Ouch

Dont forget its an R19 hitting a car with a more modern design.

I had a similar crash back in 2005.

Pulled out in my 1995 Astra and it was then hit square in the wing by a 1993/1994 Fiesta mk3

The Fiestas front was dented in.

Mine took the brunt and the car wouldnt move afterwards and needed recovery.

Got written off for £1k but had a £400 excess to pay.

Luckily I didnt have no personal injury claims!!!

hope it all gets sorted for you though.

Edited 23 July, 200817 yr by Captain Sisko

Sounds like the insurance co looking for a way to wriggle out of the claim.

Are you employed(and more probably were you on duty at the time of the accident) and if the answer was yes and your policy did not cover commuting/work activities then they could have avoided the claim and just put you through as uninsured.

And if you had any drugs/alcohol the same would probably apply, a clause in most policies does this, especially if the drug (legal) has a warning like: Do not operate heavy machinery/drive etc.

As long as you answered no then I'm sure you'll be fine.

I am covered for social domestic including communting the accident happened when i wouldnt of been at work anyway. I have been off for over a month due to berevment and stress so thats why i answered im not in work at the moment.

Like already stated it seems odd that they asked the question after all what difference would it make.

Anyhow i got the car into a body shop today and its all clear no damage whatsoever got the 4 wheel tracking done and its all spot on.

On the innerside of the bumper where the renault made impact on my front bumper is just a space where the horn siren is and that also works fine. The only thing is the scratches on the bumper and one of the clips that hold it true inline with the front wing is slightly bent.

I got a quote to sort my bumper out including spraying and re-aligning it with the front wing and they quoted £80 + VAT.

Keep plenty of piccies of your car & ask your Insurance co if they want them. It might help proove how light the Impact was & stop any "exagerated" claim on her part. Also tell your Insurance co what the woman said this morning. Then hand it all to your Insurance co & if she contacts you again DONT enter into any conversation, just refer her to your Insurance company, thats what you pay your money for. They will have to settle any claim & they prefer to be in total control of any information exchanged .

Re the £80 quote + vat, that sounds like 70 cash to me

If you havent, report the crash to the police.

People tend to feel better when the police ask them for a statement

If you havent, report the crash to the police.

People tend to feel better when the police ask them for a statement

Thanks for all this guys, as above wouldnt it be to late to report it to the police now? if not i will, I didnt like the fact that she didnt want the police involved.

Thanks again

Nope, still report it. They will then go round to hers to get a statement from her. Many injuries will vanish at this point

Any wittnesses, even if you did say it was your fault, they could substantiate any injuries or lack of.

I might be wrong here but why would you even declare that you have any damage :confused:

Just let the insurance pay out for the 19 and leave yours as it is. If youre that bothered and cant polish most of it out then get it painted. So what if the reinforcement bar is bent or other bits? Does it really matter that much? Its clearly not done anything detrimental to the structural rigidity of the car as it looks fine and the bumper isnt hanging off or anything.

I'd leave it personally but its up to you of course

I didnt like the fact that she didnt want the police involved.

Thanks again

More reason to get them involved, I hit someone once and they didn't want police involvement. I went to police anyway and it transpired that they didn't have insurance :eek: Helped my case a lot, even though I was at fault they shouldn't have been there to hit in the first place so it didn't effect my no claims as my car didn't have much damage I didn't claim and they couldn't

Renault 19 = thin old car with not much weight built to older designs.

Your car = Much more modern design hit at one of it's strongest points.

As for you car, that amount of damage is tiny, so I'd get the bumper off and check for damage and either respray of just polish it out if ith's that minor.

Your insurance will load you less if you don't claim yourself and just the third party does.

That plus if your excess is anything significant you will be able to replace the bumper for less than that.

FWIW now you insurance are involved I'd suggest that you only get whiplash from a rear end or side impact.

If she could drive the car away then obviously some of her stories are crap and I'd press your insurance company to fight your corner a bit as it sounds like she is going for fraud.

Whiplash, massive damage to the car and none to yours... very very suspect.

Have you got her reg plate, I'm just wondering if she has insurance and a valid MOT/Licence.

