Car accident - slipped in snow/ice

vivedi

Hi all,

This morning on my way to work, I was involved in a small accident. Coming up to a roundabout the car in front of me stopped due to traffic. I braked as well but unfortunately my brakes locked up and I went into his back. It had been snowing heavily and this bit of the road wasn't cleared or gritted unfortunately. It was a very low speed accident as I was already going quite slow. Luckily no damage apart from the cars especially as I am 20 weeks pregnant.
I know I am considered at fault because I went into the back of the other car. The other car was a fairly old car actually driven by a colleague of mine.

We have agreed to get estimates for the damage (most likely a new bumper for him as it cracked at the top where it attaches to the car, not sure about whether I will need a new bumper, as it popped out but I popped it back in and it doesn't look damaged to me but something may still be broken) and I will then decide whether to claim it through insurance or not.

However, as I understand it, regardless of whether I claim or not, I must tell my insurance of this accident. I have 2 years NCB and do have NCB protection.

The advice I have had is "don't bother telling your insurance" or "only tell insurance if you're planning to claim" but that doesn't sit right with me as I think it would break my contract with the insurance, wouldn't it?

So I tell them about the accident, but that will mean my premium will go up regardless of whether I claim or not, right? And if I claim, I would keep my NCB anyway as it's protected.

Given that my premium would go up regardless and my NCB is protected, should I even consider paying for the repairs myself?

Regardless, should I call my insurance company this afternoon before I leave work or can it wait until I am home?

It may also be worth mentioning that my car insurance is up for renewal in 30 days so presumably if I do claim it on the insurance I would want to have it all resolved quickly so I am not stuck with my current insurance provider if I don't want to.

Also potentially worth mentioning, I do have a dashcam in the car which I will evaluate whether it caught the accident (I noticed later the camera was pointing up but it may be that it was the accident that caused it to move), but it should show the poor road conditions and that I was driving slowly.

This is the first car accident I have been involved in so I am not really sure what is the best thing to do. I would appreciate some advice.

Thanks in advance.

margaretx9

Sorry to hear about the accident. You were at fault sadly – as you went into the back of him. So you really should notify your insurer - within 24 hours (see what your policy says).

Doing these things privately all depends on the third party being honest. They may be – or they may get the cash off you for a repair and claim anyway. So you lose your cash and potentially get more problems/claims latter.

Whether you claim for damage to your car is another matter – but your insurers need to know as you damaged another car. And if they report it and you don't - not good.

Be grateful you were not injured – or the other driver – but you need to report the incident

Quentin

If you let your insurance deal with this then there's no possibility that this will be settled within 30 days!

It's unlikely you only have 24 hours to report the incident. See the total cost of the damage first!!

margaretx9

Quentin wrote: »

If you let your insurance deal with this then there's no possibility that this will be settled within 30 days!

It's unlikely you only have 24 hours to report the incident. See the total cost of the damage first!!

My insurer’s policy document states this

‘If you have an accident or need to make a claim call us immediately.’

And

ALL ACCIDENTS OR INCIDENTS MUST BE REPORTED WITHIN 48 HOURS, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT CLAIMING

If no other vehicle was involved – fine – but in this case there was another vehicle and the OP was at fault.

You don’t need to claim – but if you don’t report the accident and the (non fault) third party reports it to his insurers and makes a claim via insurers this could cause issues down the line if your insurers find out third hand.

vivedi

Thanks. I know I need to report it to my insurance. I called them a couple of hours ago and they said it would take about 20 minutes to go through the report form and asked if I had the time to do that then. I said I was at work so if it was ok with them I’d call them back later when I’m home. They said no problem. So I don’t think it’s a problem I didn’t call them immediately but I know I need to tell them. Although I got the impression my coworkers have been in multiple accidents and never done this - Regardless, I would rather do the right thing where I know this can’t get me in trouble later.

What I was mainly wondering is whether it makes sense not to make a claim if I have protected NCB given that my premium will go up regardless?

BooJewels

I don't know much about car insurance as I don't drive, but my thinking would be to ensure that you do everything correctly now, to protect yourself long-term.

Whilst the other party might be being reasonable about it today, that might well change over time and if they suddenly decide to put in a later claim for an injury or something, what you say and put on record now, may save you heartache down the road.

I would also be tempted to say to the other party something like "I decided to ensure everything was done properly and have reported the incident to my insurers with a full statement about what happened, including sending them my dash cam footage."

I'd certainly look at your camera footage and save the file safely if it shows the incident - even if doesn't show ideal framing. You may see if the driver of the car in front was jolted by the incident etc. as they may subsequently fancy the idea of a compensation claim - once family members, blokes down the pub etc, set that idea in motion.

Protect yourself first and foremost by just being honest and up-front. Not doing so may be more costly in other ways.

Glad that you and the bump are okay - that's the most important thing.

vivedi

Thanks. I know what you’re saying regarding protecting myself in the long term. But it was a coworker who was the other party to the accident, not a stranger - our desks are right next to each other - and he was very nice about it (his first question was “are you ok?”) so I don’t think he’d be horrible about it. But yeah, you never know.

I just reviewed the dash cam footage and it was the accident that moved the camera however you can still see out the front camera after the accident. It’s just the rearward facing camera that only shows part of the front and rear seat after it was jolted.

From the dash cam which shows the speed (with a little delay as it’s based on GPS) it looks like I was going about 16-18mph (the road has a 40mph limit). I’ve saved the footage on my computer now (will back up as well) and will provide it to my insurance company if I decide to make a claim.

I already had a rough quote for my bumper based on pictures and they said it looks like the bumper might only need to be removed and refitted but I think my co-worker’s bumper will need to be replaced so that will be more expensive.