Advice pls, husband involved in a car accident

louisehj

Hi I have posted in the car insurance board but only 1 reply so far so thought I would have a go here too.

My husband was involved in a collision yesterday morning and neither of us have had any dealings of this sort before so any advice would be much appreciated!

My husband was on his way to work at 5.40am friday morning. He was stopped at some lights on the entrance to a roundabout. There were 2 lanes, DH was in left lane marked on the road as left and straight on, right lane is marked right and straight on. My husband was going straight on over the roundabout, taking the second exit. Lights go green, DH pulls off and as he does notices a car coming up in the right lane. DH bends to the left to follow the road round and just as he is coming up to the middle of the first exit, the car in the right hand lane drives into DH's lane and hits DH. The force was enough to shunt DH's car up the road into the first exit.
Both cars pulled over. The man driving the other car got out, shouting at DH saying the lane DH was in is left only and DH should have taken first exit. DH replied it is left or straight on. The other driver was saying it was DH's fault. They exchanged details and left.

I rang insurance company and DH's car is booked to go to a garage on monday morning for an estimate of repair. What is worrying DH is that our car is an R reg escort. He feels the repairs will be too much for the insurance company and they will want to write the car off which we dont want.
DH spoke to the liability dept last night, they said if the other driver denies liability they will look to settle 50/50, which means we have £150 excess and lose 2 yrs no claims. DH not happy. We have legal cover on the policy so DH said can we dispute this if he denies liabilty, they said we would have to cover the cost of it ourselves.
Our excess is £250 compulsary as we are 24 and £50 voluntary. Dh is really upset about this, he has never had an accident before and we cant really afford to buy another car.

The damage to DH's car is damaged door strip, right side wing mirrror, right side bumper badly damaged and right light smashed out. The other car had some scratches.

Any advice would be much apprieciated!

Thanks
Louise

photome

Not sure what advice you want.

It looks like it wasnt his fault and you have legal cover, so they should fight the case for you if he denies responsibility.

Did he get picture, witnesses?.

I dont see how the other driver can deny it as he drove into your hubbys car.

louisehj

I suppose whats worrying me the most is the insurance saying they will settle 50/50 cos this guy was adamant DH was in the wrong lane but he wasnt. It seems unfair that even though we have legal cover the insurers say we would have to pay the cost of pursuing it if he denies liabilty and we dont want to settle 50/50

withabix

It's the other driver's fault.

photome

I dont really know what else to say except I wouldnt want to settle 50/50 either and I dont understand why your legal cover wont fight the case for you.

Did he get pics/witnesses?

maybe it is time to go to citizens advice.

Is the other driver definitely not admitting fault

louisehj

The other driver was fuming with DH at the time so I dont think he will admit liabilty. DH rang the dept dealing with liability last night, they said case should be assigned to someone today and they will be in touch when they hear from the other mans insurers.

No witnesses stopped, 2 cars drove by. A lady my husband works with was on her way to work and passed my husband just after the accident (she didnt realise it was him). She saw my husbands car had been shunted to the left onto the first exit and the other car to the right of my husband (neither had got out, the accident had just happened).

louisehj

DH has got pics of his car and we can take pics of the area and road markings.

Shoshannah

It sounds like it wasn't his fault and hopefully if you have legal cover it can be sorted out.

I wouldn't be too hopeful regarding the insurance repairs, they might write the Escort off. The damage doesn't sound too severe but you never really know with insurance companies. As the driver of an older car myself (J-reg Ford Sierra) I find insurance somewhat pointless from my point of view; I have insurance to protect any third parties and because it's the law, but it has never benefitted me personally.

Last November a woman reversed into my car, destroying the front wing.She didn't want to go through insurance which suited me fine - any insurance company (short of a Classic policy perhaps) would have written off my car for the dented wing and I would have lost it. The value of the car is £400, this would not have covered a decent wing repair even if I wrote off the car and bought it back.

My previous Sierra was also written off in an accident which was not my fault, and to date I have not recieved a penny from the other party's insurance company.

A friend had her Sierra written off for a smashed headlight and a small dent in the wing.

If the insurance company insist on writing an otherwise perfect car off, you could try and accept the payout, secure the salvage rights and have it repaired using the payout. If it's a Cat C write-off (sounds as though it is) it will need to pass a VIC (Vehicle Identity Check) before it can be put back on the road but assuming everything is above board with the vehicle's identity then this shouldn't pose a problem.

If my car had the same damage done to it I would repair it myself, you can get the parts from a scrapyard for a few quid and get some paint from a motoring outlet.

Hope this is of some vague help.

Shosh

cyclonebri1

Google earth can be a god send here. From what you say, and the fact that he was shunted up the 1st exit, I feel he is in no way to blame.

You state the road was signed. I assume white paint. Google map will show this clearly.

Copy and send.

No way accept any 50/50 offer if you were in the right, this stuff sickens me

Shoshannah

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Google earth can be a god send here. From what you say, and the fact that he was shunted up the 1st exit, I feel he is in no way to blame.

You state the road was signed. I assume white paint. Google map will show this clearly.

Copy and send.

No way accept any 50/50 offer if you were in the right, this stuff sickens me

I agree. The woman who ran into my car initially agreed to pay the £600 for repairs. Then she backtracked (despite a verbal agreement) and said she would only pay £300. I managed to get the quote down to £500 and to push her up to £400, which was hard for me as I am not a very confrontational person, and had to cover the remaining £100 myself.

It was that or lose an otherwise reliable, well looked-after car. :rolleyes:

li'l_p

Get onto a solicitor and let them deal with it. If it's not your husbands fault then it doesn't have to be dealt with under his insurance - report it to them but tell them that you are not making a claim. he will be able to submit proof from his solicitors that the claim was settled in his favour at a later stage to protect his no claims, etc.

There should be plenty of solicitors in your local area - if you look in the yellow pages there should be plenty of 'no win, no fee' type ads. The solicitor will sort everything out for you. If the claim gets into dispute over who was to blame, they can arrange for specialist engineers to compile a locus report which is in it's simplest form a diagram of the road, photos and measurements, and they will provide expert opinion on who was to blame based on markings, speed limits, positions, viewpoints, etc. These are the people that will also assess the damage to your car and assess it's value etc for the repair or total loss settlement figure to be claimed from the other party.

The solicitors will liaise with the other party's insurers and take care of everything. You husband may be sent for a medical a few months down the line so make sure he keeps a diary of any significant problems now as he may need to recall them at a later stage. (flashbacks, early days pain, sleeplessness, etc).

Try not to worry about it too much though, just be thankful he wasn't seriously hurt and accept that these things happen to many people every single day and some people aren't so lucky. I used to work for an motor assessors, hence my knowledge and I have had a few non-fault accidents myself.

Good luck and hope it all works out in the end.