Mum's 2004 Corsa takes out a 2003 Polo
Mum was on her way home from work yesterday, driving on a main road beside a dual carriageway about 3 miles from our house.
She's dring along and it's quite a wide road, up ahead and to the left (we drive on the left here) is a sliproad (off-ramp) leading off the carriageway and onto the main road beside, mum had the right-of-way but the view of the junction was obscured by a broken-down car on the left, just off the road next to the junction.
She slowed down (bearing in mind it's a 50mph limit on that stretch of road) to around 25 mph to allow traffic emerging from the junction to have a better chance of seeing her as she passed, but as she neared the junction, a young girl driving a 2003 Polo 3 door pulled out in front of her without looking properly.
Mum says she saw the girl look right, then left (but not right again as the highway code advises you to do) before pulling out into Mum's path. Frankly the girl pulled out so close to my Mum's car, Mum didn't have a chance of avoiding her, she slammed the brakes on but there wasn't even enough time for them to bite (at this point it's a good job she was only doing about 25mph).
The girl managed to get around the front of our 2004 Corsa before the front right corner of our Corsa struck the driver's (right) door of the Polo, spinning the car out of the way (if anyone was going much faster the Polo would have spun even more), however judging by what my dad said (he arrived at the scene), the Polo's a write-off.
Both cars made it safely to the side of the road and thankfully, speeds were low enough that no-one was injured. The girl was panicking and exclaimed that she didn't see my mum's car coming before pulling into it's path. Luckily my mum was driving slowly and carefully and therefore the airbags in the Corsa weren't needed, I think the damage is cosmetic only.
Having said that, the Corsa did bloody well compared to the Polo (which now has the whole side of the car pushed in from the start of the driver's door backwards, the B pillar's bent. Again, luckily the girl had her window down so instead of her being showered in glass, the window's shattered inside the door. The Corsa is 100% driveable with all lights turning on except the front right indicator, which has become disconnected. However the right headlight needs replacing as it's cracked inside as well as at it's mounting point and it's a couple of degrees out. Both front foglights still work but they'll need to go into a new bumper. The car also needs a new front wing, as it's been sprung along with the bumper, scratched and the clip that holds the bumper on on that side has snapped. Overall, the damage is mainly cosmetic but I'm wondering about what's behind the headlight.
Also, I noticed the front right tyre took a hit (there's a mark on it but the tyre and wheel are not damaged) but I'm wondering about effects on the the suspension and steering. Dad drove it the 3 miles or so back home and noticed nothing unusual though (Although he did hear something fall out from behind the headlight)
The outcome is likely to be a claim on the girl's insurance as she is clearly at fault and this has been backed-up by two witnesses, one of which is a trainee driving instructor whose wife's car was broken down at the side of the road, causing the vision impairment to traffic emerging from the junction. The girl's just lucky my mum wasn't driving a 30-tonne truck otherwise the resulting chaos would have been much worse.
Attached are pics of our Corsa after the accident, does anyone think the damage is more serious than it looks?
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Originally Posted by IWantAnAudiRS6
