Absolutely Gutted

[BenLewisMav]

Well today is a sad day for me as after one and a half years+ of restoration and modifications, and only four weeks of actually having the car road legal and driving, it has been written off.
As I going up a road around a left bend a gentlemen decided to pull right across a main road out of his drive, causing me to slam on the brakes, lock up the wheels(no abs), clip the verge and slide sideways into him.
His mk3 golf seemed to come off much better, damage occuring to his wing, bumper and the corner of his door, the fc on the other hand.. basically the door, sill and roof took most of the impact, forcing the driver footwell to be a foot narrower than it should be and the door to cave in.
Pictures to follow.
 
Now its just a case of getting the insurance companies involved and the gruelling process of liability. He won\'t admit liability, as he is claiming that I was speeding and as a result he didn\'t see me coming. Long story short, an independant witness following me can confirm that is not the case, and the calculations worked out that I would have had to have been travelling in excess of 120mph for him not have been able see me.
 
Kind of gutting as I only just got back from driving to the Nurburgring, around it and back again, and its when i\'m driving up a sleepy little road back home that it all gets thrown down the pan. And I know he just doesn\'t care about his Golf.
Still kind of in shock I think but I know I\'m going to feel very bad when it sinks in..

[BenLewisMav]

This is how it looked before (but with a carbon fibre bonnet and the ride height sorted);

I\'ll get some photos up tomorrow of it current sad state... Still got about 500 build photos and massive progress thread I was going to write!

[John_Hudson]

gutting, least your still here to tell the story though dude!

[johnf]

I was involved in an accident that could be described a similar.

I didn\'t see a car coming at at cross roads, I was on the give way.

I pulled out and he braked and hit me broadside, wrote both vehicles off.

The only thing I could offer in my defence was that he was going well above the speed limit and didn\'t see him till it was too late.

I asked my insurance to have an engineer measure his skid marks and work out his speed.

They said that there was no point as I pulled out and it wouln\'d matter how fast he was gong, that was the end of it.

If the same rules apply to you, you should be ok.

Good luck.

John

[antnicuk]

sorry to hear this ben,  as long as you are ok.    the above usually applies unless the speeding driver has been convicted as a result of the accident for Driving without due care or similar.  Then the driver pulling out has an argument.

[RemarkLima]

Hopfully you should be fine.

But I did something very similar, had a trackday at Zanvoort, then a drive down to the ring and a few laps there, then back to Amsterdam for the weekend and then home, all in about 1000 miles of full on driving around Europe.

1 week later in sleepy old Cambridge and I get caught out by some damp weather and new tar seal on a roundabout, I should know better! I managed to understeer at about 5mph into a lamp post Gutted!

[TiddlesRX7]

Oh man. Gutted to hear this. Glad your ok thats the main thing. As above it is usually the case that the person pulling on to the road is to blame. Make sure you can buy the car back from the insurance company or remove the engine and all the other trick bits. At least then if you want to you can do it all again with a new shell.

[grinder]

mate - thats really bad news - i hope it all gets sorted quick and easy

as others have said - you walked away from it - and thats the good news

[Freddy]

That is a real shame to read, I do hope you get things sorted.

[FD3SNuttah]

Now its just a case of getting the insurance companies involved and the gruelling process of liability. He won\'t admit liability, as he is claiming that I was speeding and as a result he didn\'t see me coming. Long story short, an independant witness following me can confirm that is not the case, and the calculations worked out that I would have had to have been travelling in excess of 120mph for him not have been able see me.

it wouldnt matter if you was going 200mph. your not allowed to reverse onto a road thats got a higher speed limit than the one your coming from.

Also you had right of way so any way you cut it, that makes it HIS fault.

Everytime ive been a car thats been written off its cos someone has pulled out infront of us. (although had i been driving everytime we had an accident, I would have missed them lol)

Good luck with this mate, gutted you didnt get much time in the car. Maybe you can start again or perhaps buy a mint one?

Nas

[Prof]

Gutted man
 
Something similar happened to me a year ago in May, but luckily the car was repairable.  I\'m guessing from what you describe as the damage, this isn\'t the case for you
 
Make sure you get plenty of pictures of the damage to the cars, and also the road layout - helped me with my case - the chap that pulled out on me argued the same case - speeding - but the police attending the scene at the time told him that based on the skid marks I was at most 5 mph over the limit and had just come through a 60 into a 50 mph zone and they were satisfied no criminal action should follow - and he was a driver for the police college !
 
Hope you don\'t have to wait too long for this to all get sorted - but the all that work on the project - wasted by someones carlessness.

[S3TH]

Gutted dude... .

[Brett]

Thats awful  Hope it all pans out in your favour :wave

[MJG]

Absoloute wounder, as others have said you could\'ve been a gonner so be thankful for that! The sad thing is that even with a good insurance payout it\'s not going to pay you for all the time and effort and heart and sould you\'ve put into a restoration

Hope it works out well.

In the mean time... CRASH PICS! [/nosey].

[sadgoth]

that is such a shame, after all the work, still at least you are OK and that\'s the important thing. As has been said, as the other driver pulled out it is their fault end-of, but make sure you negotiate to buy back the salvage as you can at least get some of your parts back for a future project.