HGV accident - They did not stop

FrightenedRabbit

My partner was involved in an accident with an HGV at a roundabout. The HGV attempted to change lanes, not seeing my partners car and hit the left side of car before realising they hit something and drove away. My partner took a picture of the HGV (Slovakia plates), reported to police and insurance, neither of whom have been able to trace the vehicle. From an insurance stand point where does that leave my partner? At fault accident, pay all excess? Is there no avenues to trace the vehicle/driver?

DullGreyGuy

If its on Slovakian plates then your insurers will contact the MIB who will contact the Slovakian equivalent of the MIB who will identify the insurer of the vehicle, the policy number and their UK representatives.

Your insurers will then make the claim against the UK representatives who may have delegated authority to deal with the claim or may be nothing more than a mailbox and translation service with everything going to Slovakia for decisions. 

Assuming your partner has comprehensive insurance then they'd claim on their insurance and pay their excess as with any claim and the insurer would then attempt the recovery as above. Obviously there is a chance that the vehicle was uninsured or that it had false plates or the driver denies the accident was their fault/happened in which case it then remains a "fault" claim. If they get reimbursed then its a "non-fault" claim

daveyjp

As it was on a roundabout with both vehicles moving (and as the left side of the car was hit they were driving in the HGV blindspot, never a good idea on a roundabout, hold back) proving the other party was 100% responsible would be nigh on impossible, so each party are to blame.

Your partner therefore needs to claim on their own imsurance as it is unlikely the police will spend time on the incident.

FrightenedRabbit

The roundabout has traffic lights on it. Partner had stopped at red light (inner lane of 3 lane roundabout), HGV then pulled up in middle lane and as they pulled away then attempted to switch to inner lane. There was nowhere to go or hold back. Agree its a difficult one to apportion blame but terribly unfair in this circumstance.