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Crash - What Would You Do? Insurance Or Private?


Dark_Angel_Arus
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Hello all,

Just looking for a bit of opinion:

Yesterday on the way home, I was hit by a !Removed! from Thrifty car hire on a round about.

Basically, the roundabout joins as 2 lanes, and on the 2nd exit (straight over) it continues as 2 lanes.

I was in the right hand lane and he was in the left.

We both joined the roundabout at the same time, so I was next to him.

I stayed snug to the inside of the roundabout, but half way across, he decided to change lanes, into me.

I slammed on the brakes, and as he continued, I turned to evade, hitting the roundabout.

So, the damage is:

Driver's side wheel and tire (from evasive action).

Passenger side Bumper - Paint off with grazing.

Passenger side front wheel arch - paint damage, dented and slight buckling.

Passenger side light - the water seal is damaged with slight scuffing.

Passenger side wheel - slight damage to rim.

Now here is the question:

There is no doubt that he caused this, but, as he works for a rental company, it is pretty much definite that they will open a claim against me.

Should I consider getting my car repaired privately, or through insurance?

My excess is £250.

If they decide to be !Removed! and point blame at me, and it goes 50/50, I could lose £125 and 2 years no claims (out of 5), and of course my premium will go up.

How likely are they to do the !Removed! move? I assume that if I get it repaired privately, and the claim goes 50/50, then I will lose my excess and no claims anyway?

Also there is a good chance that the repairs would cost more than £125 anyway...

What would you guys do?

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Thanks

Edited by Preee
Removed Swear word. please choose your wording wisely
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Go through the insurance! if you were on the inside lane, and you have damage to the car that proves you needed to evade him (crashing into the roundabout) Then they have very little to go on as evidence of your misbehavior.

Do not go privately in this instance, as you will be out of pocket.

put it this way: you have more evidence to suggest you were crashed into, therefore their insurance has to pay out, not yours. They would be eligible for all costs.

If they do argue the toss and somehow you end up being blamed - push it back to your insurer, and get them to dispute this, giving them everything you can all descriptions and any witness details, if your insurer can argue right, the cost will go back in your favour.

Worst case scenario, they decide your 50/50, each insurer is then eligible to cover the costs, in which case you discard the claim and advise you will repair yourself. No damage done to your insurance, other than the fact you were involved in an accident.

Failure to notify your insurer at least is worse, if they start to play the whiplash card, you could be done for failure to report an accident appropriately, your insurance may be cancelled, and you may end up in a lot worse trouble...

It sounds to me like you have an excel;lent chance of getting what you deserve (your car repaired, and with no cost to you!)

Whilst everything is fresh in your memory, you need to write a report detailing everything that happened. I would advise, that to keep it in your favour, you report how you were driving, and he was for some distance before the roundabout. for example, if you both followed the same direction for 3 miles before, was he driving aggresively? was he tailgating? was he driving fine and this was just bad luck? you need to detail anything you can remember - in fronr of you there was a car X (fiat punto for example) he was driving behind an escort van, detail the weather, temperature, any roadsigns around. Everything you can - revisit the site of the accident and take a wander to refresh your memory.

If you can provide a thoroughly detailed description of the event, the insurers cant ignore it, if its your detailed story vs his "well, he drove into me on the roundabout" whilst you have details of damage to your car to suggest you where on the roundabout, then you have a much stronger case. Also witness, how many other cars can go around that roundabout, do you often see two cars, side by side without issue? is the roundabout sufficient in width to accomodate this?

Detail is the key to this and you need as much as possible to ensure you are not out of pocket at all...!

I had to do all of this after my accident, I was hoping that the responsibility would be passed to the other driver, as he slammed his anchors on in front of me, however in the end, all the evidence pointed strongly in his direction, however, because I was behind him, the responsibility ultimately fell to me. I took the initial claim that was 100% my fault, and my insurers agreed by the end it was more 51% my fault, and 49% his, but not enough to go for a split claim. so prepare to argue your case, ,and also - prepare for it to go on for some time, but do not give in, do not allow them to pass the buck to you...

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I would go through insurance , go and take photos of the island with full breakdown and drawings of what happened.

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Thanks for your advice!

I called the insurance company an hour or so later and have given a full account.

All pictures of all parts of my damage and the other party's damage has been sent to the insurance company as evidence.

They feel that I have a very strong case, but companies like Thrifty will lie outright to save themselves money.

My main argument point is the damage to my rim and chunk of rubber missing from the tire when i slammed the kerb to avoid him, but they may say that there is no evidence that the damage was not there already....

Repair through insurance would make sense as I will either get it free If I win claim, or I will lose out anyway if 50/50....

It is a route I take every day to and from work, so i know the place like the back of my hand.

I have also used Google maps to show the location from a map view, and a picture showing the spot using street view.

Unfortunately the dispute could take days, weeks or months, so the repairs may happen before the decision.

Either way I will fight this all the way. He was 100% at fault, and there is no reason that I should lose out because of his inability to stick to lanes, indicate or use his mirrors!

