BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park

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Thu 17 Feb 2011 20:18
BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park - dft46

I had reversed out of a parking space in a private (school) car park and was at the point of moving forward to the exit when I was hit in the side by a driver who had reversed out of an oppositye bay. I consider that I was staionary at the time and i have witnesses. At the time and the following day the driver admitted liability. Now he is saying that he has taked to his insurance company and they say the liability is 50:50. I strongly refute this but where do I stand? I don't want this to go to my insurance comany as the cost of repair (£260) is less than my excess. What action should I take please?

Thanks

DT

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Fri 18 Feb 2011 08:47
BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park - LucyBC
Insurers often state that car park accidents are 50:50 but if an independent witness says he hit you while you were not moving then you have a good basis for 100% fault claim.

You could go the insurance route but in a case like this you might be better to "self insure" and look for redress through the small claims court.
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Fri 18 Feb 2011 18:11
BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park - injection doc

insurers are always opting for the easy 50/50 claim these days to speed up a claim and save them costs. This 50/50 business really winds me up as i was caught out by a 50/50 claim a few years ago but the claims follows you around for a few years after and ends up costing you in increased premiums.

My best advice whilst its" after the horse has bolted " is to get an in car camera installed. these are the best witness you can have and the cost is less than most peoples excess and with the film it really wraps a claim up with increadable speed and simplicity. The added bonus is that if you have driver lie about his claim & you have proof with the fil that he's lied you can also prosecute them for that as well and there was a guy recently who suffered a severe fine for lying to the insures about who had caused the accident! it was about £800.00+ costs in fine alone

I dont sell them I have them fitted in all my cars. I also often leave mine on when I park in a car park , reversed into a space so if the car gets hit its on film!

http://www.roadhawk.co.uk/roadhawk-RH-1.htm

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Fri 18 Feb 2011 21:09
BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park - injection doc

This link will show you how neat they are and out of the way, fitted above the mirror,

s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/injectiondoc/roadhawk/?action=view&;current=roadhawkfitted.jpg

this link shows you a couple of still screen shots, you will see it has time & date and location by GPS so it can have its advantages of proving where you actually were as well. just click on the thumb nails to enlarge.

s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/injectiondoc/?start=all

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Sat 19 Feb 2011 11:40
BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park - newman

Good idea. Have you had the chance personally to use the evidence in an insurance claim? Do you have a cam at the front and back?

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Sat 19 Feb 2011 15:11
BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park - injection doc
Hi Newman
Yes I have sucessfully used one in a claim and it was so simple it saved loads of form filling and phone calls, i also went on to get the guy prosecuted as well succesfully without any drama, in fact the police thought it was excellent and made their job a lot easier.

Now you can get a forward and rearward cam or a combo unit that does both but they are more expensive so I have never bothered.
The clever thing about the device is that it records impact on a graph as it measures g force on an X Y Z axis so if you swerve or brake or hit a pothole or get hit from behind its still recorded on a graph and the forward view at least can indicate your position as well as the GPS and mapping and your general manner of driving before impact.
so for example where a car may of had a side strike in a car park and they claim to of been stationary the GPS mapping will prove if stationary or what speed the vehicle was travelling and the force of impact on the graph.
Another clever aspect is it appears to have a capacitor so if you were in a head-on crash and the first thing that is sethered is the battery , the camera appears to carry on recording for about 10 secsonds!
To be honest I dont know why every car isn't fitted with one as standard behind a headlight.
If you look at the links I posted you will see how it records time, date, speed travelling, mapping & position and the graphing as well monitoring your driving.
rgds ID
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Sat 19 Feb 2011 15:28
BMW 320d touring - Hit in car park - newman

Thanks ID,

I posted a hit and run incident recently on this forum (car parked outside home, but neigbour did spot all the vital details of the car). I suspect the police and insurance would have been more prompt if I had the video evidence. Would give me less headache as it would have caught driver and damage to his own car.

I think I will be investing in one of these soon. I think these cams will become standard in the high end car market (some cars have cameras already mounted to interior mirror for lane keep assist and so on, so could be integrated easily?). Unless there is some legal problem with having cams filming other road users (afterall you are filming in a public place which I think is permissable?).

Regards.

Edited by newman on 19/02/2011 at 15:30

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