Car accident today - I don't understand!

no.1swimmum

On my way home from work today, a boy ran of the pavement into and across the road stopping in the middle to talk to his mate and then straight into the side of my car as I drove past. I had just been aware of the them (3 in total) and started to break but he just changed direction and ran into my car on the back door drivers side, as I was braking I think I ran over his foot but not sure as this was his only injury, his shoe came off which he stood up picked up and hopped to the pavement, he had a hood on and a scarf around his face so I do not think he saw me. I called an ambulance and the police came, he had to go to hospital as he had lost alot of skin from his foot. I was cautioned and interviewed in the back of police car whilst one officer talked to the boy. When he had finished my statement was read to him and he said that although they want me to produce my documents the boys story was the same as mine that he did not realise I was there and he ran into my car, so they told me they would not take it any further as I was not at fault. When I got home I rang my insurance company to inform them, no damage to car other than small scratch - they asked me if I accepted liability for the accident, I said no as there was no way I could have avoided it, they then said they would need to contact the 'victim' to see if they wanted to make a claim - I don't understand this - I was more the victim through his negligence, at 14 he is old enough to know not to play in the road! Will this affect my no claims etc - I am really worried about it - along with the fact that I work at the school he attends, will I be required to complete documentation by the school - it was not on their premises!!!!! I have never had an accident in the 17years I have been driving so I am completely in the dark.

PandorasJar

Considering it was the back wheel he ran under (by the sounds of it), it sounds like a bit of a joke having to follow it through, but this is what insurance companies have to do.
I know that they're trying to make it so that every pedestrian/cyclist accident is automatically drivers fault at the moment, which is ludicrous

The fact that they need to contact him sounds a bit worrying though, he's a minor?! What you could probably do is tell them that the police were there and deemed no fault, and this has been documented (See if you can go in and get copies) they will take this instead A police copy will count in place of contact. Perhaps just make a phone call to the parents to make sure he's okay as a goodwill gesture if it wouldn't cause hassle? Otherwise just leave it alone and don't make a bigger issue of it

The fact that the boy has agreed on statement/in front of police means that even if he did try to then claim, it would be stopped instantly. It should be deemed a no fault

There is absolutely no reason for the school to have any involvement, unless you believe that there may be ongoing issues with him on a personal level, in which case I would notify them!

Honestly though, you should be fine
P

Wig

I think he could win a 10% - 20% fault against you.

You saw children running in the road ahead
The children -by all accounts- were standing in the middle of the road chatting
and you drove past them

So questions will need to be asked, the road layout, where the children were, your speed, the amount of room you had to drive past, whether it was safe to drive past them.


You will lose 2 years no claims bonus (unless you have them protected) and your premiums will go up for the next 5 years.
To see how much your premiums go up just do an online quote with false name/address and "no vehicle registration" enter 2 years less no claims than you have now, and declare a a fault claim against you, then you will see how much this will affect you.

PandorasJar

But he shouldn't need to get contacted if she can get hold of the police statements?
That's what I've done in the past. The insurance companies always ask for the police's outcome when they've been involved, if they've been notified.

At 14, he's not really a little child, surely we're now crossing into the whole, if a cyclist runs a red light and you hit him, you're at fault because you should have thought someone would do that? If the boy was old enough to be out without supervision, then he's old enough not to play in roads surely. If he can't be trusted, then his mum should keep him company.

If you are with a good insurance company, it will be resolved, I would phone them back and make them aware of the police documents.
And it honestly comes down to the kid himself... is it the kind of family that will say he's an idiot, or who will see $$$$?!

P

jaydeeuk1

PandorasJar wrote: »

And it honestly comes down to the kid himself... is it the kind of family that will say he's an idiot, or who will see $$$$?!

P

Exactly - and that would be down to the parents imo.
I'd sue the kid for the damage caused to the car

Heliflyguy

Wig wrote: »

I think he could win a 10% - 20% fault against you.

You saw children running in the road ahead
The children -by all accounts- were standing in the middle of the road chatting
and you drove past them

So questions will need to be asked, the road layout, where the children were, your speed, the amount of room you had to drive past, whether it was safe to drive past them.


You will lose 2 years no claims bonus (unless you have them protected) and your premiums will go up for the next 5 years.
To see how much your premiums go up just do an online quote with false name/address and "no vehicle registration" enter 2 years less no claims than you have now, and declare a a fault claim against you, then you will see how much this will affect you.

Ignore this as your OP said the police have already said you were not at fault and would have taken into account road layout etc.
To suggest you will lose no claims etc is just worrying and of no help at all to you at the moment (god knows why the were thanked for the post another person trying to up their thanked score )
I suggest you inform your insurance company of the police report and get them to contact the police.
There is no need for the school to be involved apart from reiterating road saftey advice to pupils otherwise you have no obligation to inform them but it will get talked about among pupils so it probably will feed back, it might be better to have a off record chat with your manager.

