The day the car got banged...

I had an accident last week.  A motor car failed to stop at the STOP line, and rammed straight into the passenger side of my car.  Turned out the other party was a young girl, with a P-plate.  She was with 2 of her friends.  We came down and I told her that she should have stopped and check behind the STOP line.  She agreed and offered a private settlement.  Remembering W's experience, I refused, it's better to inform the insurance company.


The story is long, so to cut it short, I went to IDAC to file my report, told them I am claiming 3rd Party.  I got a verbal acknowledgement from the other party's insurance agent to go to my workshop to get the car repaired.  The workshop told me to get a written acknowledgement from the other party admitting liability.  Next couple hrs later, I received an sms from the other party telling me that they are not admitting liability.  Suffice to say, I spent some time worrying about this incident because the workshop had told me that should the other party disclaim liability, I would have to pay for all the repair costs.  Whether or not I take up a legal suit against them later would be another matter altogether.   I felt a certain amount of relief only when I got to know that there was a witness who saw the accident happening and can vouch that it was the other party's fault that caused the accident.

Anyway, thankfully, a few days later, the workshop informed me that the other party's insurance company will cover all the repair costs.  I have since then collected the repaired car from the workshop.

The one lesson I learned is to - do not move the cars from the accident site until you have taken all the pictures you can, at all angles.  Whenever possible, get witnesses who saw the accident taking place.  And if you can, get a written acknowledgement from the other party admitting that they caused the accident.

We all know these procedural steps.  But when the accident do happen to us (touch wood!), we are often at a loss what to do.