I had a car accident on the 22nd December. I was driving past the local hospital entrance and some idiot started pulling straight out of the hospital entrance.
I swerved to evade him, then suddenly I heard Bang as he hit the back end of my vehicle.
I stopped, got out and took some photos of the damage, he’s not done much just dented the wheel arch, door and rear bumper a bit, but it is a lease car so will need fixing through the insurance.
The guy that hit me, seemed very incoherent, as if he’d been drinking (my two sisters who were with me at the time both thought either he’s drunk or he’s very shook up after the accident).
He explained to me that he didn’t see the give way sign when pulling out the hospital car park. There was quite clear give way line markings across the road (plus anyway he’s come to a T-Junction coming out of a car park onto a major road and not a cross roads and he’s pulled out on me even though I was half way through the junction and even though I’ve swerved he’s still hit the back end of my vehicle so regardless of whether he saw the give way line or not he’s 100% at fault)
Anyway eventually after about 10 minutes I managed to get his insurance details off him and his address (I’d already got his reg plate ‘cos that fell off in the accident – so I copied that down!). One thing he did mention about his insurance was that it expires now he looked at it and it read expires 22/12/2012 12:00 (starts 22/12/2011 00:00), but he said he’s got his new one that starts on the 23/12/2012 at home.
The accident happened at 18:20 so where does that leave us? Was he driving uninsured as his old insurance had expired and his new one didn’t start till the next day, and if it does turn out that he is uninsured what happens now? As it was his fault I don’t want to fork out, I’ve got a £90 excess on my insurance which regardless of whether he’s insured or not I’d expect him to pay at least the excess as I’ve done everything I could do to evade him. If it does turn out his insurance is invalid will I be able to sue him at least for the excess.
The damage doesn’t look too bad and will probably just pull out and need repainting without replacing the panels, but that all depends on whether that’s acceptable to the lease company.
Also will this accident affect my insurance premiums at all because it does seem a bit unfair if it does ‘cos I’ve done everything possible to evade the accident.
Ok just got in touch with my insurance company now, they checked and he had switched insurance providers but thankfully his new insurance company had taken over by the time of the accident.
My insurer, RSA Motability, have waived the excess and are sorting out the repair in the new year.
They were so kind and helpful when I phoned them this morning.
At the moment the vehicle we get is on the motability car scheme so they sort out the insurance premiums and everything themselves, but next year were thinking of leaving that scheme and getting our own car so we were just concerned whether it would affect the premium next year when we’re paying. It appears from Swiftcover it will add £100 extra to our premium next year (the quote we got from them was £645 with the accident or £534 without the accident for the type of car we’re looking at getting – next year we’re looking at a Volvo V40)
Btw also thanks for the advice about reporting it to the police – first thing I did when I got home was phone the police and report it, got a crime reference and everything for it (seems just a bit of formal red tape really).
Normally car insurance starts and ends at midday so his new year’s cover should have began as soon as his old one expired. Unless he had changed insurance companies then that will have been automatic. His policy number will also be the same.
If he had made a mistake and was not insured for that period of 12 hours then he was committing a criminal offence by driving at 18:20. He can be prosecuted for this and fined as well as having to pay for damage to your car. Report the accident to the police asap and get a reference number just in case it turns out that he was not insured.
If you have comprehensive insurance then your own insurance company will pay for the damage to your car and seek to recover the money from the other driver. If the accident is proved to be "no fault" on your side AND they succeed in getting it back from him then your No Claims Discount should be restored. If your NCD is fully restored then your renewal premium will not be affected and will only increase by the regular annual inflation figure.
Your excess is another matter. That is a voluntary arrangement where you agree to pay the first £90 of any claim regardless of how the accident happened. Most comprehensive policies also include "legal" cover which is intended for exactly this sort of thing. The legal protection wil pay for a solicitor (the insurance company must appoint or approve them – don’t go engaging a lawyer of your own) to sue the other party to recover your excess amount. They’ll also seek to recover money that you spent on taxis, bus and train fares for when your car was being repaired.
Check your policy wording carefully to see if you have legal cover. If you don’t have it then get it next time – it’s well worth paying the extra small premium for next year.
If he is uninsured and you don’t have legal protection insurance then it’s probably not worth your while suing him privately for the recovery of your £90. Solicitors charge at least £200/hour and so for that amount of money you probably wouldn’t even get one of the television "no win no fee" merchants to help you. Your best chance to get the money back would be to add it as a claim when the police take him to court for being uninsured. Ask the magistrate to give him a court order to refund you. Discuss this with the police lawyer if it is necessary.
Recent Comments