Preee - sorry about the swear word, was slightly elevated when writing it, but I will keep it in mind :D

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Glad to see you are going to stick to your guns, and rental company or not, they cant argue facts. The damage on your tyre and wheel will look fresh, if the rest of the wheel is dirty, and the tyre discoloured from age, then the fresh black and white markings over these two area's can only be a maximum of say 2 weeks old. They would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you did not do this any other time.

I stick by the idea that you will win this though. Just keep arguing, keep putting your foot down and make sure the insurers push the fight in your favour...

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Try and get a picture of the roundabout itself, as there may well be skid marks/tyre marks on the roundabout from where you hit it. My dad was nearly hit a few weeks ago, a similar thing happened (guy tried to change into his lane, but on a straight not a roundabout) and my dad braked, skidded and hit the kerb (he had booked the car in to get an ABS fault checked). The kerb was very high, causing damage to his alloy and front wing. The skid marks are still there and clearly show what happened.

Given the damage caused, I'm sure there must he some sort of mark on the kerb of the roundabout. This will give undeniable evidence.

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Hey,

I stopped at the roundabout on the way home to look for evidence.

Unfortunately the concrete kerb is old and covered in marks, so there was nothing conclusive.

On another note, I have been to the garage, and they confirmed that they will replace the front wing with a non-ford part. He said that they only use Ford parts if the 3rd part ones are not good enough.

I've never had work done on a car by a garage, but is this common, or acceptable?

Thanks

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Its quite acceptable, unless you specify you want OEM parts, then depending on the age of the vehicle, they will often use the non OEM, this is to keep cost down to both parties, You save about 70% overall cost, and they make more profit on the work they do, and you still get your car at the end of the day, as good as it was before the bang.

Dont have any work done at all though, until the car has been checked and assessed as part of the insurance claim. Anything you do (even down to washing the car) can remove evidence, or raise questions that the car was in that state previous and you dont want anything to risk them not paying out.

Follow the complaint, take the photo's and ask for your insurers nearest recommended garage to review. That is most likely where your car will be sent for repair, they can then draw an accident report in order to provide to the insurers, and from that point on, when the claim does go through, even if you have tidied parts of the car (before you go in for repair) as you may have intended, the full report shows what should be replaced as a minimum.

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Unfortunately the dispute could take days, weeks or months, so the repairs may happen before the decision.

Either way I will fight this all the way. He was 100% at fault, and there is no reason that I should lose out because of his inability to stick to lanes, indicate or use his mirrors!

Think again, I had a collision in August 2009, it was finally settled, (In my favour), a year later, (August 2010), after the other party took me to court claiming I was at fault, in the mean time I had to renew my policy and was forced to declare it to the insurance company, which then pushed up my premium as it was still an open case.

All I can advise is the same as others have, and that is to keep copies of everything, photo's, statements, correspondence from the other party and their insurers/solicitors, the courts, and even correspondence you send out, do nothing over the phone, always ask for written proof so nothing can come back and bite you in the you know what.

As I don't know the area where it happened, find out if there are any camera's around there and if there are, ask at the local nick if they caught it on camera, if so ask for a copy of the footage, (It might cost), for evidentiary purposes should it end up in court.

Other than that all I can say is good luck with the claim

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Its quite acceptable, unless you specify you want OEM parts, then depending on the age of the vehicle, they will often use the non OEM, this is to keep cost down to both parties, You save about 70% overall cost, and they make more profit on the work they do, and you still get your car at the end of the day, as good as it was before the bang.

That's good to know.

The garage is the one that Admiral recommended.

All the guy did was take photos and notes on a crash form, which he said he will report to Admiral.

Once the car is booked in for repairs, I will call Admiral to make sure that they are happy for it to go ahead.

Think again, I had a collision in August 2009, it was finally settled, (In my favour), a year later, (August 2010), after the other party took me to court claiming I was at fault, in the mean time I had to renew my policy and was forced to declare it to the insurance company, which then pushed up my premium as it was still an open case.

All I can advise is the same as others have, and that is to keep copies of everything, photo's, statements, correspondence from the other party and their insurers/solicitors, the courts, and even correspondence you send out, do nothing over the phone, always ask for written proof so nothing can come back and bite you in the you know what.

As I don't know the area where it happened, find out if there are any camera's around there and if there are, ask at the local nick if they caught it on camera, if so ask for a copy of the footage, (It might cost), for evidentiary purposes should it end up in court.

Other than that all I can say is good luck with the claim

I have a file of photos and diagrams building on my PC :)

Unfortunately there were no witnesses, and a black spot for cameras!

As the evidence is stacked so far against the other party, I'm pretty sure the best they can get is 50/50, but even then I will still argue!

Thanks for the advice!

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  • 2 weeks later...

argue it till the cows come home. did you get all the details of the other driver?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello all,

Just a quick note to say that the other part has accepted full blame!

Very unexpected!

Welcome back to my no claims bonus and £250 excess!

Thanks for all the help!

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Nicely done! and here was you contemplating doing it privately :p ;) glad its sorted now, and at least they were honest!

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