Rta

Cattawall

So today I was involved in an RTA - To be exact a hit & run.
I was rear ended by a van that left the scene as I careered over two lanes, one with on coming traffic. Resulting in a clip to a Mercedes (a 10 year old one I may add) with my end destination being a 12ft brick wall.


The police & I & the Merc Guy (we shall call him that) have no idea how my car has only sustained body work damage and at the time it appeared the Merc had only body work damage.
The van left resulting a hit & run. A shop that is nearby has a partial view of the van but at yet they are unsure if they can get the registration.


The Merc guy offered to have dealings personal rather than insurance over his bumper the police informed me I would be classed as at fault over. I asked the MG guy to get a quote and he did, almost 7 hours later with a quotation just under 2grand!


My dad feels this is grossly over priced and we have offered to have the car valued at our garage and an independent one.


Would it be simpler and wiser to go through the insurance? Would I loose my no claims (not protected) by doing this even though I was rear-ended?


What are your thoughts? Thanks.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Cattawall wrote: »

So today I was involved in an RTA - To be exact a hit & run.
I was rear ended by a van that left the scene as I careered over two lanes, one with on coming traffic. Resulting in a clip to a Mercedes (a 10 year old one I may add) with my end destination being a 12ft brick wall.


The police & I & the Merc Guy (we shall call him that) have no idea how my car has only sustained body work damage and at the time it appeared the Merc had only body work damage.
The van left resulting a hit & run. A shop that is nearby has a partial view of the van but at yet they are unsure if they can get the registration.


The Merc guy offered to have dealings personal rather than insurance over his bumper the police informed me I would be classed as at fault over. I asked the MG guy to get a quote and he did, almost 7 hours later with a quotation just under 2grand!


My dad feels this is grossly over priced and we have offered to have the car valued at our garage and an independent one.


Would it be simpler and wiser to go through the insurance? Would I loose my no claims (not protected) by doing this even though I was rear-ended?


What are your thoughts? Thanks.

If the merc guy agrees to your garage valuing the work, and it turns out much cheaper then run with that, but if he refuses pass it to your insurers. one question that the insurers will want to be answered though is where did the extra damage resulting in paint transfer come from if you did go the private rout.

McKneff

And no matter what, if you pay for it privately you should also inform your insurance company, This is in your terms and conditions.


Failure to do so would invalid any other future claim.
If the police know about it, the accident will be on some data base somewhere..... so it could very well pop up in the future.

weejonnie

I would avoid doing anything other than reporting the incident. On NO account pay anything out.

The fact that the police say they regard it as a fault claim mean that your insurers won't be able to make a recovery for any damage they pay to your vehicle.

However the fact that the proximate cause of the accident was an untraced driver does not mean that you were negligent in your driving - if I am reading this correctly - and if you aren't negligent then you can't be forced to pay damages.

InsideInsurance

The police are not helpful when it comes to insurance and indeed are not trained in it at all.

For you to be liable for the mercs damage you must have reacted negligently to the rear end shunt which by the sounds of it you didnt as presumably you arent some form of stunt driving professional?

On the basis the above is true then you are both not to blame for the incident and both of you have a claim against the as yet untraced van driver.

Assuming the van driver remains untraced and you both claimed off your own respective insurances then it would count as a fault claim for both of you due to the inability to recover the outlay. Your insurers would almost certainly rebuke any claim from the merc driver as you were not negligent in your actions and so equally a victim of the circumstances

As to 2k to deal with bodywork damage to a merc, you dont say how much the damage was or where but I had a o/s/f wing damaged on my merc last year from a hit and run and the Mercedes quote for repair was £1,700 for 1 panel without blending in the paint as the car was only a couple of months old.

OnanTheBarbarian

/\ /\ /\ - this

bryanb

Cattawall wrote: »

So today I was involved in an RTA - To be exact a hit & run.
I was rear ended by a van that left the scene as I careered over two lanes, one with on coming traffic. Resulting in a clip to a Mercedes (a 10 year old one I may add) with my end destination being a 12ft brick wall.


The police & I & the Merc Guy (we shall call him that) have no idea how my car has only sustained body work damage and at the time it appeared the Merc had only body work damage.
The van left resulting a hit & run. A shop that is nearby has a partial view of the van but at yet they are unsure if they can get the registration.


The Merc guy offered to have dealings personal rather than insurance over his bumper the police informed me I would be classed as at fault over. I asked the MG guy to get a quote and he did, almost 7 hours later with a quotation just under 2grand!


My dad feels this is grossly over priced and we have offered to have the car valued at our garage and an independent one.


Would it be simpler and wiser to go through the insurance? Would I loose my no claims (not protected) by doing this even though I was rear-ended?


What are your thoughts? Thanks.

Was he in his Merc or his MG?

RuthnJasper

bryanb wrote: »

Was he in his Merc or his MG?

I think that MG = Mercedes Guy...

bryanb

RuthnJasper wrote: »

I think that MG = Mercedes Guy...

Yeah, but it says MG guy