First crash!

laissez-faire · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:26

Had an accident yesterday, it was completely my fault and I feel very stupid about it.

It was a minor bump, some superficial damage the the bumper on the other car. I said that I'd put a cheque in the post for a new bumper. I went in to the back of him at 6 or 7mph.

Today he called me up and claimed he had whiplash. I immediately said that in view of his apparent injury that he was perfectly entitled to claim on my insurance, but he didn't want my policy number. I told him I was going to cancel the cheque for his bumper in view of the fact that it is now an insurance matter. I asked him for his policy number which he refused to give to me. When I mentioned it being an obligation of the RTA to supply that information he got abusive on the phone. I noticed yesterday he didn't write down my registration number and he said today he didn't want it.

He said he wanted me to send him another cheque for compensation for injuries and became again quite abusive when I said that I wasn't prepared to discuss that and to leave it to the insurance companies and doctors.

I have reported all the details to my insurance company and they are happy to deal with it. The thing is that it is now his responsibility to get in touch with them but he doesn't have my registration number or my policy number.

He said that he was going to call the police and have me arrested for driving without due care and attention (as if that is going to happen) and that he would contact his solicitor in the morning for them to start a claim against me.

I am not too sure what he is going to do without my registration number or my insurance details, but to be fair that is his problem.

He is in my view trying it on with the whiplash given the speeds involved, and therefore I think that by the time he works out how to claim he will simply claim for a new bumper, a few hundred pounds at most. Can I buy that claim off the insurance company to avoid losing my no claims bonus?

It all seems a bit odd. If someone went up my back end I would have simply asked for insurance details and then carried on.

laissez-faire · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:31

.:MBK:. said:
sounds like a bit of a ***** whos after a bit more money

Hence why I wanted to go through insurance instead of sending him money for his injuries, even if I risk paying more in the long run.

laissez-faire · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:34

<(Multi)> said:
Your quite right, you need to cancel that cheque ASAP. Hes attempting to blackmail you into sending him more money (you knew that though) and blackmail is in its own right illegal.

As for the police, I assume they would pass it on as merely an insurance issue if he were to contact them directly. Chin up mate, at the end of the day accidents happen though.

I realised that as soon as he called. Cheque already cancelled (it was very easy to cancel it, I will be wary of accepting cheques in the future!)

How easy is it to buy whatever claim he makes back from my insurance company to avoid losing the NCB?

laissez-faire · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:36

adapt said:
What a A hole, you have so done the right thing. I dunno re sending the cheque in the first place. I would have gone and seen him and got a reciept for paying for the bumper. But other than that you are doing well to keep your cool. Defo leave it with the insurance. Some how I doubt you will hear any more. It might be worth just filing a incident report if poss in case he does go the police route and saying you hit and ran. As to be honest its the only thing I think he could do. Does he have any other details re you. IE phone number, address etc?

He has my mobile number and my address. I have reported all details to the insurance company, they assured me unless a claim is made it will just be kept on file and won't affect and premiums of NCB discounts.

Edit > The insurance company also specifically told me not to speak to him again, so I am not sure how he is going to get more details. They said if he writes a letter to simply forward it to them.

laissez-faire · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:45

Concrete said:
I've never heard of it happening to be honest, if you havent already, report the incident to the police, you dont want him to give them a load of crap before you get your say!

Called the police, they said if he calls them they will tell him to go to the insurance company, something he seems reluctant to do. I checked with my insurance company against his reg and he is insured, but maybe he has something else to hide (disqualified perhaps?).

laissez-faire · 5 Jul 2007 at 20:54

If for some reason he chooses not to go any further I certainly will have got off very lightly... All I have had to pay so far is £10 to cancel the cheque. I can repair most of the damage to my car myself.

laissez-faire · 6 Jul 2007 at 07:41

A thought has occured to me. I have his voicemails saved, I am sure I can get O2 to email me the files.

If he turns out to NOT claim for injury on my insurance, i.e. implying the claims were totally bogus, can I sue him for blackmail? That would teach him.

Sam

laissez-faire · 6 Jul 2007 at 12:16

Entai said:
Sorry but you are very wrong with that statement.

Have a read here and you will see that "whiplash" accounts for 53% of all vehicle crash related injuries that happen at sppeds of below 8mph, and 27% of those injuries can last in excess of 3 years.
Whiplash can often lead to permanent disablility, and contrary to popular opinion it is very difficult to fake whiplash injuries, and very easy to diagnose using arthographic investigation, (a kind of x-ray showing details of soft tissue injuries).

We in Britain are a long way behind the US in investigation of whiplash, but we are catching up steadily.

Here at Millbrook I have a series of tests coming up in the next couple of months to test the effectiveness of new car seats against whiplash.

Couple more good reads here and here both showing that severe whiplash injuries can legitimately occur at low speed impacts of around 5-8mph very easily.

It happened to my sister, she had by her own admission mild whiplash and didn't even need to take time off work, yet she still got £3000 from the other party insurance. It just seems odd therefore that he seems so reluctant to go through the insurance company.