Hi All

Looking for some help please!

On Thursday I was rear ended whilst stationary in a car line up at traffic lights. The driver of the hi-ace van says he was traveling about 20km per hour and as the air bags weren't activated the police assumes it was no more than 40km.

There was quite a bang and the rear tail windscreen exploded ... as per the photo attached. Although I didn't have children when the incident occurred I do have 3 child seats with one being in a rear facing position. The back of the car and more so the rear facing seat was showered with glass - tiny bits of glass. If my baby had been in the car he would have most certainly been injured by the glass.

I am now concerned with the extent of damage caused by a relatively minor collision. I am worried that if i was unlucky to be rear ended again that my children would be unsafe.

Has anyone had a similar collision? Is there a cargo guard / barrier I can purchase that can protect glass coming into the cabin in the event this happens again?

Thank you in advance

You'll need to get the car properly checked out. There might well be more damage than first appears.

A tint screen would hold the shattered glass in place better.

i'd say the glass shattered because of where he hit you. The Hi-Ace has a very flat front so hit you, as you can see, all the way from the screen down. The chances of it happening again, i'd say is pretty low.

If you get hit by a normal car I very much doubt the same will happen.

I would suggest tinting as the tint SHOULD hold the glass but it looks like you already have

Also, as mentioned above the way the bumper has gone it looks like the boot floor might have been creased

Edited 2 March, 201313 yr by ryan-re

Yup, tinting will probably do it. As a firefighter, we have a clear stuff called Packexe which is similar and on a roll (couldn't use it as it has the logo slapped all over it) which we can use to stretch across any glass to stop fragments if we need to cut it.

20 Kph is about 12 mph......looks like he was going a bit faster than that.

From memory Hi-ace vans are quite flat fronted (there are not many on the road in the UK), so the impact would have been unusually high.....hence the back windscreen breaking. If a normal car had rear ended you, the window probably wouldn't have broke.

You could go to a window tint place and see if they have a clear tint (or a very low tint) they could apply to the back window. That way you'd have an adhesive plastic coating on the inside of the window that should stop the shattered glass from flying around the car in the event of an accident.........come to think of it, getting tints all round on the rear is actually a good safety feature.

One option is to try fitting the Skoda dog guard, and attaching some netting material to it or even securing a rear sun shade to it, not only would that be effective against glass, it would also protect them from larger objects, ie objects in the boot etc.

May seem a bit extreme, but you are obviously concerned about the welfare of your children.

Fin

Announced with aplomb, there was some special film designed specifically to hold the glass together as you describe. Could easily be pushed "out" from the inside in an emergency but not "in" as in a carjack. Have heard of similar stuff for shop windows and the like. Don't know how similar to the recommendations above.

http://www.pentagonglasstech.com/supaglass/

I have seen a octy estate that got hit at 30 mph by a large Iveco van and it didn't cause anywhere near the amount of damage on yours

i had a brick come through the side window of my octavia vrs and land in the car seat of my 1 year old boy who wasn't in it at the time so i got all the rear windows tinted so the glass stays on the film mainly.

No way was that a 20kph hit!

Damage is worse as he has basically missed the strengthening bar behind the bumper and the much weaker bootlid has taken the brunt. Have you had a look to see if the boot floor is damaged as if so there is a big chance you wont have the car back as the amount of labour work involved to replace the boot floor and have to think of the time/cost of the courtesy car. Be a nice buy though and make sure you enquire about buying it back of them even for you to sell as salvage privately. Missus mother had her 54 plate polo diesel written off the other week (with very light side scrap) and bought it back for £90. Amazed I was, but im not repairing lol. Got enough on my plate.

Glad you and the family are ok and there was no little uns in the car.

Also looks like he swerved and you got a hit from his corner, rather than a flat frontal impact. Always good for putting a good dent in your rear.

You can get a anti car jacking film that's clear and goes on the inside of the glass. It hold the glass together and keeps it in place. It will allow you to push it out from the inside.

Thanks everyone for your great feedback!

To be honest the accident happened so quickly I have no idea how it happened. I was badly whiplashed and just remember sitting there trying to work out what I'd done to hit the car in front. I got out of the car quite disorientated and took a little while to work out I was hit from behind.

There was a witness behind the driver at fault that claimed traffic was moving at about 20kmph ... Like you and having felt the impact there's no way I believe that was the speed - I can just assume he floored the accelerater.

Insurance are yet to look at the car so quite possibly there is more than panel damage. I hit the car in front with a tow bar so that totalled the radiator which meant the car ended up being towed away.

The windows on the car have been tinted but don't think the back was done as it already had a tint ... I will definitely look into that if the car is repaired. With such a small baby I don't want to risk it.

Thanks again, you guys rock!

I think that will be very marguinan for a repair, especially with front end damage as well.

Remember if they repair it you dont have to use the insurance companies elected repairer

I one had an accident at 15mph ish walked away with a broken collar bone and a broken finger. It was a fair bump. I hate to feel one any faster.

A company called accident exchange helped me won my case and I even got £5 back for my prescription pain killers. Maybe worth using a similar company to assist with the process they claim everything from the at fault party so not even your excess to pay