Can someone help with accident & insurance?

Bev100_2

Hello

I have never been involved in an accident so would be grateful for any advice received.

My uncle is elderly & does not live near us. We knew he had been in an accident about a week ago but have just found out more details when we visited him at the weekend & he has asked us for some help. He has never been involved in an accident before & is still a bit shocked by everything.

His head and face are badly bruised & he spent a day and a half in hospital. The other driver & passenger were unhurt at the time. My uncle was turning right exiting a side road onto a main road.The other car drove into the driver's side of my uncle's car, there is damage to the rear of the back door & also the pillar. He said he'd checked both sides & didn't see the other car which seems (to me) to indicate that the other driver was speeding, given the car damage.

He is an old-school gentleman & accepted blame for everything at the scene even though he does not know how the accident happened & he was probably in shock waiting for the ambulance! He seems to be embarrassed & does not want to go back on his word. We do not know what to do next. He is still a bit shocked from the whole experience.

The police attended & the accident was reported to the insurance company. He has tried a few times to get in touch with his insurance company since then but they have been useless & so he's been isolated at home without a courtesy car.

He finally got speaking to someone this afternoon but they want him to contact his broker about a courtesy car. They also want a lot of documents for his car (log book, V5, insurance cert I think) as well as his spare key??? Is this normal?
He thinks the chassis has been damaged & that the car will probably be written off but is not sure yet.

If you've made it this far, I would be very grateful for any advice about what he should do/shouldn't do etc as we are at a loss as to how to help him.
Thank you

Foxy-Stoat_3

The only help you can give him is to help him look for a new car when his insurance pays out of the car, assuming he has fully comprehensive insurance.

He should give his account of the accident and let the insures deal with.

Look for similar cars on autotrader, ebay etc with similar mileage and age, so you will have an idea as to what the market value is.

arcon5

If he pulled out in front of another vehicle he will struggle to claim contributory negligence. The tone of your post reads as though you don't think he is responsible for he accident, yet his actions would tell another story.

It sounds to me his insurance company have already classed his car as a write off and an inspection merely a formality. If this is the case it's probably normal to send the lot book and keys. I know when a relative of mine had his car stolen he was required to do this.

Aretnap

If he pulled out of a side road into the path of an oncoming vehicle, inevitably he's going to be held to be at fault. If the other driver was speeding there may be a bit of contributory negligence on his part, but unless he was going ludicrously fast it won't be much, and your uncle would need more evidence than "I didn't see him" to establish that he was speeding. And a crash at relatively low speed can cause a lot of damage (30mph, 30mph, 40mph). To be honest it sounds like a two-a-penny SMDSY.*

He won;t be able to claim a courtesy car from the other guy's insurers so whether he gets aone will depend on the terms of his own policy, which in turn will likely depend on whether they write his car off or repair it. What does his policy say about courtesy cars?

*Sorry Mate, Didn't See You

Bev100_2

Thanks, I've started looking for prices just in case it's a write off. Is it the "private" price or "dealer" price we should hope to get for his car?

We're assuming that his own injuries will not be covered by insurance?
The priority at the moment though is getting a courtesy car organised as he has really lost his independence and confidence since the accident. He has comprehensive insurance & the policy does say he can get a courtesy car but the insurance company have not been returning calls etc & now today they said to contact the broker.

The other car was coming from a junction over 600feet away along a straight road so we feel that my uncle would have seen it if the other car had been driving at a normal speed. Would contributory negligence affect the cost of his premiums going forward? He is on a low income.

Foxy-Stoat_3

You would need an independent witness to state that the other car was speeding, and IF this is used to be evidence to reduce the 100% at fault to say 80/20 or 60/40 the witness would need to demonstrate that the other car was exceeding the speed limit by 10,20,30,40,50mph without any speed measuring device. Also the fact they may of been speeding wouldn't have any real effect of the outcome. So I very much doubt this will go any way other than 100% at fault of your uncle.

You cannot rely on the fact that as your uncle didn't see him, they must of been speeding. The third party will say, we were speeding, your uncle didn't look before he pulled out.

Assuming he has protected NCD, then he will have the discount for next year, but premiums may go up a little for a fault accident. Maybe the next car he buys could be a lower grouped one so his insurance premium will remain roughly the same and last year.

dacouch

Have a read of this from the Ombudsman, which should give you some good tips and shows you the correct way the Insurers should value and handle the claim.
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

Don't forget he can take the tax disc out and reclaim the balance and don't forget to remind him to remove all of his nik naks.

P.S This type of claim can be due to the very elderly having less movement in their necks so they cannot turn their necks fully to check the traffic in each direction

Aretnap

Contributory negligence on the other bloke's part wouldn't affect your uncle's premiums going forward - from his point of view it will simply be recorded as a fault accident or a no-fault accident, and even partial fault will put it in the fault category.

Bev100_2

Thank you everyone for the advice. I've started to read through the valuation document & it's very useful.
Would I be right in thinking that he shouldn't send off the keys & log book etc until he gets a request in writing & has also agreed the value he receives for the car?

dacouch

Which Insurer is he with?

Bev100_2

I don't have a copy here but think the name was something like Hamnet? It wasn't one of the big names.