9 April 2013

What are you doing, Canberra drivers?

| ArthurianFish
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Yesterday afternoon (08.04.2013) at around 2:30pm, I was t-boned driving home from work along Barry drive by what I now know was a stolen car on the intersection of Boldrewood street.

After pulling over to the median strip, assuming said car would also pull over, the driver swerved out and sped up along Barry drive and took a left down Clunies Ross street. Not a single person stopped to check on the car that was just hit directly on the driver’s side door by someone who fled the scene.

Not one of the multiple cars behind, in front of, next to me or on the other side of the road checked to see if I was alright or whether or not I was even still alive. Obviously I am, but not a single person pulled over to check, or, more importantly at this point, to offer themselves as a witness to the very obvious crime just committed in front of them.

I was struck by a stolen car driven by somene who fled the scene, and am now in the process of getting nothing from my insurance company, I will have an incredibly hard time getting anything out of anyone unless this man is caught, and if just one person had stopped to provide a witness account of what had just happened, I would be in an infitely better position than I currently am.

So please, anybody that was on Barry drive and saw a small blue Hyundai i30 hit by a stolen black Lexus, come forward and help me at the very least get my car fixed. I’m a student working in a supermarket, and I can’t afford to pay for it out of pocket, so please come forward. Leave me a comment, send me a private message with your email or phone number, any way to get in touch with you and help get this sorted would be incredibly useful.

To anybody that reads this, next time you see an accident – minor or major – pull over. Check on the driver, offer a witness statement, call the police and report it to them. Don’t just drive on, or slow down and gawk.

Pull over and offer help in any way you can. I sat and waited in my car, by myself, on the side of the road for almost 30 minutes before another person came and asked if I was okay, and that was only because I had called the police and someone was sent to check on me.

I don’t expect miracles, I don’t expect people to do stupid things on busy roads, but there was no reason that someone couldn’t have pulled over into the blocked off lane like I had to. So please, please, have a little care for everybody else on the road. You may be a little late to wherever you’re going, but it would have made a huge difference for me.

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The number of absolute fcuktards on the road is approaching epidemic proportions.No question the cab drivers are copping it from some passengers every Friday/Saturday night.Recently i pulled up next to a taxi at Nat Library traffic lights and a bald headed,bare-chested arsehole resembing ‘fat bastard’ jumped out of the front passenger seat and ran to my right rear door and attempted to jump in my car.My doors were unlocked so i gunned it through the red light to avoid having a physical confrontation with someone almost twice my size.Could you imagine if this happened to a woman who was alone in the car,how terrified would she be?

IrishPete said :

“Unfortunately, it apparently doesn’t work that way… That’s more or less what I thought, but I can’t make a claim against the person it was stolen from because the police can’t give me any details on them, so all I know is their license plate.”

And this was repeated in different words a bit later on.

It’s not “can’t”, it’s “won’t” give you the information. Sub poena the information. Go into the Magistrates Court and ask how, or get a solicitor to do it for you. Or just tell the police that you are going to sub poena it and it may magically become available to you. (It’s probably not officially called a sub poena in Australia, but we see so many American law shows I figured you’d recognise the term.)

IP

To the OP: Please don’t follow that advice. It is a waste of your time. You can get all the info you want from a simple FOI request, which is easy to do and cheap.

ArthurianFish, you may or may not be awear but that lexus has been parked/dumped at the ANU, at the carpark on Daley Road across the road from johns college. it has been in the same position for weeks with front end damage on the right hand side (i think it was).

Hope this helps

Day by day, I see more and more reasons to buy a dashcam….

In the past I stopped at accidents and offered assistance, however this stopped after I was pushed over by a angry driver that mistook me for the person who hit him.

I saw a car get clipped on a roundabout on the way to Gungahlin one Saturday afternoon, the car that was hit pulled over so I turned around further up the road and came back down and parked next to him. I hopped out to go and offer assistance as a witness and the guy jumped out of the car ranting at me. I didn’t even have a chance to speak and he pushed me, knocking me down on my bum on the ground. He thought I was the person who hit him. I then told him I was travelling behind him and saw what happened and was coming back to help. He realised his mistake and apologised, but I just said forget it and jumped back in my car and left.

Last time I ever offered to help someone.

