Car Incident advice needed

[Greg Bobkin]

I have a feeling that if your car is hit from behind and as a result you then hit the car in front, it may be argued that you didn't leave a large enough gap. (Tyres on tarmac as my instructor used to say)

That was my original thinking. But it's wrong, evidently.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

Ok the proximate cause has been established as the car that hit yours ..... sorry your friends. Subsequently the force caused your 'friends' vehicle to collide with he car in front . Your friend and the car she impacted are both Third party's. Contact your insurer with the details of both other vehicles involved.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

As an insurance man...

The party at fault is the person who hit your friend. Her insurance company will be responsible for settling everyone's bills.
(The small exception to this would be if your friend had shown some "contributory negligence"... by stopping in a dangerous place, for no good reason, with no lights on or something equally dangerous - I shall assume this isn't the case).


Your friend needs to contact their insurer immediately.
Firstly apologise for not contacting them earlier (they are obliged under the contract to notify all incidents whether a claim is made or not).
Let them instruct solicitors and deal with the woman in the front vehicle.
Advise the insurers that she has become abusive and is, effectively, trying to blackmail your friend. Advise she has evidence. Let them deal with this too. It gives them leverage in discussions with her insurer because that insurer would have to stump up for her legal costs from a "blackmail" prosecution!
Do not discuss *ANYTHING* directly with the woman.

Best case... the fault of the person at the rear is undisputed, their insurer pays all the bills directly, your insurer does nothing.

A worse case scenario is your friend's insurer will pay out and recover their costs from the other insurance company. For a period of time until they have they money back, the claim will be treated as a fault claim. This will effect any renewal which occurs in the meantime. Once they have their money back (including refunding any excess your friend had to pay out), they will switch the claim to non-fault (and correct the renewal paid if any). This *may* have an impact on future insurance renewals depending on whether your friend has had other incidents.
Statistically speaking... someone with 1 non-fault accident is unlucky and very very few insurers will use this in pricing.
Someone with 2 or more fault OR non-faults in a short period of time (typically ~3yrs) is more likely to have a fault claim and so their price WILL increase.

The worst case is their insurer pays the bills and can't recover costs because liability remains disputed and cannot be agreed upon (no witnesses, person at rear says your friend was reversing, impossible for them to avoid an accident, etc etc). Your friend is left with a partial fault claim (which is really the same as a fault claim) which may not impact their no claims (if they have protected it), but will cause a load to be applied at renewal (people who have fault accidents are statistically more likely to have more fault accidents).


If you friend chooses to just pay off the woman and not get insurers involved then there is a massive possible risk. If the woman then comes back and says she has whiplash, you friend's insurer is within their rights to refuse to settle the claim (they probably won't but they could) because your friend breached the contract by not notifying them of the claim (and/or giving full disclosure of the details). It could just go away, but frankly all parties would be a little silly just to leave it like this. Even low speed impacts can cause sub-structure damage which could have catastrophic consequences in a future, more serious accident. The insurers are obliged to check for and deal with this, a back-street garage working on a cash job may not. These are extremely rare but does she want to take the risk?

I'd suggest you take the FIT exam at least and fast.

 

[StonehamPark]

Everyone's premiums go up and both Insurance companies benefit from their inability to make a decision.

It's not about the inability to make a decision. It's about (in the above example's) proving which party is to blame. If there's no proof either way, the only 'fair' decision to make is a 50/50 split.

Yes both premiums will be affected, a little more cash in the Insurers pocket at renewal.

However, both Insurers pay out for Engineers, Assessors, Repairs and possibly Solicitors costs and Injury claims.

The insurers certainly won't be popping open a bottle of Champers at the end of the claim with the above in mind.

 

[father_and_son]

Surely the worst case is that the driver of the last car (who hit the OP's friend) is uninsured? In that case, isn't the OP's friend in the worst of all worlds? Would she then be liable for the car in front?

Effectively this is the same as the "worst case" one. OP's friend's insurer would settle the claim in the first instance and then try to recover their costs, but wouldn't be able to and so would treat it as a "fault" claim.