3 car accident- whos at fault

mills705

Tonight I was involved in a 3 car pile bump at a set of traffic lights. Everyone was Okay and all cars only suffered slight damage.

Myself and Juke were sitting at a set of traffic lights on red. I was sitting behind the juke. When the third car hits me from behind and pushes me into the juke.

From what I have read it is the fault of the third car as myself and the juke were both stationary at the time of the accident.

Can someone confirm this?

Strider590

You heard right..... But it'll be a long process, you'll loose your policy agreed excess and your NCB until it's resolved. Which means if your renewal comes up, no other insurer will want to quote you AND your current insurer will ramp up your premium because they know you have no choice.

Once it's all settle, your premium will still go up regardless of fault, regardless of your NCB, because your now considered a higher risk driver.

chris-j

Strider590 wrote: »

You heard right..... But it'll be a long process, you'll loose your policy agreed excess and your NCB until it's resolved. Which means if your renewal comes up, no other insurer will want to quote you AND your current insurer will ramp up your premium because they know you have no choice.

Once it's all settle, your premium will still go up regardless of fault, regardless of your NCB, because your now considered a higher risk driver.

Agree with this. I had similar situation in 1992 and insurers are still the same leeches they were then.
I was stopped at lights and idiot hit me hard enough that he pushed me into car in front and ending up with 5 cars damaged.
My premium went up at renewal and despite not having to pay any excess or lose ncb, my insurance stayed higher for a full three years then suddenly dropped by half.
No claims management sharks then so claim went through insurance companies who obviously cooked books so that everyone ended up paying for the dozy git who hit me.

jobdone1

I had a lady drive out of a petrol forecourt into the side of my car, All cost refunded and found to not be a fault, Which I clearly was not, My quote premium's has gone up as a result even though NON FAULT, can't win

InsideInsurance

Absolutely the car behinds fault based on your description.

The challenge with shunts is that the car at the back tends to claim you hit the car at the front first and then they went into the back of you which makes life more difficult. That said, the car at the front is effectively an independent witness and their version of events will collaborate either if it was a shunt or 1 hit followed by a second.

You must inform your insurers of the incident but assuming the car at the back is admitting it was all their fault then you may claim directly from their insurers thus avoiding the need to pay your excess and/ or having it noted as a fault claim until the insurer recovers their outlay.

Neil1975_2

I’m not sure how the insurance companies will go about determining liability but I’d agree with the other comments that your premiums will rise regardless of fault.

A mate of my mate had a car misjudge a junction and run straight into the side of him, the driver immediately admitted liability, and this was confirmed by two officers who were parked down the road in an unmarked patrol car who witnessed the accident and came over to assist. Even so, it took several months for the claim to be finalised and during this time when my mate went to insure a second car he was told the accident had to be declared as a fault claim until it had been settled. He agued this but the insurance company stated that until a claim had been settled and all monies have been transferred between the insurance companies, the accident remains on the database for all parties as a fault claim.

Further more despite having eight years ncb and no accident or claims aside form this incident, his insurance went up by over 40%, when he asked why the insurance company basically said because he’d had an accident that wasn’t even his fault, it meant he was more likely to have another.

peter_the_piper

DD was also the meat in a sandwich, she had to pay the excess and claim it back. Not sure if it affected her insurance costs though.

1jim

Can't you claim for these rises as an uninsured loss?

InsideInsurance

1jim wrote: »

Can't you claim for these rises as an uninsured loss?

People report very mixed success, generally not.

The challenge of cause is to actually determine what the impact actually is especially as until you've renewed your policies for 5 years you cannot even say if the impact will be for 3 or 5 years.

Secondary to that is trying to remove the compound effect. If you have two claims the effect on premium is typically not simply twice the impact of having 1 claim. If you switch to a higher performance vehicle the impact is going to be greater but the TP wouldnt be liable for that extra increase due to you upgrading your car

mills705

Turns out to be quite simple.
Rang my insurance company at 8 30 this morning reported the claim. By 10 30 the third party (guy behind) insurance had rang me and that he had accepted full liability for the accident. So my rear and front bumpers will be mended on his insurance.
The repair has been actioned and garage will be ringing me tomorrow or Monday about the repairs!
With courtesy car!
NBC is not affected and no excess payable!