“Unfortunately, it apparently doesn’t work that way… That’s more or less what I thought, but I can’t make a claim against the person it was stolen from because the police can’t give me any details on them, so all I know is their license plate.”

And this was repeated in different words a bit later on.

It’s not “can’t”, it’s “won’t” give you the information. Sub poena the information. Go into the Magistrates Court and ask how, or get a solicitor to do it for you. Or just tell the police that you are going to sub poena it and it may magically become available to you. (It’s probably not officially called a sub poena in Australia, but we see so many American law shows I figured you’d recognise the term.)

IP

Car insurers don’t offer homogeneous products—even if they seem to. Some allow buyers to reduce their excess in exchange for higher premiums. I happen to know that Westpac does, only because I’m hunting around for car insurance ATM. I think the insurer is underwritten by GIO.

tim_c said :

Yes, in an ideal world we’d track down the criminals and make them pay, not just the excess but the full repair bill. It would be a good disincentive against re-offending – and the community wouldn’t have to pay for every miscreant who happened to lean a little too far to the left and get a bit envious of your nice shiny car.

Those damn lefties. Always in the way of the Ideal World.

sarahblaec said :

Yes, the insurer did what they were meant to. They were very helpful and the repairs were taken care of promptly so I didn’t have any issues there, luckily. I do still feel the system is a bit unfair though (and before anyone points it out, I do realise life isn’t fair, I’m just saying the system could perhaps be improved)…

Yes, in an ideal world we’d track down the criminals and make them pay, not just the excess but the full repair bill. It would be a good disincentive against re-offending – and the community wouldn’t have to pay for every miscreant who happened to lean a little too far to the left and get a bit envious of your nice shiny car.

FioBla said :

Unfair, but seems like in your case the insurance system did what it was supposed to.

Yes, the insurer did what they were meant to. They were very helpful and the repairs were taken care of promptly so I didn’t have any issues there, luckily. I do still feel the system is a bit unfair though (and before anyone points it out, I do realise life isn’t fair, I’m just saying the system could perhaps be improved). I’d be OK with paying slightly higher premiums if it meant repairs could be claimed without an excess in cases where you are not at fault and the at-fault party can’t be found/can’t be caused to pay.

sarahblaec said :

Wow. If nothing else, this incident proves that there is something [i]seriously wrong with our insurance system[/i]. Someone who is obeying the law is hit by a STOLEN car, and although it’s in NO way their fault, they have to pay for it. That’s not really fair, is it?

A few years ago, my car was vandalised while parked at home. Despite me being fully insured, I had to pay a $750 excess to get the car repaired. On the plus side, my insurer gave me a rental while my car was being fixed. That was vandalised in the same way three days later. Same story again – another $750 excess. So I spent $1500 on insurance excesses in one week, because some idiots thought that smashing up cars was fun. It seems rather unfair that law-abiding citizens have to pay for someone’s criminal behaviour because we are unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Unfair, but seems like in your case the insurance system did what it was supposed to.

Wow. If nothing else, this incident proves that there is something seriously wrong with our insurance system. Someone who is obeying the law is hit by a STOLEN car, and although it’s in NO way their fault, they have to pay for it. That’s not really fair, is it?

A few years ago, my car was vandalised while parked at home. Despite me being fully insured, I had to pay a $750 excess to get the car repaired. On the plus side, my insurer gave me a rental while my car was being fixed. That was vandalised in the same way three days later. Same story again – another $750 excess. So I spent $1500 on insurance excesses in one week, because some idiots thought that smashing up cars was fun. It seems rather unfair that law-abiding citizens have to pay for someone’s criminal behaviour because we are unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

OP, I’m saddened to hear that no one stopped to make sure you were OK (I’d love to know what excuse all those witnesses gave themselves for not stopping), and I hope a witness comes forward so this can get sorted out for you.

Assuming the stolen car had comprehensive insurance (or even third party property insurance), I’d have thought that should cover any damage caused by that vehicle, including if stolen. For example, if someone steals my comprehensively insured car and crashes it into other vehicles and damages them, I expect it would be my insurance that would be paying for the damages (or possibly me if I didn’t have insurance?). I’m not sure how you’d go about actually following this up though given that Mr Plod doesn’t seem to be particularly cooperative (I’m assuming you at least got the registration number of the car that hit you) – you’d have to talk to your insurance provider to find out what’s required in this instance (surely you’re not the first person to be in this situation).

