car insurance claim

sadfurry

I hope you can help and that this is the right place. Our car was hit by a motorbike which was speeding on the wrong side of the road and hit us sideways as we were turning right. The rider admitted it was his fault, we called police who attended helped us swap details but said they don't get involved when there is no injury. Policeman said it was clearly riders fault and that hopefully eh would take the blame with insurers.
We made our claim on basis of no blame and have a witness who stopped and gave his details to us. have a coutesy car.
Today the police rang and said the rider had gone to the station and reported he DOES have injuries, bruising and cuts to hand and torn ligaments in shoulder. Asked if it went to court for dangerous driving would we be witnesses!

Why would he now say he was injured? When he seems to have put himself up for a careless driving charge? And will this affect our insurance costs in future or our claim for uninsured loss (350 quid excess)? I mean does it anyway even if you aren't at fault? neither me nor husband have ever had an accident, so have no idea what happens next. As we have protected no claims do we still have to count it as a claim when future looking for car insurance? (apologise if these are stupid questions, but haven't got a clue about it)

don5_2

hi, I worked in car insurance brokerage for many years so would hope my reply helps.

dont worry about the sudden injury, if there are justified injuries, these will be fully and thoroughly investigated by the insurance company and they will deal with it. sometimes third parties decide that they will try for some compensation as it does appear to be a grey area with bikes and junctions but the highway code does say not to overtake where there is a junction.
with regards to the no claim bonus, it is a no claim. (and not a no blame,) the third party insurance company accepts 100% liability they should pay 100% of your car hire and all your excess. when the blame is shared the recovery of these is shared also.once you have made a full recovery this will be noted against you in your favour. most insurance companies have a data base where they trade information and such information is logged against your car registration number via your insurance company of accidents costs etc.

As you have a protected no claims bonus policy this means that your policy when due for renewal, regardless of whether the claim is settled or not will still give you the 65% maximum no claims when working out your renewal premuim. You do still have to declare all the information, costs, date, and whether or not you have made a full recovery of all losses, ie. the insurance company have also recovered the repair costs back also,it is possible that some insurers will take even a fault claim under a protected ncb policy and offer their policy on the same basis but the terms of 2 accidents or whatever within a 5 year period... etc.. would still apply as if the accident had happened under their terms of protection. so it is sometimes possible to look for a move from one insurance company to another staying on a protected policy others will not especially if their is a claim still outstanding unsettled.

Astaroth

Where you turning right from a side road or into a side road?

The TP may be reporting it to the police as he feels it is the law to do so... technically it is but the police dont care about minor injuries that come to light after the incident... or it could well be that he has been advised that he isnt 100% liable and therefore wants to claim compensation for his injuries.

As to liability, if you were turning from a side street then you are going to be held partially liable irrespective of what the other party admits to doing. This would mean that it counts as a fault claim against your policy and you will only recover the % of your uninsured losses that the other side are held liable for. If you were turning into the side road then I would need more information of the incident to form an opinion on liability.

Irrespective of blame or even if you claim it is still a notifyable incident and so you must tell all future insurers. What they will ask however is who was to blame and possibly how much the total claim was for - so if it goes in your favour you say it was the TP fault, if it goes on a split liability basis you say it was a split

sadfurry

Thank you both, somehow just knowing things helps!

We were in a line of traffic, and turning right into a side road. Both sides of traffic were stationary due to volune of traffic. We indicated, the oncoming car indicated he was letting us go over, the nose of our car was on the white line of the road we were turning into when he hit the back wheel and the bike skidded fromt he back wheel to the front of the car, denting all along the car. He bounced, and we were so relieved he got up and was OK.

The driver who let us through is the one who stopped and gave details to be a witness. There were many stationary cars who witnessed but only he stopped and gave details. One bloke wound his window down and had a go at the bike rider saying he deserved it for the way he was driving (which is NOT what we think, no-one deserves that however young and foolish they are being, we just think he is lucky to be alive)

sadfurry

You are so right about the Police, as they knew at the accident he had hurt his hand and shoulder, as he told them, and he also said he didn't need them looked at, and was told by the Police Officer to wear gloves to protect his hands. But once he went in and reported he had been hurt (same injuries, no new ones!) they said that it was now a police matter, and would be witnesses as they were looking at careless or dangerous driving.

sadfurry

I wasn't clear, he hit the driver side of the car, overtaking the line of traffic behind us.

Astaroth

It may well work in your favour if the police are looking at prosecuting him.

Given the accident circumstances there is case law to say that you could be held up to 30% responsible for the accident (as we all remember you are supposed to check mirrors/ blindspot etc before making the manover and so should have seen him but the greater responsibility is on him for the irresponsible overtaking at a junction).

If the police do decide to prosecute then this will help your arguement that he was the author of his own misfortune but may not totally absolve you of your duty of care.

sadfurry

That explains why he went to the station then, he must have been advised he was not totally responsible and hopes to gain something via insurance. It all depends what the witness says then about where the bike was, I didn't see anything at all, husband says he looked and bike wasn't there, so maybe he was coming up on inside and came from behind a car, we can only hope as we wouldn't have seen that, and would explain why the other driver was so vitriolic when he shouted at him.

Thank you, we just have to wait now as see what the police and insurance companies decide:(

I'd really like to phone our witness to ask what he saw, but husband says we shouldn't really do that:(

sadfurry

Oh dear, have just had another thought.

We had only had the car a week, and did not insure it with our old insurers as their quote was way above the new ones. Husband is covered on our original car with original insurance till 3rd November, so is driving that at the moment (as the courtesy car has to be picked up from miles away).

Should we have told our original insurers about the accident too?????

Astaroth

No, certainly isnt worth contacting the witness directly as your insurers (from the civil perspective) and the police (from a criminal perspective) are already handling the matter and the last thing you want to do is throw the independance of the witness into question.

With these kinds of incidents the independant witness is invaluable as honest statements like "I checked my mirrors and he wasnt there, I dont know where he came from" often will result with an immediate comeback that clearly you didnt check your mirrors correctly as a vehicle cannot come out of no where (obviously most relevant if the TP says they were overtaking the full queue and hadnt just nipped out from behind your vehicle)

You will need to inform the motor insurers of any policy he is a named driver/ policyholder on. Most insurers will only want to be told when the policy you hold with them is coming up for renewal but you can "play it safe" if you want and report it now.... though as liability is obviously still under question at this point you would have to then contact them again once it has been resolved.

sadfurry

Thank you, I appreciate the time you have taken to reply to me:)