My mother had someone reverse into her car whilst on the Pacific Highway (NSW) near Chatswood.

Lkrimzonite on 23/11/2015 - 23:19

Hey guys been a lurker here for a while and and incident recently occurred where I could use some advice.

My mum and my cousin were recently involved in a small traffic accident where she was driving on the Pacific Highway near Chatswood where a van had missed its driveway on the far left side of the road and started reversing backwards whilst they were behind it in an SUV. Seeing as the lane to the right was very busy and was unable to change to the right lane (around 8pm on a Saturday night), my mum stopped on unbroken lines and hoped the van in front had realised there was a car that had stopped behind it waiting to change lane. However, the van kept slowly reversing without stopping and hit her vehicle.

A group of men and a woman came out of the van as we were exchanging insurance numbers the driver said 'you hit me' but she told the driver that if we were still moving the damage would have been much worse (Image) and afterwards they became quiet. At this time some people related to group of men in the van came out of the apartment they were trying to get into started discussing the incident with them and another third party had come out to see what had happened (they were trying to back out of the driveway in where the crash occurred). After 30 minutes, the driver told my mum that police rarely come to a small incident like this where nobody was injured so they drove home shortly after.

The day after she lodged a claim and the following Monday NRMA told her that the driver of the Van disputed the claim saying she hit them (this made my mum furious).
She is currently in the process of completing a NRMA dispute form. Is there anything we can do to ensure this issue is rectified?

Cheers,
krimzonite

Automotive

Comments

  • mrham on 23/11/2015 - 23:36

    Reverse lights? ie did you get a photo showing them on?

  • gooddealmate on 23/11/2015 - 23:36

    The guy is is reversing the wrong way on a highway while your mother is stationary…She'll win.

    • krimzonite on 23/11/2015 - 23:44

      Unfortunately since there were no witnesses we can't prove that.

  • Cheeper on 23/11/2015 - 23:38

    While the police will not attend a minor accident like that you can go to a police station and fill out a report. This can be handy later.
    Process the NRMA dispute form and leave it with them for now. Sometimes when both parties detail the incident in their own words the truth sneaks out.

    If you are stuck with the repair cost go and get more quotes but as a non insurance job, it should be cheaper.

    Any other witnesses? Any security cameras nearby?

    For the future… a dashcam is worth getting.

    • krimzonite on 23/11/2015 - 23:43
      +1

      Unfortunately there were no other witnesses nor security cameras near by.
      And yeah, I told her to get a dash cam the day after :P

  • suchislife12 on 24/11/2015 - 03:17
    +1

    Just a little insight into how this all works:

    About 45% of insurance claims end up with some form of disputed liability. Sometimes this is caused by a party in the accident deliberately deceiving or misleading their insurance company. Other times it's simply a different interpretation with no malice intended.

    In this case it almost appears certain they attempted to mislead their insurance company. Regardless there is no proof of that. It really depends on how good your insurance company is vs how good their insurance company.

    NRMA is fairly decent in this sort of situation. They know full well there is no viable chance they would win in court if they took this case to court. It would be hard to believe that someone would start reversing on the Pacific Highway and on the balance of probability the court would find your mum actually rear ended them. That's not to say I don;t believe you….it is clear this guy is trying to get away with no paying his excess. It is unfortunately how the system works.

    So what will probably happen here is that NRMA and their insurance company (if you could give a name that would be good) will make it an EBO claim. That is Each Bear their Own. NRMA usually doesn't charge an excess in this situation because they trust their customers and believe them whereas budget insurers will usually charge the excess. Neither has definitive proof to prove their case so with the minimal damage it's not worth taking to court.

    In the world there are some scummy dishonest people…unfortunately your mum just met one of them.

    P.s That looks like some heavy damage on your mums car….what car is that?

    • thepigs on 24/11/2015 - 09:54

      most of the time the pacific highway near chatswood is a carpark

  • tomleonhart on 24/11/2015 - 10:01

    I was on the same boat.

    Someone reversed into my car in a parking lot and later denied liability.

    Only when i threatened to take her to court did she admit liability to her insurance company.

    Unfortunately it's too late for you now but I recommend getting a dash cam. I did after going through our ordeal.

  • Geewhizz on 24/11/2015 - 11:44

    Am I correct in thinking that pic looks as though the centre of your Mum's car is well to the right of the centre of the van? It would seem that she'd have needed to be close to being into the next lane for her to have hit them there if she had driven into them.

    Are there any other pics?

  • kamilian on 24/11/2015 - 12:17
    +1

    Assuming your version of events is accurate…

    First I would try to locate the "third party" and see if they would make a statement regarding the location of the accident. It's not clear if this person was blocked by the accident or they just decided to stop on their way out to see what happened, however, if their statement shows the accident occurred at or past the driveway then it may be useful.

    Next I would try to establish that the van driver was trying to visit the other people in the apartment. The driver may have already admitted this in some way or you may need to contact the driver or the people they were visiting.

    If you can do these two things then it might add some weight to your version of events (or ideally get the other party to tell the truth)…

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