[lilmattie]

This happened to me.

Not at fault - first accident I had ever been involved in. I was rear-ended by a lady watching a recent accident, instead of what the traffic in front was doing. Straight up the rear without braking. My car was written off because she pushed the boot up to the rear window.

I was 17, I signed a 'consent to tow' form and the car was hauled away to a holding yard. Thankfully, Suncorp was my insurer at the time and they were pretty quick to pick up the vehicle and move it to one of their own local 'evaluation centres'. From memory, the bill from the first holding yard/towing company was only a couple of hundred $$ rather than the $2k. The lady driving the other car wasn't insured and had had previous accidents in the past. We got no compensation, and the legal advice we received is that it wouldn't be worthwhile chasing it up because she likely didn't enough assets to sue for anyway.

Why are people like this allowed to continue driving, I ask?! Third party fire and theft insurance should be the minimum protection everyone should have - or no driving at all IMO. At least then the other party isn't out of pocket because of at fault mistakes.

I know some good tow truck drivers who are more reputable and aren't involved in the scenario's above. But I agree that the people described in the first post are degenerate thieves preying on a persons momentary weakness. Modern day pirates! Best defence - talk to your kids and family and make sure that they're aware of what they need to do in a crash situation and who they need to call.