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[jereboam]

Last July, two hours into my holiday, and 45 minutes into an M25 traffic jam, I mysteriously ran into the back of the car in front.  In the absence of any other explanation, I assume that I momentarily dozed off at the wheel.  The towing hook of the car in front went through my passenger side fog light, damaging part of the chassis and the bumper was wrecked.       

As I had caused some damage to the two cars in front of me, I had to go through the insurance, and it was decided that the car was an uneconomic repair.  The car was duly written off, I bought it back, acquired the parts needed from OOF, and got the car repaired for a couple of hundred quid.

Two days ago, on my hols once more, I had the misfortune to hit a dog which was running loose on a dual carriageway.  I was doing about 60, the road was empty and the dog was more or less the same colour as the road surface.  I was able to take evasive action, but the dog panicked and turned back straight into my path. 

The outcome of all this is that the front of the car has been wrecked once more. 

The police officer attending the incident told me that the dog owner was ultimately responsible for the behaviour of his pet, and that if he had pet insurance, it would be worth pursuing the matter.  I decided immediately that if he didn’t have appropriate insurance, I wouldn’t pursue a claim.  But somehow, I didn’t fancy phoning this bloke up and saying “Hi, I just slaughtered your doggy, how about forking out £1500 to fix my bumper?”.   So I reported the incident to my insurance company and got them to phone up.  The bloke said he had no pet insurance – well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?

I’ve managed to find a replacement bumper at a local breaker’s yard – excellent condition, but blue, not black.  My brother-in-law is going to help me fit it in the morning.

What a b****y nuisance!

[Brikhead]

Thats bad luck for both you and the dog, and to think my old bumper killed the poor mutt...

Hope all goes well with the rebuild tomorrow!

[Vamps]

Last July, two hours into my holiday, and 45 minutes into an M25 traffic jam, I mysteriously ran into the back of the car in front.  In the absence of any other explanation, I assume that I momentarily dozed off at the wheel.  The towing hook of the car in front went through my passenger side fog light, damaging part of the chassis and the bumper was wrecked.       

As I had caused some damage to the two cars in front of me, I had to go through the insurance, and it was decided that the car was an uneconomic repair.  The car was duly written off, I bought it back, acquired the parts needed from OOF, and got the car repaired for a couple of hundred quid.

Two days ago, on my hols once more, I had the misfortune to hit a dog which was running loose on a dual carriageway.  I was doing about 60, the road was empty and the dog was more or less the same colour as the road surface.  I was able to take evasive action, but the dog panicked and turned back straight into my path. 

The outcome of all this is that the front of the car has been wrecked once more. 

The police officer attending the incident told me that the dog owner was ultimately responsible for the behaviour of his pet, and that if he had pet insurance, it would be worth pursuing the matter.  I decided immediately that if he didn’t have appropriate insurance, I wouldn’t pursue a claim.  But somehow, I didn’t fancy phoning this bloke up and saying “Hi, I just slaughtered your doggy, how about forking out £1500 to fix my bumper?”.   So I reported the incident to my insurance company and got them to phone up.  The bloke said he had no pet insurance – well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?
I’ve managed to find a replacement bumper at a local breaker’s yard – excellent condition, but blue, not black.  My brother-in-law is going to help me fit it in the morning.

What a b****y nuisance!

Bad news....   Household insurance also covers dogs....
I have insurance for our dog and a couple of months ago she was involved in an incident which damaged a car, very very slightly. Well that night she came with the car and husband, I immediately accepted liability, gave them the details of a car repairer and said I would cover all costs....... I rang my insurer and logged a claim...........never heard back from them, strange, very strange.............

[jereboam]

And another thing or two or three...

I'm stuck halfway up a Welsh mountain in a stone house where they've never even heard of computers, let alone the internet. 

There's barely any mobile network coverage, so I am sitting on the b****y window ledge, cos that's about the only place I can get any T-mobile signal and  that's intermittent.  Heaven alone knows how much this is costing, as I can't get through to the network
at all with a voice signal to ask them.

This laptop has a faulty disc, so it blue screens at random intervals, and the battery lasts a whole 6 minutes if the thing isn't plugged into the wall.

My wife and her parents are getting on my nerves, and they watch absolute crap on the TV, so I end up sitting on my own in the kitchen.

Holidays? Don't talk to me about holidays!

Got to log off - cramp from sitting on this ******* perch.

