So we had had the little bus for a couple of weeks, maybe even a month when it happened!,

Travelling in our home neighbourhood past a shopping centre around midday when a black Mitsubishi SUV came out of the underground carpark, towards the road, I noticed it and thought “yeah he can see me he’ll stop”, I mean he had to, I had right of way, it was a T junction and he was on the terminating road and indicating right, so I kept going doing about 50 km/h, but he didn’t stop, he just kept on coming right through the intersection, “Oh crap” I thought and hit the accelerator because if I tried to stop he would hit me, I mean come on we are in a tall 6m long vehicle with the LED running lights on, not like he couldn’t see me!

Now for those who drive this sort of bus, its not reknown for speeding up in a real hurry, not like its a zippy little sports car, but anyway, he still didn’t even try to stop just kept going until…….. “BANG!!!!!” …….I heard it more than felt it, “ahhhh crap”

So I pulled over, but he didn’t, he took off like a bat out of hell!. “Bugger me” I thought and as the engine was still running I took of after him, realistically I hoped to get his number plate, but a little bit of me wanted him as well, “just pull over you twit!” but alas all I got in the end was his number plate. A police pursuit car little bus is not!

So as by now I was just outside the local police station “handy huh” so popped in to report it, but now everything is done on line….she said there are 3 reasons they speed off, no licence, alcohol intake or no insurance!. “Bugger me, this day is just getting better” so I went back to the scene of the crime (yes driving off after an accident is a crime here in WA) took some photos so I had date and time etc, and found part of his car and picked up the parts of little bus that he had ripped off.

Then home and broke the news to Jo. reported it online to the Police and rang the insurer.

Then the drama started in getting it repaired. Turns out our insurer (CIL) doesn’t know anybody in WA that repairs campervans. Essentially they said “go find someone to repair it and then let us know who it is”. “WTF” I mean isn’t that why we pay a premium on insurance! And as it turns out the caravan places won’t touch it because its a vehicle (ie: It’s NOT a caravan), and most of the panelbeaters/repairers here won’t do it because its too big and high to fit in their spray booth. So the only way you can repair it would be to get a specialist truck/van repair mob to do it… there is one here in Perth about 75km away with a long waiting list. After going around doing the “can you help me thing” I found a local guy who said he could do it, but not in a spray booth, go ahead give me the quote, turned out it was about $3500 to fix the dent, paint, replace the trim and decals polish and it would take 3 days. A heap of thanks for Fatal FX Panel & Paint here in Rockingham

“Just do it” so back home taped up the damage to prevent dust/dirt rust etc and then waited, it would take 3 weeks or so to get parts but it took 2 weeks and a few phone call chase ups to get CIL insurance to approve the repairs, so basically about 6 weeks from the date of the accident.

Finally they repaired it and I must admit I was impressed with the result, you could not tell anything had been damaged, and it still looks like new.

From the police investigation it turns out the other vehicle was a mitsubishi outlander licenced to an 80 year old lady who’s licence had expired12 months ago. She reported to the police that a male of the same surname had the car, I’m presuming her husband, probably also about 80 maybe needs cataracts doing or something as I have no idea why he couldn’t have seen me. The Police asked me if I wanted him charged but in all reality all I wanted was the little bus repaired and his insurance to pay for it. To date the insurance company are still trying to get their money from him.

So the moral of the story goes if you have an accident in a campervan you might have trouble getting someone to repair it, lucky for us no internal repairs to cabinetry or anything was required as the panel beaters wouldn’t do that anyway. Also probably check with your insurance company (before you insure it) to make sure they have an authorised repairer near where you live.

But no way is it ever going to be as straightforward as having a standard car repaired.