How not to christen your 2010 ST-R

There's this nice little shortcut to my home in our suburb. It's a dirt track through piles of sand used for local house building. There hasn't been any action in our suburb for a while, because of local council banning the construction company from proceeding with a new estate due to them screwing up drainage in the one they've already built.

Long story short, it looks like they didn't like people driving through this area, and they decided to dig a trench.

Late at night, driving home from work, I pull into the area to get home, not realizing what they had done (no cones, no fence, no warning whatsoever, and impossible to see):



Got it out with the assistance of a Patrol.

Left with a crack in the bottom of the front bumper, and the driver side wheel arch flare ripped off.

I wonder if someone can be taken to task for digging the trench. Ask a lawyer: by virtue of the many wheel tracks in the area, they'd have to have known that it was being used by vehicles, so digging a trench without marking it is probably illegal.

You might consider that in order to not only get the parts replaced in your car, but to pay for the medical bills relating to the stress and shock suffered at having the damage done to your brand new vehicle. Oh, and maybe the whiplash from the sudden stop.

I'd check your sump out, make sure it didn't take a hit too, just while you're looking at it.

Bloody shame on them!

That sucks man good pic though sounds like you got out of it pretty unscaved.

Ouch, Id be swearing if that was my Nav.

Dave.

i agree with old tony, you have a claim against the land owner/company i reckon, you look pretty sore, someone could get real hurt. a kid riding his bmx into that isn't going to be pretty. glad you have photos for your claim!! mate really i'd make a few calls, could pay for your new bullbar and canopy.

PS. good thing it was a patrol...imagine getting a pull from a toyota, you'd consider leaving it there

Yep as Tony suggested, take the bastards to task on this one, thats just bloody dangerous. Most people put big logs across tracks etc they don't want you to cross, not dig bloody WW2 trenches!

Hoo Roo

Nissan quoted me $483 for a replacement wheel arch flare, unpainted, so I'm going to try and repair it myself first. Just need to take off all the plastic bits that snapped away and sit down with a tube of Araldite.

As for the bumper, they remove the front bumper when installing (ARB) bullbars on the D22 do they not?

Yeah they remove the bar, you cant sell them either as no one wants them.

Dave.

yeah gets removed, so if you want to put a bullbar on now is the time, save fixing/buying new bumper that said there is always cheap bumpers on ebay. can't believe the price for that flare, its such a rip off, check with nizzbits to see what he can do it for. shame about your new car mate, must piss you off.

those dirty mfers!!!! im surprised u didnt destroy the sump area..id assume u were driving kind of slow luckily??!!

woznme said:

yeah gets removed, so if you want to put a bullbar on now is the time, save fixing/buying new bumper that said there is always cheap bumpers on ebay. can't believe the price for that flare, its such a rip off, check with nizzbits to see what he can do it for. shame about your new car mate, must piss you off.

Click to expand...

It really does piss me off, but it could have been much worse. Fortunately it slammed onto chassis bars and the front bumper, the drivetrain parts were safe and there's only cosmetic damage to deal with. Really says something to me about the design of the Nav's that everything important is protected in some way.

I'd go the legal route but it's probably not worth it for me. I'm more worried about the kid that goes riding at night or someone on their dirtbike ending up breaking their neck on the fucking thing, as it's near on impossible to see. I'm giving the local council a call to see what they can do about it.

You know, you'd stand a good chance if you let the experts have a go at it too, and that's a lot easier said than one might expect.

How? Ring your insurance company and tell them exactly what happened, show them the photograph and invite them to quickly go and check the area and vehicle.

They'll send an assessor armed with a bloody good camera to survey the area and document what they found. They will then either decide to decline the repairs, which means you're where you are at right now anyway, or they will agree to restore the vehicle to its pre-incident condition. This is where the real fun begins that we don't often hear about.

The insurance company then starts the process of trying to get its money back. It will look at whether or not the trench was legal, whether or not the digging of a trench and leaving it unmarked was legal, whether or not you could have been expected to know the trench was there or that those responsible for digging the ditch could have been expected to know that people drove their vehicles there.

They will then fire their guns at the developers etc - you aren't even involved. And all you need to do is call your insurance company and say "Hey, guess what happened!".

Good luck with it!

Sorry to see the picture there. I project manage civil construction for communications stuff. Any contractor who left a trench open like that in an area that was accessible would never do a job for me again. Bloody poor practice, what if some kid on a bike went in there in the dark?

I am with Old Tony on this one, as I love a good legal stoush!

i got screwed years ago. was riding my new suzi rgv 250 at night. went around a corner and fell off. it turned out that boral had been doing road work (digging gas lines i think). there were no markings and half way around the corner the road turned to gravel. i did about $1600 damage. i called the council the next day and the declared the sight unsafe as wasnt marked. only thing is the inspector said he would not back me up in court. the contractor that was doing the work asked to meet me. i did, and he told me that he and his workers were prepared to lie and say the area was marked properly. end of story i fixed it myself. it was my first lesson in how the real world works. still have there names on the fridge, so one day >.............................

Shit eh. Sorry to hear they screwed you, hope you can fix the Nav and cause them trouble somehow.

Great photo though. Insert comment about wife's parking here.

I can't say I agree with the go for the throat legal stuff here, report it so no one else gets hurt or damage, put a bullbar on it, and all is well.

You have got a bloody good pic to put on your wall from it!

A quick call to Workcover will have the trench sorted!!

I reckon you should get them to dig it a bit wider and I'll be over shortly to shove mine into it and happily backfill it for you.

Incidentally, I'm also running a Thai built D22.