driving down a narrow london street the other night saw two cars coming towards me, as it was narrow I stopped, as did the second of the two advancing cars.

the one closest inexplicably accelerated and I knew he was going to collide with me, which 3-4 seconds later he duly did - grazing the drivers side of my octy from front door to petrol cap with a strong point of impact in the sill.

driver got out, raving, seemed to be under the influence of something, I called the police who werent interested as no one hurt, we exchanged insurance details ( to my surprise he was insured) (v old, battered golf). he then drove off at great speed, burning rubber, yelling wildly.

reported all this to my insurers, admiral, then the next day when I spoke to them again they tell me that his account totally at odds with mine, he says that I pushed him off the road and into another car ( I am sure there were only our two cars involved), and they are moving towards the accidents responsibilty being shared between us ( already less than 12 hours later with no written statements given).

anyone have any experience of dealing with insurers over stuff like this, things they are taking into account etc? seems to me they just want to settle it quick so as not to waste man hours on investigating further.

there were no witnesses, unfortuntely. I have 9 yrs protected no claims for what its worth - all your thoughts on this greatfully received.

ed

bit late mate but didn't you get the deatails from the second car that stopped and who must have seen the incident?

Did the chap in the 2nd advancing car witness the whole thing? Sadly it sounds like the accident is just your word against the person who hit you's so you may be forced to settle for a 50:50 blame :(

Chris

yes i know, i know,i've ben kicking muself for the same thing but the second car turned and drove off once he saw us blocking the road and I was bit pre-occupied dealing with the clearly enraged, over excited and apparently loopy driver of the other car

With no independent witnesses you will end up being held 50% to blame unless you can prove that other drivers account is impossible due to the damage or road layout.

Insurance companies don't struggle too hard to place blame accurately as they can remove two people's NCB if they decide it's 50-50 instead of just one

SWMBO has had a very similar experience.

She was driving down a single track country lane and saw a car coming around a sharp corner in the opposite direction, so she stopped.

Unfortunately the other car was going a bit too quick and could not stop in time, so drove into stationary SWMBO head on.!:eek:

At the time he said he was probably going a bit quick and unable to stop in time and was his fault.

A few days later, insurance tell SWMBO that he is now saying that he was not at fault and the she was moving too.!

Anyhow, SWMBO has Angle Assist, who have been great and although it has now been 6 months, the other driver has now backed down and admitted liability.

I think that the Insurance companies just want an easy life and want to settle 50:50, so that they don't have to do any work.

Angle Assist have been great, they gave us a Golf GT TDI while her Impreza was off the road. Believe it or not, the car rental for the month it took to fix the Impreza was

what exactly is angle assist ? and is this different from the legal expenses cover i already have ?

Sorry, Angle Assist is the name of the 'legal cover' company.

A number of times SWMBO wanted to give in, but I reassured her that she was in the right, so should stick at it.

It has been a bit stressful, especial when the other drivers insurance company kept sending letters threatening court action.

Our broker (best mate from school ) told us that these letters are standard issue and to ignore them, they are sent to get you to cave in. *******s :thumbdwn:

One thing that SWIMBO did at the time of the accident was to use the other drivers mobile phone to call me, as her phone would not get reception. This meant that I had his number in my phones memory. Gave us a bit of a safety net if it turned out a bit dodgy.

The other thing that she would do now, would be to take pictures of both cars at the scene of the accident and a picture of the other driver.

You can't be too careful nowadays.

I had a similar thing a couple of years ago where i was sat at some traffic lights when a concrete wagon took a liking to the back of my car. My car was written off his had a smashed headlight.

Luckily he admitted liabilityand i was able to claim against his insurance, but should he have turned around after and said im not claiming and i dont admit liabtliy, i would not have been able to get payed out for my car, and i would have lost my no claims.

After 9 months of wrangaling with insurance companies and the other party, they admited liabilty to there insurance company and i got paid out. I was lucky that it was one of the few occasions i had a second car, so imediatly after the accident i just transfered my policy to my other car.

If you took any pictures at the scene, then these may help you. They made all the differance for me, especially as i was carefult to ensure i got a good picture of the driver in my shot.

That day i really thanked god for the camera phone i had insisted on buying against my mum, who thought it was a waste of money!

