[inwester]

Originally Posted by Rajamass

My Wife got distracted with her mobile and hit a parked 1996 Ford F150 pickup truck with a solid steel cargo loading bed. So, all the impact got onto the right bumper, fender, door outer skin, or metal sheets. Her speed was around 20-25mph.

Hope she is okay?

I'm also surprised the ADAS didn't work. I know these things aren't perfect but I would've thought it at least attempted some braking. On that point, none of us humans are perfect and neither are automated systems.

Some cars come with ADAS that has front automatic emergency braking and some come with active collision mitigation. Worth researching it for your new car. Good luck.

[Rajamass]

Originally Posted by inwester

Hope she is okay?

I'm also surprised the ADAS didn't work. I know these things aren't perfect but I would've thought it at least attempted some braking. On that point, none of us humans are perfect and neither are automated systems.

Some cars come with ADAS that has front automatic emergency braking and some come with active collision mitigation. Worth researching it for your new car. Good luck.

Yeah she is fine
Absolutely no injuries to her. Even air bags did not deploy.

[overtaker]

Thank God, no one was injured. But, please advise her not to use mobile while driving. It just takes away ones concentration within no time.

Originally Posted by Rajamass

Yeah she is fine
Absolutely no injuries to her. Even air bags did not deploy.

[Dr ST]

Dear Rajamass,

Sad to see the car, but good that no one is hurt. I was drooling over the red Passat for the last 24 hours. Such a beautiful beast. Hope you get a better replacement.

On a lighter note does your wife read team- bhp posts? If yes then RIP for you in advance

Regards

[safe_rider]

It’s glad to know that she is fine and the about the claim settlement as well. Family needs your support first than the Red beauty at the moment. Take care.

Also, when it comes to VW collision centre repairs (it’s so called VW body shop in Coimbatore), I did have a bitter experience. My Polo required the rear bumper to be replaced due to a kiddo hit my parked car in Decathlon parking space. But he was so genuine, he left a sorry note and his phone number on the windshield. Later, I got the compensation from him.

I left my car for bumper replacement covered by HDFC ERGO in VW repair centre, after 10 days I received the phone call to pick up as the bumper got replaced. I started inspecting the car and shocked to see the front bumper was painted with some low grade paint, upon checking further and arguing with the manager, it was confirmed that the mechanic has damaged the bumper and repainted with low grade one without informing anyone.
I did not make a complaint to VW customer care, as I thought it was of no use. The body shop guys has finally decided to fix it, so they kept the car for another 10 days and re-painted with the original quality and handed over. If I was in a hurry or not in a mood to inspect the entire car at the time of taking delivery, I would have been fooled.

[kamilharis]

Sad to see such a beautiful car leaving. Glad that no one was injured, and also glad that a decent claim has been received.

As said, everyone leaves for a reason and makes way for better ones to come in, Fingers crossed.

[sam264_2000]

How did you explain this to the insurance? Did they buy it as a legitimate reason? I mean it sounds like it's a human error with no third party involved and insurance companies may not accept it readily. Glad your wife is safe!

[Rajamass]

Originally Posted by Dr ST

Dear Rajamass,

Sad to see the car, but good that no one is hurt. I was drooling over the red Passat for the last 24 hours. Such a beautiful beast. Hope you get a better replacement.

On a lighter note does your wife read team- bhp posts? If yes then RIP for you in advance

Regards

🫢

I have requested the admins to remove the part where I mentioned my wife but that did not happen.

Originally Posted by sam264_2000

How did you explain this to the insurance? Did they buy it as a legitimate reason? I mean it sounds like it's a human error with no third party involved and insurance companies may not accept it readily. Glad your wife is safe!

I think I did not put it better. I really should have been careful before posting to avoid unnecessary confusion and trouble. I did not knew that users can't edit the post after 1h. I saw edit button several times after posting and always thought I could edit.

She was on a bluetooth call and driving against glaring sun in the morning. It was not a direct interaction with the phone all the time. So she got distracted with the call and missed seeing the lane markings due to the glare.

Also for some unknown reason, the insurance did not ask us to explain how it happened. The other vehicle owner filed a claim through his insurance before I could report it. So I am not sure what he explained to them.

