OH crashed into another car, what do we do now?

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Brake lights are irrelevant. Horses do not have brake lights. Cyclists do not have brake lights. Pedestrians do not have brake lights. Sadly, your other half was not paying full attention to the road, and has driven into the back of another person's car. He is liable.

Crazy_Jamie

Dinah93 wrote:

I thought the brake light thing was a bit dodgy too, but as you say, so hard to prove and if he was aware of the issue before hand, will certainly have been repaired by now.

Not only that, but it raises other questions as well. Such as why your OH didn't slow down when he saw the car in front of the one he hit brake. Plus more questions could be asked about the first car braking 'suddenly'. What was the reason? Was he changing lanes? Did someone change lanes in front of him? A hazard on the road? The bottom line is, as you say, that it is a very difficult allegation to prove, especially when objectively the most likely explanation simply is that your OH was either driving too close, too fast, wasn't paying enough attention, or a combination of the three. That's always the most likely explanation, hence why rear end shunts are normally so cut and dry in terms of liability.

Dinah93 wrote:

He would also be suing him for whiplash.

This, however, is interesting. Whiplash symptoms, especially in lower impact collisions, usually don't manifest until hours or days after the accident. It's not impossible that he was suffering from symptoms there and then, but even so I'd treat his comment with a little bit of caution. Also worth mentioning that specifically to your insurer, as they'll want to keep an eye on that in any event.

DKLS

How fortunate to crash into a qualified medical professional who can self diagnose whiplash within minutes of the impact :rolleyes:

With diagnostic talents like that I need to register with him

OP whats his number?

Dinah93

I guess a lot of people get heated if they're in an accident that wasn't their fault, it just really shook my OH that he was saying all these things and we had no answer to any of them. Unfortunately OH doesn't have a camera phone so couldn't even take any pictures.

My OH has now called the insurers and reported the accident, following the advice of people on here, and no doubt will have lots of forms to fill in but the main thing worrying us was we were going to be bankrupted trying to get together money for a whiplash claim ourselves so we're really glad that concern has been answered.

Crazy_Jamie

Dinah93 wrote:

the main thing worrying us was we were going to be bankrupted trying to get together money for a whiplash claim ourselves

Well as you've already been told, you don't have anything to worry about in that regard. Your insurance will cover it.

Hintza

Just to reiterate what my link said;-

Scams to watch out for include:

• The Classic Rear-end Shunt. The guy in front suddenly slams on the brakes, making it impossible for you to avoid hitting him from behind. A common ploy is to disable the car's brake lights so you don't realise it is slowing down.
• The Decoy Rear-end Shunt. You're following one car when another one pulls in front of it, causing it to break sharply. As a result you crash into its rear end. The first car then drives off leaving you none the wiser to its involvement.

mikey72

Hintza wrote: »

Just to reiterate what my link said;-

Scams to watch out for include:

• The Classic Rear-end Shunt. The guy in front suddenly slams on the brakes, making it impossible for you to avoid hitting him from behind. A common ploy is to disable the car's brake lights so you don't realise it is slowing down.
• The Decoy Rear-end Shunt. You're following one car when another one pulls in front of it, causing it to break sharply. As a result you crash into its rear end. The first car then drives off leaving you none the wiser to its involvement.

Scam or not, there's nothing you can do, or indeed nothing you should do, that's why you pay the insurance, they'll sort it out, so don't worry about it.

anewman

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Brake lights are irrelevant. Horses do not have brake lights. Cyclists do not have brake lights. Pedestrians do not have brake lights. Sadly, your other half was not paying full attention to the road, and has driven into the back of another person's car. He is liable.

None of those can slow from 40mph down to 10mph in a matter of seconds though.

gsmmad

i think that your other half is at fault as car one is not a part of the accident, allthought he maybe held as cause of it, however he was not hit. Car one could have stoped for any reason, maybe something as simple as a fox. Your OH maybe should have had more space between the cars or should have braked quicker. No matter how this is thought out your other half will be responsible.

So your husband is liable, best thing to do is admit liability let your insurance deal with it, the messed up part is that your insurance premiums will be up by a tiny bit. If you want your car repaired as well then you will have to fork out the £150 for the excess. However you can also claim for any injurys which you have suffered. No matter how much the insurance pay out it will still register as a claim against your name. If you claim injury's or not.

It seems that there is belief that the more insurance pays out the more your insurance premiums go up. However this is false.


Ps. if your husband thought something was up with the brakes then he should have called the police at the scene and they would have checked that allegation. Now that the car is hit and long gone nothing can be proven. However even at the scene the driver of the other vehicle could have blamed the lights on the crash. So again it would be very hard to prove his lights were not working.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

anewman wrote: »

None of those can slow from 40mph down to 10mph in a matter of seconds though.

You obviously haven't used a good road bike then.