Hi,
I own a 1998 VW Polo which was recently in a minor(ish) bump. Basically, the car hit a parked car, damaging all the bodywork on the passenger side and breaking the suspension on the front left wheel. I would say that I wasn't driving at the time, but you probably wouldn't believe me ;) Anyway, there was obviously some kind of impact.
When the car came back from the garage, the front passenger seatbelt was jammed (i.e. completely retracted and taut). Back to the garage it went, but the insurance refused to pay for a new seatbelt, saying that as there was no-one sitting in the seat at the time it couldn't be related to the accident. I guess they want me to believe that the seatbelt spontaneously jammed in the two weeks it was in the garage.
I want to challenge the insurance's opinion on this, but know next to nothing about the subject. So can anyone help - how likely is it that a seatbelt would just jam like that? Is it possible for this to happen in a collision even though no-one is sitting in the seat?
Many thanks, Rob.