Delivery van wouldn't provide name after accident

Loose_Canon

Hi,
On seeing a delivery van approaching my partner stopped on a narrow country road . The van decided to proceed and badly scraped the side of our stationary car. The driver stopped but refused to give his name but admitted they hit our car. Even saying as much when on the phone to their depot manager. Eventually we had to complete an online claim form via their own claims assessors with details, estimates,  photographs of our car, their van and registration. Our repair estimate is approximately £2700.
Last week they came back and refused any liability. Basically our word against theirs,  there was no witness or dashcam and said we should make our own insurance claim.
Should I pay myself or make a claim given our premium will no doubt increase on that car and as a named driver on another?
We have fully comprehensive insurance with protected NCD.
Everything I read says the driver can not refuse to give their name. He covered his name tag and said it was company policy.  Is that correct?

Any advice appreciated 

Thanks 

user1977

Loose_Canon said:

Everything I read says the driver can not refuse to give their name. He covered his name tag and said it was company policy.  Is that correct?

We don’t know! You haven’t told us who the company is…

I would just pursue via your insurers. You’d have to declare the incident on renewal no matter how it is resolved anyway.

400ixl

Claim through your own insurance. Its what you pay them for.

You have to declare it anyway.

TonyMMM

He was required to give you his name and address ( which could be a work address), the name and address of the vehicle owner and the vehicle registration mark. -   s170(2) Road Traffic Act 1988.

By not doing so he was required to report the accident to police within 24hrs.

Aretnap

Company policy is neither here nor there. The law requires him to give his name and address if asked, and by not doing so he commits an offence punishable (in theory) by up to six months in prison. What his boss tells him doesn't override his responsibilities under the Road Traffic Act.

In principle you could report it to the police but they're unlikely to do very much and having his name would not be of much help if you're already in touch with his company and insurers.

Ultimately you don't have many rights when trying to make a claim as a third party. You can't force the company or its insurers to deal with you, other than by starting a court claim in which the onus would be on you to prove that the van driver was to blame for the accident.

Assuming you don't want to do that you can either shrug and pay for the repairs yourself, or make a claim on your own policy and let your insurers worry about chasing the other side for the costs. If he's telling a different story about how it happened than you are and there are no independent witnesses or other objective evidence that you were stationary then there's a high chance that it will end up as a 50/50 claim, as scrapes on narrow country lanes have a tendency to do. This would mean a fault claim for insurance purposes and would have an effect on your renewal premium - but probably not anything like as much as £2700 unless you are already a high risk driver with expensive insurance.

Loose_Canon

Thanks all for your help.
I think we'll make a claim .

My partner had already told the insurance company on the day. 
After that the insurance company gave us three options.  Approach the delivery company, which we tried and have been subsequently rejected,  go through one of those credit hire and repair companies or make a claim.