Insurers will inevitably look for a 50/50 settlement when the circumstances are unclear and there are no independent witnesses. Ultimately, this reduces the costs to consumers. However, if the policyholder is insistent then we do back them up as far as possible.

If you are adamant that you were not to blame, then you have every right to pursue in full, in all likelihood to an arbitration hearing in this case (limited to property damage up to £5000) and the Judge (or QC in an arbitration hearing) will decided based upon both the facts of the case and credibility of the parties concerned. It is not automatically a 50/50 if you give good evidence.

It is important that you take photographs of the damage. A forensic engineer may be able to prove categorically how the accident occurred and more importantly that another party was not involved (you should insist upon photos of the third party's damage as soon as possible. If you can refute the third vehicle scenario you are weakening their credibility. If you have his address, pop round with a digital camera).

Jon.

I went the next day and took pictures of the car and the accident sight, which I guess must have helped our claim.

This may or may not help but I have a sort of check list incase I have another crash, as these horror stories are all too common unfortunatly. Its a colaboration that I made from information that is vital when an accident occurs and accounts for minor to major accidents just to remind me not to trust young men that say that they have to go and rush off to pick up thier sweet old granny when they are infact not insured.

Here it is, and please feel free to print a copy off for yourselves:

---------------------------------------

Car Accident Sheet

General Accident

If I'd seen this 6 months ago, I would have said that you are a bit sad. :eek:

But, having it happend to us, I think I'm going to print that list off, and have a copy in mine and SWMBO's car.

If I'd seen this 6 months ago, I would have said that you are a bit sad. :eek:

But, having it happend to us, I think I'm going to print that list off, and have a copy in mine and SWMBO's car.

I thought I was a bit sad when I did it as it took me about 2 hours to find every ounce of info I could and make it idiot proof (seeing as I will use it)!

Even down to the witness statement area , where you can fill in any witness details should they need to be contacted

Hopefully no one will need it but like you said, its good to have in an accident, as you wont be thinking straight and may not get all the details you need.

I wonder why insurance companies don't supply people with such a sheet.

It's almost as if they want people involved in an accident, not to get all the information, so that they can simply pass off a claim as 50:50.

I wonder why insurance companies don't supply people with such a sheet.

It's almost as if they want people involved in an accident, not to get all the information, so that they can simply pass off a claim as 50:50.

They used to and IIRC some still do. However, most people don't bother with them when they have an accident.

They are commonly used abroad (language barrier) and do help to reduce disputed cases.

My insurance company send out with european cover a standard form for an accident which has spaces for information like this ,names addresses drawing of accident .

I keep one in each car and it has a carbon copy to give to the other driver and if they dont understand english their countrys version of the form has all the boxes for information in the same place so you can look at your form and know where to put information on their version .

FWIW I was very cross when my insurance company wanted to settle 50:50 as it clearly IMO was not my fault. As someone later pointed out, if the "wrong" party is happy to settle with 50 percent of the blame, then clearly they accept some blame, so how come only 50%?

I went along with it at the time as the

I wonder why insurance companies don't supply people with such a sheet.

Interestingly Ford include some of these sheets in the back of my handbook folder. I guess they expect Mondeo drivers to crash more

Chris

well thank you all for your advice on this one.

the other guys insurance company has admitted liability although the other drive has not( dunno how that works) and my insurers have ok'd the repairs with no fault to me. it seems the photo evidence I sent made a difference and the other driver couldn't substantiate his claim that another car was invloved.

but from now on I am keeping the necessary paperwork in my car to remind me what I need to do when this happens, and I will take pics with my mobile.

ed

glad it's all sorted..... I had this on a driving lesson once, had a pupil move off and stall, the driver behind hit us... he was all appologetic at the time, and when we got into claims later, it seems he decided to say we rolled back into him! (as the other driving instructors on here will qualify, if a pupil stalls, you press the brake so the the bake lights show, and the car is safe, then apply the handbrake! no rolling back at all!) I was very glad I had the legal protection, because it went right down to us taking him to court before he caved and admitted the truth! In the end I managed to get loss of earnings as well for the two days the car was off the road (this was years ago in an old saxo VTR... not the strongest of cars!)

Glad you got it sorted. There is justice after all

sounds like you've a good result , makes a change off the insurers

Congratulations, nice to know the system does work occasionally.

Congratulations...

You are lucky he didn't just drive off, as I've ended up getting whacked by this :(