Question about car accident

suelindsay

Morning all,

My friend was recently involved in a car crash and unfortunately his insurance was expired on that day. Luckilly no one was hurt in the incident! He is just wondering whether he should settle the matter outside the court or report to police.

He's a medical student and he's also worried that it might affect his criminal record, career, and job application in the future.

Unfortunately I'm not an expert in this area - any advice that you could give would be much appreciated.

Cheers :beer:

Quentin

If no one hurt, no need to report the incident to the police - or do you mean should he turn himself in to the police regarding driving uninsured? (That decision is down to him!)

But if he offers to pay the costs himself to the third party, and the third party discovers (or guesses) why, then he leaves himself open to being asked for excessive costs, newly discovered damage, newly diagnosed whiplash etc.

In any case, the third party will have to notify his insurer of details of the incident, so it is likely that the uninsured aspect will come to light anyway. (The third party insurer will discover the truth)

So he needs to be careful, whatever the final decision.

Bowling_4_Gold

Did your friend report it to the police at the time? Obviously it is illegal to drive without valid insurance cover, so regardless of who's fault it is, he is in the wrong. From his perspective, it is best for him to try and settle the claim outside of Court, Insurance Companies, and the police, but the right thing to do is admit he had no insurance and face the consequences (which are very severe!)

olly300

What was the damage to the other vehicle?

If the damage was small then he can offer to pay for it but if he does he needs to pay for it quickly and not argue with the quote given.

However if he argues and delays paying by over 5 days then the other person will not hesitate to report him to their insurer who will discover that he had no insurance and report him to the police.

I had a friend who damaged a taxi when I was a student and because we stopped round the corner as it wasn't safe due to their being double yellows to stop we got into an argument with the taxi driver over not stopping when there was an accident. In the end my friend who was driving, agreed to pay without involving insurance companies - he was insured but being as student the excess was large - and had to stump up £2000 to get the taxi resprayed. He didn't argue with the quote because he knew what the consequences would be.

Premier_2

suelindsay wrote: »

Morning all,

My friend was recently involved in a car crash and unfortunately his insurance was expired on that day. Luckilly no one was hurt in the incident! He is just wondering whether he should settle the matter outside the court or report to police.

He's a medical student and he's also worried that it might affect his criminal record, career, and job application in the future.

Unfortunately I'm not an expert in this area - any advice that you could give would be much appreciated.

Cheers :beer:

Did your "friend" declare this accident to their new insurers when applying for the new policy?

Or is your friend still driving around un-insured?

suelindsay

Hello all...

Thanks for replying so quickly - I'll let my friend know about your thoughts. I will also ask him about the questions that you asked - I haven't probed him earlier but those questions are really good! :money:

Thanks for helping again

Sue x

McKneff

Is he absolutely sure he had no insurnace. Some companies insure automatically. Get him to double check the time of day when his insurance ran out also.

And please give us an update when you can.

maninthestreet

suelindsay wrote: »

Morning all,

My friend was recently involved in a car crash and unfortunately his insurance was expired on that day. Luckilly no one was hurt in the incident! He is just wondering whether he should settle the matter outside the court or report to police.

He's a medical student and he's also worried that it might affect his criminal record, career, and job application in the future.

Unfortunately I'm not an expert in this area - any advice that you could give would be much appreciated.

Cheers :beer:

If the insurance expired at the end of day, i.e 11:59PM, then they were insured when the accident occurred earlier that day???

McKneff

maninthestreet wrote: »

If the insurance expired at the end of day, i.e 11:59PM, then they were insured when the accident occurred earlier that day???

Thats what i thought, hopefully that's the case and it wasnt 11.59 the day before:rolleyes:

pendulum

The op says the insurance "was expired on that day", which is a bit ambiguous. Had it actually expired on that day, or had it expired a few days/weeks before and was therefore expired on the day of the accident.

If it expired not long ago, check the insurance details. My insurance company gives me 7 days of extra cover (third party only though) after the expiry date written on my certificate. I assume this is to deal with situations like payments arriving late etc. It's not a well-advertised fact, its written in the small print.

suelindsay

wow...that's a good point!! hmmm...i can sense that he is hiding something from me now. Thanks for the tips!