Even if the Police can’t give you details about the stolen car (which I’d be asking more questions about), they should be able to give them to your insurer for the purposes of recovering their costs.

Other than that, life is unfair, and there are risks to driving on the roads – even if you do everything that’s right and responsible (including having third party insurance for people that you might bump into), it doesn’t mean everyone else will, and often this impacts adversely on innocent victims. There are a lot of people out there who were merely going about their lives when they are severely injured (and face months of ‘repair’ surgery, and maybe never live normally again) or even killed by a collision caused by a drunk driver. You might be out of pocket, but you can be very thankful you’re weren’t critically injured or killed.

I self-insure my teeth. I suppose if I ever am unable to afford to fix *potential* root canals (which are *potentially* expensive), I should remove all teeth.

I still have parents. I suppose if I lived in a country without Medicare, and couldn’t afford to pay for *potential* health crises or accidents (which are expensive), I should disown them. Or put them up for adoption.

Victim-blaming: much easier with Capt Hindsight.

ArthurianFish9:06 am 11 Apr 13

Genie said :

2. As a male driver with a license for less than three years and under the age of 25, that $70-80 you paid for comprehensive insurance isn’t really all that much more than I pay for third party. If I were going to be paying that little, of course I would have sucked it up and dealt with that, but my insurance s considerably more expensive and, most importantly, I didn’t do it, hindsight is a bitch and I quite obviously regret not having comprehensive. You don’t need to keep pointing out that I should have had it. After all, at the very least I’m decent enough to have insurance at all, which puts me above some.

FYI.. At the time I was unemployed.. I was 26 yrs old… Age only comes into factor with excess… I shopped around for the cheapest deal. Which was with GIO. Almost half the price of AAMI and NRMA.

I was also insuring a $30k car.

When you’re talking about something of this value.. You find the money to insure it.. Or don’t have it..

(I have the same opinion of people with home and contents insurance… If you can afford a shiny new tv or computer etc… Pay for adequate insurance)

Which means you weren’t a 22 year old male driver, right? Under the age of 25? When premiums AND excess are quite heavily influenced by age and gender? Just, y’know, FYI. Sure, if I’d bumped up the excess so that I was paying something like $3k in excess, I would have been able to afford my premiums. I wouldn’t have been able to afford to actually use my insurance, so that doesn’t really work. But whatever, details, amiright?
I have never had an at fault accident. I did not have an at fault accident this time around. I was t-boned by a stolen vehicle, which fled the scene. This is not my fault in any way. Nothing I did should have resulted in me being in a potentially lethal car accident. I have always made sure I had enough insurance to, at the very least, cover anyone I hit. So you can take your smarmy, arrogant absolutely useless opinions, advice, whatever you want to call it, and shove it up your fucking arse because I clearly did not have comprehensive insurance, I quite obviously wish I did because I was hit by a STOLEN car and am now more or less completely screwed and I am just so damn over being told by complete wankers, like yourself, that it’s my bad for not having the right insurance. Sorry I was decent enough to make sure that if I ever ran into somebody like you, you wouldn’t have to pay for the damages! That was a really stupid thing for me to do.

Oh, and I’m honestly not sure whether or not my TV or computer is covered by insurance or not, sooo… Shove it.

While the OP not having comprehensive insurance falls into the basket of “learning the hard way”, Its clear that there is a loophole for insurance companies to not pay anything when its not your fault.
Obviously the police can supply a report stating the car was stolen. Seriously the driver who stole the car is unlikely to be able to pay for the repair of the OPs car so it really looks like a bit of passing the buck. Of course on the other hand if they did repair all of these kinds of accidents, we may end up paying for higher premiums….

So its probably easier to make comprehensive car insurance compulsory for vehicles valued at say $5k or more.

I personally don’t see how the OP will “win” in this situation. sorry.

2. As a male driver with a license for less than three years and under the age of 25, that $70-80 you paid for comprehensive insurance isn’t really all that much more than I pay for third party. If I were going to be paying that little, of course I would have sucked it up and dealt with that, but my insurance s considerably more expensive and, most importantly, I didn’t do it, hindsight is a bitch and I quite obviously regret not having comprehensive. You don’t need to keep pointing out that I should have had it. After all, at the very least I’m decent enough to have insurance at all, which puts me above some.

