Hi Gents and Ladies. I have recently been in a bit of a dilemma. Let me explain.
Last Thursday I was involved in a crash with my beloved Clio 2, which I loved to pieces; what a great car!
Full story here:
Hi Reddit, I need your advice. I just had my first car accident (Around 5 hours ago). I believe that I was not at fault, this was because I was going through a green light at around 25-30. I could clearly see the light was green from a distance and maintained my speed through it. The next thing I knew, there was a silver Astra in front of me, I immediately slammed on, but smashed straight into the side of it head on. The police came but she told them that her light was green, I argued that mine was green or I would have never gone through it. I have a witness that pulled along side of me, who was traveling through the same 'green' lights that I went through first, she stopped and gave me her number and said "The other driver pulled out in front of you, are you okay?". I have passed on the number to the insurance company, whats going to happen now? My car is a Renault Clio 2 1.2l and I love it to bits, I understand that its probably going to be a write off, but I really don't want it to be, its not the money I care about, its the car.
My car was stuck in the middle of a busy junction after the accident but the other driver pulled their car to the other side of the road, was I in the right to leave it where it was? I was scared to move it, the damage in the front was nuts, there was only a dent in the other persons door as I hit them side on. After I called the police and they came, the kind police woman moved it without a problem, I heard it start and run just fine, just like it never happened; this hints to me that a majority of it is just bodywork damage, there was no oil leakage or coolant leakage, but the radiator was probably mangled and I can confirm the bonnet was dented inwards to the engine a fair bit too.
This is a massive shame as I have only been driving a year and I am only 19, it was my first car; I love it to bits. Great on petrol... Before the comments start rolling in about how inexperienced I am, It was my right of way, I was going through a green light maintaining my speed and my lane following was perfect, I couldn't have swerved as it happened so fast, but If I did I probably would have ended up head on into another car, there was also wet ground and when I braked, it felt like it did absolutely nothing.
UPDATE: I can confirm that the car came back as a write off. Airbags deployed means that it was already a write off the second it happened. Damn! Absolutely gutting....
My experience: This is just a little part of my experience in a small crash, but definitely an eye opener regardless of the speed. Imagine you are driving down the road, enjoying life; heading to your university to hand in a long assignment that you've been working on for the last few months. Everything is great, you've got Radio 1 on, beats blasting through your brand spanking new speakers in your car. You stop at red lights, a large hill start is approaching, as a new driver I am still nervous of rolling back so I get some nice acceleration on and take my time, I pull off just fine with a little bit of rev drop but nothing serious. I accellerate to 30MPH in the space of 4-5 seconds, as a teenager; I love the sound of a 1.2 being thrashed, its amazing. Once I hit 30, I maintain my speed as I can see the lights ahead of me are green, I just expect to continue through and head to uni; happy days. This is not what happens however, as I approach the second set of lights maintaining 30MPH, I see a silver flash in the corner of my eyes as I pass through the lights (At this point, I don't know what the hell happened...) I slam on the brakes (I surprised myself with my reaction time!), time freezes; It feels like I have stopped in time for a brief moment... I catch a glimpse of an Astra in front of me, what the hell is it doing there? Oh, I managed to stop in time. No... why are my airbags out? What is all this smoke and horrible smell? Why are all my engine lights on? What the... I look around, to the left; I see an Astra accelerating off; Instinct kicks in from what my father said to do if something goes wrong. Get the phone out! Write the registration down! My hands are shaking, I cant type it... the Astra stops at the side of the road, I stop panicking... I look up through the cracked windscreen, the light is still green; is this a dream? I get out of the car in the middle of a city junction, cars stopped all around me, all staring at me, 50-100 people, just waiting. A driver pulls up beside of me, she says "Are you okay?!". I don't reply at this point, I just look around is dismay. This is real, my car... I worked hard for my car, It took me 6 months to save, it was going to see me through university, allow me to get there efficiently. "Are you okay?!" the woman says. I reply, "Yeah, yeah.. I'm fine!" still looking around. About 2 minutes pass, shes still there just watching me, the driver of the Astra steps out of the car and is staring at me, cars start moving around me again once they realize its not that serious. I recuperate myself, I look inside the car and turn the ignition off, I then step around the front of the car and that's when it hits me, there's so much damage. The woman shouts something at me, so I turn to her, she hands me her number and says "She pulled out in front of you, I saw the whole thing! Are you okay? I cant stay here long as I am blocking traffic, please call me, I will act as a witness for you!". I did not realise how important this would be for me. Most insurance companies discriminate against young drivers as we are inexperienced (I totally agree, we are a danger sometimes) but this was not my fault, I went through a green light... I pocket the bit of paper that the woman gives me, this is my lifeline to prove that I was not the one at fault. I leave the car in the middle of the junction, someone might hit me. I head over to the driver of the Astra and say "Heck of a start to the day eh?". We both have a fake giggle about it and then I try phoning my parents, they will know what to do! I phone my father 9 times, no answer; then my mother, again no answer. I cannot describe the feeling of loneliness here, I have no idea what to do. The woman in the Astra insists that we just exchange information and part our ways, I insist that she cannot leave as I wont let her, she needs to stay here. I finally get an answer to my mother, I tell her I have had a crash: "Mam" "Yes? Whats wrong?" "I've got something to tell you..." "What's that?" "I've had a crash...." "What...?" "I've had a crash at ***** lights, what do I do?" "Phone the police right away, I will be down there soon".
