Car vs Trailer

nzLARPS
#1

At about 11:30pm on Friday night, our trailer was involved in an accident.

It was parked outside my house (I haven’t had a chance to take it back to Mum’s where it normally stays), whereupon an apparently intoxicated driver attempted to drive through the right rear wing of the trailer. The result may be stated thusly:

Trailer 1
Car 0

I happened to be looking at the street form my bedroom at the time, so saw the accident. Heaps of neighbours came out to see what the commotion was. The driver was very compliant, and provided her details (which I have forwarded to our President).

I rang the police and they duly attended, and I believe the driver was arrested and taken into custody for processing.

The damage is not major, but it’s the kind of structural damage that we need to repair, lest we encounter problems in the future. The door stills opens OK, and I have not noted any damage to the lights.

Pictures here.

#2

Ding ding - round 2!

:smiley:

Crumple zones suck - o well - hopefully her insurance will pay for the repairs.

#3

Unlikely, if they can prove that she was over the legal limit for alcohol then she’s likely to be refused since she was driving illegally. At least, that’s what the cops said. So, we’re likely to have to go through the Disputes Tribunal in order to claim compenstation.

#4

bugger

#5

wow, go the trailer!
I’m impressed with the construction.

#6

The police rang today:

The driver was charged and convicted with DIC. She got a $650 fine and 6 months disqualification from driving.

How are we going with getting her to pay for the repairs to the trailer ?

#7

I would suggest cash for the repairs, if she has been convicted for DIC then she has little to no hope of winning in small claims. At the end of the day its better for us to know that the repairs are done by somone qualified rather than accept her offer of “getting a mate to fix it”

#8

If nzLarps has insurance for the trailer, this is the insurance companies problem.
We just need to:

  • fill in the paperwork
  • take it to a panel beater
    The insurance company pay the bill and they worry about chasing up the drunk driver for the money

If we don’t have insurance, I suggest telling her we’re getting it repaired and sending her the bill and giving her a chance to pay.

#9

I gather that part of the problem is that we don’t have insurance.

Do what Derek says and tell her that we’re getting the trailer repaired and will be sending her the bill.

Then get the trailer repaired, pay for it and photocopy the bill, and send the copy to her to pay back to NZLARPS, keeping the original. And write a polite letter to her about paying us back as soon as possible, and keep a copy of this.

Just because we know that she has almost no chance of winning in small claims, doesn’t mean she won’t try to dodge out of paying.
This way we have a paper trail in case we do have to take her to court.

#10

[quote=“clare”]I gather that part of the problem is that we don’t have insurance.

Do what Derek says and tell her that we’re getting the trailer repaired and will be sending her the bill. [/quote]And once this is sorted, can we get insurance?

#11

That sounds like a great idea. I don’t imagine that insurance on a trailer would be very expensive.

#12

[quote=“clare”]That sounds like a great idea. I don’t imagine that insurance on a trailer would be very expensive.[/quote]I think it’s worth getting contents insurance for the gear store as well - one bad fire would take out a lot of value and history for the organisation.

#13

Getting insurance for the trailer is definitely a priority that I’ve been pushing for a year now. I have every confidence that we will have it arranged before the end of the year, latest.

#14

It may be worth talking to her about this. If her mate has a panel beater or car repair business, I’d say we use it. Then we don’t have to hand over money and risk not collecting it.

However, if it’s just the guy next door with a welder, I think we shouldn’t.

#15

I thought that getting the trailer insured was part of the agreement with the Lions Foundation, did it lapse?

#16

It was part of the requirements, but to all appearances it was never followed through. In your time as secretary, did you receive any communications from an insurance company?

#17

I remember asking about insurance when we first got it and was told that it was insured.

As for getting the money back you have to spend the money on repairs first and then, as suggested earlier, use the invoice and go through the Disputes Tribunal. Once you’ve got a ruling in your favour then you can get the court baliffs to enforce the payment order and/or hand it over to a debt collection agency.

#18

Nope.