She'll be grand, will no doubt hear from Bennetts tomorrow, to discuss my claim - I'm pretty sure I can refuse to use an appointed claims company, and instead elect to have a garage of my choosing carry out repair under my FC insurance; if they try to argue, I might speak to White Dalton for a bit of help.
Not been out to the garage to look at her today, literally the only body parts that aren't hurting, are my face and toes! Feels like that bit from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Noticed the local rag had run a piece on the accident, and a witness claimed the car I hit, was trying to avoid an old person in the road - not sure how accurate that is, as I believed that I simply chose a poor place to filter (past a turning on the right). Might need to mention this to my insurers, as they can probably get bus dashcam footage near the incident.
Hoping the claim goes 50/50, but prepared for it to go against me - I have protected NCB and my last fault claim was nearly 12 years ago so....
Well, still no progress!
I reported the accident to Bennetts as soon as I got home on the day - being a weekend, I guess I just spoke to a call center in India, as they "logged it and someone would call back". On the 13th I heard from someone who I thought was Bennetts, as I had to go through the ins and outs of the accident - and they gave me two options 1. to go through their claims team, or 2. I could claim off of my FC insurance; I chose the latter as over the last year or so I had been watching some of the White Dalton features on 44Teeth's YT channel - and didn't want to go falling into any possible traps.
Anyway a couple of emails followed this, and it turned out the person who called was actually from 4th Dimension - they said that they had logged my claim, and that was now being passed over to my actual insurer/underwriter...
After hearing literally nothing for a week from anyone, I called the insurer/underwriter directly and they had no claim for me logged!! I had to run through everything over the phone again, but the lady I spoke to was a great help, and also told me they would go for 100% liability against the other driver; as the recent highway code changes meant that the driver ought to have been more aware of their surroundings for vulnerable road users when crossing the center of the road. Though I still expect this is just the default position for both insurers - as I still think it'll go 50/50 at best.
Anyway, my chosen garage was approved and the bike was due to be collected for assessment last week - but sadly the guy got COVID, so I am now waiting to hear when he can next fit me in.
As for me - I had to go the GP in the end, as pain management with over the counter meds was doing nothing whatsoever - so I have 4 types of strong painkillers now, and the GP confirmed that I have whiplash too; which is why my shoulder and neck muscles often lock solid; but I am slowly getting more sleep, though the bruised/cracked ribs mean I end up on my back all night snoring! The wife has made me sleep in the guest room on a few occasions now
Stupidly, I (for whatever reason) didn't take out helmet and leathers cover - so I am hoping that I will have an avenue to claim for these from the other party, as it's nearly a grand's worth of kit - and though I would usually re-use some of it; when I had a consultation with White Dalton, the guy said that kit is designed to be crashed in once, so to claim for everything that was damaged. I never even considered that, but it makes sense.
I guess I'm being impatient and the wheels aren't going to move much without the garage's quote for repairs - it's not like I'm in any fit state to ride (or even drive) at the moment, so I better just sit on my hands and wait...
Here's hoping it's either 100% the drivers fault and I can claim back everything (repairs, kit, recover and excess) or it goes 50/50 and I can still claim for the bits listed - I also think I will go the personal injury route too; I felt like a fraud claiming for it back in 2008 after getting hit, but it's been a real pain in the **** this time, having constant pain in my ribs, neck and shoulders has meant I'm pretty useless with helping care for my toddler and I haven't slept too well since the crash - though the diazepam are slowly helping with that.