Long story short, the police could never prove who jumped the lights, but thanks to the lovely woman who stopped next to me and gave me her number, I will now be getting a Clio 3 after trashing my Clio 2 from the insurance money and some savings. Well deserved IMO. All in all, it was a scary experience and I never want it to happen again, at any speed. I will take pictures of the crashed Clio at a later date once I say bye bye for the scrap yard, the Astra however was a company car and sustained minimal damage, all it needed were the doors repaired as I T-Boned her. I picked up my items out of my car, took the radio out; put the old one back in, stripped the car back to its state when I first had it. The car was a present from my mother for doing so well in Education at the time, I put a bunch of money towards it; but she paid a fair wack too, I loved it. Amazing on petrol, and it was a nippy little thing; like a big go-kart.
Just to clarify, the engine was ABSOLUTELY fine within the car, the only thing that wrote it off were the airbags and bodywork damage. The engine only had 39k miles. The reason why I thought it was written off before was because all the dash lights were on, turns out I stalled it in panic, but I don't remeber most of what happened; it happened too fast.
I asked for advice on Reddit and received some good replies, but now that's out of the way; lets get on with the future.
So to ask the question, the car I am getting is a Clio 3 Extreme 1.2l. Is this the TCE engine? If there is no definite answer; how can I find out?
Last Thursday I was involved in a crash with my beloved Clio 2, which I loved to pieces; what a great car!
Full story here:
Hi Reddit, I need your advice. I just had my first car accident (Around 5 hours ago). I believe that I was not at fault, this was because I was going through a green light at around 25-30. I could clearly see the light was green from a distance and maintained my speed through it. The next thing I knew, there was a silver Astra in front of me, I immediately slammed on, but smashed straight into the side of it head on. The police came but she told them that her light was green, I argued that mine was green or I would have never gone through it. I have a witness that pulled along side of me, who was traveling through the same 'green' lights that I went through first, she stopped and gave me her number and said "The other driver pulled out in front of you, are you okay?". I have passed on the number to the insurance company, whats going to happen now? My car is a Renault Clio 2 1.2l and I love it to bits, I understand that its probably going to be a write off, but I really don't want it to be, its not the money I care about, its the car.
My car was stuck in the middle of a busy junction after the accident but the other driver pulled their car to the other side of the road, was I in the right to leave it where it was? I was scared to move it, the damage in the front was nuts, there was only a dent in the other persons door as I hit them side on. After I called the police and they came, the kind police woman moved it without a problem, I heard it start and run just fine, just like it never happened; this hints to me that a majority of it is just bodywork damage, there was no oil leakage or coolant leakage, but the radiator was probably mangled and I can confirm the bonnet was dented inwards to the engine a fair bit too.
This is a massive shame as I have only been driving a year and I am only 19, it was my first car; I love it to bits. Great on petrol... Before the comments start rolling in about how inexperienced I am, It was my right of way, I was going through a green light maintaining my speed and my lane following was perfect, I couldn't have swerved as it happened so fast, but If I did I probably would have ended up head on into another car, there was also wet ground and when I braked, it felt like it did absolutely nothing.
UPDATE: I can confirm that the car came back as a write off. Airbags deployed means that it was already a write off the second it happened. Damn! Absolutely gutting....