[kinetic]

Thankfully all humans involved in this incident are okay, with the damage being restricted to the vehicles only. A few things to learn from this, as someone who lives in the US and has had to deal with insurance claims before (not an incident like this, and never as the at-fault driver):

1. I hope this serves as a valuable lesson to the driver regarding distracted driving. This was a low-speed impact and no one got hurt. Many first-timers are not this lucky.

2. The first few steps after any accident are to pull over safely, gather your wits and check for injuries (yourself or others). In this case, the driver should've called the Insurance agency first instead of VW assistance to report the incident and arrange for a tow since the vehicle was inoperable. Refer to the handbook for all the details: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbo...iver-handbook/

3. I would not rely on a manufacturer's roadside assistance for accidents like this, rather only as a last resort. This service is primarily for breakdowns of some sort, or a flat-tire or battery issue. Even so, I personally carry roadside assistance either through my insurance carrier or through an annual AAA membership (AAA premium is great for motorcyclists). The other benefit to using insurance for towing to a collision center after an accident is the ease in managing billing/paperwork.

4. Hopefully you have rental reimbursement through Geico so that you have access to a vehicle while repairs are performed.

Hopefully you're able to get the Passat fixed up in a few weeks and back on the road. Good luck!

[Rajamass]

Originally Posted by kinetic

Thankfully all humans involved in this incident are okay, with the damage being restricted to the vehicles only. A few things to learn from this, as someone who lives in the US and has had to deal with insurance claims before (not an incident like this, and never as the at-fault driver):

1. I hope this serves as a valuable lesson to the driver regarding distracted driving. This was a low-speed impact and no one got hurt. Many first-timers are not this lucky.

2. The first few steps after any accident are to pull over safely, gather your wits and check for injuries (yourself or others). In this case, the driver should've called the Insurance agency first instead of VW assistance to report the incident and arrange for a tow since the vehicle was inoperable. Refer to the handbook for all the details: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbo...iver-handbook/

3. I would not rely on a manufacturer's roadside assistance for accidents like this, rather only as a last resort. This service is primarily for breakdowns of some sort, or a flat-tire or battery issue. Even so, I personally carry roadside assistance either through my insurance carrier or through an annual AAA membership (AAA premium is great for motorcyclists). The other benefit to using insurance for towing to a collision center after an accident is the ease in managing billing/paperwork.

4. Hopefully you have rental reimbursement through Geico so that you have access to a vehicle while repairs are performed.

Hopefully you're able to get the Passat fixed up in a few weeks and back on the road. Good luck!

Thanks for the lengthy reply

I completely agree with you that I should have first called my insurance for towing. I thought I did not add towing service while taking insurance so I called VW roadside assistance.

I indeed tried to pull the vehicle to a safe location but it was making weird sounds and was very hard to move, so I left it on the road with a caution triangle and flashing lights. Last time when my car got vandalised I had burnt lot of cash from my pocket. So, I took rental reimbursement plan and it saved me this time.

[kinetic]

Originally Posted by sam264_2000

How did you explain this to the insurance? Did they buy it as a legitimate reason? I mean it sounds like it's a human error with no third party involved and insurance companies may not accept it readily. Glad your wife is safe!

Originally Posted by Rajamass

I think I did not put it better. I really should have been careful before posting to avoid unnecessary confusion and trouble. I did not knew that users can't edit the post after 1h. I saw edit button several times after posting and always thought I could edit.....

Couple of things:

1. Its best practice to never post publicly on a forum or social media about accidents or how they happened, especially if it implicates your party. In this case, it would be next to impossible to locate this forum post and associate it with the Passat incident, so the risk is very very low. That would require a lot of sleuthing, and there's also no need for it here since the at-fault party has been determined, which leads me to point #2 below.

2. If you've already told the insurance provider that distracted driving was involved, it means the Passat driver will be held at fault. In general in the US, in an incident between a moving vehicle and a stationary vehicle, the moving vehicle is almost 100% held at fault. This basically means higher insurance premiums for the foreseeable future. The damage to the Ford and the Passat will still be covered. That's what the insurance is for.

