Musings - Rear ended by a van

In all of my 6 years driving, I've always had this naive thought - as long as you drive carefully, and are aware of your surroundings, no harm will come to you. That is true, only if other road users behave just like you. But after all, we are only human.

Wednesday, 24th of October at around 10am - I was lumbering along Lower Delta road, entering a slip road onto AYE, headed for Jurong. Having stopped at the slip road to allow oncoming traffic to clear, I inched forward having only to brake again when I saw a huge truck thundering pass.

Before I knew it, I heard a sickening crunch coming from behind. Then, I tilted my head upwards. The word "Singapore Power" filled up my rear view mirror, big and blue!

After pulling over on the hard shoulder, this was what I saw.

I have to apologise for the quality of the picture but it was taken while my hands were still shaking from the shock (ed. yes Jarvis, blame your hands, not your photographic skills). Believe me when I say the damage is worse than what you can see from the picture. The impact caused the entire rubber lining of the car's roof to come off, complimented by shattered tail lights, a chipped rear spoiler and a boot that refuses to open.

Amusingly, the Singapore Power van suffered only from slight dents to the front. Why can't our cars be built like those vans? But I digress...

After inspecting the damage, we started to exchange particulars. This was where my nightmare really began.


A frantic search revealed the lack of a pen, or paper anywhere in the car. Thankfully, the driver of the van did and he was kind enough to lend me his pen even though he knew thawhat was in it for him, and his insurance!

Always, always keep writing materials in your car! You never know when you will need them. Once our particulars were exchanged, the driver of the van went on his merry way, leaving me to ponder on my next step. I decided to call my insurance agency.


I didn't. Meaning a frantic couple of calls to my friends while other drivers stared, and zoomed past me, no doubt thinking whether they should take my car's number plate down for purposes of buying "4D."

Having accomplished the call, I soon learnt that I should drive to an approved workshop for repairs.

In clear cut cases like these, ie. the rear ending of your precious by a third party, it is safe to say that once a proper accident report has been made, you may proceed to make a claim against your own insurance, in order to expedite the repairs.

A direct claim against the other driver will take much longer to process and therefore, delay the repair work. Someone shoot me but this sounds like gross inefficiency on the part of the insurance industry.


To make things worse, I then realised that I had all the necessary particulars of the driver, except his vehicle number! A quick call settles the hash, but one can only imagine if a bogus contact number was given!

In addition to the license plate, do ask to see the party's license when requesting for particulars. This goes a long way in knowing that his/her license is valid, especially if he or she tries to pull a fast one.

Upon reaching the workshop, I hit me that all my insurance documents were at home! Needless to say, I had to drive all the way home, search them out, then find a fax machine just to get it over, taking up even more time on my part! Imagine the time and trouble saved should I have kept them in the car!

All of this might sound naggy, redundant and even stupid to you, the reader, but in honest truth, how many actually think of such an eventuality? If I had followed these four rules, things would have been a hell lot easier to deal with.

To end this, may I remind you that driving safely does not mean not getting involved in accidents. Through sharing of my own experience, I hope that readers on Oneshift.com can be better prepared for such occurences.

Credits: Musings by Jarvis