It must have been a shock but fortunately little damage has been done and at the end of the day thats what insurance is there for, at least you were insured.

mikey72

Heliflyguy wrote: »

Ignore this as your OP said the police have already said you were not at fault and would have taken into account road layout etc.
To suggest you will lose no claims etc is just worrying and of no help at all to you at the moment (god knows why the were thanked for the post another person trying to up their thanked score )
I suggest you inform your insurance company of the police report and get them to contact the police.
There is no need for the school to be involved apart from reiterating road saftey advice to pupils otherwise you have no obligation to inform them but it will get talked about among pupils so it probably will feed back, it might be better to have a off record chat with your manager.

It must have been a shock but fortunately little damage has been done and at the end of the day thats what insurance is there for, at least you were insured.

Wouldn't really agree with any of this.
Don't want to sound like I'm blaming the op for anything, but just because the police are not raising a criminal prosecution for a driving offense doesn't mean there can't be a civil claim. Contact the insurance and tell them what the details are.
The school procedure will be clear, and the school will have to be involved, at you have injured a pupil, not intentionally, but they need to know that.

Wig

Heliflyguy wrote: »

Ignore this as your OP said the police have already said you were not at fault and would have taken into account road layout etc.

Thankfully the police are not Judge and Jury. It can be taken to court and a judge, IMHO, would be highly unlikely to find 100% fault lies with the child. If it's 20% of a £6000 judgement the kid gets £1200. What the police have decided is that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute, and/or arguably sufficient evidence that it was mostly not her fault so it would not be in the public interest to prosecute her for it. But there is still a small portion of blame that could be 'milked' by the kid in a civil court claim.

To suggest you will lose no claims etc is just worrying and of no help at all to you at the moment (god knows why the were thanked for the post another person trying to up their thanked score )

She asked how it would affect her no claims, I answered her question. About the thanks....You think I care about thanks totals? after being a regular here for more than 4 years :doh: BTW the chap who thanked me was 'dacouch', if you wern't so wet behind the ears, you'd know they are a regular here aswell, and, as it happens that person knows a lot more about car insurance than I do, maybe they were thanking me because what I said was quite close to the truth.

There is no need for the school to be involved apart from reiterating road saftey advice to pupils otherwise you have no obligation to inform them but it will get talked about among pupils so it probably will feed back, it might be better to have a off record chat with your manager.

How do you know what her employers policies are on "off site" incidents? I know in my own line of work (which deals with the public) we are expected to report any off site incident that is connected with our work. I'd be surprised if a school didn't expect a teacher/staff to report off site incidents with pupils because the pupils are by definition part of the school and as such wholly inseperable.

hethmar

No idea what the procedure is, but just wanted to give you a bit of sympathy as it must have really been very upsetting for you. I guess you have to be grateful the injury was so small. Good luck with sorting this out.

dacouch

Heliflyguy wrote: »

Ignore this as your OP said the police have already said you were not at fault and would have taken into account road layout etc.
To suggest you will lose no claims etc is just worrying and of no help at all to you at the moment (god knows why the were thanked for the post another person trying to up their thanked score )
I suggest you inform your insurance company of the police report and get them to contact the police.
There is no need for the school to be involved apart from reiterating road saftey advice to pupils otherwise you have no obligation to inform them but it will get talked about among pupils so it probably will feed back, it might be better to have a off record chat with your manager.

It must have been a shock but fortunately little damage has been done and at the end of the day thats what insurance is there for, at least you were insured.

The police do not look at civil liability, they will simply have been investigating whether there was a case of Careless or Dangerous driving, which they decided there was not. Insurance companies take on board the view of a police officer but it is not a definate indication of whether there is any civil liability.

Wig was correct in that these types of cases eg a child running into a road is often worked on a split liability basis (Obviously depending on the exact circumstances). From what the OP has described I would not be surprised that IF the child put in a claim that he would be deemed circa 75% to 90% liable meaning he can claim the balancein percentage wise of his injuries from the OP. The reason for this is it may be deemed that the OP would have seen the child in the road / side of the road and taken into account the possibility of them causing a hazard.

Wig was also correct about the no claims bonus, when the OP reports the incident to her insurers they will set up a claim file and normally place a reserve on what they expect the claim to be should it go against them. Insurers normally work on the basis that the claim is your fault until they or you recover outlay. By working on this basis they will normally reduce your no claims bonus by two years at the next renewal (Assuming a recovery has not been made).

It's quite possible they could keep the claim file active as the child has 7 years to make an injury claim against the OP.

The reason I thanked Wig was because his post was pretty spot on and it saved me making a similar post. As a lot of your post was inaccurate and I did not appreciate the comment on the thanks I felt compelled to respond.

If you do not believe the accuracy of Wig or my posts feel free to post the OP#s scenario on the MSE Insurance forum and have a look at the answers you receive which I'm confident will be along the same lines as mine

Snakeeyes21

You didn't do it right, your meant to hit them head on at over 30mph, thats what the adverts say.

You dont get any points for just getting their foot