Bugger

Not a good day. On the way home from work, I had a little knock. It’s done a fair bit of damage to the rear offside corner (not to mention the other car). The important thing is none of the three of us in the two cars were hurt in any way.

I was on the A6, just north of Barton le Clay (near Devil’s Pit) and was following the traffic at a steady plod in light rain in the dark. The car ahead of me went around the right hand bend about 150 yards ahead of me, with me roughly matching its speed of about 45-50mph. After I completed the bend, I saw their tail lights ahead at a similar distance and then checked my rear view mirrors. On looking forward again, I saw their tail lights again, but it took a moment for me to ralise they were now stationary. I didn’t see any brake lights or indicators, though they said afterwards that they were indicating as they waited to cross the oncoming traffic to turn right into the minor T-junction. I stepped on the brakes, but they locked up. I used cadence braking, but it wasn’t enough. About 30 yards from them it became clear I wasn’t going to stop in time, and I decided to put the 109 onto the soft verge.

The verge is a bit dodgy, being very uneven, very soft, having a ditch and a lot of trees. Not a great choice, but I was worried that a direct shunt could shove the VW Golf into the path of the oncoming traffic, so there was little alternative. Unfortunately, the grip from my ATs in the wet wasn’t quite enough and the back end of the 109 caught the back near-side of the Golf.

The results are damage to the wing panel behind the rear wheel, all below the level of the inside of the wheel arch, a bent rear quarter panel, broken fog and reverse lights, cosmetically damaged wheel arch spat, destroyed corner capping, bent tub cross member, missing chequer plate panel, bent mudflap bracket, and most worryingly, a snapped chassis rear cross member.

The body damage is self explainitory, but less so the chassis. The cross member’s upper and lower surfaces split near the welds to the main rail, and the whole end has bent neatly back on its rear face to point due aft. Irritatingly, the bolt-on step has also hit the cross member further inboard and dented it.

The good news is that it can all be repaired. The cross member can have that dent pulled out and the end can be straightened and welded back on. My friend Alun will be doing the work on that at Rogers of Bedford, and reckons he can make the repair invisible while not losing any strength at all over the orignal manufacture. Rogers will subcontract the panel work out to a local body shop, who have already had a look at the damage. The rear panel may need replacement if it can’t be straightened enough, but the side panel should at worst need just the distorted section cut off and the matching part of a new side panel cut and spliced in. This will avoid the need to use rivets in the place of all the panels’ spot welds.

It sounds like it’ll cost a fair bit (the thick end of £4000), so I’m glad I have a comprehensive policy with agreed value and no-claims discount protection. I’ll have to wait for the insurance assessors to come and do their bit before work can commence, but I hope to hear from them this afternoon.

The most surprising thing is how I’m taking it – Helena and the kids are a little surprised, but Alun and the guys at Rogers were positively shocked that I seemed quite calm about it all; they expected me to be welling up, angry or distraught, given the effort I put into the vehicle, but I know how much worse it would have been if I hadn’t gone for the verge at the last moment, risky as it was, so I’m just grateful the damage is so limited.