Claiming from other parties car insurance

natty16

Hi - just after a bit of advice please regarding an accident involving my parents.

Last week myself, my partner, two kids and my parents headed off for a short break away to the New Forest. On the way down to the camp my mum and dad had a horrible accident on the M25.

I was following mum and dad in my car, we were in the slow lane going about 55mph and headed towards the turn off to go to onto the M3 when a woman in a car in the lane next to us just came across between me and dad but in doing so hit the back of dads car which caused them to spin uncontrolably across the motorway, hitting the central reservation and stopping the wrong way in the fast lane.

I saw the whole accident and have never screamed so loud in my life - i thought they were going to be hit again whilst in the fast lane and really thought that was it for them. luckily nothing else did hit them and they are fine apart from some bruising, stiffness and whipalsh.

when the accident happened i pulled over into the hard shoulder and got my partner to call 999 whilst i got my two children out and got them to stand on the verge whilst i went and saw if my parents were ok.

fire engines and an ambulance came out to the accident and tended to mum who was in an obvious state of shock but after some reassurance and being monitored by the paramedics chose not to go to hospital. Whilst this was going on i was on the phone to dad's insurers trying to arrange for the car to be collected and to find out if they would have to go home or if they could continue with our journey and go on to have out holiday. All in all we were at the scene of the accident for 3 hours before the tow truck driver arranged with the RAC that he would take mum and dad to the caravan park and then have someone to collect the car and mum and dad on departure date and take them all the way home.

We obviously were very late getting to our holiday and my parents and i were still in a state of shock (actually me and mum still seem to be as still get very upset thinking about the whole incident and how (un)lucky they were)

Basically what i would like to find out is if there is any chance of claiming off this woman's insurance for the cost of the holiday (£250) seeing as though her actions really meant that we could not fully enjoy our break away. we were only away for 4 days and the whole time mum was in pain, i was still having flashbacks and finding it very upsetting plus dad had the inconveniance of making calls to his insureres and the RAC etc - it certainly was not the holiday we had anticipated.

If anyone has any advice i would be really grateful.

TIA (sorry for long post)

Quentin

Your parent needs to get a solicitor to deal with their claim for all their losses as well as PI compensation claim etc.

natty16

Quentin wrote: »

Your parent needs to get a solicitor to deal with their claim for all their losses as well as PI compensation claim etc.

thanks for your reply. I spoke to mum and dad yesterday and they said that Aviva had put them in contact with a solicitor - they are waiting to find out from the garage whether the car will be a write off ( i believe it will be) but mum was also advised not to bother with a PI claim as her injuries were minimal. She suffered with bruising down her left arm and the usual joint stiffness etc although she did go to see her GP yesterday who prescribed her diazepam and sleeping tablets.

obviously i was not involved directly in the accident and have no dealings with either insurance companies but just wondered if i could make a claim rather than mum and dad against the woman for the cost of our holiday as i was the one who booked it all and whose name it was in or if mum and dad should be the ones to ask for the cost back.

Hooloovoo

natty16 wrote: »

Aviva had put them in contact with a solicitor

The solicitor that the insurance specify will more like likely be hundreds of miles away. This causes no end of hassle with sending documents back and forth and having to deal with the inevitable mistakes through the post and over the phone.

I would strongly suggest asking Aviva to assign a solicitor local to your Mum and Dad, or if they can not do that to instead approve use of your own preferred local solicitor.

vaio

I'm surprised at Aviva trying to disaude your mother from making a PI claim (don't suppose the other driver is also Aviva?) particularly given the short amount of time that's elapsed since the accident and the way solicitors get paid.

Realistically I suspect that you'll meet resistance and hassle claiming for the holiday, not saying you aren't justified but it's out of the ordinary and you did actually go on it. The simplest easiest way might be to peruse a PI claim and regard it as compensation for a spoilt holiday.

natty16

vaio wrote: »

I'm surprised at Aviva trying to disaude your mother from making a PI claim (don't suppose the other driver is also Aviva?) particularly given the short amount of time that's elapsed since the accident and the way solicitors get paid.

Realistically I suspect that you'll meet resistance and hassle claiming for the holiday, not saying you aren't justified but it's out of the ordinary and you did actually go on it. The simplest easiest way might be to peruse a PI claim and regard it as compensation for a spoilt holiday.

Thanks for the reply.

I thought it strange that mum was advised not to bother to claim for her injuries as she have some nasty bruising down her arm and was obvioulsy in some discomfort throughout our holiday but mum and dad are people who do everything on the straight and narrow and would never dream of claiming for anything they shouldn't and now she has been advised not to i would be very surprised if she did pursue any PI claim.

The woman who caused the accident is insured with direct line so no involvement with Aviva.

I will have a chat with mum and dad and see what they think about trying to claim for the holiday - just don't want to add to the hassle they are already facing with replacing their car.

thanks