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[steveg1968]

Hello

I am a solicitor who is presently representing the owner of a Vauxhall Omega who is being sued by the driver of a Ford Transit 8 seater minibus. The driver of the minibus is seeking to recover compensation in relation to alleged damage caused to the rear of his vehicle following an RTA, damage which the driver of the Vauxhall denies causing. The transit was fitted with a rear step at a height of around 15 inches and 9 inches in depth.

I am keen to get hold of some technical drawings of the front of a 2002 Vauxhall Omega in order to establish what components and ancilliaries on the front of the Omega would have come into contact with the rear step of the transit had the rearstep penetrated the front bumper/grille area as alleged. The driver of the Omega states that the impact was very minor and that the rear step only cracked the front grille ie did not penetrate and further.

Ideally I would have been able to instruct an engineer to inspect the Omega after the accident but unfortunately it was repaired prior to the litigation commencing.

I was hoping that one of the forum members might be able to assist me, before I contact Vauxhall directly.

Thank you

[feeutfo]

Is this a rear end shunt?

Would it not be possible to measure the grill v step height on an actual car?

Or even, your customers car?

[05omegav6]

I might be able to dig out some pics of the front end post 15 ish mph into the crash bar of a lorry, if of any use

The grill is about 5" in front of the next component, so any impact would need to be sustained or significant to do much more damage.

I have also hit a small deer at a speed of 60mph. This was enough to push the grill part of the bonnet back an inch or so without damaging anything else.

Both of the above were facelift cars, what age is the car in question as the front bumper/grill/bonnet arrangement is the only significant difference between the bodies of the pre and post facelift cars.

HTH, Al

[steveg1968]

Yes, this was a rear end shunt.

The information about the first component being around 5 inches behind the grille is precisely the sort of information that I was looking for but I will need to evidence it before a court, hence the request for technical drawings or similar.

I should perhaps have said that engineering evidence has been obtained by both parties and a joint report produced. omega examined post repair, transit not examined as scrapped (how very convenient!). Transit engineer says front bumper of omega may have ridden over rear step and damaged rear doors on transit (an unlikely scenario in my view!) My engineer agrees and says under braking front of omega would have dipped and therefore contact would have been with grille area and rear step and significant penetration of step needed for front bumper/bonnet on omega to touch rear bumper and doors on transit (around 9 inches) which would have caused damage to components/ancilliaries behind grille.

Thanks

[steveg1968]

http://is00.thegumtree.com/image/big/156448400.jpg

The omega was a 02 plate.

Above (hopefully) is link to picture of similar vehicle to that of omega driver.

speed of impact was around 10 mph by the way.

Thanks

[HockeyDave55]

Hi,
I have just measured the hight of my bumper.
Although the top of my bumper is 18.8" the bottom edge is at 12.65".
My car is lowered -35mm so that makes a standard car 20.3" and 14.15" respectively.

I have worked for some years in a crash test section of a large vehicle development company and in my opinion (and that is all it is) if I had a collision at a speed high enough to crack just the grill on my car, it would never be enough to damage the rear door on the mini bus.

For that to happen, I would think the Omega driver would have significant damage to his bumper, bonnet and lights.

This is of course just my opinion and I would suggest you try to find a helpful Omega owner with a car of the same build specification and take as many measurements and pictures as possible.

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

[05omegav6]

Pm sent apologies for the abrupt end to it  had a dog emergency to deal with so just hit sent, but you should get the gist