Peculiar Accidents Whilst Geocaching...

[+Master Mariner]

Last Friday, I had a peculiar accident whilst geocaching. I was crossing the Thames on the Woolwich Ferry and the ferry hit the northern pier very hard. This caused all the cars to be shunted forward and mine was hit up the back end. Exactly the same thing happened to the two cars in the same position on the other side of the ferry. The reason we got hit and the others didn't was that we were parked on a dry bit of deck.

 

Now for the funny bit... The driver who hit my car would not give me his details so I had to make a report at the local police station. After filling out the form, they couldn't decide if the poilice north of the river, south of the river or river police should deal with it! So far I have heard nothing.

 

Now for the sad bit.. I had turned on my PDA and had TomTom running for getting off the ferry and I was able to report that the ferry was doing 6km/hr when it hit the pier!

 

Any other unusual accidents whilst out 'caching?

 

Charles

[+Cave Troll and Eeyore]

Surely the accident claims should be settled by the ferry company as the vehicles were being conveyed by them and not driven at the time of the collision.

Maybe there is a cacher out there with legal knowledge who may be able to confim wether this is the case or not.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I suspect it is more complex than that. If your vehicle is hit you must claim from the person who it you - their insurer will then claim from the person who hit them, etc, until the end of the chain when the insurer will claim from the ferry operator on the grounds that they were neglegent.

 

It is the same if you are in a queue of stationary traffic and someone plows into the back of the last vehicle causing impacts down the line. Your only claim is against the vehicle that damaged yours.

 

If it didn't work this way everyone would have a claim agaisnt everyone behind them which would be a nightmare to sort out. For example, you would have to prove that the vehicle that hit yours did so because of the actions of the ferry. Why do you need to do that when all that matters to you and your insurer is that you were stationary and properly secured when it from behind.

 

Instead each party is only dealing with one claim against them, and one claim against the next vehicle at most. No doubt the insurers settle it amongst themselves at the end of the day.

 

Good luck with the claim BTW!

[NIghtFeeder]

Don't know abou England, but here in Scotland the ferry company will deny all liability

[+Master Mariner]

My brokers and insurers line is to claim from the party causing the damage. That is the car that hit mine. The owner of the car that hit mine can then claim from the ferry company.

 

My post was not really to seek advice but to see if anyone else had any strange accidents whilst out geocaching.

 

Thanks for the cooments though!

[+Learned Gerbil]

I am glad to say I have had no peculiar incidents like that!