Car hit by bus

Nat1977

Thanks, I will get the car repaired and send them the bill with a letter before action. The witness said she would attend court if needs be

Tilt

Nat1977 wrote: »

Thanks, I will get the car repaired and send them the bill with a letter before action. The witness said she would attend court if needs be

Home and dry then. My money is on that they won't want to do court so they will just pay out especially if they know that their bus was involved (which they will by now).

flashg67

I had exactly the same happen to me.

The witness was happy to be contacted by my insurance, but wouldn't go to court. I pushed my insurance to in turn push the bus company and about 7 months later, I did get a cheque for the excess from the bus company. I actually contacted the local bus depot who denied it initially, but when I told them the time, service number & I had a witness, they did seem keener to take me seriously.

The driver may not have known he hit the car, but the bus will show signs of damage - I retained a small piece of bus bumper as evidence!

You can try the small claims route, if your witness is willing, but IMO, this is what you pay the insurance company for?

Good luck

dacouch

Nat1977 wrote: »

My insurers say that bus companies are notoriously hard nuts to crack, and unless you have absolute evidence, they will deny it all the way unfortunately

They are correct

suekjw

I got hit by an Arriva Bus a few months ago and the driver never even realised he gad hit me, I had to drive after him and stop the bus, much to disgust of the people on it, who seemed to not like being held up. To be fair, Arriva dealt with it very quickly and I had my car back repaired within a week (they collected the car within 3 hours of the accident). I would contact them directly and say you have an independent witness. Worryingly, they seemed to have a whole department to deal with accidents, so it must be very common.

Lum

Funny how they're so hard to claim from, but very quick to make their own claim.

I was once falsely accused of hitting a bus, well actually just clipping the rear corner of it with a wing mirror. It was a company car with a satellite tracker so we were able to demonstrate that I was not in the area at the time of the alleged incident. They also got the gender of the driver wrong. Car in question was a silver VW Golf, not exactly a rare beast, so chances are it was just a case of misreading the numberplate and happening to get another silver Golf. Easy enough to do as the VW dealer probably registered them as a job lot with sequential numbers.

First my employer had the police visit, who went away after seeing the tracker evidence and my driving licence photo. Then we had demands for insurance details, then we had invoices sent to us for the repair, then threats of court action, which never materialised.

Oh and the driver was claiming whiplash... for a wing mirror clip to the rear of a double decker bus. Even the copper who visited my employer thought that was taking the mick somewhat.

newfoundglory

Bus companies must deal with this sort of thing all the time, so a bit of a shame you've had difficulty.

When I first got my car and was involved in an accident a few weeks later (non fault, tailgater into back of me at roundabout), it turned out to be a car and driver from a local takeaway.

I took photos of the accident on my phone, which included the cars, the damage and the other driver.

Went back to the takeaway where drivers' boss provided all insurance details, and I provided mine.

Anyway, despite getting all the details and with photos in hand - I hadn't got the name of the actual driver - which caused serious problems for my insurer. They spent weeks and weeks trying to find out who the driver was - and couldn't.

Nat1977

Well, a complete turn around, I had a call today from the bus companies assesor, who came out and inspected my car shortly after the incident, they are repairing my car at my chosen garage, but not admitting liability? they are even going to provide a courtesy car

Tilt

Nat1977 wrote: »

Well, a complete turn around, I had a call today from the bus companies assesor, who came out and inspected my car shortly after the incident, they are repairing my car at my chosen garage, but not admitting liability? they are even going to provide a courtesy car

Seems my hunch (post #13) was right then! Well done! :beer:

suekjw

Nat1977 wrote: »

Well, a complete turn around, I had a call today from the bus companies assesor, who came out and inspected my car shortly after the incident, they are repairing my car at my chosen garage, but not admitting liability? they are even going to provide a courtesy car

My theory is that if they go via insurance they wouldn't atually be able to find any drivers to insure as they must be having accidents all the time! Great result for you. As I mentioned when it happened to me they had picked up my car (and left a courtesy car) within a few hours and I had it back well within the week, it was even valeted! Pleased for you.