Between 1600 and 1710hrs someone crashed into my car at work, in a secure compound. I am almost 100% certain that it was the gritter lorry that came around at 5pm, and the only other person parked in the area where I park left just before this and confirms that my car was undamaged then.

I park down a mini dead end, which comprises of a 40m road with parking spaces horizontal to the road. I reversed into my space therefore the front was pointing to the road. There are many reasons why I know it was the gritter;

- the road is narrow and you are unable to turn around, so he reverses back all the way once done.
- the damage is from a blunt but strong impact (probably slow impact though). It has punched a hole in the bumper which wouldn't be done by a bumper to bumper.
- no other cars drove past my car during that period
- there was fresh grit all over my car and in the recesses of the bumper which would normally be covered by the grille (now missing).
- there are lines in the fresh grit where the lorry has driven indicating he did not stick to the road but swerved into the empty spaces further down.
- there were shards of plastic strewn down the carpark towards the dead end. If he is the only one to drive down that way, then it must have been him to knock them that way.
- he reportly drives like a lunatic, and a gritter hit another car a few years ago. This is just hearsay though.


But now my problem. Nobody saw him reverse or drive into my car. He definately drove that way as its been gritted.

The MOD police have been informed and my support services team are tracking down who was driving, BUT without a confession it is unlikely I can directly prove it. The police are reluctant to use 'CSI' evidence or paintwork analysis on anything other than serious accidents.

I have informed my insurance company and as far I can tell they have given me 4 options:
- he admits it and I claim through his insurance
- he doesn't admit it and I just pay for the damage (£1k plus)
- he doesn't admit it and I claim through my insurance (£650 excess)
- he doesn't admit it and I pursue through small claims/insurance vs his insurance.

Has anyone else had this scenario? I know its an expensive car to keep but I shouldn't have to account for other people crashing into my car and getting off scott free.

I only hope he sees sense and admits that the could have hit my car. Lorries are heavy and noisy so he might not have realised.


Grrrr. Happy Christmas. Meh

That sucks. sorry to read this, Nobby. I hope the culprit - whoever it is - mans up.

Sorry to read Nobby and hope you get it sorted. That would really upset me too...... As you say he may not have even realised he'd done it given the weight of those things especially when fully loaded. Best o'luck with it...

Sorry to hear. I had this a while back with the coupé. Chap hit it and drove off when it was parked at work. Thankfully people were jumping out of the woodwork to let me know they witnessed it (and had pics they were using to wind the chap up with).

At the end of the day I found a note stuffed under the handle explaining that he was in a hurry, and knew my car would still be there later

Keep the faith, you never know.

Not good. A lorry did this to my wife's focus years ago. Obvious but no evidence.

Grrrr!!!

If this is on/near MOD property is there no CCTV footage of vehicles entering and leaving?

If it's a council lorry they'll have a record of who and when.....

This sort of thing makes me so angry, it happened to my other halfs Figaro a few months back. Hope you track them down Nobby

Sorry to read this Nobby.

Is it possible he didn't realise?

don't claim, it goes against future insurance

Sister's Lancia Ypsilon written off as someone drove down the side of it in a van and drove off. Now she is penalised for making a claim even though she was not in the car at the time

Wife's 500 got hit last year in the snow while parked, happened on the Friday when it snowed but so much snow that day we didn't use it again until Sunday. When I cleared the snow off we found a big dent in the front bumper so didn't go out in it. On the Monday after clearing the snow properly, found a note with a telephone number under the wiper. Needless to say they had rethought the situation and denied it was them

That one cost me £500 excess on a £1700 bill. Protected no-claims but a claim still goes against her on insurance database

Seems to happen all the time unfortunately

Find out where the depot is, confront the manager ask to see log of gritter in that area as they all have dedicated routes and some, are on trackers which tell you where you are to the second

Sorry to hear this Chris and hope you manage to find proof on who did it

The Police have spoken to the company and they are doing an internal investigation then reporting back to the police.

On the way home at lunchtime I found my grille down the road (albeit cracked and squashed). It must have been loosened by the shunt and then fell off down the road when I braked at a junction.

My insurance premium went up because I told my insurer that my car had been driven into. I didn't even claim and the other car wasn't insured so there was no way of getting it back that way. Not even worth telling them, I certainly won't do it again and didn't when another person subsequently drove into my car