Three-car pileup whilst waiting in traffic...

I was involved in my first car accident as a driver last week. It was a bit of a shock, and I’m glad to say that no-one was hurt and the car wasn’t too badly damaged. I was in traffic, sat waiting behind a car that wanted to change into a very busy lane. The car behind me didn’t want to wait, and tried to move around on the other side... as another car came up behind it and smashed it’s front as it came out. It was pushed into my car, at the back.

Luckily, Jen and Freddy weren’t in the car (I was on my way to pick Fred up from nursery) and my passenger (Jen’s Dad) was fine, and took control for me. I was a bit too shocked at first to know what to do.

I certainly wasn’t expecting that to happen sitting still, and obviously the insurance companies have agreed that it’s not my fault. One of the other parties is offering to have us repaired free of charge (with a free courtesy car) at one of their approved repairers, without touching our no-claims bonus or paying the excess or any of that. The car’s booked in to be seen this week, and probably repaired the week after. Having seen the damage in the light now, it’s not too bad and should fix up nicely (fingers crossed!)

I wasn’t actually looking behind me just before the crash to see if one car pulled out inadvisably, or the other car was driving too fast, or any of that. But it’s nothing I could have done anything about it - except possibly try to go around the car blocking my lane myself, in which case I’d have been hit, my car would have been a write-off (the front of the car was mashed completely, spread across the road), and I might not be quite so happy to get back into the driving seat!