FYI.. At the time I was unemployed.. I was 26 yrs old… Age only comes into factor with excess… I shopped around for the cheapest deal. Which was with GIO. Almost half the price of AAMI and NRMA.

I was also insuring a $30k car.

When you’re talking about something of this value.. You find the money to insure it.. Or don’t have it..

(I have the same opinion of people with home and contents insurance… If you can afford a shiny new tv or computer etc… Pay for adequate insurance)

ArthurianFish1:08 pm 10 Apr 13

Genie said :

To the OP – while what happened to you sucks. Here’s my 2 cents worth of advice.

1. The last accident I witnessed – I stopped and got out of my car to see if the driver was ok and if they would like the police called (single car crash, car lost it in the wet and slammed into a tree around midnight). He proceeded to get out of his car and threaten me and another driver who also stopped, that he would kill us if we called the cops. The guy was clearly drunk. I got in my car and left and called the police once I was home a few minutes later. Based on this event.. You’ve got slim chances of me stopping to help in an accident if I’m on my own.

2. I went through a period of unemployment for approx 4 months. I chose to keep my car fully insured and ate 2 minute noodles instead. The $70-$80 a month I pay to insure my car was worth it since it was damaged in a storm during this time. While I begged, and borrowed the $500 to pay my excess. It was still far less cheaper than the $5000+ damaged caused.

3. You should be able to get your car fixed through the insurance on the other car. You may be liable to pay the owners excess.

1. I can understand your reluctance to get out, and under those circumstances I’d probably be fairly wary as well. However, an accident where the at fault party hits and runs and leaves the other party on the side of the road is kind of a different circumstance, and I can’t see too many people getting angry at you for stopping and checking on or providing contact details after being t-boned, but again, I understand your reluctance. But that being the case, there’s nothing stopping you from then calling the police, requesting assistance and/or providing them with your contact details to provide a witness statement.

2. As a male driver with a license for less than three years and under the age of 25, that $70-80 you paid for comprehensive insurance isn’t really all that much more than I pay for third party. If I were going to be paying that little, of course I would have sucked it up and dealt with that, but my insurance s considerably more expensive and, most importantly, I didn’t do it, hindsight is a bitch and I quite obviously regret not having comprehensive. You don’t need to keep pointing out that I should have had it. After all, at the very least I’m decent enough to have insurance at all, which puts me above some.

3. That’s what I thought would happen, but unfortunately I can’t get in touch with the owner of the car – police aren’t allowed to give me that information, I don’t know who it belonged to, and I have no way of getting in touch wih them in order to persuade them to make a claim on their insurance for me. If I could, I’d definitely be willing to cover their excess for them. Can’t imagine it costing more than these repairs will otherwise cost me!

ArthurianFish1:00 pm 10 Apr 13

dodgycamel said :

OP,

I had a similar experience around 2 years ago. I was hit by a unsupervised learner driver. Initially he stopped and wanted to exchange details, when I worked out he was unsupervised, I called the cops. At this point he told me indicated he was going to move his car back from the intersection, and instead got in and drove away. The cops weren’t that interested to be honest, they lost both reports I filed about the incident.

Long story short, my third party insurance paid to fix my car under the ‘uninsured driver’ provisions. I think your circumstances are similar. I don’t see how the person who hit you if they were driving a stolen vehicle could be insured.

In my case, I had an address for the guy, so my insurance company said they had to write to him 3 times to ensure he wasn’t somehow covered, before they’d pay out. In your circumstances, you should be able to get your insurance company to get the report about the car being stolen from the AFP. At that point, they have evidence that whoever was driving couldn’t (or at least I can’t see how) be insurance, and they should pay out under the uninsured driver provisions.

Only thing to be aware of is that certainly my policy had a cap on what they’d pay out in those circumstances, which if your car is badly damaged, might not cover fixing it all.

Hope this helps.

