Driver refusing to admit blame

naz101

Hi,

Im hoping someone will be able to advise me on this? Sorry about the long story.

On the 22nd November, I was involved in an accident with another vehicle.

I was stationary at a set of traffic lights. A transit van came out of the road behind me at a very tight angle and scraped the side of his van across the back of my bumper. I knew immediately that something had happened as the car moved to the side and there was a loud grinding noise.
The van didnt stop and proceeded forward until he was about 50 yards infront of me (again at traffic lights)
I was in a bit of shock so for some reason decided to chase him down on foot and tell him to pull over. he refused until I threatened him with calling the police.

Basically after pulling over he refused to acknowledge that he had hit me, even after I showed him the damage to his van and my car.
He claimed that the scrapes were there before. I even showed him the little flakes of fresh paint, to which he replied " I will tell them you were illegally parked so I had to hit you..."(on the yellow box)
I got his name and all the details of his van (company van) and took pictures on my phone of the damage to his van.
Unfortunately I didnt take a picture of him or of the full van.

The insurance company cleared me to have the car repaired. However now the other driver is refusing to admit that he was involved at all. i dont have any witnesses as I was chasing him down the road as I didnt get his licence plate number at the time

Any thoughts or knowledge as to where this will go now?
I have to write a full account of what happened for the insurance company.
This is really not helpful at the moment as I have my degree finals in 2 weeks!!!:(

Mojisola

naz101 wrote: »

On the 22nd November, I was involved in an accident with another vehicle.

I was stationary at a set of traffic lights. A transit van came out of the road behind me at a very tight angle and scraped the side of his van across the back of my bumper. I knew immediately that something had happened as the car moved to the side and there was a loud grinding noise.
The van didnt stop and proceeded forward until he was about 50 yards infront of me (again at traffic lights)
I was in a bit of shock so for some reason decided to chase him down on foot and tell him to pull over. he refused until I threatened him with calling the police.

Basically after pulling over he refused to acknowledge that he had hit me, even after I showed him the damage to his van and my car.
He claimed that the scrapes were there before. I even showed him the little flakes of fresh paint, to which he replied " I will tell them you were illegally parked so I had to hit you..."(on the yellow box)
I got his name and all the details of his van (company van) and took pictures on my phone of the damage to his van.
Unfortunately I didnt take a picture of him or of the full van.

The insurance company cleared me to have the car repaired. However now the other driver is refusing to admit that he was involved at all. i dont have any witnesses as I was chasing him down the road as I didnt get his licence plate number at the time

Any thoughts or knowledge as to where this will go now?
I have to write a full account of what happened for the insurance company.
This is really not helpful at the moment as I have my degree finals in 2 weeks!!!:(

His excuse is a gem!

If you have pictures of the van and can identify him, the company will know which van he was driving. The insurance company will be used to dealing with problems like this.

Write as full an account as possible and leave it in their hands.

Be prepared for it to drag on. We had something similar happen and the company didn't respond to our insurance company until they were threatened with court.

ROY47

we had the opposite in work ,parked car in a narrow street ,our lorry went up and down the street delivering materials .

2 of our guys watched lorry go past the parked cars , no damage done to any vehicle .

Next day joe bloggs rings our office and says lorry hit his car in that street , manager went out to look at damage , not our lorry he says .

Joe bloggs rants and raves until our manager says we'll take paint samples off your car and our lorry to see if they match under forensic scrutiny

write a letter to the company saying you are willing to prove it via forensic paint samples

pension-newbie

don't fret - let the insurance company worry, at least until you have done your finals

hard to do I know, but your finals are more important than a paint job or even atracking down a nut job - and insurance claims go on for months anyway

naz101

thank you very much everyone for your replies.
I told the insurance company within 15 minutes of it happening and also told them what he was planning to say (that I was in the wrong so it was my fault). The woman on the other end just simply laughed and said he would be a fool to say this.
I am now assuming someone has told him not to say this which is why he is now denying it.

I cant id him completely. I have nbow provided the insurance company with an approximate height, name, approximate age and build along with the name on his name badge. I am hoping this will be enough with all of the details of his van.

I really just want my finals out of the way and this is just such bad timing. But I guess you are right. This looks as if it will drag on a bit so no need to worry...I hope

ILW

If it was a company van it will have to be dealt with by the company that has the insurance policy. The actual driver is unlikely to be the policyholder.

naz101

it is the company insurance who is dealing with it but the driver denies he was involved.

Mojisola

naz101 wrote: »

it is the company insurance who is dealing with it but the driver denies he was involved.

The damage on the van must tell a different story.

naz101

I'm not quite sure if you think I am fibbing. The damage to the van was minimal as it was his rubbery plastic bit on the side of the car that hit me. I have pictures of where the damage was to his van showing a silver / white colour paint on then black. The height of the damage on his van corresponds to mine.

I guess the only other thing might be that he tried to get rid of the paint on his van before someone.saw it?

ILW

Unless you can prove that he did it, it will just be down to your insurance company whether they wish to pursue him. What do you stand to lose?

naz101

So if they choose not to pursue him then it won't affect me? This is what I am worried about. Will it increase my premium or cause me to lose my no claims bonus? This is what worries me.