Will this damage my insurance claim? 11 September 2022 at 2:06PM in Insurance & life assurance 8 replies 272 views

rickyroma

Last week I had a bad traffic accident on the motorway. With hindsight I should have called the police but my mind was all over the place and we both drove off the motorway to park up and exchange details. I would like to report the other driver to the police for dangerous driving. If the police have access to motorway camera footage of the incident, they will clearly see what a wreckless manoeuvre the other driver did.
Will this harm my claim in any way ( or even help it?) 

user1977

I've never heard of motorway cameras routine recording everything - have you?

I don't see the point in doing this.

Can't see it makes any difference to your insurance claim.

Also, "reckless", not "wreckless".

rickyroma

user1977 said:

I've never heard of motorway cameras routine recording everything - have you?

I don't see the point in doing this.

Can't see it makes any difference to your insurance claim.

Also, "reckless", not "wreckless".

I assumed the footage was archived for situations like this. I could be wrong though. The point in doing it is that another person's dangerous driving neatly killed me and he needs removing from the roads (even if it is only temporarily) 

user1977

rickyroma said:

user1977 said:

I've never heard of motorway cameras routine recording everything - have you?

I don't see the point in doing this.

Can't see it makes any difference to your insurance claim.

Also, "reckless", not "wreckless".

I assumed the footage was archived for situations like this.

I assume it isn't, because it would need too many resources to keep it all and then wade through it every time somebody makes an accusation about another person's driving not being up to scratch (which would usually be pointless anyway as the cameras only cover a fraction of what's going on).

The cameras are primarily for monitoring any problems, live, not keeping an archive.

rigolith

user1977 said:

I've never heard of motorway cameras routine recording everything - have you?

I don't see the point in doing this.

Can't see it makes any difference to your insurance claim.

Also, "reckless", not "wreckless".

The video is almost certainly recorded for a period of time. What that period is I can't say, it may be 24 hours, a week, a month.

Getting hold of it may be difficult too.

Alderbank

My daughter had a bad accident on the motorway due to the dangerous driving of a tanker driver. The police were called and because it happened near an access ramp they were able to call up footage from a nearby camera, in fact they were able to show it to the tanker driver at the scene who then changed his story and admitted guilt.

If it was a bad accident why did you not call the police? That's their job.

DullGreyGuy

Clearly there were no major injuries and in my experience police involvement is likely to be a hindrance rather than a help in most cases as some bright spark will say they want a copy of the police report and these take forever to be purchased and contain nothing of interest when it arrives. 

anotheruser

rigolith said:

user1977 said:

I've never heard of motorway cameras routine recording everything - have you?

I don't see the point in doing this.

Can't see it makes any difference to your insurance claim.

Getting hold of it may be difficult too.

The driver would never "get hold of it" - data protection as it'll have number plates of other people on there.

OP:  If you have the details, their name and insurance company, you can make a complaint at your local police station and they may investigate.  You will not know the outcome.  If there was damage to your vehicle, call their insurance company and make a claim.

But were they driving badly, or was there actually any damage?

More details required.

MalMonroe

rickyroma said:

Last week I had a bad traffic accident on the motorway. With hindsight I should have called the police but my mind was all over the place and we both drove off the motorway to park up and exchange details. I would like to report the other driver to the police for dangerous driving. If the police have access to motorway camera footage of the incident, they will clearly see what a wreckless manoeuvre the other driver did.
Will this harm my claim in any way ( or even help it?) 

You say it was a bad accident but there were obviously no serious injuries and both drivers were still able to drive their vehicles. Otherwise emergency services would have had to be called.

The problem about reporting someone is that the other driver might report you to the police for your reckless driving. And the police will only have your side of the story - and no credible witnesses. Unless of course there is some footage somewhere so the proper authorities can deal with it.

You're better off not trying to report anyone but carrying on with your insurance claim. Insurance companies should be able to ascertain how the accident occurred by reading through the reports submitted by you and the other driver. 

You can certainly voice your concerns on the insurance claim but the police won't just take your word for it, you will need solid evidence. 

A few years ago, I reported a woman for driving erratically round a roundabout and forcing me off it before I'd reached my exit. I was very concerned that she would end up killing someone. My passenger took a note of her registration number and I was naive enough to believe that the police would want to get her off the road asap. 

What actually happened was that on reaching home, I phoned the police to report the incident and ended up being interrogated myself - name, address, car reg, did I have any points on my licence, had I recently been fined for any driving offences, was my vehicle maintained properly, was it taxed and was I insured, etc. I was then given a reference number (not a crime number) and told that I had to present myself, my driving licence and my passport at my nearest police station within the next seven days. If I failed to do so, I would be considered to be in contempt of something or other and could be fined. They didn't say but I realised later that as far as they were concerned, I could have a grudge against the woman so reported her to the police. I doubt they bothered contacting her at all - she could have gone on to cause a major accident elsewhere but I did my best and ended up feeling foolish and as if I'd committed a crime.