Non-Fault accident - advice appreciated!

sr1994

Hi all,

I was involved in a RTA on Tuesday evening when a another driver drove into the back of my car on a slip road. I had approached traffic and came to a stop when a few seconds later my car was hit. I drove on a little further and stopped in an industrial estate, with the other party following. The rear bumper on my car was cracked and the paint work obviously a bit worse for wear.

Upon pulling in, the driver got out and accepted full liability, stating that his breaks had 'seized up' before later saying that he just couldn't slow down in time. I took the drivers details and provided him with my license so he could take mine however he said that as the accident was his fault he wouldn't need to take any information from myself. All was pretty straight forward until the drivers father showed up. He again accepted that it was his son's fault but then informed me that his son had only recently got insured again after a previous crash, and his current premium was currently through the roof. This lead the father into the discussion of whether or not I would be willing to resolve the issue privately (He would pay for the repairs). I said i'd have to go away and think about it however I did have a friend who owned a garage so i'd speak to them regarding repairs and be in touch. I went home, informed the insurance of the incident but told them I hadn't made a decision on a claim as of yet and would call them back on Friday.

Fast forward a couple of days and I'd had my car taken to a couple of garages for estimates on repairs. The damage was going to cost around £600 to repair and the third party was made aware of this. I received a reply from his father (Only contact number I have) stating that the fee would be fine and he'd even went to the bank to withdraw the money and would drop it off that evening (Thursday) - really trying to hurry the repair along despite the fact that i'd never actually agreed to do anything, simply said I would look into the price (I'm a new driver myself so this process is all a bit new to me). By this point, i've started suffering from quite a stiff neck and on/off headaches so I scheduled myself a doctors appointment to get checked over - the doctor advised that I did have whiplash but there wasn't a great deal which could be done apart from painkillers, and if the issue was to persist, attend physio. It was at this stage I decided it would be best to ditch the idea of resolving this privately and instead go through insurance. I told the third party that, explaining that since I was still paying the finance on the car, and since I had suffered injuries, it would be best to go down the insurance route, should I come into any issues down the line. I phoned my insurance up and told them that I would be proceeding with a claim for the repair however I would not be proceeding with a personal injury claim at this time.

This takes us to today, in which i've received a reply from the father stating that he 'now knows the full series of events' and that I aggressively stopped so that the driver would go into the back of me (crash for cash) despite the fact that i've not actually made a whiplash claim. The third party had 2 passengers in his car whereas I had none, and I suspect they've all agreed on the aggressive breaking route, when in reality it was just a case of the other driver going way too fast.

I'm pretty confident that i've got nothing to worry about seen as I was at a complete stop when I was hit and also considering i've got multiple text messages offering to pay me £600 for repair (I certainly wouldn't pay £600 if I didn't think I was in the wrong), but has anyone else experienced this sort of issue / got any advice on what to do next?

Apologies for the novel, and thanks in advance for any help.

dacouch

You have nothing to worry about,.

Leave it to your Insurers to handle.

The witnesses in his car will in effect be ignored by the Insurers as they are not independent.

Being hit from behind is 99.999% always the other driver's fault.

The other driver's Insurers will pay little heed to what the father says / thinks as they will look at the matter on a purely financial basis. As they will lose in a court of law they will be looking to settle your claim without the need to go to court which just adds extra costs for them.

Whiplash symptons are not normally evident at the scene of an accident but normally appear the following day

FutureGirl

Even if you did break 'aggressively and all of a sudden', the other driver is still at fault because he should have kept a safe stopping distance - which he clearly hasn't done. Had he done, he wouldn't have gone into the back of you.