[pscocoa]

In 1978 I hit a bull on the East Lancs road which damaged my Austin 2200 6 cyl.

I turned up the Animals Act and challenged the farmer who after a frosty start was actually ok about it and paid the repair costs. Suggest you take up with dog owner - he is responsible pet insurance or no pet insurance

[cem_devecioglu]

sadly, all bad news

[omegod]

Bad news mate, damaged car and imprisoned with the inlaws but at least you are all ok.

You could go through the small claims court but these are the cases you don't tend to winalot......I'll get my coat 

[Osprey]

Sorry about the accident - what a PITA!

The dog owner is indeed totally responsible for your costs.  If he had been in control of his pet it would still be alive today, and so would your bumper. 

If the same damage had been caused by an uninsured car driver, wouldn't you be recovering your costs from him personally?  Small claims is easy and stress-free, and I think you do tend to winalot  (sorry omegod).  Got a deposit back from a dodgy landlord before the trial date. 

[jereboam]

Home again!

As you might have inferred, I was getting a bit ratty last night.  But things improved today.  By the time my brother-in-law arrived, I'd managed to get the old bumper off (almost) - one fixing left to remove.  He made short work of that, and we set about fixing the replacement on.  Got it all done but for two securing screws on the lower corners and one of the bolts underneath.  Didn't matter too much about the end screws - we should have put them on first - because the whole thing has to come off again to be resprayed.  And the difficulty with the other bolt was that the bodger who fixed the bumper last year used a big self-tapper which was ripped out in this year's collision.  The brother-in-law had forgotten to bring his big box of miscellaneous screws with, so he had to go home for it while I put all the other bits back on and stripped the fog lights off the old bumper.

So we got the whole lot back together in a couple of hours, except we forgot connect up the fog lights, but as I said, it's all got to come off again anyway.  Good bloke, my brother-in-law!

Drove back - Cwmbran to Ipswich via M42 - took about 4 hours 20 minutes to cover 255 miles - not too bad at all.  Only got on wrong road once - must be a record for us.

Biggest problem now is that the wife likes the dark blue metallic bumper more than the shiny black on the rest of the car...

[jereboam]

The police officer attending the incident told me that the dog owner was ultimately responsible for the behaviour of his pet, and that if he had pet insurance, it would be worth pursuing the matter.  I decided immediately that if he didn’t have appropriate insurance, I wouldn’t pursue a claim.  But somehow, I didn’t fancy phoning this bloke up and saying “Hi, I just slaughtered your doggy, how about forking out £1500 to fix my bumper?”.   So I reported the incident to my insurance company and got them to phone up.  The bloke said he had no pet insurance – well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?
I’ve managed to find a replacement bumper at a local breaker’s yard – excellent condition, but blue, not black.  My brother-in-law is going to help me fit it in the morning.

What a b****y nuisance!

Bad news....   Household insurance also covers dogs....
I have insurance for our dog and a couple of months ago she was involved in an incident which damaged a car, very very slightly. Well that night she came with the car and husband, I immediately accepted liability, gave them the details of a car repairer and said I would cover all costs....... I rang my insurer and logged a claim...........never heard back from them, strange, very strange.............

Thanks for pointing that out.  When I started thinking about it after I posted the story, I wondered whether that might be the case.  Most household policies include personal liability cover, often running to £10m, so I don't think a few quid for a bumper would have been a problem.

But I got the whole lot fixed for for £50 plus whatever it costs for the headlight surround strip, plus a can of paint - unlikely to be more than £100 total.  And it's done now, so I don't have to muck about with insurers and paperwork and courts, which is easily worth the £100

[jereboam]

Bad news mate, damaged car and imprisoned with the inlaws but at least you are all ok.

You could go through the small claims court but these are the cases you don't tend to winalot......I'll get my coat 

That's in very poor taste

[jereboam]

Thats bad luck for both you and the dog, and to think my old bumper killed the poor mutt...

Hope all goes well with the rebuild tomorrow!

Funnily enough, it wasn't your bumper that got shredded.  When the local bodger who fixed the car last year did it, he recommended re-using the old one and cannibalising yours to provided the fixing lugs damaged in the accident.  Having looked at what he did today while replacing the bumper, I can't really see why he opted for that solution - he must have had the whole lot off to replace the severely damaged reinforcement bar behind the bumper.

So the greater part of your bumper is sitting in my garage, unsullied by fragments of deceased dog.