In August 2006 I was a witness to a car accident on the way to work. From my point of view it was clearly one driver’s fault, as she simply drove into the back of the other car on a straight road in good conditions. Shortly before the accident, I’d backed out of overtaking her as she was drifting across lanes, and shortly after the accident she mentioned getting tired and being on tablets.
At the scene there was no doubt about the cause, but there were no recriminations as everyone was just glad that despite one decidedly bent car with a missing wheel, and another lodged in a hedge, everybody was more or less ok.
In the following weeks I was asked to submit an independent witness statement, and I found out that the at-fault driver had subsequently decided it wasn’t her fault, and that the car which had been driving straight down the inside lane was to blame for her driving into it. Tellingly, I wasn’t asked for a witness statement to support her version of events…
Anyway… to cut a long story short, I got a letter from the other driver the other day saying that, finally, the case had been settled in his favour, and that he had been cleared of any blame. It’s nice to see that justice has been done. It’s very nice to know that the other driver took the trouble to find our address (we moved earlier this year) to let me know how things turned out, and to offer his thanks.
Here’s a picture of the victim’s car taken shortly after the crash:
That Clio had been in crash, you say? I only question you because that’s what, in essence, Clio’s look like about 1 week after they roll off the production line.
I may have said this before but insurance companies force even the most obviously at fault drivers to say “Not me, Guv!”. I hear they don’t like to pay out on claims, you know.
Hmm, I suppose they do have an obligation to their shareholders, and paying out willy-nilly probably isn’t the best business plan. Considering the whole industry is basically a legalised, government-backed protection racket, I shouldn’t really be surprised when they attempt to drag their customers down to their own level.