Hit and Run

[Darren Sharp]

Dear Friends

Amy my immaculate Brown 1500 HL Dolly was parked O/S my house last night and was hit by a blue modern that failed to stop. She was fully prepared for the RBRR and is now a mess as she was hit hard from the R/O/S completely twisting the rear of the car and pushing it up the kerb and into my sons immaculate mk 2 Fiesta. I think that both will be written off but they are yet to be inspected. How on earth the offender managed to drive off is beyond me as to do this kind of damage they must have been travelling at least 20 MPH at the point of impact and there are no skid marks.

I will now be frantically looking for a replacement car for this years event as I cannot see AMY making a full recovery. If any one has a Triumph that could be pressed into reliable service please contact me on 01708 477309.

If I cannot find a car I am availiable as a paying 2nd/3rd crew member or can provide event support in my modern. I have done the last three and will be gutted if I have to miss out.

After the Insurance Co have decided AMY's future I may be in a position to offer some very nice spares to other club members, including the low mileage o/d drivetrain and some very good panels all of which were wax protected from new. The front wings are in very good order with very minor corrosion that could be easily and permanently repaired, as these are like rocking horse poo I have no intention of letting them go to the scrapyard.

Thanks

Darren

[Steve28]

gutted for you mate, ive gone through the same with a metro i had some years back.
mine was the first of 12 cars to be hit through the village eventually stopping when losing a front wheel.
suprise suprise he was drunk  fortunatly for me mine was repairable, the rest were scrap

[Darren Sharp]

Dear Steve

Thanks mate. Nice to see you have a 100aF2 I thought they had all gone. It was my dads first proper car back in 1977 ( I am not counting his Reliant Robin).

[Darren Sharp]

I have just finished sorting out the Fiesta. Amazing what you can do with a tow rope, and an imovable object (Fiat Ulysee). Tail gate shuts fine now and car is drivable it will need new bumper, Brackets, Rear fog light and a rear valence. Boot floor was only kinked by a couple of mm and has now sprung back. At least My boy will be pleased.

[Tim Bancroft]

Darren,

Keep us informed.

Shameful, good luck with all the bureacracy.

[npanne]

It seems that "failing to stop" is becoming more and more prevalent these days, and I can't help but suspect that it's driven, in part at least, by the insurance policies.

Don't get me wrong, I don't say this as any kind of defense for the people who do this, but I do think that there is something wrong with some policies which encourage this.

Policies now have massive financial incentives not to claim, in three main ways:
1) No claims discounts worth 60/70% reduction in premium costs, without which some premiums are simply unaffordable
2) Claim excesses of £500 or more.
3) Disproportionate premium hikes when you have a claim to declare.

All of the above should be justifiable costs that anyone should incur if they are at fault, but the extent to which they impact policies has reached the point where it encourages both leaving the scene of an accident, or not having insurance at all, and should be capped to prevent this.

[npanne]

Ps, it doesn't help that the lawmakers are so desperately out of touch that the average fine for being caught driving without insurance is less than half the average insurance premium for an under 25year old driver.

[Jason]

You do have to balance the cost of insurance with the cost of the average motor claim. I can pay a premium of £1000 but do £10,000 worth of damage in an instant. Cars are getting ever more complicated and expensive to repair whilst the market value of second hand cars is actually falling - insurers are therefore writing off more and more. Couple that with the personal injury aspect and the "inflation" that goes with it and I'm surprised that insurance isn't more expensive. "I've only had one claim and my premium's gone up to £2000" - hmmm how much was that claim? £3000 for your car, £5000 for his then there was his injury, only a small whiplash - oh so £3000 then. £11,000 claimed, £1000 increase in premium - as the American's say, you do the math.

It's not always like that and yes there are some shocking premiums out there to match the shocking drivers - I stumbled across one of those Police Camera shows last night and they were impounding and crushing cars for having no insurance, the criminal owners were getting fined £150 and walking away form their £500 cars - that's not punishment, that's good economic sense to these low life!

[npanne]

Premiums should be higher, but in order to keep the headline price down, the additional costs are instead rolled into the cost of making a claim. At first glance most people will think "fair enough, if you make a claim you pay a lot more, keeping the costs down for those who don't claim", but when this reaches the point where it encourages people to drive away from an accident then all that happens is that it gets tacked onto everyone's premium and we all pay anyway.

I believe that both NCB and claim exesses should be capped at a reasonable cost, not tiny, but low enough that people can actually afford to claim. The addition cost should be rolled into the premiums, and if people can't afford the premiums then the don't drive that particular car.

And the fine for driving without insurance should be based on the cost of a policy for that person (twice the annual premium?) to prevent the situation you mention.

[thescrapman]

Jason wrote:

- I stumbled across one of those Police Camera shows last night and they were impounding and crushing cars for having no insurance, the criminal owners were getting fined £150 and walking away form their £500 cars - that's not punishment, that's good economic sense to these low life!

Essex plod were running a sting last week in Colchester, guy in the office got a tug for no insurance. Crapped himself as he was in a courtesy car from a garage.

They had 4 or 5 transporters full lined up ready to go for whatever fate awaited them when he was there.

Were doing it all day apparently.

After waiting for 20 mins they said it was Ok for him to go, so they were actually being thorough and following up his explanation.

Cheers

Colin

[Reg Barton]

Definitely one to watch.  One of the small repair garages near me lent their courtesy car out to a customer.  A lorry went into the rear of it, and pushed it into the back of the car in front.  Now there is a HUGE row about the insurance cover. Last I heard, the driver is being done for no insurance and the repair garage for permitting driving no insurance.  Some large bills heading for people too - not just the legal position..... :(

[partsaver]

Sorry to hear about the incident.
Driving without insurance is punishable by a £200 fine, six points on your licence and the car gets inpounded, if you want to claim the car back the costs are £150 impound fess plus £20 a day storage you also have to produce you new insurance docs at a police station where they will check that you have informed your insurance co of the  six points you have 14 days to claim the car back or it will be sent to  a scrap yard or crushers or if the car is valued over a certain amount (set by the local police scheme) it can be auctioned by ebay or local auction house to pay for the inpound and storage costs, the remainder of eth money goes to the police crime fighting fund.

The reason the police now do it this way is to ensure the driver can not drive that car as befroe they would let you go with a producer tickets it also fress up a lot of court time which costs the tax payer monay and in court a drivers has a good chance of getting away with it or getting a lesser fine.