Two Car Crashes in Two Weeks is Too Much

April 27, 2006 at 4:08 pm (Car Crash, Mother's Day)

So…

I haven’t contacted a few people for a while now and I haven’t updated this blog, so apologies if you have heard me go on about this before (I’m guessing you haven’t). With my new car and new job and new everything… Things started to go funny a couple of weeks back – It’s a long read so get a cup of tea and we’ll begin…

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The follow paragraphs are details of the First Crash. This is word for word from the Statement given to the lawyers, insurance people and police.

At 2010 Tuesday 14th March 2006, I was driving my Smart ForFour Pulse registration LD05 BBO with my lights on towards Northwick Park Hospital, Maternity Ward. There was no rain, mist or fog. The weather conditions were dry. I had just serviced my car and all four tyre conditions were good.

After coming off the roundabout I indicated left going onto the slip road off Watford Road. The Maternity ward is located on the second road on the left after this slip road. I switched on my indicator light after passing the first road on the left (leading into the University of Westminster). The Driver at fault failed to slow down and stop at the clearly marked give way signs and continued to drive at a constant speed of approximately 20 mph into the passenger side of my car. The force of impact from the collision was strong enough to push my car into oncoming traffic as indicated in the diagrams. Witnesses on the road side saw sparks and momentum of the offending car (with, what seemed to me and other witnesses, passengers in front and rear seats) was heavy enough to cause my Smart car to rock violently to the right.

Both my passenger and I suffered concussion, having injured our heads on the car door windows. Fortunately I regained control of the car before causing any further damage with the vehicle in the oncoming road. Having applied the hand brake instinctively, I was forced to come to terms with the initial shock of the crash. Witnessing the crash, a witness first made sure of my safety in the vehicle – at no point do I recall the offending driver asking if my passenger or I had been injured. My passenger left the vehicle and I moved my car out of the way of on coming traffic after initially thinking the engine would not start.

Although I was still concussed, I parked my car on the pavement and inspected the damage to my car and saw a witness and my passenger Cindy So talking to the offending driver. Due to the nature of my intended journey to the hospital, I was also concerned for the patient I was due to collect. I approached the offending driver to ensure we exchanged details – she failed to provide her contact address, and make, colour and model of her car. She admitted fault twice while I was there that she “didn’t see the lights” confirming her lack of observations to see my car despite my lights.

Viewing her car position, she was clearly across the give way road markings and her passengers switched on lights to help confirm this.

I was forced to leave the Hospital since I had a patient waiting on the side of the road becoming anxious of safety as well as potentially their own. I didn’t call the police at the time despite the fact that she may have just come from potentially drinking at the University of Westminster Student Union

I reported the incident to the police – ref. P2804117 and called the offending driver to obtain the remaining details. The offending driver refused to give missing details and passed the call to her father who also refused to give any further details. My car was declared unroadworthy and due to extent of the damage to the door, my car window could not lower and was susceptible to break-ins as it couldn’t close properly.

I was forced to go to Accident & Emergency, St Peters Hospital Chertsey on the 16^th March due to continuously increasing pain. Back pains and pain in my legs cause discomfort when sitting for any period of time (at work and in the car). My wrists hurt while driving and while at a computer at work. The doctor said that the pain will get increasingly worse over a period of three to four weeks and my pain needed stronger painkiller than just paracetamol. I was prescribed Voltarol, normally used for pain in patients with a form of arthritis affecting the joints of the spine. at approximately 2300 in

The first inspection of my car revealed that the offending driver damaged the passenger’s side of my car (left). There were marks on both doors including the frame of the car. Please see pictures and garage workshop reports. This was also reported to my insurance company and Centurion who are third party since I am not at fault.

I was forced effectively to have 3 days of work time lost to dealing with pain and recovery, chasing claims and dealing with Hire Vehicles.

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The follow paragraphs are details of the Second Crash

Date of Crash: Sunday, 26th March 2006
Location: M3 Poles Lane before Winchester Service station
Registration Number: BT05
Driver: Justin Rubio
Passengers: Kitty So, Cindy So

At approximately 1600 I was travelling Northbound on the M3 in the middle lane. The weather conditions were very wet and raining quite heavily. There was quite heavy traffic, more cars on the middle and fast lane. The traffic in front slowed down from 40 mph to 10 mph. The cars were 2 to 3 metres apart from each other. Before my car came to a stop I put my clutch down and changed to first gear. I was about to get ready to pull the hand brake as soon I would come to a stop, when the red car behind us R305 VOV failed to notice all the other cars in traffic stopping and drove squarely into the back of our car at an estimated speed of 40 mph.

The force of the impact push my car forward (hitting the car in front) To avoid serious accident and major damage to the cars, I veered right colliding with two cars in total (a diagram went here). I came to a stop by putting on the brakes.

I called 999 and reported the accident immediately.

A witness, Mr Mills, helped all parties involved to pull over to the hard shoulder, while other witnessing cars drove away.

Police and Ambulances arrived approximately 20 mins after it was reported.

Details were exchanged; police verified the state of the car as driveable; NHS recorded details of parties involved. Anna Lawton confirmed liability which was later verified by her insurance agency.

Since I was injured from a previous accident my pain and injuries were exacerbated.

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And there you have it… Well sorta… there are pictures and diagrams and stuff, but it really does get a bit boring after a while…

Anyway… an exciting two weeks… plus loads of Painkillers that induce diarrhoea and worrying stuff like that…

Since this is my inbox and my blog rolled into one (lazy guy that I am) stories might have been “re-told” some where along the lines…

I hope all is well so far in 2006