Having had a bit of a bang in a citroen BX at the front which was of a similar build to the R19 as it's from the same age, it didn't fall apart like this seems to have done.

Just so you know, if you ask your insurance co how much the claim cost and pay them it back IIRC they can't load you for it.

So if total cost of £500 including a payment to shut her up, then pay your ins co £500 and it should be as if you didn't claim

Edited 24 July, 200817 yr by cheezemonkhai
Seen pictures and updated.

now you insurance are involved I'd suggest that you only get whiplash from a rear end or side impact.

If she could drive the car away then obviously some of her stories are crap and I'd press your insurance company to fight your corner a bit as it sounds like she is going for fraud.

Whiplash, massive damage to the car and none to yours... very very suspect.

Have you got her reg plate, I'm just wondering if she has insurance and a valid MOT/Licence.

Cheers for this, i have her reg number and it was on the insurance database as insured as for valid license and mot i dont know.

If i told the police about this now would they do me for not reporting it sooner or driving without due care etc.

A headache - If she does get paid out for the whiplash then i wouldnt be able to pay back my insurance that amount of money but maybe the cost of the r19.

My brother in law also wonders if it already been damaged as my car is untouched compared to hers then when she said her husband had to pull of the side wing and bend in the front bumper just seemed wierd as i checked and nothing was rubbing anything.

I suppose its just the way we are if there is blame then they claim :(

Used cutting polish on my bumper and its come up a lot better the scrapes wernt even as bad as it transpired that it was plastic from the r19 so most of it peeled off so i am happy about that.

What a strong car though the skoda octavia is.

Forgot to mention my inurance wernt even bothered about it when i asked them if they needed the pics of my damage, i wished they could see them.

I would insist on sending them to them via e-mail as i think with that little damage to your car from a side on they will be asking questions about how you destroyed a R19.

Also take some pictures post polishing it out and send them too.

The r19 isn't strong but it shouldn't have fallen to pieces as bad as she is claiming. It sounds like they have enhanced the damage to get the car written off if you ask me and are claiming whiplash too.

You probably can't do much about the whiplash as it's hard to prove, but I had to undergo 9 months of physio from a large shunt and only got what would be deemed a sensible amount by the court. (Circa £2k).

With that little damage to your car, she can't have been going that fast and I would be wanting to see a medical report by a doctor of your choosing or agreed by insurance co's.

Also it would be much easier to proved the other car isn't road worthy than the whiplash.

WRT the police, no you reported it within 7 days and initially thought it would all be fine, but as soon as you found out she was "injured" you reported it to them

WRT the police, no you reported it within 7 days and initially thought it would all be fine, but as soon as you found out she was "injured" you reported it to them

Exactly.

re the police thing, i was t-boned whilst on my bike by some ****** in an imprezza, went to the police station and they said, no one hurt don't worry about it. But if anything comes to light in the next few days come and make a report.

The only exception to this was if it was a hit and run.

Well it looks like she has beaten me to it... The police called round to mine tonight wanting a statement as she has suffered a bad neck injury and has been to the police station to report me.

So they checked my license, mot certificate, road tax...wanted to know what i was doing at the time why i was doing it was i using the car for work at the time of accident, was i towing a trailor and did my car have l plates on at the time :eek::eek::eek:

What the hell is going to come next? Why did they take my license number down...

They said it was normal procedure when ssomeone ha been injured, i explained i offered to ring the police at the time but she declined, They asked me if i accepted liability i said i am not going there as everything is with my insurance now.

I am so stressed out its unreal - Is this because she is putting in a injury claim???

The police looked at my car and i showed them the scrape on the bumper then they asked why am i not getting it repaired if fully comp, i told them that my excess wa more than the cost of me getting it done independantly and that i could live with a scrape on what is a ten year car.

I just hope they dont say she has suffered a brain injury or something overnight and that i will end up in prison.

What a nightmare for such a small prang, even the police who came said they thought there would be more damage to my car. :(

Hang in there mate - it's a hassle and an inconvenience, these things always are. I'd keep up your side of the story and keep pushing how minimal the damage to your car is.

Have you got legal cover included on your policy?

