Advice on insurance - car towing a caravan hit my car and didn't stop!

maralions

Hi,

Looking for some advice following an accident I had the other day.

My partner was driving my campervan along a road plenty wide for two vehicles and a car coming in the opposite direction - towing a caravan with extendable mirrors - swerved into our lane and hit my wing mirror with his. This smashed my mirror, hit the door and shattered the driver window inwards onto my partner, cutting his finger. We were really shook up.

We stopped immediately and I tried to flag down the other driver. He didn't stop. I then flagged down a car behind him and they kindly gave me a lift to catch up with him. I took his reg and vehicle description. We caught up with him and flashed, tooted and waved three times and he refused to stop. We all noted that he was missing the extender mirror on the driver side and was swerving in the road. He went up to about 90 miles an hour, at which point we decided it was too dangerous to carry on and turned around.

I reported it to the police and they came out and took a statement. I rang the insurers and they said they'd ring back in the morning. The police traced the vehicle and I got a crime reference number. We collected his mirror from the side of the road and gave it to the police.

I thought it would be cut and dry so I proceeded to claim on his insurance. However, the company wouldn't take me on as I 'didn't have a description of the person driving' (impossible in a hit and run??) and the witnesses didn't see the actual crash and 'are on holiday from Canada', although they observed his broken mirror, failure to stop and erratic driving. The second third party company wouldn't take it on either as I owned another vehicle (parked 200 miles away!!) and therefore didn't need a hire car

I've since heard that the driver has disputed the claim but I don't have any more details. I find it hard to believe that he would do that after failing to stop!

I've been on the phone to them since 10am this morning until about 7. No one would help me. All they could do was send a recovery vehicle out to put my camper in safe storage - we declined this because we have it on a friend's drive and it was more hassle for it to be in a random compound.

I really don't know what to do. I could do the following:

- ring the first company back and push harder - if the driver has disputed then surely they have his identity?
- go through my comprehensive insurance, fork out the money, and try and claim it back
- forget the whole thing, go to a scrap yard and get a new door and wing mirror.

I suppose I have to sum up the likelihood of being successful, the total cost and the implications to my future insurance premiums.

My camper is wrecked. It's a 2003 Convoy so hard to get parts for. The second company said that they would likely scrap it, which I wouldn't want to do

Any advice?? How can he get away with it??

Zorillo

This is why you have comprehensive insurance.

You've been unlucky, but accidents like this without actual witnesses to the event will always be settled 50/50 at best.

As for not stopping, he'd probably argue he feared for his safety, which if you were chasing him up to 89 mph flashing your lights and gesturing, might even be true.

tacpot12

He should be prosecuted for failing to stop after an accident.

If you can repair the damage for something close to your excess, I would do this as there is likely to be an impact on your premium and you will have to declare the accident to the insurer of your other vehicle and so there might be a impact to that premium as well.

It is unfair, but the alternatives are more uncertain as to how they will turn out.

TadleyBaggie

Duplicate thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5895822/advice-on-insurance-car-hit-my-car-and-didnt-stop

forgotmyname

You have the reg number stuck to the rear of a caravan, doesnt mean that vehicle was actually towing it at the time.

Seen many caravans arrive on site with the wrong numberplate fitted. Bought a van and forgot to bring a spare plate or shared with someone and forgot to swap the plates or maybe the van was stolen?

stator

Claim from your own insurance, if the cost of repair justifies it.
Then check with the police and try to subtly encourage them to do their job. They're the only ones who can do anything here. They can serve notice on the registered keeper to provide details of who was driving when the failure to stop offense was comitted.

Korkyb

I wonder if a dashcam might have helped in this instance?