3rd Party insurers making it difficult.

Mr_Warren_2

Hi all, it's been some time since my last post. I need your help and advice. Thank you.

In June 2011 our youngest daughter was driving my wife's car 206cc (insured for the week under the daughter's insurance as her car was out for repairs). At a traffic light she was pole position with her handbrake on when the boy behind (working for a local Audi dealer, delivering a brand new car to a customer), decided that it was time to go and hit her in the rear bumper while she was still stopped. The shock was quite serious as the rear frame holding the bumper is well deformed. The bumper shows little split marks.

They exchanged details and went their own way. Daughter immediately declared the accident to her insurance company who happy that she was not at fault, and as she was only insured 3rd party/fire/theft, wished her good luck claiming from 3rd party.

Later that week, daughter started to feel pain and went to our GP for pain killers. She went twice over the summer then took up a teaching job in September 5 hours drive away from home.

Soon after the accident we put this case in the hands of a local "no claim - no fee" solicitor, hoping the mater would be resolved quickly.

First, the car dealership ignored our solicitor's request asking for their insurance details, then gave the wrong details. Finally nearly a year later we got to speak to the right insurance people.

3rd party insurance asked for an independant injury expert report for the whiplash injury. This was done in July 2012. The espert's verdict confirmed whiplash.

Today, the 3rd party insurance company have still not settled (they have just sent their own independent car inspection expert yesterday !!!) and are starting to ask silly questions such as asking my daughter to estimate the speed at which their car was travelling when it collided with her......

The Peugeot repair centre where I got the original repair estimate I have recontacted since (as the car is still not repaired) indicated that as the damage was definitely "a low impact", this indicated that 3rd party was breaking heavily at time of collision and that estimated speed was between 15 and 20mph.

We passed this information to our solicitor for the 3rd party insurance.

Has anyone had any such insurance problems happening to them?

Do you think we will ever get to the bottom of it?

I know that both insurers and government are going to war against false whiplash injury claims and I support this but when the case is genuine, it takes the biscuit!. Thank you.

InsideInsurance

Low velocity impacts are a hot topic as you say and the third party/ their representatives are entitled to make reasonable investigations into the claims being made against them.

You really should be speaking to your solicitor about ways to force the TPI's hand if they are being unreasonable and your daughter is prepared to attend court.

Mr_Warren_2

Thanks InsideInsurance, what do we call "low velocity impact"....6mph ? 15mph or 20mph? This was a "low impact" caused by 3rd party breaking heavily before colliding.

I fully understand the 3rd party making life difficult to weed out false claims BUT....asking my daughter to estimate the speed at which SHE WAS HIT is too much imo...

InsideInsurance

Low velocity is not explicitly defined but is more simply a relatively low speed where the TP states that the speeds involved was too slow to cause the alleged injury/ damage. Of cause sometimes in life you can simply be unlucky and people have died as a result of 5mph collisions before.

Mr_Warren_2

Thank you.

dacouch

That's some Audi if it managed to get upto 15 to 20mph in the yard or so gap between the two cars stopped at traffic lights.

iQueen

dacouch wrote: »

That's some Audi if it managed to get upto 15 to 20mph in the yard or so gap between the two cars stopped at traffic lights.

The car behind was stationary?

InsideInsurance

Mr_Warren wrote: »

At a traffic light she was pole position with her handbrake on when the boy behind (working for a local Audi dealer, delivering a brand new car to a customer), decided that it was time to go and hit her in the rear bumper while she was still stopped.

Certainly suggests that the TP was stationary or near stationary before accelerating away otherwise you'd expect the accident would have been described as a failed to brake in time

Mr_Warren_2

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Certainly suggests that the TP was stationary or near stationary before accelerating away otherwise you'd expect the accident would have been described as a failed to brake in time

Correct, 3rd party was also stationary at red light. May be he wanted to impress the blonde girl in the car up-front (my daughter).

The rear frame holding the bumper is well deformed (as can be seen through gaps within the boot area). It has moved about 1" towards the boot space in some places. Will attempt to post pics.

rs65

This really isn't long for an injury claim to be settled.

Mr_Warren_2

Here are a couple pictures taken from inside the boot. Would appreciate your comments as to the "low velocity impact" of the Audi car. The buckeld rear panel is supposed to be ...flat. Thank you all.