New driver, car crash, insurance.

babyemily

You are right, I am very emotional. I had to watch whilst they were cut from their cars. I was terrified they would all be seriously hurt and I am very grateful they were not. I do not want anyone to think I am not listening or taking advice. I am. But yes I probably am not seeing the wood for the trees right now
It's not laughable though, I genuinely hope he never has an accident. That was just an accident. We know she was not speeding. We know the other party have said she lost it on either a wet patch or wet leaves and I know she is so so sorry.
I don't want her life ruined by this. I want to help her. She is not a bad driver as shown by her black box.
Her insurance with a black box was £1400 already. Without she was quoted 2.5 - 3k.
We need to move on and I want to do this correctly. That is all, but as I have no knowledge of any of this I thought I would ask here.

csgohan4

The important thing is she can still have a career, albeit it will be expensive for the next five years.


In fact I just had a non fault accident last week, it's a pain because I need a car for work and the courtesy car is only for a short period. I was shaky after the accident, but you know what, don't let it ruin your day or life. You still have your life to live for.


Sometimes these things changes one's life or look at life and perhaps for the better.


Unfortunately the cost of the insurance maybe detrimental for now. Give yourself and her time. It heals a great deal of many things, including your driving history.


Maybe find an insurer that has accelerated No claims bonus schemes. I have used Elehpant in the past where 10 months of insurances counts as 1 year NCB.

AdrianC

OK, straight simple answers avoiding anything emotive.

She lost control of her car and hit somebody else's car, so her insurance will be paying for both cars and any other costs. This will go on her record as an at-fault claim, simply because her insurance has carried the invoice. It says nothing about any causal factors for the collision.

If her insurance was fully comprehensive, she will get the value of her car back from them, less her excess.

Her current insurance policy will almost certainly cease to be valid, since it's paid out on a total loss, but she will owe the balance of the year's premium. She might have been paying monthly, but she bought an annual policy plus credit to spread the payments.

She will be able to get insured on her next car, but she will have to declare a claim in which she was deemed to be at fault, with substantial costs arising from it. Her premium will go up, black box or not.

She's an adult, with her own insurance policy. There is nothing you can do regarding the claim - and the insurer should refuse to deal with you. What you choose to do to help her with paying future premiums or buying another car is up to you and her, but that's separate to any involvement in managing or being responsible for the claim or any future insurance.

AdrianC

On a separate issue, there is no such thing as "just an accident". Yesterday was, in many parts of the country, a very wet day in early autumn. Wet patches and wet leaves are hardly unforeseeable, but their effect on the grip of a car certainly is.

The signs give a maximum legal speed. They say nothing about what a safe and appropriate speed for any situation might be.

Excess speed for the conditions, but within the speed limit, is a major contributory cause to far more collisions than speed above the limit ("speeding") is.

sheramber

My husband wrote our car off three years ago. A very slow motion glide across a road covered in frozen snow, over the verge and then tipped up upside down into a deep ditch. Only the wheels were visible above the ditch.

Fortunately, we were able to climb out of the window and scramble up the side of the ditch.

The car was not so fortunate.

Our insurance company paid out the value of our car and said that if we bought another car within a month the insurance would continue until the end of the policy year at no extra cost.

When the renewal came in, from the same company, the premium was less than we had paid the year before.

We did have a protected no claim bonus so that was not affected.

rudekid48

GwylimT wrote: »

When she buys a new car she will have to declare an at fault accident for 5 years, if the company cancels her policy she will always need to declare.

Ignore this OP. If her policy ceases due to a total loss claim then she DOES NOT have to declare to future insurers that she has had a policy cancelled.


As others have said, if she has comprehensive cover and her vehicle is written off then she will be paid the market value of her car minus any excess due under the policy.


Having the black box could really work in her favour here when it comes to future pricing with her current insurer. If, as you say, she had really good driving scores prior to the accident then this will be taken into account. The rest of the market will just see a young driver with a fault accident and rate accordingly but her current insurer can see that she was actually a good young driver that just had a bad day. This will only be of benefit if she replaces her car and keeps her existing policy running, they will then take her driving scores into account at renewal. As I said, this won't help with pricing from any other insurer but may provide some light at the end of the tunnel with her current one.


If I was you I would ignore all the sanctimonious know-it-alls criticising her driving - they forget that they were once young drivers too. We all made big mistakes but most of us were lucky enough that those mistakes didn't end in a crash!

Stoke

Wow what happened to this thread? Looks like the free speech patrol are out in force again.

Don't panic. Accidents do happen and she's unlikely to be prosecuted if all the evidence backs her up (not speeding etc). Her real worry will be what the insurer of the other company says, regarding injury and obviously the car. Her current company is obviously going to want to get some of that money back by upping her premiums.

Don't panic about her being a young driver in an accident. It happens. I had an accident when I was 17. I had next to no experience and I was driving too fast. She has evidence in that regard to back her up.

There will obviously be some hike in her prices but as far as never getting insurance again goes? No, she'll be fine.

forgotmyname

If her policy is comprehensive which it sounds like it is they will pay out for the costs of the car minus the excess. You may need to haggle on the payout as they want to pay as little as possible.

Some policies end with a total loss but still needs to be paid in full. They can deduct this from any payout.

She will need to declare the incident for upto 5 years and its likely to increase the premiums. She will need to decide if she needs a car more than the money for next years premium.

They wont allow a newly passed driver to be a driving paramedic will they??

So that shouldnt be an issue for some time.

straighttalker

Try not to worry, these circumstances are what insurance is for.

For the medium term, all that this will cost her is the £300 excess.

Any third party costs or claims will be covered by her insurer. If she gets any letters or other correspondence from the third party or their legal representatives, just pass them onto her insurer to be dealt with.

With regards to her own vehicle, if it is written off, they will provide a valuation less the applicable excess. This is of course if she is fully comp. if the offer is low and doesn't reflect the true value of her car, try and gather evidence of other similar vehicles for sale and reject the initial offer. This is where you maybe able to help her with research on Autotrader and eBay etc.

If she buys anther vehicle quickly, she will probably be able to put it on cover under the same policy.

I know it's worrying when your child is in a serious accident but hopefully, any physical injuries weren't serious and all that is dented are her pride and the cars.

If you want to help her financially, perhaps the best time would be to pitch in funds when she's looking at a new car. The support and advice from her mother will count for a lot when she decides to venture back onto the road.

GwylimT

rudekid48 wrote: »

Ignore this OP. If her policy ceases due to a total loss claim then she DOES NOT have to declare to future insurers that she has had a policy cancelled.


As others have said, if she has comprehensive cover and her vehicle is written off then she will be paid the market value of her car minus any excess due under the policy.


Having the black box could really work in her favour here when it comes to future pricing with her current insurer. If, as you say, she had really good driving scores prior to the accident then this will be taken into account. The rest of the market will just see a young driver with a fault accident and rate accordingly but her current insurer can see that she was actually a good young driver that just had a bad day. This will only be of benefit if she replaces her car and keeps her existing policy running, they will then take her driving scores into account at renewal. As I said, this won't help with pricing from any other insurer but may provide some light at the end of the tunnel with her current one.


If I was you I would ignore all the sanctimonious know-it-alls criticising her driving - they forget that they were once young drivers too. We all made big mistakes but most of us were lucky enough that those mistakes didn't end in a crash!

As I pointed out in the post you quoted a policy ending due to a write off is different to it actually being cancelled.