my car hit by another car

Ms-Pacman

The title pretty much explains what happened, but I'm not sure what to do now. The incident happened on saturday where we were stationary at the beginnning of a small bridge with a car in front of us (my partner is the driver in our car) as waiting for a caravan and a trail of cars headed towards us to clear a bridge as no room for two lanes.

The bridge is in a small welsh village with a 30 mph speed limit. There was no traffic behind us for a good few minutes a& we had been waiting for a while as the caravan ahead of the other side moving traffic was very slow.
We then got rear ended by a vehicle behind us that failed to stop. How she missed seeing our car I don't know as it was very sunny and our car is a bright greeny blue colour . Her car is quite an old estate. Fortuntaely we did not hit the car in front, but then it was a good 3 metres away as there was a turning of the road in between us so we did not want to block it incase anything decided to turn from the traffic coming towards us.

Our car is obviously damaged but was drivable. It had a severe bash in the back as no bumper - my partner says its all inside it as this is quite common with newer cars - ours is 05 corsa - but there is clearly damage. The car is going to a bodyshop tomorrow for a full check and we already know (as my partner works in car industry) that there is damage but don't know full details yet.

We got her details - she was not unpleasant at all and I think we were all shocked by what had happened. we swapped details - address, car insurance details, car reg. She didn't say what had happened her end - infact she was very quiet - probably shocked.

I phoned our insurers to see what we needed to do explaining the car was being checked on tuesday. Our insurers then wanted us to pay £175 excess? which they would pay us back at a later date once claim gone through. I don't understand this part as surely any repairs will come of her insurance not ours and why do we need to pay an amount to ours right now when to be honest we are not claiming of it. We only phoned as we were not sure who contacted who first and whether our insurers would speak to theirs?

Can anyone explain what this means in a language I understand please!

Fortuntaely no one was badly hurt - although both my partner and I are now suffering with painful shoulders and arms but hopefully that will go soon. The car moved about 2 metres and my partner had his foot on the brake so that will give you an idea of how hard the impact was. We also were both wearing seatbelts.

Quentin

If you want to use your own insurance to pay for your damage, then this does mean you will have to pay the £175 (if that was the excess you originally agreed to pay when taking out the insurance), and claim it back from the third party.

From what you say, you could consider just claiming directly off the guilty party. If you are in pain you could claim compensation for this as well as all your other expenses.

You could instruct a solicitor or claim handler to do all this for you.

Ms-Pacman

I've just spoken to her brokers who said she has admited it was her fault - I didn't say it had been raining a bit. the reason I remembered this is as the details written down are smeared a bit like a bit of spitting rain but it was sunny as well. The broker mentioned she skidded but we had music on in the car and didn't hear a noise. her car is being written off as all crumpled inside front part and no longer works which makes sense why we saw them following us after then disappeared with no road turnings.

The broker has advised to go thorough our insurances to deal with everything with the claim being made to hers as she has admited liabilty - the broker said we should not have to pay the excess as it is being paid by her insurance so I guess I need to ring mine and tell them I won't be paying the excess? as her insurnaces will be paying - does that make sense and its it correct?

I wouldn't mind paying the £175 as it would be refunded but I cannot afford it right now and want this dealt with asap.

Quentin

The third party's broker cannot really advise you on how your own insurer's will deal with this. If you claim via your own insurer they will want the excess paying before your car is returned from the bodyshop.

Do consider handing this over to a claim handler to deal with, as they will usually be able to get everything done on account, which the third party will be responsible for paying without involving your own insurer at all. They will also help if you want to claim for personal injury as well.

Ms-Pacman

Thanks for the advise - will look into using a claim handler as well. not claiming for injury at all as its only a bit of pain in shoulders.
It wasn't too bad before but I was carrying my sister's 3 yr old a bit on sunday so I guess I aggrivated it instead of letting it rest. but thats my own fault!
I wouldn't feel comfortable of claiming for something thats just a bit sore as it will soon recover. My partner says he is ok part form a little discomfort.

Quentin

It's your call on the injury, but how do you know there is no damage done? No harm to get it checked out. If some clown drove into the back of most people they would want compensating for any pain they caused them - you definitely wouldn't be doing anything that you should be uncomfortable about!

And this is a moneysavers site - and you did say you can't afford £175 right now. Whiplash compensation for the two of you will be greater than £175!

tinkerbell84

Ms-Pacman wrote: »

Fortuntaely no one was badly hurt - although both my partner and I are now suffering with painful shoulders and arms but hopefully that will go soon. The car moved about 2 metres and my partner had his foot on the brake so that will give you an idea of how hard the impact was. We also were both wearing seatbelts.

You shouldn't do that while stationary, you know. The impact would have caused his foot to stop braking and that could have pushed your car into anything in front of you

When stopped at traffic lights or in the circumstances you describe, the handbrake should be on. Might be worth telling your partner

Other than that, it all sounds fairly standard.

However, I almost drowned in Wales this weekend - it didn't stop raining at all and many places were flooded.

Whereabouts were you?

Ms-Pacman

his foot wasn't on the brake at first! He is a proffesional driver and his first instinct on feeling the impact was to brake to stop going into the Car in front. There was a river in front of The car in front of us.

Just woken up from 1st decent sleep since this happened and Shoulders and arms not as painful,

Ms-Pacman

It was about 20 mins away from Welshpool going to Borth via machynlleth but not the Newtown way.

tinkerbell84

Ms-Pacman wrote: »

his foot wasn't on the brake at first! He is a proffesional driver and his first instinct on feeling the impact was to brake to stop going into the Car in front. There was a river in front of The car in front of us.

Just woken up from 1st decent sleep since this happened and Shoulders and arms not as painful,

So the handbrake wasn't on then :rolleyes:

It should have been.

He may be a professional driver, but that doesn't make his driving flawless. It's not going to prevent whiplash, or prevent impact, but imagine the car had been pushed forwards into a wall - an extended leg (on the brake) could be easily broken. If the handbrake was on the legs could be tucked up out of the way while the movement of the car was stopped as far as possible.

Ms-Pacman

ok, well their insurance company called us to get us to fax the quote from the body shop which the car is booked in to be inspected soon. This means our insurance company is no longer involved. The car is drivable - seems fine except for an indicator not working properly which we think was like it a bit before anyway so that will have to be something different when the car gets its service next month.

There is damage to the back and underneath but I don't know what as not technically minded but she has admited full liability and the her insurers are happy to pay the repairs cost - I think they pay direct to the repairers which means we don't have to deal with the hassle. her car is a write off

I have been asked whether I want to claim injury damage and on this one I really don't know what to do.
I went to doctors last night as back shoulders and arm in agony - gotten worse over last few days now stiffness has eased and have been told torn muscles as my head was not against the car seat head rest - I think I was sitting up looking at the caravan passing at the time as I was definately looking at my partner when it happened and he is the driver of our car. Apparently it will take 3 weeks to get better, but pain killers do help ease it a bit. I am at work as normal - a bit uncomfortable but can do my work easily - office work so sat down all day.

I am a bit uneasy of claiming for something that will get better soon. I don't want to be one of these poeple who claim for every single payment possible.

So I am asking for moral advise. Do I just carry on and get better which I know I will and ignore the inconvience - which is just because it is painful or do I go ahead and claim? It was thier brokers who advised me to which I found odd.