Minor rear end bump

Marco84

The wife reacted a second or two too late to a car braking on a 40 road and rear ended him with her Yeti at somewhere around 10-15 mph, felt quite a hard bump, I couldn't see any damage on his Saab there and looked on the dash cam at home and seems no damage, just our number plate risen up on the sides. I expected him to ask for details but he didn't, he just ask if we're all right, we're fine and him as well. i couldn't understand his accent so well, he said something like "I remember your plate and can claim whiplash in 6 months time" i don't know if he meant himself or me... he seemed relaxed though and he drove off, all over in 30 seconds. Should I get the wife to report the bump to her insurance or leave things be...?

liltzero

If he's going to claim whiplash in 6 months then why the hell are you not going to report it to your insurance now?

What do you want us to say? 'Don't report it and pray for the best'?
Use some common sense!

Marco84

Hard to use common sense when it's thin on the ground in this situation. Why in 6 months? Why take no details if he wants a payday? and how can he prove it? No details or witnesses. I'd be happier if he asked for them. On the other hand I can tell my wife to shoot herself in the foot now and pray it's for the greater good and not for nothing. I don't want to hear any particular answer, I want to hear an array of opinions from the good, bad and the ugly, so I can make a better informed one.

debtdebt

He's got 3 years from the date of the accident to present a claim for personal injury.

To be fair, he probably made the passing comment to teach your wife a lesson. Personally, if it were me, I wouldn't bother telling my insurance and proceed with your life as normal.

loskie

or perhaps he was making light of the situation and cracking a joke! Not everyone is a money grabbing B.

chrisw

Now I personally wouldn't report this and if a claim popped up further down the line I would just say well there was no damage and didn't seem to be any injuries at the time.

I know they could refuse to pay out the claim, but does anyone know what would actually happen? Does reasonableness come into it? Are there any example cases where claims have been refused in these sort of cases?

lister

Yes, it must be reported to your insurance - you really don't want the pain of cancelled insurance that might result in the event that he does claim down the line somewhere. If you are correct and the accident occured at 10-15 mph, there WILL be more than cosmetic damage, even if not visible. There is also the genuine possibility of delayed injury (albeit that many such claims as low speed are fairly suspect).

Ask yourself the question "Do I regard myself as someone who meets their legal obligations?" If that is how you would like to think of yourself, then consider what you have agreed to in taking out the insurance.

On top of that, you should be reporting this to the police within 24 hours of the incident. There was an accident where damage or injury was caused and you didn't exchange details (whether he wanted them or not - do you want him to then report it and say you failed to give details?).

And of course once the right things have been done (as I'm sure you and your wife are upstanding law abiding citizens), I would take some time to consider what is a safe following distance... Highway code says minimum of 2 seconds, 4 seconds in the rain. At 40mph that is approximately 2-4 articulated lorry lengths (between about 30 and 60 metres). Keep that distance and you'll never rear-end someone again...

BeenThroughItAll

The last 'minor' 10-15mph bump any of my cars suffered caused £2700 worth of damage.

Aylesbury_Duck

Tell your insurers. The risk of him claiming seems small but the consequences of him doing so are more serious. If your premiums rise (and they may not) then think of what would probably be a small increase as an extra premium to insure against the possibility of him claiming and you possibly having insurance cancelled.

Car_54

Doesn't "the wife" have a mind of her own?

RichardD1970

Personally I would report to insurance, just in case.

Also save your dash cam footage, especially if it includes GPS data as this will show your speed and hopefully give an indication of how many people were in the car!