Rear ended :(

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

MikeHiow

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Joined
26 Oct 2004
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Isle of Wight
Stationary in the ST at the beginning of our only dual carriage way, waiting for the queue so that I might pull into the next lane and all of a sudden a Focus shunts me up the rear end at about 30MPH.

Rear crash bar has bent and actually pushed into the subframe/boot floor behind it.

Been to the hospital as a bystander called the police, luckily both Lauren and I are OK, just a bit of whiplash :/

Any tips on where to go from here? Do I just give Admiral a call and give them the other parties details?
 
I'm not really interested in a free hire car, I have other cars I can use and I've seen people get stung by them before.

Its also likely I'll have two personal injury claims, as well as claims for two items that were damaged in the car - how do I proceed with these? Is it best to sort the car out now, and go to a no win no fee type solicitor to handle the rest?
 
Thanks guys, Its great to hear of people's real experiences - I always thought I'd know what to do, but when the shock of it all sets in, I was very unsure. Its lucky I had half a clue though as he didn't.
 
I definitely need to look into that, as given the damage to the boot floor, it'll always be easy to tell that its been rear-ended.
 
[TW]Fox;16787630 said:
Of course you will, good how you know this before you know if you've got anything more than just a bit of ache and before you've suffered a penny of loss of earnings for 'injury'. First thing everyone thinks of these days is personal injury. Money wont make the ache go away.

It's about time the whole thing was stopped unless you receive a life changing injury IMHO, crappy whippy compo claims cost insurers an obscene amount of money.

You were rear ended, it'll hurt for a few weeks perhaps, unless you've been seriously injured just man up.
Click to expand...

Don't swear. Also, please note the use of the term 'likely'. (For the record, we were both diagnosed with whiplash at the hospital, and I personally have been suffering all evening so far, even after a dose of Ibuprofen - this isn't a case of the all to common 'my neck hurts', its genuine).

I will never lie about anything, if I woke up feeling right as rain tomorrow, I'd be thankful and think nothing more of the matter, but the fact of the matter is, if the injury is serious enough to warrant a claim, then I will damn well take that opportunity. If you want to take some imaginary moral high ground then be my guest, but do not expect others to be so naive.

Also, why are you suggesting that I should sympathise with what personal injury claims costs insurers? Me "manning up" on this occasion will make absolutely no odds, and my premiums will be just as high (actually, in fact higher as my insurer loads premiums for non-fault claims). In the case of a real injury, you either have to be a fool or have too much money to ignore the available options based on a shoddy principle.
 
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Actually, the thought didn't cross my mind until nearly six hours later when I finally got home - before that my only concern was Lauren and the baby.

No, it won't make the pain go away, but in any case of personal injury why should the victim have to suffer due to somebody else's negligence? I believe it is only fair that they be compensated not only for the disruption in their life, but the suffering involved too, and that is at the very simplest level - there is no telling what long term effects could happen as a result, years down the line.

A previous posts also proves that you can get compensation for having your car damaged, he referred to it as depreciation of value - which is a very fair point, an accident repaired car is always going to be harder to sell and worth less than one that has never seen paint.
 
Well, I can do nothing more than disagree on that one - that was my opinion before, and it is still my opinion now.

For the record, I've been rear ended twice before, and both times I've not even bothered claiming off their insurance for the damages, much less for any sort of personal injury. Like I say, I'm honest and do not wish to scheme anything that isn't warranted or deserved. If problems persist I will pursue the matter, if however, everything is fine then I will not - hence the use of the word 'likely'.
 
Tried getting on the phone to report this.

The other party's insurance company only have an out of hours claim line on a Sunday, presumably if you're stranded/in need of recovery - these will not take a claim from a third party.

My own insurance company, Admiral, have a systems problem and cannot enter new claims.
 
In typical "when it rains, it pours" fashion, I've just gone to go out in the Mondeo and got a puncture - not the slow type either, one minute it was fine, the next minute it was 100% flat. The irony is, I'm waiting for a replacement locking wheel nut key to turn up from Germany.
 