My experience: This is just a little part of my experience in a small crash, but definitely an eye opener regardless of the speed. Imagine you are driving down the road, enjoying life; heading to your university to hand in a long assignment that you've been working on for the last few months. Everything is great, you've got Radio 1 on, beats blasting through your brand spanking new speakers in your car. You stop at red lights, a large hill start is approaching, as a new driver I am still nervous of rolling back so I get some nice acceleration on and take my time, I pull off just fine with a little bit of rev drop but nothing serious. I accellerate to 30MPH in the space of 4-5 seconds, as a teenager; I love the sound of a 1.2 being thrashed, its amazing. Once I hit 30, I maintain my speed as I can see the lights ahead of me are green, I just expect to continue through and head to uni; happy days. This is not what happens however, as I approach the second set of lights maintaining 30MPH, I see a silver flash in the corner of my eyes as I pass through the lights (At this point, I don't know what the hell happened...) I slam on the brakes (I surprised myself with my reaction time!), time freezes; It feels like I have stopped in time for a brief moment... I catch a glimpse of an Astra in front of me, what the hell is it doing there? Oh, I managed to stop in time. No... why are my airbags out? What is all this smoke and horrible smell? Why are all my engine lights on? What the... I look around, to the left; I see an Astra accelerating off; Instinct kicks in from what my father said to do if something goes wrong. Get the phone out! Write the registration down! My hands are shaking, I cant type it... the Astra stops at the side of the road, I stop panicking... I look up through the cracked windscreen, the light is still green; is this a dream? I get out of the car in the middle of a city junction, cars stopped all around me, all staring at me, 50-100 people, just waiting. A driver pulls up beside of me, she says "Are you okay?!". I don't reply at this point, I just look around is dismay. This is real, my car... I worked hard for my car, It took me 6 months to save, it was going to see me through university, allow me to get there efficiently. "Are you okay?!" the woman says. I reply, "Yeah, yeah.. I'm fine!" still looking around. About 2 minutes pass, shes still there just watching me, the driver of the Astra steps out of the car and is staring at me, cars start moving around me again once they realize its not that serious. I recuperate myself, I look inside the car and turn the ignition off, I then step around the front of the car and that's when it hits me, there's so much damage. The woman shouts something at me, so I turn to her, she hands me her number and says "She pulled out in front of you, I saw the whole thing! Are you okay? I cant stay here long as I am blocking traffic, please call me, I will act as a witness for you!". I did not realise how important this would be for me. Most insurance companies discriminate against young drivers as we are inexperienced (I totally agree, we are a danger sometimes) but this was not my fault, I went through a green light... I pocket the bit of paper that the woman gives me, this is my lifeline to prove that I was not the one at fault. I leave the car in the middle of the junction, someone might hit me. I head over to the driver of the Astra and say "Heck of a start to the day eh?". We both have a fake giggle about it and then I try phoning my parents, they will know what to do! I phone my father 9 times, no answer; then my mother, again no answer. I cannot describe the feeling of loneliness here, I have no idea what to do. The woman in the Astra insists that we just exchange information and part our ways, I insist that she cannot leave as I wont let her, she needs to stay here. I finally get an answer to my mother, I tell her I have had a crash: "Mam" "Yes? Whats wrong?" "I've got something to tell you..." "What's that?" "I've had a crash...." "What...?" "I've had a crash at ***** lights, what do I do?" "Phone the police right away, I will be down there soon".
Long story short, the police could never prove who jumped the lights, but thanks to the lovely woman who stopped next to me and gave me her number, I will now be getting a Clio 3 after trashing my Clio 2 from the insurance money and some savings. Well deserved IMO. All in all, it was a scary experience and I never want it to happen again, at any speed. I will take pictures of the crashed Clio at a later date once I say bye bye for the scrap yard, the Astra however was a company car and sustained minimal damage, all it needed were the doors repaired as I T-Boned her. I picked up my items out of my car, took the radio out; put the old one back in, stripped the car back to its state when I first had it. The car was a present from my mother for doing so well in Education at the time, I put a bunch of money towards it; but she paid a fair wack too, I loved it. Amazing on petrol, and it was a nippy little thing; like a big go-kart.
Just to clarify, the engine was ABSOLUTELY fine within the car, the only thing that wrote it off were the airbags and bodywork damage. The engine only had 39k miles. The reason why I thought it was written off before was because all the dash lights were on, turns out I stalled it in panic, but I don't remeber most of what happened; it happened too fast.
I asked for advice on Reddit and received some good replies, but now that's out of the way; lets get on with the future.
So to ask the question, the car I am getting is a Clio 3 Extreme 1.2l. Is this the TCE engine? If there is no definite answer; how can I find out?
