Car accident insurance advice

lolamadeus

Hi,

My wife had a minor incident earlier today, she was driving and admittedly going a bit slow (25 in 30) zone as she was unsure where she was going and following sat nav. During this a BMW was aggressively tailgalting. She started to turn right according to sat nav, then realized it was wrong and it was actually a one way street so turned back onto the the road. At this time the BMW was trying to overtake on the left and when she turned back her car slightly scraped the side of the BMW.

The damage was a minor scratch only and nothing to her car. He took her details and said he would try to polish it out and if not would get in touch.

He has been in contact and said that it didn't polish out and he wants to go through insurance. He said she should contact her insurance rather than him contacting his as her insurance will try to keep costs down, this part seems odd to me. Should it not be him contacting him his insurance? I'm not 100% here.

Also, who is at fault here? I mean yes my wife should have seen the sign saying one way and not tried to turn but if he had been keeping a safe distance and not driving so aggressively then it wouldn't even have been an issue.

What should our next steps be here? Is there a way through this without losing our no claims bonus?

Thanks for any advice!

FutureGirl

Likely outcome is a 50/50 split.

BMW driver should have been more patient and waited for your wife to carry out her manoeuvre. However your wife should have made sure it was safe for her to turn back as you say, especially where you note she was him tailgating her.

You both need to contact your own insurances, you'll find it's in your policy terms and conditions you must do so. If you contact your insurers to advise them of the incident, they will no doubt contact the bow drivers insurers anyway due to the circumstances.

Retrogamer

Personally i would say your wife is to blame here.
It sounds as if she made a maneuver which to turn off the road onto a minor road, the BMW passed on the left, as anyone would and your wife changed her mind and pulled back onto the road without ensuring it was safe to do so.

teddysmum

Retrogamer wrote: »

Personally i would say your wife is to blame here.
It sounds as if she made a maneuver which to turn off the road onto a minor road, the BMW passed on the left, as anyone would and your wife changed her mind and pulled back onto the road without ensuring it was safe to do so.

She also failed to see the forewarning sign showing no right turn.

Finst

I agree with FutureGirl, the most likely outcome is a 50/50 split of liability. Both drivers contributed to the accident, your wife by swerving back into main road unsafely, and the other driver by not giving enough room/time.


He might be able to get all the liability on your wife by arguing she had completely cleared his path before he made his move, but he'll struggle to get that to stick without evidence (witness, dashcam).


Your options are:


1. Contact his insurer and pay for repairs yourself. You'll be out of pocket for the repairs but will keep your no claims bonus.
2. Contact your insurance company, tell them what happened and let them deal with it. You'll lose your no claims bonus, pay higher premiums in the future and may have to pay your excess, but you won't have to pay for the repairs.


The best option will depend on how much the repairs are relative to the size of your ncb and future insurance premiums.

Retrogamer

Finst wrote: »

Both drivers contributed to the accident, your wife by swerving back into main road unsafely, and the other driver by not giving enough room/time.

How much time and how much room did they give the other car?

Finst

Retrogamer wrote: »

How much time and how much room did they give the other car?

That's the point - in the absence of hard evidence (such as a dashcam or witness), no-one knows. Which is why the courts and the insurance companies will default to assuming 50:50 blame.


Far too easy for the OP's wife to argue that insufficient time and room was left, given you are expected to allow sufficient room to the car in front at all times (2 second rule etc).