[Rajamass]

Originally Posted by kinetic

Couple of things:

1. Its best practice to never post publicly on a forum or social media about accidents or how they happened, especially if it implicates your party. In this case, it would be next to impossible to locate this forum post and associate it with the Passat incident, so the risk is very very low. That would require a lot of sleuthing, and there's also no need for it here since the at-fault party has been determined, which leads me to point #2 below.

2. If you've already told the insurance provider that distracted driving was involved, it means the Passat driver will be held at fault. In general in the US, in an incident between a moving vehicle and a stationary vehicle, the moving vehicle is almost 100% held at fault. This basically means higher insurance premiums for the foreseeable future. The damage to the Ford and the Passat will still be covered. That's what the insurance is for.

Thanks man

Being relatively a new member to the forum. I was carried away with writing all details and tried to put it as honest as I could. While doing so, I created unnecessary confusion here.

[supermax]

Originally Posted by rsidd

I do wonder why it is important to blame your wife on a public forum like this, and how it is relevant to your story.

I don't think the intention was to blame the wife at all. In any case, posting about the accident would have prompted the questions 'What happened?' 'Did you catch the guy responsible?'. etc etc which would have to be answered with the truth anyway, so why not clarify at the beginning, that it was a mistake? OP has clarified later that the glare from the sun was also involved, which indeed can be a factor.

Originally Posted by Rajamass

I got the dashcam footage but did not upload it as I don't want embarrass my wife. It was a clear case of distraction with mobile for a breif 5-7s time.

Originally Posted by Rajamass

She was on a bluetooth call and driving against glaring sun in the morning. It was not a direct interaction with the phone all the time. So she got distracted with the call and missed seeing the lane markings due to the glare.

The glare from the sun can definitely be a factor, but this incident was not really about lane markings, right? The issue is not crossing a solid line or something, but hitting a stationary vehicle. Bluetooth or not, her focus was not on the road, and a window of 5 to 7 seconds is not brief, but an eternity, on the road. Both of you are extremely lucky that things didn't end up much worse, as it easily could have been. Instead of the pickup, had it been a sedan, with unbelted passengers who'd just climbed in, or those who were just ready to leave the car, getting read-ended at 25+ miles per hour is a certain recipe for bad whiplash injuries. That you got most of your car's worth back from insurance is nice, but the real blessing from above was that your wife didn't end up maiming or killing anyone, which she easily could have ended up doing, if she didn't spot in time that she was heading into a parked car at 40+ km/h. Forget about driving so close that you might drive into a car, but one must maintain sufficient gap to the car to ensure that you don't end up in a collision even if a door is suddenly opened from a parked car, on the traffic side, and the speed too must be lower, in order to be able to stop on a dime, in case of an emergency. I hope this incident serves as a wake-up call for her, and others who read this post, about how easily things can go from a normal drive to a serious accident.

I remember clearly an incident that happened a couple of years ago, when a friend who wasn't then in the habit of belting up his child in a child seat opened the rear door (non traffic side), but the child who was not belted in quickly ran out onto the pavement and ended up running across the street, from behind the car. There was an oncoming car, that too one with a learner driver, 'Learning' board and everything. It's a miracle that the driver was alert enough to spot the child and stop in time, but had it been a driver who'd been distracted for those 5-7 seconds that day, I'd have witnessed a fatality right in front of my eyes.

There's a video called 'Att döda ett barn' (To kill a child), in Swedish, but with English subtitles. The video quality is rather low, but the story is a very powerful one. That video is mandatory viewing for all participants who take a DL in Sweden, and it underlines what I named above, i.e. just how easy it is for a normal outing to go bad. I post the link here, for you and others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgVh2f3tBF8

[bravo82in]

Originally Posted by Rajamass

My Wife got distracted with her mobile and hit a parked 1996 Ford F150 pickup truck with a solid steel cargo loading bed.

The true spirit of a T-BHPian lies in their ability to accept responsibility for any mistakes that may lead to an accident.

Over the past 14 years, I have been handling numerous accident and emergency cases on a daily basis, and surprisingly, my patients are never at fault.

[Sumer]

Originally Posted by safe_rider

. My Polo required the rear bumper to be replaced due to a kiddo hit my parked car in Decathlon parking space. But he was so genuine, he left a sorry note and his phone number on the windshield. Later, I got the compensation from him.

Kousik, if you are reading this, I want you to know that you have been raised well lad.