Insurance claim made against my wife, how to respond?

Quentin

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

I would put a claim in and if you dont it may seem like it was her fault.

No it won't. If there is nothing to claim for, there is no point making a claim!

It will make no difference to the liability issue how many claims are made!

Conor_3

fatdeeman wrote: »

It happened on a roundabout, my wife was heading for the motorway exit and is not sure where she came from, she could have been next to her at the lights which means she just pulled into her but my wife is pretty sure she would have seen her sooner. Out of the two junctions before the slip road the first junction would have been a red light so if she came from there she jumped a red and the other junction was a give way one.

My wife was on her way to a placement for her nursing degree and has people who can vouch for that and confirm that she would have been heading onto the motorway as she had been every day for several weeks.

The other woman is now claiming that they both went past the slip road and had carried on round the roundabout when it happened, claiming my wife changed from the right hand lane to the left and drove into her when what really happened is that my wife was heading to the slip road and the other woman appeared to want to keep going around the roundabout but because she was on the inside she hit my wife.

Oh dear. Even taking your wifes version of events as being right, including the last sentence of the last bit quoted above, your wife is in the wrong. In fact, the last sentence actually weakens your wifes' defence as she should have been in the left hand lane on the roundabout BEFORE she passed the entry she thinks the woman pulled out of. For example, say the wife was going round the roundabout and the exit for the motorway was at the 12 o'clock position and the other woman was waiting to pull onto the roundabout from the 9 o'clock position. Driving correctly and to be in the correct marked lane, your wife must be in the left most lane by the time she has passed the exit to leave the roundabout at the 9 o'clock position. She must also be indicating left as well as she would be leaving the roundabout at the next exit.

If your wife was in the correct lane, there is no possible way for the other woman to have ended up on her inside.

It sounds like your wife was in the wrong lane and not indicating her intentions. The woman waiting at the give way quite reasonably assumed your wife was going to continue around the roundabout and not take the exit as she was in the lane to do this. The woman set off in the left lane round the roundabout, which is the correct lane to be in to go straight across a roundabout, suddenly to find your wife carving her way from the right hand lane to the roundabout exit.

And after seeing the sheer number of people who haven't got a clue what lane they're supposed to be in or how to indicate correctly on roundabouts, it wouldn't surprise me if this was what happened.

The damage on both vehicles supports the fact that your wife drove into the side of her.

looby-loo_2

Next time you insure it may pay to have NCD cover.

terryya

Conor wrote: »

Oh dear. Even taking your wifes version of events as being right, including the last sentence of the last bit quoted above, your wife is in the wrong. In fact, the last sentence actually weakens your wifes' defence as she should have been in the left hand lane on the roundabout BEFORE she passed the entry she thinks the woman pulled out of. For example, say the wife was going round the roundabout and the exit for the motorway was at the 12 o'clock position and the other woman was waiting to pull onto the roundabout from the 9 o'clock position. Driving correctly and to be in the correct marked lane, your wife must be in the left most lane by the time she has passed the exit to leave the roundabout at the 9 o'clock position. She must also be indicating left as well as she would be leaving the roundabout at the next exit.



If your wife was in the correct lane, there is no possible way for the other woman to have ended up on her inside.

It sounds like your wife was in the wrong lane and not indicating her intentions. The woman waiting at the give way quite reasonably assumed your wife was going to continue around the roundabout and not take the exit as she was in the lane to do this. The woman set off in the left lane round the roundabout, which is the correct lane to be in to go straight across a roundabout, suddenly to find your wife carving her way from the right hand lane to the roundabout exit.

And after seeing the sheer number of people who haven't got a clue what lane they're supposed to be in or how to indicate correctly on roundabouts, it wouldn't surprise me if this was what happened.

The damage on both vehicles supports the fact that your wife drove into the side of her.

Taking your example, even if the women entering the roundabout thought OPs wife was staying to "3 o'clock"on and pulled onto the roundabout to go straight ahead (also 3 o'clock) what would have happened when OPs wife moved into the correct lane to leave at 3? The same thing that happened today.

