So I managed to write off my mum's Honda Jazz on Sunday. There I was driving down the A9 from Perth when a deer runs out in front of me. I swerve, still hit it and spin across the carriageway. Next thing I know I'm in a ditch on my side resting up against a tree. Total write off. Thankfully I, and the group of boys from my church I was taking home from a weekend away, am unharmed. Not a scratch on any of us. This is my first ever accident so I don't know how long this is gonna take. I'm going to a gig in Edinburgh on saturday and I've got holidays booked at the end of July. Plus my mate and I run a hire job for sound and lighting and we as having to cancel our gigs because we have no transport. Does anyone have any experience with this who can tell me how soon we will be likely to get a new car? Are we talking weeks or months? _C
Well obvisouly it depends on your cashflow, if you've got the money you could buy one right now and insure it but if your asking how long it takes to claim off the insurence, well i don't know sorry it seems a good idea to me not to claim that is unless your on your parents or your fully comp. My ass is strictly 3rd party.
That's a real shame, at least you're all fine! A testament to modern safety. How was the deer? Not sure how long it's likely to take to get a new car - you might get a courtesy one if you've got pricey-enough insurance.
Deer was lying dead at the side if the road. Everything is insured by my dad. Unfortunately we would only get a courtesy car if it was getting repaired. Why wouldn't I want to claim? It is about 8 grand of damage. _C
Sounds a bit like an insurance company to me! You have no car, but it's totally broken, so we don't have to give you a courtesy car!
I don't get why people will massively endanger themselves and other road users, just for the sake of some deer / rabbit / squirrel / whatever. Sure if it's a big deer then hit the brakes!! far safer than swerving. But a rabbit or something is just gonna get squashed / knocked out....
I would NOT want to hit a deer at 70mph. They can weigh a lot (say 80kg), all of that weight is at windscreen level, coming towards you spiky antlers-first. Of course if you know the decision is between hitting a deer or hitting a tree, I'd probably take the deer out, but that choice is a luxury we don't normally have. Glad you're all OK
Unfortunately, it's far far easier said than done. When driving (especially late at night, or in the dark), and something suddenly appears in front of you, it's really quite hard to keep a cool head and just perform a nice old emergency stop. No matter how much training, lessons, pass-plus exams etc, most people will still have a brief moment of panic and swerve to the side instead.
depending on how much you haggle with them over the offer, (which will be crap btw) it could take anything up to a couple of months. i'm assuming the car was paid for in cash and wasnt on finance? of course if it was on finance, then the insurance money goes towards that and you have nothing, except maybe a bill for the remaining finance i had a motorbike stolen and the offer was actually decent and i got a cheque within a week. so it can be fast, depending on how good the insurance company is, the offer they make and if they need to have someone assess the car.
No.... my driving instructor always told me to just keep going if an animal appears I've hit a deer before, it left blood everywhere, but didn't physically hurt the car at all (corsa). I was breaking hard...
Gutted I think my policy will give me 28 Days of hire car if i manage to write it off, I had to pay £12 extra tho Maybe some deer sandwiches for the next few weeks?
Would the insurance really go up for that? some companies in Canada are advertising that for the first incident with something like this the rates wont go up. Guess it just depends on the company. I was driving home one night with another guy after we had finished rigging up an air system on a drilling rig and I noticed a slight reflection from our headlights. I yelled out dear just in time and the guy driving nailed the brake. We came really close to hitting the damm thing which was just standing in the road. One thing I hate about dear at night is that they dont reflect much light making them hard to see. Another time I was teaching my girlfriend how to drive a standard on a back road when a dear jumped out from behind a snow bank and ran across the road. I told her to stop the car even though it was safe to keep going. then I reached over and hit the horn. she yelled at me for doing it because she thought I was just trying to be mean to the dear. But after I did it about 5 more dear jumped out and ran across the road as well. Better for that to happen when we aren't moving compared to 50kph on a snow covered road. Moral of that story, its rare to see a dear alone, if you see one, you can bet there is at least one more.
it'll depend on age of driver, number of years driven, no claims bonus and any previous claims. if you have full protected no claims then it shouldnt go up much, if the claim loses all your no claims then it'll sky rocket.
Fair point but other people in this type of situation wouldn't want to as it would be more expensive to claim and pay the premium then buy a new car, luckily your its on your dads insurance i myself and lot of my mates have to pay over 1K a year untill we get our 1st year no claims even then its still a joke. I think alot of people living outside the uk don't realise the situation for UK younger drivers, we have to pay more for the insurance than the car sometimes lol Hope your ok though.
To be honest I'm glad I did swerve. My dad has known someone to be killed by a deer going through the windscreen! Now tell me what's worse, swerving and going off the road or stopping dead in a 70mph road after hitting it, bearing in mind there could well have been a 40ton artic behind me? _C
You wouldn't have stopped dead, you'd likely loose control after having a deer flung over your car (if your lucky) and end up the same ditch propping up the same tree thinking i really should have swerved. Nowt you can do in that situation but consider your self lucky no one was hurt, thats what insurance is for stuff can always be replaced, i know its a bugger with the hike in premiums but its still cheaper than replacing an 8k car plus you'd still be paying off its finance.
Pretty right on the first one and probably right on the second given the OP's age, though as rather older git they didn't increase mine to any measureable extent after I drove my old A6 into a tree nearly 2 years ago.
Well, normally (and i think this is global), insurance takes a while to pay out a write-off. normally what they try to do is stall you for as long as possible and then pay out at the end of the last-possible month (i.e. after you blow a gasket), thus still scoring interest on the money. Best solution (and this DOES work) would be for your dad (the insured) to call up, throw a good old fashioned tantrum (round here we call it a nazi tantrum - don't ask) and blow lots of smoke. Preferably in the insurance company's/branch's big bosses face... that normally gets stuff done quicker... remember: REALLY unhappy client = REALLY bad for business.
