What Goes Around Comes Around - I Hope!

I should have been in court on Friday, I can't say I was looking forward to it but I would have got a lot of satisfaction from seeing that man squirm. The man in question is the idiot who pulled out from being parked at the side of a main road without looking in his rear view mirror, he drove into the side of my car as I was driving along. Accidents happen sometimes, we all make mistakes, but this chap was an accident waiting to happen, he was on his phone and not paying attention to what he was doing.


When he hit me we both pulled in and he couldn't stop apologising, he seemed really angry with himself and generally lacking in composure. I was quite shaken up but it was me who had to stay calm and reassure him. I  gave him my details and got him to write his information down in his own handwriting, in fact he wrote it on the back of a piece of paper listing the calls he had made that day. My car came off worse because his car was bigger and higher than my Galaxy I had a dent and a deep scrape along the side of the car from the back panel stretching all along the rear door.  He told me that he would ring me the following day to confirm that he had reported it to his insurance company.


The following day I rang my insurance company and made arrangements for my car to be inspected and collected for repair, and also for a hire car to be delivered. I was entitled to a similar car to my Galaxy but as I didn't need a large car in the next few weeks I asked for a Micra or something similar (I got a Nissan Note and instantly fell in love with it). The man did not ring me the next day, but he did ring the following afternoon, there was something odd about his tone and he seemed surprised that I had already reported it to my insurance company. 


My car was inspected, photographed and collected, it was away for repair for well over a week because they had to order parts and then it had to be resprayed. The car came back and I heard nothing more until mid January when my insurance company notified me that his insurance company had not received any notification or claim from the other driver. I tried to call him but he didn't answer my calls or respond to messages. It became clear that he had got the damage to his vehicle repaired without informing his insurance company, maybe it only needed a new bumper.


At first he tried to deny the accident completely, but thankfully I still had the details in his handwriting written on his call sheet. Then he tried to claim that it was my fault but I could disprove that because there was no reason to pull across him and I could prove my arrival at work by CCTV image and fingerprint entry. To get to that destination I needed to be in the outer lane. He clung to it being my fault until we issued court papers, then he drew it out as long as possible  before admitting liability but disputing costs. There was nothing to dispute, I asked for a smaller hire car and I used the repair company recommended by my insurance company, my only other claim was for my excess and a nominal sum for phone calls. He managed to delay and procrastinate but finally a date was set for the court hearing, as everyone predicted he waited until less than a week before the hearing and then decided to settle. 


There really should be a penalty for people who do that this sort of thing, it wastes court time as well as messing people around. It has taken fifteen months to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion, he thought that he could make it go away if he ignored it but he didn't bargain for me having the tenacity of a Jack Russell Terrier, I never give up! 

Memories

I am a Radio 4 addict, I even listen to the radio in the bathroom. My favourite radio programme is the Archers, I have been listening to it for so long that I couldn't imagine life without it. I will not admit quite how long I have been listening to the Archers but when we were talking about it last week I realised that I have been listening to it since before Robbie was born! Over the last week or so the series has been dealing with the death of one of the main characters Phil Archer, we knew it was coming because Norman Painting the actor who played Phil died before Christmas, but it is still terribly sad. However the character and the actor who played him had lived long and fulfilling lives and you should not be sad about a life well lived even a fictional one. There are some deaths that are much harder to come to terms with. It is three years this month since Emily's friend Charles died in a car accident. It was such a shock, he was a very careful driver and it was one of those freak accidents that didn't involve excess speed or alcohol, it should not have happened. It happened on a bend on a country road, I think he may have swerved to avoid an animal but I guess we will never know, he came off the road, hit a tree and died of head injuries. He packed a lot of living into his almost 18 years, but it seems such a waste, he had so much potential. His friends friends will not forget him, they still miss him very much. I hope his death with remind other drivers to be extra careful on the road even on routes you take every day.

I Hate Mondays!

Whoever started that saying 'one step forward and two steps back' must have been thinking of me! Yesterday turned into a disaster, Sam had problems at school, so he arrived home angry and upset. Then when he had settled down I headed off to work and as I was driving along a main road some fool in a great big car pulled out of a parking space right into the side of my car! He just pulled out without looking, I swerved but he kept on coming at me and hit the rear passenger door and the part behind that door. I think he was on the phone. It left me really shaken up, and cross because it really didn't need to happen. I have spent most of this morning sorting out the insurance and the repair. I really could do without this aggravation at the moment. At this rate I don't think I have any chance of having everything ready in time for Christmas.

Communication Problems

Robbie has learned to his cost that one of the things that really makes me cross is being lied to. He still tries it from time to time but he has worked out that it is easier and safer to tell the truth instead of being found out in a stupid lie. Unfortunately Network Rail still insult our intelligence with their stupid statements, don't they understand that each time they deviate from the truth they lose public trust and they are less likely to be believed in future.

Two news stories involving Network Rail made me really irritated over the weekend. The first story was about Stamford Station the station is listed but Network Rail want to reduce the size of the platforms to enable wider freight trains to use the line. They may be able to put forward a very good case for doing that, and they certainly think it is necessary because they have submitted a planning application. In fact their submission to the council talks about the need to get more freight back on the railway and to ease freight congestion on other lines. So why on earth did Rachel Blackman, the spokesperson for Network Rail say “there are no immediate plans to increase the number of freight trains”. It may be strictly true because the work hasn't been done yet so they couldn't increase freight traffic in the immediate future, but do they seriously expect us to believe that they would do all that work if they didn't intend to increase freight traffic. Why can't they just be straight about it?

The other news story was very sad, and Arriva Wales train killed 27 cows after a gate had been left open and they had wandered on to the line in Powys. The Network Rail spokesman made the woefully inadequate comment that “We are not sure how it happened”. I would have thought it was all too obvious how it happened, more to the point would be preventing anything like it from happening again, especially since a large number of cows have been killed previously in a very similar accident. It was a horrible thing to happen, what about expressing concern for the driver, or for the passengers who must have been terribly upset by the carnage and it would have been appropriate to make some comment regretting the loss of the cattle. I know they think if they say nothing they can somehow avoid responsibility, but making ridiculously non committal comments they prove that the public contempt for Network Rail is well deserved.

Signs of Spring 05.03.08

Robbie's injured hand and foot must be better because they didn't get a mention yesterday. Network Rail was back at the top of his list of subjects to complain about and his leg was causing him a lot of pain so that got a mention once or twice too. He has an appointment at the hospital on Thursday to test how the nerves in his legs are working (or something like that). I don't suppose we will know anything more on Thursday, I expect he will have to wait weeks to see the consultant again. By the time they finally get around to deciding what is making his legs misbehave they will probably put it down to old age!

We had snow yesterday, there wasn't much and it didn't last for long but it was very cold. When I took Meg for her morning walk she seemed not to notice the cold, she wanted to stop and sniff almost every blade of grass and she gave me the most reproachful look when I insisted on hurrying along because I was freezing. It was just as cold this morning but Meg had her strategy sorted out and there was no way that she was going to be hurried. Each time I tried to pull her lead she pulled back and when I insisted she sat down and looked at me with a defiant glint in her eye. Despite the cold there are signs that spring isn't too far away, the evenings are getting a little lighter and flowers are appearing in the garden, we already have some daffodils out, they are in a sheltered position near the hedge so I guess that makes them a little earlier. Speaking of the hedge, it will not be long before it needs cutting, so we will have to get the hedge cutter repaired (he cut the cable off last year) but after Robbie's recent mishaps I am not too confident about letting him loose with the hedge cutter!