Now if the other drive saw OPs wife was staying on to 3 o'clock and she only wanted to come on and leave at 12 o'clock then she would have been ok.

Anyway enough "o'clocks", I think the moral of the story is don't let women on roundabouts

Conor_3

terryya wrote: »

Taking your example, even if the women entering the roundabout thought OPs wife was staying to "3 o'clock"on and pulled onto the roundabout to go straight ahead (also 3 o'clock) what would have happened when OPs wife moved into the correct lane to leave at 3? The same thing that happened today.

That's what indicators and MK1 eyeball is for. People in inside lane must give way.

nearlyrich

terryya wrote: »

Anyway enough "o'clocks", I think the moral of the story is don't let women on roundabouts

This made me laugh as I have witnessed some really bad driving on a series of roudabouts today by an elderly woman who seemed to have no idea about lane markings and positioning.. I just let her go so she didn't end up damaging my hire car, my real car is in the garage since I was rear ended by a boy racer who feels it was my fault obviously he owns the road and I didn't get permission to drive on it:rolleyes:

BYALPHAINDIA

I always have a 'Digital' Pocket Camera on me = Evidence in case of an Accident.

We all know that the other person/s are going to say different??

gsmmad

erm i just read some of the post and i dont agree with everything...

If there is damage to your car or your wife's health in anyway i think she should still make a claim. My reason for this is the other person is making a claim either she will loose or you will loose or it will be a 50/50. So either way there is no loss in making a claim to repair your own car. Why repair it out of your own pocket? When if god forbid you do loose the claim and it effects your insurance and you never claimed for your car. Your at a loss, loss. Also no matter how much the insurance has to pay out your insurance premiums will be effected in the same way.

Also i would try and get a witness maybe re visit the area and have a good look around. Ow ps do make sure you get across to your insurance how many people she was with and how small the damages were. She maybe trying to do fraud by showing more people than there was in the car, to make a quick buck.

Cardelia

Conor wrote: »

Oh dear. Even taking your wifes version of events as being right, including the last sentence of the last bit quoted above, your wife is in the wrong. In fact, the last sentence actually weakens your wifes' defence as she should have been in the left hand lane on the roundabout BEFORE she passed the entry she thinks the woman pulled out of. For example, say the wife was going round the roundabout and the exit for the motorway was at the 12 o'clock position and the other woman was waiting to pull onto the roundabout from the 9 o'clock position. Driving correctly and to be in the correct marked lane, your wife must be in the left most lane by the time she has passed the exit to leave the roundabout at the 9 o'clock position.

I don't necessarily agree with this. If you take the A3/M25 junction as an example, that roundabout is 3 lanes wide. Left lane is clearly marked next exit only, right lane is continue on roundabout only, but the middle lane can be either next exit or continue on roundabout. There are also roundabouts where the leftmost 2 lanes are left turn only, especially at major junctions e.g. with motorways. So in the OP's scenario:

It happened on a roundabout, my wife was heading for the motorway exit and is not sure where she came from, she could have been next to her at the lights which means she just pulled into her but my wife is pretty sure she would have seen her sooner.

If the OP's wife was in the middle lane because the other woman was in the left lane, the logical course of action would be for the OP's wife to continue in the middle lane until the motorway exit - there's nothing wrong with this. If the other woman realised at the last minute that she was in the wrong lane and tried to carry on round the roundabout, despite clearly being in a lane marked exit only, then the incident is 100% her fault. However, without knowing the lane markings and traffic situation on the roundabout at the time, it's impossible to judge.

Conor_3

Cardelia wrote: »

I don't necessarily agree with this. If you take the A3/M25 junction as an example, that roundabout is 3 lanes wide. Left lane is clearly marked next exit only, right lane is continue on roundabout only, but the middle lane can be either next exit or continue on roundabout. There are also roundabouts where the leftmost 2 lanes are left turn only, especially at major junctions e.g. with motorways.

In which case it could be, as I mentioned, that the OP's wife hasn't indicated to leave the roundabout.

Regardless, I'd leave it in the hands of the insurers and let them sort it out. It's not in their interest to give money away.