Accident in parking lot dispute, insurance not helping, what next?

Stoke

Hello,

My girlfriend was recently involved in an accident in a multi-story car park. I was not there, so I'm obviously going on what she has told me, but she is now involved in an ongoing dispute with the driver of the other vehicle over liability. To be honest, I thought that car park accidents were split liability or knock-for-knock, however I'm probably wrong there so we're now into this dispute and I'm just looking for some advice how to proceed.

Her insurance company is Direct Line and they're becoming quite problematic in their unwillingness to actually help in the situation, or even put any kind of effort in to protecting her as their customer. The car park had full CCTV camera coverage (or so we thought), however despite being told repeatedly to request this footage, Direct Line made no attempt to obtain it and it was only after my girlfriend begged one of the security guards to let her view it that she was able to see whether it was of any use. Unfortunately, the cameras only captured the two vehicles on approach to where the accident took place. I would say the footage is pretty useless as it doesn't capture the impact.

There are disputes within the two story as well. The other driver gives different story to my girlfriend. Of course, it's easy to remember things differently in the heat of a situation, so I blame neither of them for that but obviously it makes it harder to give a fair objective opinion as their stories unsurprisingly make the other out to be at fault. I would say hers is more believable, just from a logical version of events.

She received a letter this morning informing her that Dlg will not be pursuing her case as they don't feel she has any chance of winning. Personally, I don't feel like they have even tried as they didn't even complete the easy task of obtaining the footage.

So what's the next step? Do we dispute direct line? Do we go to the ombudsmen?

InsideInsurance

You have to complain to the insurer first before you can go to the ombudsman. They must either give their response or not respond within 8 weeks before escalation.

Car park accidents do end up 50/50 more commonly than many other locations for accidents (roundabouts and narrow lanes are the other two fun places) but they are by no means automatically 50/50

I havent dealt with DL's claims departments for many years but historically they followed most companies structure in that the normal telephone numbers you get for Claims goes through to the First Response type team who are the gatekeepers and the lowest trained/ experienced (not to say they are badly trained).

There is normally a second team that deal with the Third Party element, be that Recoveries for non-fault, PI for fault with injuries, Disputed etc. These are the people your partner needs to speak to. Sometimes their numbers are written on letters like the one you just received but they are much less freely given out.

It may be worth saying here what her version of events are to see who's liability it sounds like from her version

Quentin

If both sides tell opposing stories and there are no independent witnesses or evidence how can anyone decide who is telling the truth?


If her insurer is of the view she wouldn't win (presumably were it to go to court), then not a lot she can do.


There is the opportunity to see if the ombudsman will take it up - she first needs to exhaust the DL complaints procedure, then she can escalate to the FOS if she is unhappy with the outcome of the formal complaint.

InsideInsurance

Quentin wrote: »

If both sides tell opposing stories and there are no independent witnesses or evidence how can anyone decide who is telling the truth?

But if it goes to court the judge would actually decide what happened and so where there is no witnesses and no evidence it comes down to a question of what is most probable to have happened tinted with who does he believe most.

Its too much of a roll of the dice for an insurers appetite hence often going for 50/50 but you do occasionally get cases which you pursue despite it being one persons word against the other as you are confident the judge would side with you - normal middle age woman with basic car & 2 kids asleep in the car -v- 18 year old in hot hatch with 4 mates in the car after a night in the pub

Stoke

OK.

Her story goes along the lines of this, multi-story car park, typical square layout etc. The car park was busy, traffic wasn't moving quickly at all (slower than walking pace). She went down one of the ramps and at the bottom started to turn right. She stopped mid-turn with the front of her vehicle sticking out, as she couldn't edge out anymore. This is a mistake, however at the start of turn, there was no oncoming traffic according to her. There are two car parking spaces to the left of the ramp which can be used at all times as well. Other driver pulls out furthest space, starts to edge towards her, effectively idling in but in gear. According to my girlfriend, she clocked the car coming forward and spotted him facing backwards, messing around in the back, something to do with his child. She is fairly sure she saw him turn round facing forward again however he's then pulled forward or idled forward and hit the vehicle.

His story goes, he pulled out of space, pulled forward and at the last second my girlfriend jumped out in front of him.

The damage on both vehicles is negligible. On my girlfriends, there is a singular square mark, that in my honest opinion will mostly wash out with a decent shampoo and anything left will likely come out with something like Meguiars Ultimate Compound or a medium cut polish or something. Certainly nothing to shout about. His vehicle has a long thin scratch and a small blemish. Neither damage was down to the paint, and I'm not even sure it's cut through to the primer tbh.

While both story's are plausible, I find his harder to believe for these reasons:

1. The car park traffic was crawling at lower than walking speed, he admits at approximately 2-3mph. There are no walls on the ramps, therefore unless he had clinical tunnel vision, it would have been impossible not to have seen my girlfriends car in the queue, yet despite this, he has somehow seen a gap he can fit in, despite the congestion and the fact my girlfriend is already in the queue. He's then tried to enter this gap and my girlfriend has jolted out (despite the fact the traffic was travelling at 2-3mph).

2. He says she pulled out at the last second giving him no time to brake whatsoever, his inference was that it was all quite quick, yet he's already accepted the traffic was moving incredibly slow and the damage suggests a very low speed collision.

3. His original statement to the insurance company was incorrect, something he admitted after. He initially stated that he was the only person in the vehicle if I remember rightly. He also tried to claim the incident took place on the main road, but Direct Line said this was probably just a mistake on the part of the phone operator.

Of course, the guy has also gone for a whiplash and medical expenses claim (no surprise there) which I half expected to be honest. My girlfriend said he wasn't a particularly aggressive man, but was firmly in the camp that it was her fault and tried to force her to admit liability there and then, which she refused.

Anyway, that's where we're at.

Quentin

If the third party has a solicitor prepared to fight a whiplash claim on top of his damage claim, and her insurer has concluded that she won't win with her story this doesn't look good for her to get anywhere fighting her own insurer.


(If it goes against her, the whiplash and medical expenses claim and the damage (to both cars) all count as just one claim)


But she shouldn't be put off making her complaint as in #3 and seeing if the FOS will take it up - using the complaints procedure then escalating to the FOS is all at no cost to her

Stoke

I will recommend she asks her insurer to pursue then escalates to the FOS then.

I imagine this will ultimately result in her leaving at the end of her insurance contract. Very disappointed with Direct Line who I don't feel have tried very hard to defend her, despite there being enough holes, as I've highlighted.

Nodding_Donkey

Whiplash at walking pace? It will be laughed out of court.

Quentin

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Whiplash at walking pace? It will be laughed out of court.

From the OP it doesn't look like this is going to court, but whiplash at less than walking pace is recognised.


Google low velocity whiplash to read the scientific research proving we get whiplash even when there is no damage to the cars in a low velocity collision.

bris

It will be classed as 50/50 there is nothing she can do to change that, no footage or witnesses then no one will help as it's simply a loser.

The insurance will put it down to equal blame and move on without a second thought.

Stoke

having viewed the photos, there's a sign that says 5mph. Can a whiplash claim happen below 5mph?