Fourteen years of trouble free driving.....

I don't see it this way at all, despite admitting it the driver in front is not at fault (although he/she is a plonker), neither are you as you stopped in time so obviously had enough distance between you. It is all the transits fault for not allowing enough distance between him and you.
As long as you can prove he shunted you he will get the blame.
At least it is better than the crash I was in years ago when I was parked at the side of the road in a line of parked cars reading a book waiting on the missus. Some idiot woman misjudged the space at high speed in front of me trying to park (god knows why she did it so fast) and rammed the front offside of my car, taking off her back bumper, bending her B pillar and scoring her car from the front to the back.
I was in a volvo so got away with a 2 inch scratch on my bumper She then decided to get her boyfriend and shout at me! I eventually won by threatening them with the cops and getting their details, must have been hard explaining that oine to the insurance company

[Rob Evans]

Whatever the eventual outcome is insurance-wise (for the record I don't think you've got anything to worry about), I'm glad you came out of it right side up. It must have been horrendous being in that position in the first place, but to be told I'd been put in a potentially life-threatening situation by some cretin who forgot which pedals to press would shit me right up. Shame the moron concerned will more than likely come out of the whole situation with his/her license intact, if not their no-claims. In an ideal world a magistrate would wipe his/her arse with the miscreant's driving license and flush it down the bog for good.

EDIT: Sorry, that probably hasn't made you feel a whole lot better has it

[Neil M]

Originally Posted by AirAssisted

Fourteen, crash free, driving years were brought to an abrupt end today

On my way to work, the car in front decided to brake hard for no reason what so ever!! Clear road ahead - no pedestrians - no animals - nothing but open road!!!!!

Slamming on my anchors (in a controlled manner) and steering away brought me to a nice stop .............. then the transit van behind me, hit me hard! It
pushed me forward, along the side of the car in front - damage to my car .... front bumper cracked, front wing shafted, both passenger side doors shafted, rear bumper shafted.

The van hit me right on the tow bar, so the chassis took the blow - what a racket!! It's still drivable, but will be a write off by the time the engineers do the sums! Damage to the car in front, minor to the drivers side bumper. Damage to the transit ..... front bumper shafted, radiator shafted, bonnet shafted! So the driver in front got off lightly, and I got the worst of it! Now all the fun and games begin with the insurance, endless letters and bullsh*t to follow no doubt.

On the bright side, I wasn't hurt and my 5 years no claims is protected, so I hopefully won't suffer a price rise at renewal time!

Just had to get that off my chest, its been a LONG day

Hi Ian....
Glad to hear no one was hurt...... you'd best get the Land Rover up to spec soon then!

Cheers
Neil

[NeilB]

I belive a few years ago in South Africa a Merc drove off a bad bend. The car bounced down the hill and was written off but the driver escaped unhurt. Merc thought this was a good advert for the saftey of their cars and used it in their campaign. BMW topped this by using the same bend but driving their car around it, thus proving their cars had better road holding and less chance of an accident. Land Rover had to go one better and drove a Range Rover from the bottom of the hill to the top and back onto the road....the logo was 'All the thrills and none of the spills.' Helped sell a few more RRs.

Glad to hear you are all OK. After 14 years the law of averages had to get you some time

Neil
Driving on roads where I am 10 times more likely to be killed than in Europe.

[Jules]

Ian

Glad to hear you walked away from it. That's the important thing; the rest is just bent metal and Paperwork.

Jules

[Allan Carr]

I had a similar accident a few years ago. There used to be a right turning on to the A1 southbound north of Stevenage. A car pulled out in front of me into the outside lane of the A1 down which I was travelling. Wet road surface but fortunately I have ABS brakes and I came within inches of hitting him as he accelerated away. The young girl behind was not so lucky (Fiat Panda - no ABS) and slid into the back of me. The idiot who caused the accident just drove off! The young girl behind me was held responsible. I felt really sorry for her.

Allan

[Helen F H]

Awwwwwwwwww Ian sweetie! Hope you jumped up and down and screamed and shouted a bit. We had a near miss when some dozy bint decided she had forgotten to buy eggs and did an emergency stop. Three cars written off and we just managed to miss it - which was lucky as we had the twins in the boot fresh from the dive shop.

Glad you are ok. xxxxxxx

[PeteM]

Originally Posted by AirAssisted

Get a load of this ..... they got out of the car and said .....

Sorry, sorry, I'm really sorry ..... I got the pedals mixed up and just panicked so I braked ????????????????????????

I was SO angry I couldn't even comment for fear of being taken away in a black and white!

I used to deal with motor claims a few years ago, here's my take on what will happen.

The cause of the accident is the person in front braking for no reason, difficulty will be in proving it. If you get luck they will write what happened on the claim form, but if they do the insurance co will probably load thier premiums for a few years for stupidity, so don't bank on it. Chances of proving they braked for no reason? Virtually none. All the rest of this post assumes they say "a dog ran out in front of me" or similar rubbish.

Person behind hit you, so they will be responsible for all rear end damage to your vehicle. Front end damage is a bit more complex, if you had hit the front car then it would be your resposibility (and incidentally it may be considered two accidents and therefore two excesses would have to be paid) but as you were pushed into it then it is all part of the same accident which the guy behind is responsible for. Technically the onus is on you to prove that it is one accident not two, however there is little point in the guy behind not saying what really happened because his no claims has already gone out the window so in reality it tends not to be an issue.

So you get your car repaired by your own insurance co, you claim the excess back from the guy behind, send a copy of the cheque to your insurance co (as proof that the other guy/insurance co admitted it was thier fault) and they treat you as if you had never had an accident.

If the guy behind is not insured then you get to learn why you pay the extra for protected NCD