Car Accident - car vs cab.. Help!

dharm11

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone could give me some advice. Yesterday I was involved in a minor car accident and i'm trying to discover who's at fault.
I was dropping off a friend in the town centre, as I was tuning in to pull up on the right into a loading bay a cab decided to pull out and clipped the rear passenger side wheel arch. The plastic padding on his bumper took some paint off my bodywork. He shouted and insisted he wasn't at fault and said because he was still within the taxi rank he had every right to move within that space. He said I was in the wrong for entering partly into the taxi rank before stopping in the loading bay. The situation became very hostile when other cab drivers came out and gang up. Luckily my friend was there who is used to them type of situations and soon told them all where to go! Well in the end we both decided for the insurers to decide but I don't really want to go down that route as win or lose it will increase my next premium. We exchanged numbers I was hoping that would be the last of it but I received a miss call from him this morning so I'm guessing he's keen to take this further

RuthnJasper

I'm sure others with better knowledge than me will be along shortly to offer advice - but it sounds to me that the cabbie was at fault. If you were driving on the road and he pulled out and hit you, surely that's the same principle as if he didn't look when pulling out of a side road or junction and hit you?

Anyway, if the matter is now with your insurers, leave it up to them - tell the cabbie (or better still, text him to say) that he should contact his insurers (or yours) if he has anything further that he wishes to say. You don't have to talk to him.

Best wishes. x

spacey2012

Mentioning you were intending to pull in the loading only bay was not the smartest move.
It will go IMO 50/50%
Now had you have been driving along correctly and pulled up to exchange details after the collision.

N1AK

The fact it was a taxi rank is pretty much irrelevant; if he would have been at fault for pulling out into the side of your vehicle normally then the taxi rank markings don't change that.

I would suggest you write down as much of what he said that you can remember as possible. If he actually said anything to the effect of you being at fault because you weren't 'allowed' to be there rather than because you caused the collision then it could actually weaken his case.

InsideInsurance

dharm11 wrote: »

I don't really want to go down that route as win or lose it will increase my next premium.

You legally must inform your insurers of the incident so if you deal with it yourself or let them deal with it and win then you have the same outcome and impact on your premiums. If they do report it their insurers it would be a moderately high risk decision to "forget" to inform your insurers.

Given the accident circumstances as you describe it would suggest that they are at fault for the accident. The problem is that you dont mention independent witnesses coming forward and often you will find that two different people describe circumstances differently.

Not to pass judgement on taxi drivers but they are possibly more prone to giving version of events that more strongly support them being not at fault than other drivers (just as most of their loss of earnings claims would suggest they are making massive incomes but cannot substantiate with tax returns because they only started 12 months ago or less)

You can try and deal with it yourself but you need to be careful not to prejudice your case by doing so which would potentially give your insurers right of recovery from you if it ended up being dealt with by them

Parkumicarum

"Not supposed to be there" is not a valid argument - as anyone who has hit the opening door of a parked car will tell you. You would not be penalised for dropping off a passenger for insurance purposes - this was not a no stopping zone, but a loading bay, for which a case could be made to drop off a passenger even if it mattered. The essential elements of the case are you were passing a parked vehicle and pulled in in front of him. He pulled out without due care and attention and hit the rear right of your vehicle. End of story. Let the insurers sort the rest out. The more you complicate the record with extra facts early in the case, the more it can go against you - as I found out when hit by a Range Rover on a roundabout -my full details and photos and storyline presentation were worth nothing because the other party lied about the location of the collision in court and the judge thought my story was too neat to be true and ruled against me.

spacey2012

The taxi driver is going to say he was stationary and you pulled in to him to get in the bay.

dharm11

Thanks for all your responses. I gave the guy a call and he was very apologetic we both agreed to take no further action. he also admitted that a similar accident happen to him before and he lost the case. I guess I could've requested for him to pay for minor paint work on my car but I'm just glad it over with . Thanks once again

Parking_Trouble

InsideInsurance wrote: »

You legally must inform your insurers of the incident so if you deal with it yourself or let them deal with it and win then you have the same outcome and impact on your premiums. If they do report it their insurers it would be a moderately high risk decision to "forget" to inform your insurers.

Given the accident circumstances as you describe it would suggest that they are at fault for the accident. The problem is that you dont mention independent witnesses coming forward and often you will find that two different people describe circumstances differently.

Not to pass judgement on taxi drivers but they are possibly more prone to giving version of events that more strongly support them being not at fault than other drivers (just as most of their loss of earnings claims would suggest they are making massive incomes but cannot substantiate with tax returns because they only started 12 months ago or less)

You can try and deal with it yourself but you need to be careful not to prejudice your case by doing so which would potentially give your insurers right of recovery from you if it ended up being dealt with by them

What law dictates that?

StanVanDamn

It is not the law to ring your insurance company and report a claim.

But it is likely to be in your policy booklet in the terms and conditions. Usually have to report within 48 hours.

Sally_A

Apologies to all the good taxi drivers out there, but now is the time of year when the dodgy ones want to stage non-fault accidents.

A fortnight off with the kiddies & missus on full loss of earnings whilst the cab is in the bodyshop.

They don't get paid leave so "make their own".