Accident- fault in dispute

yellow218 · 11 February 2018 at 10:46AM

Hubby had an accident on his motorbike in November. Bike now fixed, and no lasting injury thankfully.

Insurance involved, they asked for a statement of events which hubby very thoroughly provided within days of the accident, along with photos. Having gone through it with him, with the highway code book in hand, it seems very obvious that the car driver was at fault- she simply didn't look and then pulled out into his path. Nice hubby shaped dent in her car.

His insurance team agree and say they are dealing with it as a non-fault claim and are pursuing the other parties insurance, but they are disputing this.
However, the third party has still not provided a statement to her insurance company. Is there a time frame for when she must do so (surely by now, it's not a fresh memory, so how reliable is her statement? To be honest, given that she is dragging her feet about it, i feel she knows she was in the wrong but wont admit it). It must feel horrible to hit a biker, but thankfully he is ok, and surely dragging out this process will make it worse.

As mentioned, bike now fixed. We have had to pay the excess directly to the company that fixed it, we assume hubbys insurance company have had to pay the rest. Therefore both us and insurance company are out of pocket.

Question is. What happens now? We have both had previous accidents when the third party was at fault and admitted to it, pretty easy to resolve. But we have no experience of disputed fault claims. What usually happens? Are there set deadlines for things?

Obviously we want to be able to claim back our expenses (excess for bike fix, new helmet, time off work for injury), but also concerned about renewal? Will we have to stay with the same company if the claim is not closed, or can we do what we always do- compare and move to another insurer if we wanted/ cheaper?

Thank you

dacouch · 11 February 2018 at 11:27AM

I assume your husband was filtering along the outside of traffic and the third party turned right across your husband.

If this is the case it is not neccessarily a clear cut totally none fault accident. There is case law that apportions blame to both parties. This would mean your husband and the other party can each recover the percentage apportioned from the other party.

However this is subject to the exact details of the accident.

If your husband does not have a witness, the other party will almost certainly state they were indicating to turn right

yellow218 · 11 February 2018 at 12:19PM

The reason for the post was not to get other opinions for who is at fault, however I guess that's inevitable on a forum.... yes he was filtering past a queue of stationary traffic. Car pulled out of the queue of traffic onto the other side of the road with the attempt to 'queue jump' four or five cars and carry on her journey down a road to the right. According to the highway code, giving an indication does not give right of way, nor negate the need to check mirrors and blind spot. Had she done so she would have seen hubby on his bike and not pulled out of the traffic. Also, (although i'm sure we all wish we could, or some may have done so), pretty sure queue jumping in a car as she had intended is not compliant with the highway code. Motorbikes filtering past stationary traffic at low speeds is legal in the uk.

That being said, if it is deemed joint responsibility (or even hubby's fault) then we will accept that, learn from it and move on. It is the current situation of it being unresolved, and the third party not responding to their insurance company, that is frustrating. We would like more clarity as to how and when it will be resolved, and how this impacts how we renew insurance.

Who decides who is at fault, surely not the insurance companies who have a financial interest in their client not being at fault? Anyone had experience of this?

Warwick_Hunt · 11 February 2018 at 12:28PM

He was filtering, has the car turned right across his path or has he over taken a vehicle turning right?

yellow218 · 11 February 2018 at 12:34PM

Warwick. Hubby was filtering past a queue of traffic. Car was in the queue of traffic, she intended to move out (onto the other side of road) to skip four or five cars, and then to turn right. She hit hubby as he was filtering past whilst she was in the queue of traffic and pulled out into his path.

glentoran99 · 11 February 2018 at 12:38PM

dacouch wrote: »

I assume your husband was filtering along the outside of traffic and the third party turned right across your husband.

If this is the case it is not neccessarily a clear cut totally none fault accident. There is case law that apportions blame to both parties. This would mean your husband and the other party can each recover the percentage apportioned from the other party.

However this is subject to the exact details of the accident.

If your husband does not have a witness, the other party will almost certainly state they were indicating to turn right

In 2006, a judge ruled in the case of Davis vs Shrogin that, “a filtering motorcyclist passing stationary or very slow-moving traffic could not be to blame if a collision occurred if the rider had no chance to take avoiding action.”

Warwick_Hunt · 11 February 2018 at 12:48PM

glentoran99 wrote: »

In 2006, a judge ruled in the case of Davis vs Shrogin that, “a filtering motorcyclist passing stationary or very slow-moving traffic could not be to blame if a collision occurred if the rider had no chance to take avoiding action.”

And in 2007 a judge ruled against the motor cyclist. Farley v Buckley.

glentoran99 · 11 February 2018 at 12:51PM

Warwick_Hunt wrote: »

And in 2007 a judge ruled against the motor cyclist. Farley v Buckley.

totally different situation to the one described by the OP, the one you mentioned was not filtering through stationary or slow moving traffic, instead impatiently sped passed a lorry trying to turn

yellow218 · 11 February 2018 at 12:52PM

So it looks like it could go either way then.

And I guess you!!!8217;ve answered my other question as to who decides: a judge.

This could take a while then I guess. Does that mean we have to stick with the current insurers, or can we move at renewal if we find a better quote elsewhere?

ratrace · 11 February 2018 at 12:55PM

As a keen off road rider i highly recommend that your OH invests in a dash/helmet camera that can be mounted on his helmet such as a go pro etc....

Its pretty much normal to have one now, as there are so many bad/impatient drivers out there some insurance companys even offer a discount i you have one

People are just in an unnecessary rush to get to the next traffic light, I see this all the time and it is totally unnecessary

I dont know who was in the right or wrong in your case but what I would say is that once the accident occurred she had to wait at the scene anyway for a while so what was the point in trying to save a few mins queue jumping

there is a chap on YouTube I follow who has some great videos about bike and he also has a great camera setup, show your hubby his channel he will really like it if he is into bikes its

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMissendenFlyer/videos

hope this helps

yellow218 · 11 February 2018 at 12:55PM

glentoran99 wrote: »

In 2006, a judge ruled in the case of Davis vs Shrogin that, “a filtering motorcyclist passing stationary or very slow-moving traffic could not be to blame if a collision occurred if the rider had no chance to take avoiding action.”

Thanks. Hubby had no chance to avoid it. He was hit by the front drivers side wing of the car. He was well over half way in passing her when she pulled out. Car basically came at him sideways. If he had known it was going to happen he could have accelerated away quickly, but her timing of pulling out meant he didn’t know it was happening until he was hit.

Accident- fault in dispute

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