DC

The circumstances are pretty similar, and I should get an uninsured motorist payment, but according to my insurer (AAMI), I have to first provide them with the name, phone number and address of the man driving the stolen car that hit me and fled… Which is not going to happen anytime soon! At this point, it’s essentially a matter of waiting (and hoping) for the police to find him, arrest him and supply me with his details, which could be tomorrow or next year. My train of thought was pretty much the same as yours – there’s clearly no way for the man driving a stolen car to be covered by that car’s insurance, which, combined with the AFP report number I’ve already provided, should be enough to prove that there is no possible way for him to be insured. But unfortunately insurance companies apparently do not think that way! The $3k I’ll get almost definitely won’t be enough to cover repairs, but it would be a good start! Thanks

To the OP – while what happened to you sucks. Here’s my 2 cents worth of advice.

1. The last accident I witnessed – I stopped and got out of my car to see if the driver was ok and if they would like the police called (single car crash, car lost it in the wet and slammed into a tree around midnight). He proceeded to get out of his car and threaten me and another driver who also stopped, that he would kill us if we called the cops. The guy was clearly drunk. I got in my car and left and called the police once I was home a few minutes later. Based on this event.. You’ve got slim chances of me stopping to help in an accident if I’m on my own.

2. I went through a period of unemployment for approx 4 months. I chose to keep my car fully insured and ate 2 minute noodles instead. The $70-$80 a month I pay to insure my car was worth it since it was damaged in a storm during this time. While I begged, and borrowed the $500 to pay my excess. It was still far less cheaper than the $5000+ damaged caused.

3. You should be able to get your car fixed through the insurance on the other car. You may be liable to pay the owners excess.

Innovation said :

Pork Hunt said :

Someone please explain why you will get nothing from insurance? Sure, you might have to pay the excess because the other party disappeared.

While the OP has explained that they have only third party, even comprehensive insurance can be problematic if you can’t prove/provide details of the other party at fault. Excesses on some policies can be as much as $2k, subsequent annual premiums increase for a few years and, depending on the extent of the accident, insurance companies may even refuse to insure you in some or all circumstances.

As chronicled in the recent thread with similar circumstances:

> Lesson of the day. Nick off if you have a minor accident

http://the-riotact.com/lesson-of-the-day-nick-off-if-you-have-a-minor-accident/97249

OP,

I had a similar experience around 2 years ago. I was hit by a unsupervised learner driver. Initially he stopped and wanted to exchange details, when I worked out he was unsupervised, I called the cops. At this point he told me indicated he was going to move his car back from the intersection, and instead got in and drove away. The cops weren’t that interested to be honest, they lost both reports I filed about the incident.

Long story short, my third party insurance paid to fix my car under the ‘uninsured driver’ provisions. I think your circumstances are similar. I don’t see how the person who hit you if they were driving a stolen vehicle could be insured.

In my case, I had an address for the guy, so my insurance company said they had to write to him 3 times to ensure he wasn’t somehow covered, before they’d pay out. In your circumstances, you should be able to get your insurance company to get the report about the car being stolen from the AFP. At that point, they have evidence that whoever was driving couldn’t (or at least I can’t see how) be insurance, and they should pay out under the uninsured driver provisions.

Only thing to be aware of is that certainly my policy had a cap on what they’d pay out in those circumstances, which if your car is badly damaged, might not cover fixing it all.

Hope this helps.

DC

I’m a bit surprised there wasn’t a media release about it (unless I missed it). A media release requesting witnesses would probably be appropriate, I would’ve thought.

Anyway, good luck. At least you had SOME insurance. Many people mistakenly believe compulsory third party insurance covers damage to their vehicle.

Pork Hunt said :

Someone please explain why you will get nothing from insurance? Sure, you might have to pay the excess because the other party disappeared.

While the OP has explained that they have only third party, even comprehensive insurance can be problematic if you can’t prove/provide details of the other party at fault. Excesses on some policies can be as much as $2k, subsequent annual premiums increase for a few years and, depending on the extent of the accident, insurance companies may even refuse to insure you in some or all circumstances.

I would have stopped for you. Not everyone is uncaring.

ArthurianFish11:43 pm 09 Apr 13

el said :

ArthurianFish said :

If you have any more useless and utterly pointless advice, feel free not to share it.

Useless? Debatable – but it’s correct. This part in particular:

You can’t rely on everyone else paying their premiums and being perfect drivers.

There’s uninsured arsehats driving around all over the place, they don’t need to have stolen the car to put you in that situation. Drunk driver. Unregistered car. Uninsured car. Unroadworthy car. Sure, you can take them to court and ‘win’, and you’ll still most likely never see your money.

