Daughter's had a car accident

jdvhsully

I had a call last night from my daughter (aged 20) to say that she had had a car accident. She is fine, but shocked.
As she was edging out from her side road onto a main road, all was clear, but a taxi came out of knowhere and crashed into the front of her car. :mad:
From the amount of damage to her car, it appears that the taxi driver was doing a lot more than the 20 mile/hour speed limit in that area, but that cannot be proved. He, and her insurance company have both told her that she is a fault (though Admiral's claim line does not open until 8am this morning) and though unhappy she has accepted this.

The question is what to do? She has a Y reg Corsa, low milage, valued at £1200 for insurance with £750 excess. The car was a present from her grandmother on her 18th birhtday (it was grandmothers car originally).

1) Will the insurance company right it off- we know it will need a new bumper and radiator but not sure what else. Also does she get the difference between the excess and value.
2) If the insurance company right it off, can we have the car, repair it and sell it on as a "cat C", or which ever is appropriate
3) If the insurance company wants it repaired can we do it or does it have to go to an approved garage.
4)Bearing in mind her £750 excess, is it worth claiming on her insurance for her repairs (we are assuming the taxi driver will claim on her insurance for his repairs) if the repairs are below £750.

Sorry for all the questions, but any advice on how to deal with the insurance company etc would be appreciated.

dazzadub

jdvhsully wrote: »

I had a call last night from my daughter (aged 20) to say that she had had a car accident. She is fine, but shocked.
As she was edging out from her side road onto a main road, all was clear, but a taxi came out of knowhere and crashed into the front of her car. :mad:
From the amount of damage to her car, it appears that the taxi driver was doing a lot more than the 20 mile/hour speed limit in that area, but that cannot be proved. He, and her insurance company have both told her that she is a fault (though Admiral's claim line does not open until 8am this morning) and though unhappy she has accepted this.

The question is what to do? She has a Y reg Corsa, low milage, valued at £1200 for insurance with £750 excess. The car was a present from her grandmother on her 18th birhtday (it was grandmothers car originally).

1) Will the insurance company right it off- we know it will need a new bumper and radiator but not sure what else. Also does she get the difference between the excess and value.
2) If the insurance company right it off, can we have the car, repair it and sell it on as a "cat C", or which ever is appropriate
3) If the insurance company wants it repaired can we do it or does it have to go to an approved garage.
4)Bearing in mind her £750 excess, is it worth claiming on her insurance for her repairs (we are assuming the taxi driver will claim on her insurance for his repairs) if the repairs are below £750.

Sorry for all the questions, but any advice on how to deal with the insurance company etc would be appreciated.

i would defo say it will be a write off, and also depending on damage would determine what band its put into.

most d and c write offs dont really have to much damage, and it may fall into a b

you can buy the car back, but if you were to sell it you would need to tell buyer it was previous write off, which will reduce amount you can sell for by as much as %30

i used to work in this field.

id would say the repairs would cost more than its value by a good few hundred quid.
if you have money and dont need to worry to much about pay outs form insurance then dont go that route but her insurance will need to cover the cost of taxi drivers car, which in turn will put a mark on her file.

her insurance will rocket when its renewal time.



me i would, try settle with tax driver which may be very expensive as he could claim loss of earnings etc.

i wouldnt of admitted liabilty

dazzadub

oh insurance what pay cars full worth. normally lowest book price they can find. you will prob get around £800 for the car tops.

mikey72

Are you sure she was at fault?
Not even 50/50, most other drivers and insurance companies are very keen to pass the blame.

geri1965_2

The onus is on the car pulling out to make sure it's safe to do so - the taxi driver may have been speeding, but speed in itself is not an indicator of negligence.

I wouldn't recommend trying to settle with the taxi driver privately - it is highly likely (IMO) that his claim will be massively overinflated, and it's best to leave this to the insurers.

Happychappy

Unfortunately the insurance will stick to her being at fault, cars don't appear from nowhere, they are on the road but not seen, the other driver will say the car suddenly appeared from nowhere (bit of a theme developing) and pulled out in front of me and drove into me. Cars do have crumple zones etc which are designed to take the impact and absorb the forces, the damage always looks far worse as the crumple zones clearly worked, although I would imagine their is a whipcash claim in the offing.

With the excess and low value, the insurance company will write it off, they only need to fork out £450 to settle your claim and then the cost of repairs for the other car. You can ask to buy the scrap value of the car, but unless you know someone who can repair it cheaply, it could be more hassle then it's worth.

no-oneknowsme

You can bet your life that the taxi driver will claim for loss of earnings ! That will be around £100+ per day his car is off the road .

He will most likely also put in a claim for personal injury .

Any passengers in the taxi will also jump on the band wagon and claim they are injured.

Op , did your Daughter mention if there was a fare in the taxi at the time ? I seem to remember reading on this site before that someone went into the back of a taxi and they were almost certain that there were no passengers in the taxi at the time but a few weeks later the two back seat passengers claimed compensation !!!!!

Seems that they may have been "at their work" . Ask your Daughter did she look in to see if the driver was carrying a fare.

lisyloo

The onus is on the car pulling out to make sure it's safe to do so

My understanding is that if she was over the white line then she will be at fault even if someone crashed into her.
So the question is was she over "the line" or not.
If she was edging out then it sounds like she could have been.

That will be around £100+ per day his car is off the road .

He will most likely also put in a claim for personal injury .

Any passengers in the taxi will also jump on the band wagon and claim they are injured.

Op , did your Daughter mention if there was a fare in the taxi at the time ? I seem to remember reading on this site before that someone went into the back of a taxi and they were almost certain that there were no passengers in the taxi at the time but a few weeks later the two back seat passengers claimed compensation !!!!!

Seems that they may have been "at their work" . Ask your Daughter did she look in to see if the driver was carrying a fare. Today 8:52 AM

Whilst anything like this is fraud and should be reported, it won't really affect your daughter.
Whether there are 3 injury claims or 1 won't make any different.

mikey72

How much was her insurance, and how much is left on it.
If you claim for your own car, you may find your insurance automatically terminates if your own car is written off.

Some insurers do this, others may let you transfer insurance to a new car you buy, one on here re-insured the same car after they had it repaired themselves after buying the salvage.
So if you potentially stand to lose thousands in insurance premium, it's not worth claiming a few hundred for your car, just either buy a new one and transfer the insurance, or repair the corsa yourself.
This will not affect any third party claim though, or loss of ncd.

Inactive

jdvhsully wrote: »

I had a call last night from my daughter (aged 20) to say that she had had a car accident. She is fine, but shocked.
As she was edging out from her side road onto a main road, all was clear, but a taxi came out of knowhere and crashed into the front of her car. :mad:

Sorry, a vehicle cannot come from " nowhere ", it was there, but your Daughter did not see it.

adamc260

lisyloo wrote: »

My understanding is that if she was over the white line then she will be at fault even if someone crashed into her.
So the question is was she over "the line" or not.
If she was edging out then it sounds like she could have been.



Whilst anything like this is fraud and should be reported, it won't really affect your daughter.
Whether there are 3 injury claims or 1 won't make any different.

No it just affects how much is paid out which in turn puts everyones premiums up. You also then have to disclose a greater final claim amount to your new insurer which could be seen as more of a risk... a claim settled at £500 or £50,000... which would you prefer to underwrite?