I'm not considering Helphire as someone suggested earlier. The Mondeo could be out of action for another week, and the thought of someone else handling everything from repairs, the claim right up to any possible personal injury, sounds very appealing.

Thoughts?
 
I've already demonstrated that I have been rear-ended twice before, and not even claimed for the (superficial) damages to my car/trailer, let alone for any personal injury - so I am not your typical claimee looking to lie for a relatively small amount of cash. I can understand why some people are upset with those taking this **** out of the system, however it is never possible to tell with absolute certainty.

Yes, as it has already been stated - medical care for a lot of issues is no good - ie. there is nothing that can be done for whiplash other than a bit of physio, which you'd get under the NHS anyway if your GP deems it necessary. The point is, that if you've been forced to suffer through no fault of your own, the person at fault or their insurance company can't make it go away, so they must compensate with another means - money makes the world go around, and if you can replace your suffering with a bit of ease elsewhere, this helps.

If I was given a choice of this happening and even £10k of compo, or the choice of it never happening, I'd take the latter - no worries with baby, no sore neck and sleeplessness for what is likely to be weeks or even months, no aches, no insurance to sort out, no faffing about with bodyshops, and no odd coloured bumper afterwards.
 
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Both my Grandparents and my Step Mother have both been in very similar situations in the last year and two years respectively. They have explained their experiences, so I have an idea of what to expect. I also know how I felt last time I was rear-ended, that went away within about a week, and that was nothing compared to how I am now.

I wish you could experience how I feel right now, if only for a minute, I doubt you'd be so pessimistic then.

Also, as I've said, my first thoughts were ouch, Lauren & Baby, followed by some swear words that were going to be delivered to the driver that hit me. I was in a fair bit of pain six hours later, and that is when it crossed my mind.

Shock horror, perhaps there are some honest people in the world.
 
Well I won't ever use Helphire again.

I spoke to them yesterday, I was told they would have to take my details and get back to me. Later in the day they requested that I fax two proofs of address which were done instantly, and to call and leave a message one I had (Which I did).

By mid-day today I hadn't received any calls, so called them, after two different departments telling me they had no idea who I was, I finally got through to someone who had a clue and told me they had problems with their fax system yesterday and that they couldn't recover the faxes (nice of them to call and tell me). Today I've faxed over again, was promised a call back which I never got, and at 15:00 I decide to call back again, only to be told the person that is dealing with my case finishes at 3.

I will give them an opportunity to rectify the situation tomorrow before finding someone else that can do the job properly.
 
I missed that one, sorry.

I've had more than one recommendation for each to be fair, I just went with the one that was recommended first.

Just had a call from Countrywide to confirm that the other party have admitted liability, thats at least one bit of good news today (not that it would have been a problem anyway).
 
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Yes, I was rather shocked to be passed to Albany Assistance earlier when they were trying to find "me". Considering when researching, I heard loads of good things about Helphire, and a fair few bad things about Albany - although, this could be customers that have gone through their "legal cover" included with the Admiral Group companies, and locked in to their terms.

I fear changing to Europa could result in another two day delay, which is why I haven't done it already, but hopefully Helphire well get their arses in gear tomorrow morning, and it was just down to a higher workload after the faxes died, as well as my faxes going missing.

I moved things on a little today as well by getting an estimate from a local citroen franchised bodyshop, of whom I'm friendly with and have seen some fantastic work coming out of, so I'll have an estimate tomorrow morning ready to pass on to them.
 
Well this is all going smoothly, the car should be going into the body shop very soon and everyone is happy.

Except, I was rather annoyed to find out that the third party's insurance company passed my details onto an injury specialist, who lied to me on the phone claiming he was instructed by first my insurance company, and then my accident management company.

Luckily I saw straight through his tactics (naming my insurance company, changing his story etc.) but surely there is some issue with data protection here, as I haven't agreed to let them pass on my details to anyone, much less to anyone so questionable.

After I kicked up a fuss, I've just had a phone call from a manager to apologise, which is a decent enough token I guess, but still worrying none the less.
 
Holy thread revival Batman.

Received £2.5k today with my OH receiving £2k a few weeks previous.

Not a bad outcome at all.
 
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