Accident involving European Lorry Driver - Advice please

st3w4rt

Hi,

I was driving home form London Wednesday on the M1. Whilst overtaking a dutch lorry in the middle lane he decided he was going to change lanes. I was effectively sideswiped, spun around slightly and pushed along sideways in front of him until he came to a stop. Miracurously no on was harmed.

A few other drivers stopped to see if we were ok, they also gave us their names and numbers as witnesses. I drove the car onto the hard shoulder and my partner immediately phoned the police. We attempted to talk to the lorry driver but the language barrier proved to be prohibitive. I took photos of both vehicles and of the skid marks on the motorway.

The Motorway Maintenance/Highway Patrol people arrived and advised us on what to do, one of them also got the insurance details of the dutch driver. The police also had arrived by this point but they didn't leave their car - I thought it would have been standard practice for them to breathylise both drivers?

The lorry then left the scene and shortly afterwards I did the car was still driveable but the whole of the passenger side was badly dented. I continued home to Birmingham.

On getting home I phoned Admiral my insurers and told them what had happened I said that I didn't necessarily want to make a claim because I figured that the cost of the repair of the car was above that of what it was worth. They said that was ok but I had to report the accident to them. Everything was going fine with Admiral, they offered to pick up my car and give me a courtesy car until I gave the registration of the lorry involved which was obviously not English. I was told that a company would phone to collect the car but I was to cancel it as accidents with vehicles registered/insured abroad were not as straightforward to deal with.

I had a call back from Admiral yesterday saying that they were chasing up the issue with a body that deals with the insurance of vehicles insured abroad. I asked them what to do in the meantime (hoping they would now offer a courtesy car) they said to either get the car repaired and pay for it myself in the hope they could get money from the other party OR wait until the the blame is accepted by the other party and money is paid out by them. They said it could take months to be resolved.

I don't really have the money to get the car fixed myself and I can't really manage without a car.

Any advice as to what I should do?

Thanks

dacouch

Do you have comprehensive cover?

Have Admiral passed you over to a company called Albany

st3w4rt

Yes, cover is Comprehensive.

No, haven't heard any mention of Albany.

I had meant to mention that I have been driving for 9 years and never had an accident so had never made a claim before.

Thanks

InsideInsurance

With foreign vehicles the insurer has to write to the MIB with the detail, the MIB will write to their equivalent number in the country of origin of the other vehicle. They then write to the insurer in that country asking them to confirm their UK representative, reference number etc. This then passes back up the chain to get to your insurers.

Once all this is done your insurers then liaise with the TPI's UK representative as if they were the TPI. The only problem with this is that different representatives have different levels of authority and so with some once you get past the first delay its fine but others are little more then message passers and so the delays continue as they pass everything back up the claim to the true insurer.

As per dacouch's question, are you comprehensive or TPFT cover?

From what you say Admiral has done its normal in non-fault of farming it out to a claims management company who almost certainly wont be interested in a foreign national case due to the delays and complications.

vaio

did the dutch driver give you an accident report form? If he did this will have his insurer details on it and MIB will be able to tell you who the UK representative is.

st3w4rt

vaio wrote: »

did the dutch driver give you an accident report form? If he did this will have his insurer details on it and MIB will be able to tell you who the UK representative is.

No, but the highways people did get the details of his insurance and I passed this on to Admiral

rs65

You have comprehensive cover so tell admiral you want the damage to your car dealt with by them (assuming this is what you want - your original call to admiral suggested otherwise). The nationality of the other driver is irrelevant.

Do you have a courtesy car benefit on your policy?

st3w4rt

Initially I didn't want to lose my no claims bonus.
The policy does say that we will get a courtesy car, whilst my car is being repaired but it hasn't been collected.

st3w4rt

rs65 wrote: »

The nationality of the other driver is irrelevant.

Not according to what they said on the phone.

rs65

It can take a bit longer and sometimes involve translators but otherwise it's just an accident involving two vehicles.

InsideInsurance

st3w4rt wrote: »

Not according to what they said on the phone.

It is irrelevant to your insurers in terms of the repairs to your vehicle.

It may be relevant to the ability to use accident management companies instead, the provision of credit hire, waiving of excesses etc which are all dependent on the recovery from the TP/TPI