Having said that, it’s absolutely piss-poor that no one who saw the accident stopped to see if you were OK 🙁

Until someone invents a time machine and lets me go back and upgrade my insurance, it is fairly useless… The thought has occured to me, repeatedly, that I should have had comprehensive car insurnace. Unfortunately, I did not, so there is absolutely no point in anybody telling me that if I had comprehensive, I’d be set at this point. Believe me, I know, and I very much regret not having insurance for when I was t-boned by a stolen car yesterday. I’m sure at least one of the many people that have told me I should have had comprehensive meant well, but there is a limit to how many times you can be told that after being in a very recent accident that has left you minus a car and with no hope of repairing it any time soon before you just start getting incredibly sick of it. Hence why this was about the need for witnesses, not insurance advice!

But very piss poor, yeah… Hopefully someone that saw it comes forward at some point!

ArthurianFish said :

If you have any more useless and utterly pointless advice, feel free not to share it.

Useless? Debatable – but it’s correct. This part in particular:

You can’t rely on everyone else paying their premiums and being perfect drivers.

There’s uninsured arsehats driving around all over the place, they don’t need to have stolen the car to put you in that situation. Drunk driver. Unregistered car. Uninsured car. Unroadworthy car. Sure, you can take them to court and ‘win’, and you’ll still most likely never see your money.

Having said that, it’s absolutely piss-poor that no one who saw the accident stopped to see if you were OK 🙁

ArthurianFish10:08 pm 09 Apr 13

Sandman said :

IrishPete said :

Why wouldn’t the Lexus’ insurance pay everything? You would kind of expect a Lexus to be insured. And if it’s insured against theft, then surely that would also cover all the consequences of the theft, like this situation.

IP

A car can’t pay an excess. Third party property Insurance covers the person driving, rather than the car itself. When the person driving is doing so without permission then obviously the insurance related to that vehicle is null and void. There is a way to avoid this situation though, and that’s to have your own comprehensive insurance. Henry62 basically said it right. If you can’t afford to loose it then you can’t afford to not insure it. An i30 is a late model car, at least $10k worth. You can’t rely on everyone else paying their premiums and being perfect drivers.

Man, I really wish that at some point since the accident I’d thought about the fact that this would all have been much easier if I’d had comprehensive car insurance… It wasn’t a matter of not being able to afford it so much as forgetting to upgrade it, but cheers for letting me know that it’s my bad I got hit by someone driving a stolen car.

If you have any more useless and utterly pointless advice, feel free not to share it.

IrishPete said :

Why wouldn’t the Lexus’ insurance pay everything? You would kind of expect a Lexus to be insured. And if it’s insured against theft, then surely that would also cover all the consequences of the theft, like this situation.

IP

A car can’t pay an excess. Third party property Insurance covers the person driving, rather than the car itself. When the person driving is doing so without permission then obviously the insurance related to that vehicle is null and void. There is a way to avoid this situation though, and that’s to have your own comprehensive insurance. Henry62 basically said it right. If you can’t afford to loose it then you can’t afford to not insure it. An i30 is a late model car, at least $10k worth. You can’t rely on everyone else paying their premiums and being perfect drivers.

ArthurianFish9:24 pm 09 Apr 13

IrishPete said :

CoffinRX2 said :

I’ve always stopped if witness to an accident.

I saw you and the car that afternoon, but the police werre there with you and taking photo’s, now it makes sense why there was just one car there.

As stated you should be able to claim upon your insurance, you will just need to pay the excess. If the car thief is caught the insurance company will pursue him for the excess

Why wouldn’t the Lexus’ insurance pay everything? You would kind of expect a Lexus to be insured. And if it’s insured against theft, then surely that would also cover all the consequences of the theft, like this situation.

IP

Unfortunately, it apparently doesn’t work that way… That’s more or less what I thought, but I can’t make a claim against the person it was stolen from because the police can’t give me any details on them, so all I know is their license plate.

Deckard said :

As for the slow driving, people always blame the rubber kneckers but usually the big slow down is a result of the accident itself. In fact sometimes the traffic can still slow to a crawl for some time after the accident has been cleared. l also think traffic crawling past an accident is better than it flying by at 80 or 100 km/h.

