Stagecoach bus hit me - advice

jabb78

Hi guys,

Really need some advice, on Wed morning on the way to work I was hit by a stagecoach bus, it was his fault and he accepted this at the scene. At this moment I am not aware that he has contested it, he cant really. Anyway my car is a write off and I have been off work with a bad back. Its really strange because initially I didnt have any pain at all however as the day wore on my lower back (kidneys) started to ache like mad. Went to the hospital to get checked out. Anyway next morning woke up and my whole back was as stiff as a board, went to docs and he gave me codene I think its called. Today it is even worse and feel upper back and neck stiffening, is this normal?

My insurance company have made me an offer on my car already, should I accept first offer? Also there was no mention of personal injury claim is that becuase I am not eligable?

Any help / advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jason

onetomany

not sure but think you have to report the pain to ur insurance and they put in a claim for personal injury , hopefully someone with more knolege will offer u better advice , hope you feel better soon

jabb78

I just got the email from swift saying although not a formal offer they are offering me 1600 for my car less my excess of 600 then minus my policy, I will end up with about 750. Firstly my car is worth more like 2200 and the accident was not my fault, is it normal I should pay the excess?

Thanks

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

You would usually pay your excess and then claim this back from the insurers of the bus that hit you (so always look at the "total" offer, not the amount your insurer is actually going to pay you).

If you have a sore back, you have what is commonly called a whiplash injury - go and see your GP to get it confirmed. Then speak to your insurers to see if they can appoint a solicitor to make the claim for you (they will do this if you have legal expenses insurance as part of your policy, or if they have a tie-in with a "no win no fee" company). The solicitor will also claim back your excess from the other insurer for you.

Finally, if you disagree with the offer made by your insurers, feel free to dispute it. You will need evidence that their offer is too low. here's some websites where you can get a valuation:

http://www.whatcar.com/valuations
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/used-prices/
http://www.glass.co.uk/app/plugin_uc/_src/ident.php?sess=UKucn3cf250cf8415bf691e869a23c937d1255171739&l=en&UCvtype=10&h=www.glass.co.uk&newsess=yes&prtid=&premium=0

The last one is Glass's Guide, which the Financial Ombudsman Service use, as do most motor insurers.

Hope this helps.

jabb78

Thanks Oscar, just checked my policy, although its fully comp it does not cover legal expenses, does this mean I have to now stump up the excess and can not claim personal injury? Someone I know said I should contact the bus companies insurer?

Thanks

Quentin

You will have to pay your excess. (Probably it will be deducted from the settlement if you are claiming off your own insurer).

Then claim it (along with all your uninsured losses) off the third party or their insurer.

You could short circuit all this by cancelling your claim (if you are sure liability lies with the third party), and using a claim handler to deal with the third party for everything on your behalf. You will need to pursue the third party anyway over your injuries, and a claim handler will deal with all this too.

sarah_elton

Re their first offer - no, you don't have to just accept it.

You should end up with a car of the same sort of quality as the one you had. Cars vary in value by area. Find some local Autotrader ads to demonstrate the cost of replacing like for like (similar age, mileage and condition). Was yours particularly low mileage or good condition? Things like that make it worth more than the average for the model/age.

With whiplash type injuries it's pretty common for you to feel ok at the time and it for it come on in the following hours/days. As others have said, definitely go to your doctor so there's medical records in place should you wish to make a claim. Bus companies will have policies in place to cover injury claims against them and it'll get settled long before court.

Anihilator

I personally would call Stagecoach and see what they say. They may well just settle as normally they have a limit.

patchwork_cat

Everyone will advise you to get quotes off the internet for similar cars for sale in your area, however when our car was written off that wasn't the way it worked at all. The valuer used glasses guide not trade in but other valuation then deducted for damage! As our car was a write off I contested it up to Glass's guide higher valuation as some of the damage she said were car park knocks were caused either by the shunt by one car into another or the low loader co that took it off the motorway, obviously they were not careful and as it was obvious to all it was a write off.

We also had to make our own way home in a taxi as they wouldn't take us despite having all singing all dancing insurance and everything on RAC, so we had to claim that back, but thankfully other party didn't contest and Enterprise were paid directly, but they did ring me EVERY day to see if there were any developments ( total pain in the bum)

So all in all it did no good my printing similar cars off the net and there is no way I could have bought the same car for the money we got and believe me I fight things!

Doesn't help much atm but make sure in future that you have legal protection on insurance.

Always wary of these solicitors we claim for you, but I did hear a radio ad yesterday saying we will pay up front for any physio you need privately. Get back to your GP for the whiplash and watch the addiction to codeine!! (only joking)- Do you watch Corrie? Also you may need some laxatives as they can have a constipating effect. You can buy paracetamol and codeine over the counter which will be cheaper than the prescription charge, but check with the Pharmacist that the codeine is the same strength.

jabb78

Some great advice here, I am going to speak to stagecoach direct next week and explain to them what I want in total (including excess) and also mention personal injury claim see how they react. Does this sound like a good idea?

dacouch

You will find bus companies are normally very slow and difficult to deal with on claims, they do not like paying third party claims out so will argue the case whereever they can