Accident advise/opinion

carlosvr6 · 29 Jan 2011 at 00:37

Wife was driving along the motorway on the first lane with a lorry driving behind her. A lorry on the second lane was overtaking the lorry on the first lane and clipped the wifes car as he was moving in. This spun her car round and hit the same lorry again and sent it into the centre reservation. She was then hit by a van on the third lane. Wife was shook up by the accident but nobody was injured as they were driving through roadworks and not going very fast. The lorry driver came out helped her move the car onto the hard shoulder and claimed liability saying he never saw her car.

In this situation should the driver of the van be claiming off her insurance or the lorry drivers as he was the one that sent her into the path of the van? He is trying to claim of her insurance.

kae2 · 29 Jan 2011 at 00:43

All claims would go against the person who caused the accident, in this incident, the lorry drivers.

Morba · 29 Jan 2011 at 00:53

if the van hit her car, wouldn't he be classed as being in the wrong for hitting another vehicle, at least initially.

carlosvr6 · 29 Jan 2011 at 01:01

Morba said:
if the van hit her car, wouldn't he be classed as being in the wrong for hitting another vehicle, at least initially.

So initially is he right in trying to claim off her insurance and not the lorry drivers?

Morba · 29 Jan 2011 at 01:06

Well, i think he should call his insurance first of all, as he hit a car infront of his own.
It's a messy one.

Meridian · 29 Jan 2011 at 07:25

carlosvr6 said:
So initially is he right in trying to claim off her insurance and not the lorry drivers?

Yes. You claim off the person who hit you, but explain how the accident occurred. The van driver then claims off the lorry driver, and if everyone is lucky, the claim from your wife is handed on to him as well. It's exactly the same as a chain of tail-end shunts: everyone claims from the person directly behind them, and eventually everything ends up with tail-end charlie who caused it all. Since the lorry driver was decent enough to stop, you should be able to complete the process. If you haven't involved the police yet (IIRC you are only legally obliged to do so if someone is injured, but don't quote me) then do so - if they investigate then the insurers all get a nice report blaming the lorry driver.

M

[TW]Fox · 29 Jan 2011 at 10:08

kae2 said:
All claims would go against the person who caused the accident, in this incident, the lorry drivers.

Wrong. Van claims off the op, ops insurer recovers costs from lorry.

BurningHorizons · 29 Jan 2011 at 10:13

[TW]Fox;18340238 said:
Wrong. Van claims off the op, ops insurer recovers costs from lorry.

[TW]Fox is correct.

carlosvr6 · 29 Jan 2011 at 13:35

[TW]Fox;18340238 said:
Wrong. Van claims off the op, ops insurer recovers costs from lorry.

Wil this be a fault or no-fault claim on her insurance?

mattyprice4004 · 29 Jan 2011 at 13:40

No fault, surely?

Morba · 29 Jan 2011 at 13:53

She got hit by multiple vehicles, so has to be non fault. She didn't hit anybody.

[TW]Fox · 29 Jan 2011 at 13:53

carlosvr6 said:
Wil this be a fault or no-fault claim on her insurance?

Fault to begin with, then it will become a non fault once her insurer has recovered the cost from the truck drivers insurer.

Remember, fault is about who at that time has paid out not whose fault it really is.

realscot · 29 Jan 2011 at 17:33

still gonna put her insurance up regardless next year.

carlosvr6 · 2 Feb 2011 at 14:03

Are the insurance company right in stating that the car insurance will cease if the car is written off regardless of who caused the accident?

The insurance has been paid in full for the year with 6 months remaining.

bledd · 2 Feb 2011 at 14:07

Glad the other half is okay, must have been #### scary!

pepp77 · 2 Feb 2011 at 14:12

carlosvr6 said:
Are the insurance company right in stating that the car insurance will cease if the car is written off regardless of who caused the accident?

The insurance has been paid in full for the year with 6 months remaining.

Yep this is correct.

carlosvr6 · 2 Feb 2011 at 14:25

Was hoping to transfer the insurance when we replace the car.

Do we claim the 6 months lost insurance off the third party when/if they claim liability?

pepp77 · 2 Feb 2011 at 14:35

carlosvr6 said:
Was hoping to transfer the insurance when we replace the car.

Do we claim the 6 months lost insurance off the third party when/if they claim liability?

The no refund on the policy is industry standard I believe although I think you should be able to use the remainder of the cover on your new car, and no you wont be able to claim it back from from the third party.

Meridian · 2 Feb 2011 at 19:22

pepp77 said:
Yep this is correct.

Essentially because, by paying the claim, the insurers are buying the car off you. They don't need to insure it if they own it. The loss to you is just one of the many ways that insurers give it you where it hurts.

M

carlosvr6 · 17 Mar 2012 at 11:31

I have received a letter today from the other parties insurance (through my solicitor) stating that they will settle the claim on a non-prejudice basis. They will not admit or deny liability any longer now that they have agreed to deal with the claim against their insured.

They initially wanted to settle 50/50 but the wife refused saying she wanted them to pay the full amount and admit liability as she was not at fault.

If we settled on this non-prejudice basis will we have to put this down as a fault or non-fault claim on any car insurance we take out in the future?