Hi all,
About a month ago my wife was involved in an accident with another car, their wingmirrors clipped whilst passing eachother on very narrow urban road. My wfe was driving my car and hence was only covered third-party, this car's mirror just flipped back, the other party's car, a Ka, was not so lucky, it shattered. Unfortunately, my wife didn't realise this and carried on assuming all modern wing-mirrors are flexible. The other party ran after her and explained the situation so they called the Gardai as my wife was unwilling to accept 100% responsibility.
In the meantime, we've had a visit from the insurance accessor, both parties are insured by Axa, he has advised us to settle with the other party in order to avoid an insurance premium hike. However, we do not believe that this is just as it was too bad that the other party's mirror was not flexible and really not our fault as both cars were moving at the time.
Ours is a left hand drive and the other party believes that this, coupled by the fact that my wife "left the scene of the crime" gives them the right to declare that my wife is 100% at fault. If both cars had inflexible wing-mirrors then I think it would be fair that this was a 50/50 situation, however we seem to being punished as only ours was undamaged.
I would appreciate other people's angle on the above situation as I feel that I'm too close to see it clearly.
ALERT.
About a month ago my wife was involved in an accident with another car, their wingmirrors clipped whilst passing eachother on very narrow urban road. My wfe was driving my car and hence was only covered third-party, this car's mirror just flipped back, the other party's car, a Ka, was not so lucky, it shattered. Unfortunately, my wife didn't realise this and carried on assuming all modern wing-mirrors are flexible. The other party ran after her and explained the situation so they called the Gardai as my wife was unwilling to accept 100% responsibility.
In the meantime, we've had a visit from the insurance accessor, both parties are insured by Axa, he has advised us to settle with the other party in order to avoid an insurance premium hike. However, we do not believe that this is just as it was too bad that the other party's mirror was not flexible and really not our fault as both cars were moving at the time.
Ours is a left hand drive and the other party believes that this, coupled by the fact that my wife "left the scene of the crime" gives them the right to declare that my wife is 100% at fault. If both cars had inflexible wing-mirrors then I think it would be fair that this was a 50/50 situation, however we seem to being punished as only ours was undamaged.
I would appreciate other people's angle on the above situation as I feel that I'm too close to see it clearly.
ALERT.