When you’re on your way to work, stuck in traffic, only to realize that traffic is jammed because people are rubber necking at the hot air balloons above the lake… then you’ll understand why people ‘blame rubber kneckers’ for slowing down traffic.

As for the Op, I sympathize with you. I really hope they find the driver of the stolen car & you’re able to get your insurance claim.

CoffinRX2 said :

I’ve always stopped if witness to an accident.

I saw you and the car that afternoon, but the police werre there with you and taking photo’s, now it makes sense why there was just one car there.

As stated you should be able to claim upon your insurance, you will just need to pay the excess. If the car thief is caught the insurance company will pursue him for the excess

Why wouldn’t the Lexus’ insurance pay everything? You would kind of expect a Lexus to be insured. And if it’s insured against theft, then surely that would also cover all the consequences of the theft, like this situation.

IP

ArthurianFish8:41 pm 09 Apr 13

Deckard said :

Grail said :

Yup, they will quite happily slow down and choke up traffic for an extra fifteen minutes, but perish the thought of actually stopping and offering assistance.

There is a name for this too: the bystander effect. So it is not Canberran drivers specifically. Not that this is much comfort.

Only those who actually witnessed the accident are bystanders. The people driving past 15 minutes later have no idea what’s going on. I also think most people who witness an accident would stop and assist. You must have just had a batch around you.

As for the slow driving, people always blame the rubber kneckers but usually the big slow down is a result of the accident itself. In fact sometimes the traffic can still slow to a crawl for some time after the accident has been cleared. l also think traffic crawling past an accident is better than it flying by at 80 or 100 km/h.

In this case, most of the slowed down traffic were people on the other side of a divided road, not taking any pains to hide the fact they were staring. I would definitely agree that not having traffic fly past at 80 or 100km/h would be a good thing, especially as that road was 60km/h (40 in the road works). But maybe I was just being particularly sensitive!

In regards to everyone commenting about my insurance paying out… Unfortunately, I only have third party, as I was waiting to start a new job before getting comprehensive, and I refuse to drive an uninsured car, after being in a previous accident with an uninsured motorist (I clearly have amazing luck). If I can prove that the guy driving the car he stole, and which therefore won’t be covered by insurance, was not covered by any insurance, and provide my insurer with his name, number and address, I’ll get an uninsured motorist extension, but without that I’m looking at nothing unless I can prove my side of the story – that being that some skidmark drove into me and then ran off. I’m not really particularly optimistic about getting any details from this guy (I’ll be given them by the police if he’s caught), and I like my chances of getting money from someone stealing a car even less.

Did the police say the car was stolen? Can’t they verify that the car that hit you was stolen and you send that on to the insurance company?

Not to sure if that would work though

Grail said :

Yup, they will quite happily slow down and choke up traffic for an extra fifteen minutes, but perish the thought of actually stopping and offering assistance.

There is a name for this too: the bystander effect. So it is not Canberran drivers specifically. Not that this is much comfort.

Only those who actually witnessed the accident are bystanders. The people driving past 15 minutes later have no idea what’s going on. I also think most people who witness an accident would stop and assist. You must have just had a batch around you.

As for the slow driving, people always blame the rubber kneckers but usually the big slow down is a result of the accident itself. In fact sometimes the traffic can still slow to a crawl for some time after the accident has been cleared. l also think traffic crawling past an accident is better than it flying by at 80 or 100 km/h.

I’ve always stopped if witness to an accident.

I saw you and the car that afternoon, but the police werre there with you and taking photo’s, now it makes sense why there was just one car there.

As stated you should be able to claim upon your insurance, you will just need to pay the excess. If the car thief is caught the insurance company will pursue him for the excess

ATypicalUsername said :

The person you should be mad at is the genetalially deficient arse who stole a car and slammed into you, not the public for trying desperately to continue their life.

I’d say it’s OK to be mad at both the driver than ran into them and the witnesses that continued on their way, shirking their moral responsibility to see that justice is served.

Hell, I’d be mad at the insurance company as well.

ATypicalUsername said :

Last time I saw what happened during a crash I was held up for over an hour waiting for and then speaking with police. I know being late for work isn’t much compared to the ammount of help a witness can provide in a case such as yours, but it is a major inconvenience.

