit her so hard the car had to be written off. It was all sorted out through the MIBI. I have no problem whatsoever with Polish people or anyone else for that matter, but some of our Eastern European friends need to abide by the laws of the country they are living in, and it just seems that they are involved in a disproportionate number of accidents, all too often with no insurance. Their drink-driving culture is also a worrying trend.

As DaveN said, they do need to cop on to themselves.

[lsc]

Sorry to hear that Dave, but glad you’re both ok.

Had a similar experience myself when a driver pulled out on me and my brother and hit us head-on writing both cars off a few years back. We also bounced off 2 other cars in the street and luckily the neighbors called the police who attended and took statements. It turned out that the driver gave a false name and after further investigation turned out to be uninsured and had no license. The driver then said that it wasn't him driving and that someone else had taken his car. It went to court and a member of the Motor Insurance Bureau attended court on each occasion, The driver even had his wife (with bay in arms: sympathy vote) stand up in court to say he was with her at the time of the accident as she was sick in bed. Luckily though the Police that attended the accident acted as our witnesses and we were we all able to ID him as the driver. Luckily we were paid out but it took over 12months and several court appearances and lost time from work (and tax payer’s money…don’t get me started!!). If we hadn't had the Police as witnesses we probably wouldn't have had such a strong case.

Also just the other week I witnessed an accident between 2 cars at a cross roads. Straight after the accident the driver and passenger of the car at fault jumped out and swapped places, the passenger then proceeded to pretend he was driving. He was obviously giving his very young looking girl friend a driving lesson without insurance. I volunteered to be a witness for the very shaken victim and also took photos of the car and 'driver' of the other car incase 'complications' arose. I asked the guy for some ID and he showed me several credit cards with the name on which matched the details he gave the victim. I told her that he wasn’t the driver but we both agreed that is was probably best to keep quiet as it would only complicate things a hinder her getting the car fixed. Whether that was the ‘right’ thing to do is another matter but it seems that she is getting paid out.

So a tip, if you are involved in an accident, ask for proof of ID and as many forms of it as possible, if they don't have any, call the Police and suggest that you think there is a problem and have them attend before the driver leaves. Also whip out your camera phone and take as many pics as possible including the driver. It will all help prove your side of the story.