Lost my keys in a road traffic accident

Badger_Lady

Hia,

I had a serious accident on the motorway a few months ago, in which I had to be cut out of the vehicle (a campervan) and ambulanced off.

The following morning, on discharge, I went to the remains of the vehicle to salvage personal effects, which really just amounted to a busted laptop and some awning poles.

Anyway, the day after, once I'd had a sleep, my insurance company emailed to introduce my claims handler and I asked him if he could please recover my keys which were in the ignition at the time of the accident. On the bunch were the campervan keys (which clearly were no longer needed), my front door key (easy to copy) and my master key to my sportscar (I could do with this back!).

After many, many, many weeks of slow responses, my insurance company have given up on the keys. They can't track them down and they've lost interest. They also say that my policy wouldn't cover a replacement for a different vehicle.

So I'm a bit miffed but I seem to have explored every avenue...

In the meantime, how do I get a new key? I've never been in this situation before and genuinely have no idea! I've got the second (spare) key which works fine, but I really would rather have a backup, for resale if nothing else.

Help?

Ranger8

The keys will have gone to the salvage/recovery yard with the vehicle so someone (the police or Ins co.) must know where.

Ebe_Scrooge

Assuming the key has a built-in "doofah" for remote locking ( as opposed to a good old-fashioned plain key ), then the quickest and simplest will be a trip to the main dealer, who can get a new key programmed either by looking at your old key or by the car's registration. However, be prepared for a rather hefty bill ! There are companies around that claim to be able to program a new key for a much lower price, but I can't comment as to how effective they are.

The more worrying thing, I would have thought, is that someone else has your keys, if they know your address or the registration number they could potentially make off with the car ? ( This is assuming they were pinched, though I would have thought the salvage people would have removed them, in which case just call them ) Sorry, I don't mean to try and alarm you, just trying to be realistic. I'm surprised the insurance company won't cover this - what about the policy that the other car is on ? Or even your household insurance ?

Badger_Lady

Yeah, that's what I thought

I've pursued the insurance company, the salvage yard, the scrap merchant and the Police - they all state resolutely that they never saw my keys.

I've just got the claim handler's word that my campervan insurance won't cover the loss of a key from a different vehicle. He has suggested claiming on my car insurance, but is it really worth opening a whole new claim for?

Badger_Lady

I suppose on the plus side I don't have any identifying information with the keys or live anywhere near the site of the accident. But if someone really is determined and has access to my address based on the campervan, then it wouldn't be hard to find my car :eek:

mikey72

Badger_Lady wrote: »

Hia,

I had a serious accident on the motorway a few months ago, in which I had to be cut out of the vehicle (a campervan) and ambulanced off.

The following morning, on discharge, I went to the remains of the vehicle to salvage personal effects, which really just amounted to a busted laptop and some awning poles.

Anyway, the day after, once I'd had a sleep, my insurance company emailed to introduce my claims handler and I asked him if he could please recover my keys which were in the ignition at the time of the accident. On the bunch were the campervan keys (which clearly were no longer needed), my front door key (easy to copy) and my master key to my sportscar (I could do with this back!).

After many, many, many weeks of slow responses, my insurance company have given up on the keys. They can't track them down and they've lost interest. They also say that my policy wouldn't cover a replacement for a different vehicle.

So I'm a bit miffed but I seem to have explored every avenue...

In the meantime, how do I get a new key? I've never been in this situation before and genuinely have no idea! I've got the second (spare) key which works fine, but I really would rather have a backup, for resale if nothing else.

Help?

If the masterkey is the one that you need to program a new key, it's probably worth trying a claim for a new set.
If it's not, ask the dealer how much for a new key, and they should be able to remove the missing key from immobilser, so the car can't be started.
If you don't do anything, you should report the loss of the key to the car insurers, for information, or if you do make any (unrelated) claim, they will be very suspicious of you only having one key.

Strider590

Good tip for the future = don't carry your life around on one keyring.....

Badger_Lady

Strider590 wrote: »

Good tip for the future = don't carry your life around on one keyring.....

Well, thanks... but I was actually only carrying around the three keys I needed during that trip. Separate to this keyring I have:

- Room key
- Back door key
- Three keys to my flat in London
- Spare keys (total 3) to both vehicles
- Office keys

... so it's lucky none of these were impacted by the loss

warehouse

Strider590 wrote: »

Good tip for the future = don't carry your life around on one keyring.....

Great tip. Have every key you need by the front door and add each one you need individually to the keyring as you leave. I wonder why nobody has thought of this before?