Steve

Hang in there mate - it's a hassle and an inconvenience, these things always are. I'd keep up your side of the story and keep pushing how minimal the damage to your car is.

Have you got legal cover included on your policy?

Steve

Thanks Steve, Yeah I do have legal cover but i am not making any claims - Dont even know what a collision report is?

Thanks again everyone - Do i need to chill out!

Justin

im thinking insurance claim, did you get pictures of her car and yours and at the scene?

I just wondered because it's a very useful fall-back to have, should things detoriate (fingers crossed that they don't!)

You just need to let things take their course without getting too stressed. Not easy I know

Steve

You have legal cover so you have that as backup.

I personally have to say at this point I'd insist all correspondence from this point forward is between the insurance companies.

People like this are why you pay your insurance. You can live with your car how it is for now and then if your insurance co asks you for an excess due to using the legal cover you can decide to do your car through it too.

Don't touch your car and get lots of pictures on a film camera with something like a date in view. Also take your car up an insurance approved body shop and ask for a list of the damage in writing. This may cost you £30 but you can claim this back if you decide to go through the insurance for your car.

FWIW I very much doubt the police could get you for anything serious as there appears to be only circumstantial evidence and that won't stand up in front of any half decent lawyer.

I think they might have been hoping if they give you a little bit of a hard time and do it by the book you might say something that incriminates you and lets them avoid most of the paperwork.

Basically if you are not 100% sure don't say it and then it can't be used against you.

What was the visibility like at the time, did it require lights and was the other driver using them?

What was the speed limit, did you believe she was speeding?

I wonder if her tyres had enough tread on them?

These are all things you should ask your insurance co to confirm her view on it and have an engineer go assess her car for damage. bald tyres on her car means no claim possible as if she had grip she would have stopped etc.

These are also only a couple many things that could mean it isn't 100% your fault. It may be your fault, but it may not be all your fault and you have to leave your insurance to deal with it.

I think the no police thing and the car crumpling like that with such minimal damage to yours are certainly very odd. I mean if she hit you fast enough to smash it right up you'd expect your bumper to be cracked at least or some wing damage.

Edited 24 July, 200817 yr by cheezemonkhai

im thinking insurance claim, did you get pictures of her car and yours and at the scene?

Sadly no pics were taken at the scene i was in shock and it didnt even cross my mind that i had a bloody photo camera phone in my pocket.

I wish i had been more calmer but it was a minor accident and now i wish i got the police there at the time.

If you want a bit of advice from a 30+ years (ex-) Insurance Official - forget it.

The police are required to investigate any RTA where an injury is reported. She has almost certainly had the same advice as yourself about reporting it to them and beat you to it. They are just "following procedure" and as there were apparently no other witnesses or details taken at the time, will simply file and forget it.

As regards any further communication from the TP, simply forward it unanswered to your Insurance company to deal with. They will almost certainly require you to complete a claim form detailing the circumstances of the incident, but otherwise will just get on with dealing with it.

I know it is a major worry to you at the moment, but in reality we deal with thousands of motor claims a year, of all types and degrees of seriousness. We / they are not stupid, and the days of spurious TP personal injury claims being nodded through are long gone. (It used to be known as leakage - claims being settled just to save the hassle of investigating them led to £millions of overpayments)

She is going to have to prove more than a bit of a stiff neck etc.

As regards getting estimates from approved repairers to prove your minimal damage - keep your money in your pocket. If the Insurers want your car examined they will arrange it, probably by one of their own or contracted Motor Engineers. Probably not, as the claim isn't going to be that large anyway - £300 - £500 for the TP's car, £2,000 for whiplash (if proven)

I know it's traumatic for you, but seriously, it's all in a days work for Motor Claims Departments. Don't get too stressed out by it and let the experts sort it out between themselves. They will anyway, irrespective of your feelings.

re the police thing, i was t-boned whilst on my bike by some ****** in an imprezza, went to the police station and they said, no one hurt don't worry about it. But if anything comes to light in the next few days come and make a report.

The only exception to this was if it was a hit and run.

You're neck is always a little tender, hence needing to be reported there and then

police won't care as no one was injured.