Car Crash....legal & driving tution questions please
 

Thank goodness the DSC is the font of all knowledge and don't mind any manner of questions......right???

Details:
Wednesday of this week my wife managed to roll the car that we have only had six months, down a 20ft grass embankment.

Apparently, she was avoiding an animal that had ran out from the side of the dual carriage and at the same time a gust of wind made her over-steering. She was trying to avoid going into the central reserve barrier and over-corrected, then thinking she was safe going towards a grass verge relised too late there was a BIG drop-off on the other side.

Thankfully she is OK with only cuts and brusies but, she is not yet fully recovered from the last write-off (that was not her fault).

There is onr question that does not sit too well with me but it has been suggested. It is a quite windy stretch of road (so much so that windmills have been errected not too long ago). Almost all the other incline/embankment stretches of road have had barriers installed on the nearside - EXCEPT - yep you guess the few hundred feet of road where my wife went off.....so the question was asked "can the council be held negligent in any way ????" Dunno !

Two - extra driver training....who?

My wife is now going to be VERY nervous about getting behind the wheel of ANY car again. So are there any good defensive / accident avoidence courses or schools that anyone knows of. I dont think an advanced driving course is what required, and my wife wouldn't like that type of course anyway, I feel.

What she does need to know is how to avoid accident and steer and brake correctly in emergency circumstances.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is some kind of miracle that your wife escaped with just cuts and bruises from THAT !!!!!!!

First and foremost, please send mine and dave w's best wishes to your wife !

That must have been the most horrific experience to go through.... the pictures made my blood run cold !!

As for the legal side, I am no boffin, but surely there must be some arguement to the case of safety barriers at that spot !

It must surely be negligence.... what if it was a biker.... a 16 wheeled lorry... anything in fact ????

I would seriously pursue this with all your might..... thing could have been VERY different !!!

Helen x

A lucky escape I feel.....
 

......good luck to you both.

Tim:frog:

Thanks Helen,

Will pass on your kind regards.

Sadly, I'd just come off a first night shift and had about 3 hours kip when my wife rang and said she'd had a little 'accident'.

When I finally saw the state of the car I simply sat down as cried as I couldnt believe she was really Ok and that we'd only had the darn thing 6 months after searching for a 'good' car for a couple of months.

Ironically, we paid extra for this Honda because it had side airbags as well.

Neither of the side or main air bags went off at all. The police were not too surprised but given the condition of the car, I certainly was.

Thank you - Frank

I showed Dave the piccies.... His first words were... Thank god it was a Honda Civic !

I asked why.... Apparently the Civic came out tops in some recent crash safety tests.... ( think it may have been Euro ncap... not too sure though )

Just a thought...... Try e mailing those pictures to Honda UK and asking why the side airbags didn't activate when the car is so badly damaged !!!....... I would love to hear how they wriggle out of that one !

I find it inexcusable that the bags didn't fire !

In an accident like this, we always try to apportion blame on somebody...... I have always been a great believer in fate and it obviously took a hand on Wednesday !

I am not surprised you broke down in tears !

I hope that your wife regains her confidence about driving.... I know it sounds tough, but I think time is of the essence.... she needs to get back behind the wheel asap..

I am waffling now...

I'll shut up :)

I think the airbags need some sort of declerative or impact force before they will activate. Presumably a roll down a grass bank is rather more gentle that hitting someone head on.
Re negligence from the council, i think you should take advice. However they dont have a legal duty to grit the roads if its icy so i would suspect they dont have any duty to provide crash barriers etc.

Lucky lady though!

The rock hopping type is correct...airbags are designed to activate only when the impact comes in at a predetermined force from a certain direction - usually you hit something head on or for side airbags, you have an impact which comes into the side.
The impact the car would have detected here would actually have been a roll and unless the airbags are designed to protect you in such a crash, like the curtain bags in T5's for instance ( don't ask how I know this, but it wasn't me :lol: ), then they will not activate for fear of actually causing injury to the occupants.

Now to the car..... that is one very well designed passenger cell... once you get the payoff, go and buy her another one.

As regards the lack of crash barriers, again I agree with Paul. To make a successful bid for compensation here, you would need to provethat the Council / Highways Authority were aware that there was a substantial risk of this type of accident occurring at this site and that they then went on to ignore that risk - mission impossible I think but with todays state of litigation, you'd be daft not to try!

Training / confidence building - try these guys, they are good..... Ride Drive

They run a number of courses, one of which will more than likely suit, or they should be able to work something out to deal with the specific needs you have.

I'm not personally connected with the company, however I know a few of their Instructors, many of whom instruct people like me whe I took my Police Advanced car course.
Not the cheapest, but I think one of the best.

Hope that all goes well on the recovery / getting over the shock front.

Cheers

Andy

Many thanks everyone,

We have just had the assessor ring and confirm the car is 'beyond economical repair' (shock). He is also offering us more than we actually paid for the car so I think we'll take it and put the extra towards next years insurance hike!

He did confirm that the side air bags are normally less 'sensitive' than the front main bags to prevent someone being deflected towards the windscreen.

Essentially for the side bags to inflate there needs to be a major impact into the passenger space (eg when another car hits from the side).

Yes - I think Honda did win a Euro ncap award for the Civic and my wife has already mentioned going for a drive in another one on the basis that it has saved her from major injury this time.

On reflection I think any claim against the council is flawed / too expensive to persue but, I think I will write to them letting them know my thoughts, as Helen mentions, what if it was one of us on a bike!!!! Not that a metal barrier would be any more friendly than an Evel Kanevil impression.

Cheers - once again - Frank

OMG! Sorry to hear about this frank, but really glad to hear she is okay.

To say that she had a "little accident" and to already be saying that she wants to go for a drive in another civic makes her sound tougher than you make out! Sounds like a top lass (not to mention the being kind to animals!).

A friend of mine also had a big accident in a civic which she walked away from with minor scratches. They are tough buggers and great to drive.

Glad to hear your wife is fine Frank, sounds a nasty experience.


Chris. :roll: