advice needed

bmewsd

Hi,

I was involved in an RTA Friday evening. Met a female driver who decided to go the wrong way around a roundabout and put a crimp in my day by crashing into me. Both my son and I were obviously shocked and are both suffering associated pain and discomfort.

She apparently only bought the car on Friday and was lost and confused. The police and ambulance attended and thankfully everyone concerned were walking wounded. Myself and the other driver were both breathalysed at the scene and neither of us had been drinking. and to cap it all, she told the police she was uninsured having only just bought the car and believed she could drive all the way back to central london to take the car home . and get insurance the next day.

I pay for fully comp (protected no claims bonus) but do not have the option of a replacement car.

She's 22, a student with no insurance. All I can see is that I'm going to be seriously out of pocket. My car was 7 years old (i'd owned it from new) and was in excellent condition. I need it for work so will have to now hire a car and see what I can do about replacing.

My insurance includes legal protection and will obviously have to wait for the insurance company to contact me (hopefully tomorrow). I reported the accident to the insurance company Saturday morning.

I've obviously provided details of the other driver and an independent witness (who was also interviewed by the police). The police provided me with address details of the other driver. However, they must have provided the other driver with not only my address details but phone numbers, as she contacted me yesterday by phone on the pre-text of asking how my son and myself were but then leading on to asking questions as to whether I am going to sue or not.

I did tell her that she really shouldn't be calling me and declined to discuss anything with her. I'm surprised the police provided her with those details but maybe this is standard practice?

thats the factual stuff. the question is

what now? Do I wait for the legal protection as part of the insurance to contact me or do I go and discuss with a personal injury lawyer? How on earth am I going to be able to afford a similar car? (probably having to get a credit agreement when my car was owned soley by me). I know that going for any personal injury claim for either myself or my son will be a long process but I have to keep working. She's uninsured and obviously not working. I'm just really fed up! (sorry, it's not meant to be a bleeding heart rant).

any advice or comments most welcome

Barry

fsdss

hi barry

BL??DY un-insured drivers.

i think i am correct in saying that you will have to go through your insurance for all the claim - injury and loss / repair / replace car. they should do all the work for you .

the cps will prosecute for the insurance / any offences, i think you can ask for compo through the court via the officer who dealt with you.


i think its standard practice that the police give you both each others details for insurance purposes.

bmewsd

fsdss wrote: »

hi barry

BL??DY un-insured drivers.

i think i am correct in saying that you will have to go through your insurance for all the claim - injury and loss / repair / replace car. they should do all the work for you .

the cps will prosecute for the insurance / any offences, i think you can ask for compo through the court via the officer who dealt with you.


i think its standard practice that the police give you both each others details for insurance purposes.

Thanks for the prompt reply fsdss. Thought it was standard practice to supply addresses but not phone numbers? I certainly wasn't given hers. Still, that's the least of my problems at the moment. Let's hope the insurance company rings me Monday (or I'll be calling them).

thanks again

[Deleted User]

Sorry to hear about that bmewsd... I've actually just posted a reply to another similar thread; I'll adapt it for this one though...

I was involved in a car accident last October, some burk side shunted me and my car span 180 degrees round.

Things took a nose dive from her onwards, whiplash, car ended up being a write off (my first car, what a way to go!) and the burk was uninsured too!

Since you've got legal cover what I'd suggest is ring your insurers and chase them up - assuming you've already rang them to tell them about the accident? Get yourself down the hospital too; it'll help in the long run seeing a Doc now if you want to claim anything back. It's good the police are involved, that'll only aid your case.

I was covered third party, fire and theft and I later found out with NO legal cover... Hmmm. Not good. Rang a free legal firm mentioned on the police leaflet I got (http://www.accidentlinedirect.co.uk/) - "Accident Line is the only personal injury referral scheme endorsed by The Law Society" They were super helpful, very nice to talk to and basically said check your home contents insurance doesn't cover you. Cut a long story short they did, I was passed onto a company called DAS and they've been great ever since. We're going through the MIB, no other way but hopefully I should be getting pretty much everything back, cost of car, time off work, taxi fares, car towing, even money for painkillers for the whiplash!

What I would say is try to mitigate your expenses e.g. if your car is in storage awaiting to be scrapped see if you can park it, for free, on a friends driveway... Also keep every related receipt as you'll be able to claim it back. I'm claiming back the cost of painkillers!

I wouldn't at the moment bother with personal injury lawyers, the solicitor that takes on your case should be able make a claim for your car AND for any injuries you've sustained. Just make sure you write them down so you can fill in the appropriate forms in months to come. Also make a sketch of the scene. And a description. And take some photos of your car.

Finally regarding a car for you now, not great news I'm afraid... See if your insurers offer a hire car if not you'll be hard pushed at getting money back for hiring a car as they'll see this as an unnecessary expense more times than not. I ended up taking out a loan and getting a new car... Not brilliant I know but it's the only option I had.

Any questions feel free to ask...

bmewsd

Deleted_User wrote: »

Sorry to hear about that bmewsd... I've actually just posted a reply to another similar thread; I'll adapt it for this one though...

I was involved in a car accident last October, some burk side shunted me and my car span 180 degrees round.

Things took a nose dive from her onwards, whiplash, car ended up being a write off (my first car, what a way to go!) and the burk was uninsured too!

Since you've got legal cover what I'd suggest is ring your insurers and chase them up - assuming you've already rang them to tell them about the accident? Get yourself down the hospital too; it'll help in the long run seeing a Doc now if you want to claim anything back. It's good the police are involved, that'll only aid your case.

I was covered third party, fire and theft and I later found out with NO legal cover... Hmmm. Not good. Rang a free legal firm mentioned on the police leaflet I got (http://www.accidentlinedirect.co.uk/) - "Accident Line is the only personal injury referral scheme endorsed by The Law Society" They were super helpful, very nice to talk to and basically said check your home contents insurance doesn't cover you. Cut a long story short they did, I was passed onto a company called DAS and they've been great ever since. We're going through the MIB, no other way but hopefully I should be getting pretty much everything back, cost of car, time off work, taxi fares, car towing, even money for painkillers for the whiplash!

What I would say is try to mitigate your expenses e.g. if your car is in storage awaiting to be scrapped see if you can park it, for free, on a friends driveway... Also keep every related receipt as you'll be able to claim it back. I'm claiming back the cost of painkillers!

I wouldn't at the moment bother with personal injury lawyers, the solicitor that takes on your case should be able make a claim for your car AND for any injuries you've sustained. Just make sure you write them down so you can fill in the appropriate forms in months to come. Also make a sketch of the scene. And a description. And take some photos of your car.

Finally regarding a car for you now, not great news I'm afraid... See if your insurers offer a hire car if not you'll be hard pushed at getting money back for hiring a car as they'll see this as an unnecessary expense more times than not. I ended up taking out a loan and getting a new car... Not brilliant I know but it's the only option I had.

Any questions feel free to ask...

thanks for the reply. I'll be chasing up the insurance company today. unfortunately I have to have a car for work.

bmewsd

well, I've just spoken to the liabilities department of my insurer. They've basically said that if this case goes to MIB then there will be a 300.00 excess on that or that they won't take on cases with less than 300.00 uninsured losses.

As I suspected, it mean's i'll be out of pocket before I start. It's obviously early days and they're still trying to ascertain who is at fault. The bottom line appears to be that going without insurance whilst illegal is more advantageous if you CAN'T afford to pay any money back to anyone you crash into. Somehow, this seems wrong. but what do I know. I'm just your average law abiding tax payer.

gotta love british justice. I'm really at a loss as to what I can do other than to sue the other party which again will cost me. I hope that nobody reading this get's hit by an uninsured driver. You have my sympathies if you do.