What to do after a single vehicle accident

rocco1504

Hi
My 22 yr old son had an accident the other night, no one else was involved, he actually fell asleep momentarily and hit a sign. 
 The police attended, breathalysed him which he passed no problems. 
 He's told me that he's not been charged with anything, the car was taken to storage and the police dropped him off at a place to be picked up by his girlfriend, he said that they didn't seem very bothered and told him to be more careful. 
 Now, as the car was an old vehicle not worth very much, a couple of people have said that he shouldn't make a claim and just tell the insurance that the car has a mechanical fault that is not economical to repair, as if he's truthful it will make his insurance go up again, and that it will be listed on his insurance records, and the thing is, he's not a bad driver, and sticks to the rules. 
 As his father, I'm normally one for doing everything by the book, but I feel that it's a bit rough that his insurance will go to a silly amount even when he's not making a claim and will get nothing for the car. 

 My question is what would happen if we just try to wing it and not tell the insurance about the accident ??.
 I know it's technically illegal, which I don't like, but I'm not sure what to do. 
 Any sensible advice would be a great help. 

swingaloo

If he does not declare it then any future insurance will be invalid.

Then he may even find himself unable to find a company willing to insure insure him again as he will have committed fraud.
Just noticed you say 'It will make his insurance go up again', is that because he has previously had to claim?

ButterCheese

It is a legal requirement to make a claim and to be honest to the insurer about what happened.  Claiming that it had a mechanical fault is insurance fraud.  Whether your son has been a good driver before this happened is irrelevant.  

I'm not being rude but the fact that he fell asleep whilst driving shows that actually he is not a good and responsible driver.  The right thing to do would have been to not drive if tired, or to pull over and rest when starting to feel tired.  You don't just fall asleep with no warning.  And this is why his insurance will go up, because it's based on risk, and if he's done it once the insurers quite reasonably will assume he might do it again.  

MyRealNameToo

rocco1504 said:

Hi
My 22 yr old son had an accident the other night, no one else was involved, he actually fell asleep momentarily and hit a sign. 
 The police attended, breathalysed him which he passed no problems. 
 He's told me that he's not been charged with anything, the car was taken to storage and the police dropped him off at a place to be picked up by his girlfriend, he said that they didn't seem very bothered and told him to be more careful. 
 Now, as the car was an old vehicle not worth very much, a couple of people have said that he shouldn't make a claim and just tell the insurance that the car has a mechanical fault that is not economical to repair, as if he's truthful it will make his insurance go up again, and that it will be listed on his insurance records, and the thing is, he's not a bad driver, and sticks to the rules. 
 As his father, I'm normally one for doing everything by the book, but I feel that it's a bit rough that his insurance will go to a silly amount even when he's not making a claim and will get nothing for the car. 

 My question is what would happen if we just try to wing it and not tell the insurance about the accident ??.
 I know it's technically illegal, which I don't like, but I'm not sure what to do. 
 Any sensible advice would be a great help. 

Police are involved and so they may pass the details onto the owner of the sign. Assuming its a council or the highways agency they normally fix the sign and 12-18 months later a bill is sent to your insurance company which is always vastly more than you'd imagine fixing street furniture would cost. 

Ultimately its your choice if you want to commit fraud or not however the risks are notably higher in this case than if you had hit your own gatepost or such where there is truly no third party and no police record. The life long impact of fraud will be much greater than the 3-5 year impact of notifying of an incident. 

Whos name is the policy in? Obvs if its in one of your names with him as a named driver then both the policyholder and he could get fraud markers 

Ayr_Rage

If the police attended and he hit a council sign then the council may well have been advised and come after him or his insurer for any damages.

If he doesn't report the accident and is subsequently found out then his insurance will likely be cancelled on the spot, which he will have to declare in future and as a young driver may make getting insurance very expensive or even impossible.

You know in your mind what he should be doing.

rocco1504

Yeah, that's what I thought would be the case, I just wanted some opinions. 
 Do you think his insurance will go up much again, it's a crying shame, as I say he's a really sensible driver, and his insurance has only recently gone down from the nearly £4000 he was paying last year. 
 He'd been working really hard in the days previous and just wanted to get home from seeing the girlfriend. 

paul_c123

The problem is, there is third party damage (the sign) and the police were there. So he needs to pay for that, and given the likely costs involved, insurance is probably the best route.

If not a claim, he'd still need to declare the accident. Not sure what the implications of policy cost would be for those two different scenarios.

XRS200

He should tell the truth.

You say he's not a bad driver but he fell asleep at the wheel. He is very lucky it was only a sign he hit.

sheramber

He may already be incurring towing and storage charges. 

rocco1504

Yeah, that's the 1st thing I was terrified that he'd hurt himself, and as you say, he's extremely lucky. 
 He's not mentioned anything about the sign so I don't know if he damaged it or not. 

 I've always told my boys that the truth is the best way, it's just rotten that he's going to get penalised for this, but that's life i suppose. 

Car_54

ButterCheese said:

It is a legal requirement to make a claim 

It isn't, but he has to inform them.

In this case, the owner of the sign will almost certainly make a claim.