It’s like Thatcher said, ‘there’s no such thing as society’.

Seriously OP, this sucks. People need to start giving a s#it again, even if it takes time out of your precious working day.

Someone please explain why you will get nothing from insurance? Sure, you might have to pay the excess because the other party disappeared.

Henry82 said :

If you can’t afford to lose it, get insurance.

If you can’t afford insurance, don’t get a car.

If you can’t be bothered to read the OP, don’t make a comment.

If you can’t help yourself, don’t get a computer.

The OP has insurance. What they don’t have is a witness to corroborate their explanation given to the insurance company.

Tetranitrate4:31 pm 09 Apr 13

Henry82 said :

If you can’t afford to lose it, get insurance.

If you can’t afford insurance, don’t get a car.

What a vile, victim-blaming bastard of a post.

Ah the humanity or lack of it.Unfortunately you are a victim of a low life that we all encounter at some time in our lives.Dare i say it’s someone that has been given bail for the umpteenth time by our limp wristed judiciary!

If you can’t afford to lose it, get insurance.

If you can’t afford insurance, don’t get a car.

ATypicalUsername said :

Last time I saw what happened during a crash (Some 20something year old hoon went around a roundabout too fast, skidded and slammed the side of his car into another man giving way on his left) I was held up for over an hour waiting for and then speaking with police. I know being late for work isn’t much compared to the ammount of help a witness can provide in a case such as yours, but it is a major inconvenience.

Boo frikin hoo.

I’m the star witness for a case where all I have to say is that he was around and I saw him.

They have taken several hours already.

Doesn’t matter.

If unsure of the moral way to behave always ask yourself “how would this go in an ideal universe?”

Holden Caulfield said :

This sucks.

Good luck.

That.

Bloody disgusting, Canberra.

That is shocking!!!!! Hope someone comes forward for you.

you should put a “seeking witnesses to black lexus hitting hyundai i30 yesterday” blah blah in the title cos you will probably get help

agree about helping people. we saw a car reverse into another car at belconnen mall once and then didn’t leave a note or anything. they hung around trying to make sure no one notified the driver but we waited and left a note (hidden for them so the offender couldnt remove it). we heard from their insurance company seeking a witness statement but i found it rude the driver never thanked us for doing that for them and saving them the money/inconvenience (when we waited around to do them a favour)….but anyway.

Yup, they will quite happily slow down and choke up traffic for an extra fifteen minutes, but perish the thought of actually stopping and offering assistance.

There is a name for this too: the bystander effect. So it is not Canberran drivers specifically. Not that this is much comfort.

ArthurianFish3:01 pm 09 Apr 13

Although I am pretty angry at the literally hundreds, if not thousands, of cars that were still driving by a few hours later nice and slow so they could stare at the car on the side of the road…

ArthurianFish2:59 pm 09 Apr 13

Oh, don’t worry! I am most definitely mad at the joyful individual who took it upon himself to ruin my day and the day of the guy he robbed. I’m not really even that mad at the people that didn’t stop, just very disappointed. I’ve stopped for accidents and logged myself as a witness with the police, and most of what I had to do was say “Hey, I saw what happened, give me a call if you need me”, so I really just want/need someone’s phone number so I have some sort of proof that I didn’t just flip my car sideways into a pole!

What a terrible situation to be in – I remember being stranded at an intersection when someone drove into the back of me – I really appreciated the help that was offered to me. It makes me really disappointed that no one stopped to help you – it seems like herd mentality took over – people just continued on past you, thinking someone else would help out.

ATypicalUsername2:36 pm 09 Apr 13

While I appreciate the unfortunate circumstances of this incident, and indeed, would myself have stopped to assist (Even had I not witnessed).
Having been a witness in the past, I can say I understand when people want to avoid it.

Last time I saw what happened during a crash (Some 20something year old hoon went around a roundabout too fast, skidded and slammed the side of his car into another man giving way on his left) I was held up for over an hour waiting for and then speaking with police. I know being late for work isn’t much compared to the ammount of help a witness can provide in a case such as yours, but it is a major inconvenience.

The person you should be mad at is the genetalially deficient arse who stole a car and slammed into you, not the public for trying desperately to continue their life.

Holden Caulfield2:31 pm 09 Apr 13

This sucks.

Good luck.

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