Hi,
I've mentioned this before ...
07.30 hours, dark, windy, and chucking down with rain. I'm still in bed, Barbara on herb way to work in Bristol. Phone rings ...
Barbara insisting that I write down the registration of the lorry she is chasing ... an artic that had passed her on the inside, swiped the side of her SAAB with it's tail lift ... and hadn't stopped. OK, the driver was probably unaware of what was going on forty or fifty feet behind his cab.
Barbara turned for home, then stopped when she saw a police car parked on his dedicated stretch of grass verge. Asked for advice. Plod said that as she had no front lamps, she should call for a recovery truck. Plod uttered a mighty oath when the recovery truck arrived in less than half an hour (Britannia are good like that).
By this time I had phoned the supermarket transport manager, who said not to worry.
Barbara arrived home, SAAB parked in the road. Insurance Assessor arrived, declared the SAAb a write off. Offered us £250, but suggested that we produced evidence r=that it was worth more, as their book did not go back to 1971. They confirmed that the tax disc belonged to Barbara, so cash it in.
We copied the relevant page out of Prat Clacs, found similar cars on ebay, and got the local SAAB specialist (who knew the car) to give his valuation. We settled for £750.
Now we come to the tragic bit. The suoermarket insured themselves, or rather, had deposited cash with the Attorney General. They ignored all letters. Eventually, LV took them to court (only they didn't turn up). Judgement in our favour. LV reinstated Barbara's NCD, and refunded the "first £100". I don't know if LV actually got any cash from the suoermarket.
Last time I looked, you can deposit ... er ... now ... £1,000,000 with the Attorney General, in lieu of therd party insurance, I'm guessing that that deposit covers the whole fleet.
According to the Highway Code, it IS permissable to undertake a line of slower moving traffic. Personally, I would like to see what the small print has to say on the matter. Do we still have a Resident Plod? I haven't seen any mail from him for a long time. It might be that you can pass on the inside provided you don't change lanes before or after passing. Comments please?
602
PS Barbara was very worried by lorries on her nearside, for several weeks. Same when she found out that no engine means no servo brakes, and had to choose head on into a lorry coming up the hill, or drive over a 100ft cliff. She chose the cliff ... got caught by a tree. How many tyro drivers know about servos and dead engines? is there a hydraulic equivalent of air brakes ... no engine means you don't move
Probably not ... but should there be? Could there be, easily?