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Advice on insurance - car hit my car and didn't stop!
Hi,
Looking for some advice following an accident I had the other day.
I 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 my lane and hit my wing mirror with his. This smashed my mirror, hit the door and shattered the driver window inwards onto me, cutting my finger. I was really shook up.
I 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 to get away from us, 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. I 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 - I declined this because I 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? I could argue that the witness saw enough of an admission of guilt despite not seeing the actual crash?
- 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??
Looking for some advice following an accident I had the other day.
I 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 my lane and hit my wing mirror with his. This smashed my mirror, hit the door and shattered the driver window inwards onto me, cutting my finger. I was really shook up.
I 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 to get away from us, 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. I 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 - I declined this because I 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? I could argue that the witness saw enough of an admission of guilt despite not seeing the actual crash?
- 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??
0
Comments
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This is when the legal expenses option you took out is worth its weight in gold. Use that to sue them.This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0
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If the insurers right it off buy it back and repair it.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
LDV Convoys aren't rare vehicles. You will find parts for one.0 -
By far the cheapest option is to get a door & mirror, probably less than the excess on your insurance.
Even if he had stopped, he would likely later have sworn that you wandered into him, (backed up by a horde of witnesses no doubt) and you would have got 50:50, so you'd be down half your excess, and still have an at fault claim.I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....
(except air quality and Medical Science
)0 -
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The "legal expenses" option you buy with car insurance is a misnomer in that you cannot use it like this for suing anyoneThis is when the legal expenses option you took out is worth its weight in gold. Use that to sue them.
It is really "uninsured loss recovery" - you can use it to get back your uninsured losses when another party is liable (eg car hire/excesses/injury compensation/loss of earnings)
So if the OP wants to make a claim on , then the legal cover would attempt to get the excess back and pursue compensation for the injury caused.0 -
The "legal expenses" option you buy with car insurance is a misnomer in that you cannot use it like this for suing anyone
It is really "uninsured loss recovery" - you can use it to get back your uninsured losses when another party is liable (eg car hire/excesses/injury compensation/loss of earnings)
So if the OP wants to make a claim on , then the legal cover would attempt to get the excess back and pursue compensation for the injury caused.
What's a cut to the finger worth these days?0 -
AndyMc..... wrote: »What's a cut to the finger worth these days?
Could be £millions if it's Jeff Beck's plucking finger and he can't pluck properly!0 -
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Could be £millions if it's Jeff Beck's plucking finger and he can't pluck properly!I had to read that several times.
I prefer Bungle's plucking instrument!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc0
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