RTA What would you do?

[T i m]

Ah. Just wondered ... (thanks).

Cheers, T i m

[Andrew Gabriel]

I had to make that split-second decision once. I was stationary in a queue for traffic lights, but we were about to pull off, so I was just putting car into gear. Saw vehicle behind approaching sufficiently fast they obviously hadn't noticed we were stationary, and then it went into a 4-wheel skid when the driver noticed.

I used the fact I was just going into gear to shoot myself forward and close the gap with car in front and then stepped hard on my brakes. Car behind didn't hit, but had turned sideways and was close enough he couldn't open his door wide enough to get out, so my shooting forward did avoid a collision.

However, I thought long and hard about it afterwards and decided I was very lucky, because closing the gap meant I was much more likely to be shunted into the car in front. If that had happened, I would have been driving (as opposed to stationary) when hit and it might have been harder to blame it all on the car behind me.

Given one bump or two, I would opt for one bump, particularly given a rear ending is much more obviously the other guy's fault than a front- end shunt. If multiple cars are involved in a shunt, insurance companies can declare it a "multiple shunt" and everyone is responsible for damage to their own vehicle rather than the guy at the back paying for all of it (e.g. motorway pile-ups). It avoids having to have that argument.

[Richard]

Nice ladder. Be sure to check that it is securely attached to the van when you travel.

[ganga]

OTOH if it is fully insured, with the right type of policy, you can make a case that you want it damaged at both ends so that it will be a write-off and you will get a brand new car from either the insurance company of the one who caused the accident or your own insurance. And if you do lose your no claim bonus because the driver who caused the accident doesn?t have optional insurance, you're going to lose that anyway even if you do keep the brakes on.

[bert]

Or if you must, make sure it is a *very* slowly moving HGV?

[newshound]

That's what I would say too. Another tip if you know you are going to be shunted is to brace yourself pressing your back against the seat and head against the neck-rest which should reduce the risk of whiplash. It's the opposite of the aeroplane crash case where you want to get your head down and foreward.

[Andrew]

Getting another form of whiplash ??. :-)

[Andrew]

The damage to your van must have made a golf undriveable though, so why would he want to avoid an insurance claim ?.

Something suspicious here.

[ARW]

I'll bet Bill Wright could have a good guess.