Totalled 996 advice please

:sad: So unluckyness has struck, after only a few months of ownership and only a few hundred miles driven a couple of kids have written off my 996. Driving along a country road in some places very tight for two cars. The van up ahead of me pulls up, I stop about 20 foot behind, immediately a golf fly's up infront Of The van, stacks it into the high verge to avoid the van, gets airborne and rebounds landing into the drivers side front corner of my stationary car. All airbags fire in his car, van drives off. The kid, 18/19 and his passenger are a little sore from airbags but not injured. I am fine, the 996 is totalled. The kid is insured, I get recovered on my insurance and get the car back home. Engineer reported a total loss today, kid driver is saying it's my fault, I assume he's going to try to get compensation even if it goes 50:50 he's going to get a payout? I took photos Of The accident scene showing positions of cars and damage to verge where he launched up it, but not the van as it went immediately. I'll try to post the photos later tonight, I have not given insurance these photos yet.. Am I just screwed? Any advice on this one chaps? Needless to say a dashcam is being bought for every car, would have saved much upset. I kind of feel disgusted by society that this is required. Maybe I'm just nieve in today's world.

Really sorry to hear this. Real shame the van drove off! How is this chump even trying to pass this off as your fault?

Sorry to hear your plight. At least everyone was okay. I assume the police came out to assess the wreckage? If so, I'm sure their crash investigation team will be able establish who hit what and where. Hope it works out okay for you and you get another 911 ASAP Good luck :thumb:

no cops, that would have worked also as he was blaming on the van at the time and they would have taken a statement

Really gutted for you.....losing your P&J. Then to add insult to injury they are now causing you stress and financial fall-out. I would argue your case. Did your air-bags fire, if not is that proof that they drove into you? However I know a few people who wanted to fight, but their insurance companies just went straight to split-blame......(easier and cheaper for the insurance company).......

See a solicitor and get his advice. A civil prosecution consideration letter may be the solution to jolt the kid. You have his reg number? DVLA will issue registered keeper on request from a solicitor (I think). You didn't get the police involved? If its a total loss, the only comfort might be if its on agreed valuation. If its not, start gathering evidence to support your loss value is greater than the insurance company's offer of market valuation.

Sorry to hear that. Did the Golf have a dash cam that could be used as evidence (can you see in your photo's)? Get it seized by police/insurers immediately! Was it a distinctive van? Would you recognise it again if you went to the same location at same time tomorrow night? Get them to give witness statement. Or do you think there was something dodgy that caused them to leave the scene? Good luck, Hope you don't get shafted. What does your insurance policy say about legal cover? I would think you have a good case, may be worth looking for a solicitor/lawyer. Think twice before putting photos on the forum. At the very least, ensure Reg plates are obscured.

no, didn't get the police involved, a mistake in hindsight. I have his name, address phone number and car reg. I could go and knock on his door I guess..

No expert here, but if the Golf was damaged on its side and underneath, but your car was damaged on top, it sort of points in the direction that he landed on top of your car :?: Don`t let him get away with it and don`t let your car go before it is resolved, I`ve been there and done that ( letting the car go after the solicitor said it was OK ) and persue him through the courts if need be :thumb:

Agree with Cheshire911. Police wont be interested. (Apart from a duty to report to police within 24 hours.) No one injured, and no independent witnesses to run a prosecution for careless etc. They won't be seizing any dashcams. This is why car insurance exists.... Small claims court for out of pocket expenses, loss of insurance excess etc. Do you have legal cover with your insurance? You may be able to get back any incidentals with that (?) The photo's you took should tell the real story. Presume there was a big gouge out of the verge / hedge etc? maybe his numberplate stuck in the hedge? Personally I'd like to go round the little s**t's house and throttle him on your behalf!!

So I've cropped the photos to chop number plate and my car etc you can see the gouge made by the golfs wheel as it launched up the verge, other shots show the damage to his passenger wing, again cropped for use here and the bit of my car that wont polish out

I don't want to scare monger but I guarantee you he will claim that the van was moving and gave him no room his only course of action was to swerve up the bank to avoid him. This is why the van driver didn't stop and buggered off. If he had a passenger in the golf he will also swear by that and with it being a narrow unmarked road his solicitor/insurance will plea knock for knock. It will be impossible for you to prove otherwise I feel. I hope I am wrong but your word against theirs isn't good enough and the van driver disappearing doesn't help your case at all as that in itself plays into their hands. It's amazing how their version of events will change once they have had time to give it some thought and most probably taken legal advice!

Yes, I'm sure that's what he's going to try, or say that van did not exist. But he was out of control ended up sideways across the road. I should have taken a video statement off him on the spot.

Very bad luck. Shame to have met such pond-scum in such a way. Dash-cams for all of us, I guess.

Same thing happened to my wife a couple years ago. Police refused to attend because no one injured. Single track, no witnesses. I had good photos showing parallel skid marks for about 20m, from other car, before the impact (my wife was already stopped) but insurance immediately went 50/50. We had legal protection but insurer declined to apply it because they had already decided it was 50/50. Our car 10k, the kids car 1k value. It was her 2nd total loss within 10days of passing her test! My question is, would video dashcam footage of the event make any difference to insurers or police????