Car insurance claim young driver

lordmountararat

It might be worth your son taking some driving lessons, even though he has passed his test. Two accidents in a couple of weeks display evidence of a lack of anticipation and difficulty in reading the road ahead. Was the first accident a result of him driving too fast?

Reginald74

Lots of accidents, particularly rear end ones, are caused by phone use during driving. I have no idea if that is true in this case, but getting one of the 'black box' policies would stop any chance of this - they detect phone use.  They are not without their issues, mind, but they do tend to reduce premiums which it sounds like your son may need. Hastings do these policies.

[Deleted User]

Reginald74 said:

Lots of accidents, particularly rear end ones, are caused by phone use during driving. I have no idea if that is true in this case, but getting one of the 'black box' policies would stop any chance of this - they detect phone use.  They are not without their issues, mind, but they do tend to reduce premiums which it sounds like your son may need. Hastings do these policies.

Black box devices don't detect phone use, they wouldn't do it anyway as using a phone via something like car bluetooth system is not illegal

DB1904

Reginald74 said:

Lots of accidents, particularly rear end ones, are caused by phone use during driving. I have no idea if that is true in this case, but getting one of the 'black box' policies would stop any chance of this - they detect phone use.  They are not without their issues, mind, but they do tend to reduce premiums which it sounds like your son may need. Hastings do these policies.

Do you have any evidence to back this up?

I can't imagine the insurance companies black boxes being so sophisticated, how would it determine where the signal is coming from.

Sandtree

DB1904 said:

Reginald74 said:

Lots of accidents, particularly rear end ones, are caused by phone use during driving. I have no idea if that is true in this case, but getting one of the 'black box' policies would stop any chance of this - they detect phone use.  They are not without their issues, mind, but they do tend to reduce premiums which it sounds like your son may need. Hastings do these policies.

Do you have any evidence to back this up?

I can't imagine the insurance companies black boxes being so sophisticated, how would it determine where the signal is coming from.

Some blackbox insurance uses the phone itself as the source of data and so its plausable at least on Android that the app could know what else is going on with the phone at the time; not sure if iOS allows apps sufficient access to do the same given Apple's much more closed environment.

Clearly any that are actually based on a black box wouldnt have a clue if a phone was in use or not. 

A_Lert

He must inform his insurer. Two at-fault crashes in a year, he might have to face the reality he'll be priced off the road for a while.

He doesn't have to claim for damage to his own vehicle if he doesn't want to. Indeed it's probably not worth it. If he claims and the insurer chooses to write off the car, his policy ends and he must still pay the entire year's premiums. So he would basically lose nearly a year of insurance cover in this case. It's probably more economical to get it fixed himself - but he must make sure the car is roadworthy and there's no sharp edges.

A_Lert

PS: For that matter, I really hope he did buy a new insurance policy for his new car, and didn't think the old policy would cover it. Because it doesn't.

Reginald74

DB1904 said:

Reginald74 said:

Lots of accidents, particularly rear end ones, are caused by phone use during driving. I have no idea if that is true in this case, but getting one of the 'black box' policies would stop any chance of this - they detect phone use.  They are not without their issues, mind, but they do tend to reduce premiums which it sounds like your son may need. Hastings do these policies.

Do you have any evidence to back this up?

I can't imagine the insurance companies black boxes being so sophisticated, how would it determine where the signal is coming from.

A years'worth of driving after accidentally getting one of these by choosing the cheapest policy from a comparison site. It's finished now, thank God, but it certainly did detect phone use - and accurately. Quite startling. I had to be sure to declare I was the passenger if I used my phone while my wife was driving that car or it went against me - even a short use of the phone would register.  Interestingly it didn't count Google maps navigation.

Reginald74

Sandtree said:

DB1904 said:

Reginald74 said:

Lots of accidents, particularly rear end ones, are caused by phone use during driving. I have no idea if that is true in this case, but getting one of the 'black box' policies would stop any chance of this - they detect phone use.  They are not without their issues, mind, but they do tend to reduce premiums which it sounds like your son may need. Hastings do these policies.

Do you have any evidence to back this up?

I can't imagine the insurance companies black boxes being so sophisticated, how would it determine where the signal is coming from.

Some blackbox insurance uses the phone itself as the source of data and so its plausable at least on Android that the app could know what else is going on with the phone at the time; not sure if iOS allows apps sufficient access to do the same given Apple's much more closed environment.

Clearly any that are actually based on a black box wouldnt have a clue if a phone was in use or not. 

It was a little GPS unit that stuck to the windscreen and communicated with an app on my phone. Gave a score for acceleration, braking, phone use, speed and cornering so must have had an accelerometer in it too.

And it was STARTLINGLY aware of these things! I really couldn't believe it.

Even though I hated it, I also admired the sophistication.

And it was little, box shaped, and black.  Not plumbed into the car in any way though.

GS7

A_Lert said:

PS: For that matter, I really hope he did buy a new insurance policy for his new car, and didn't think the old policy would cover it. Because it doesn't.

Hi, yes he took out a new policy for the new car, so was covered, insurance company has advised as there is another party, and therefore a claim, there is no advantage to paying for fixing his car over scrapping, which does seem a bit of a waste of what was and could still be a good car. I know we could buy it back from insurance and fix, then re MOT, garage has already confirmed no structural damage.  But looked online, by the time we got all the part (in the right colour) and paid for fitting , it's would be around 1200.  And that assumes none of the bolts are damaged, stripped and nothing else needs replaced.

It's all been a bit stressful to be honest and although we could do that, I can't be bothered with the stress/hassle if it doesnt turn out to be as easy a fix as we think.

He's going to do the passplus course and also advanced driving, pass plus is something that can be done over the next few weeks as a refresher for now advanced driving course as a longer term action.