Car accident

[Lily]

Gah, I've had my first ever accident. Scraped another car due to stressful attempt at journey home. The damage looks cosmetic as I wasn't going very fast but I know body work can cost thousands.

I'm terrified my insurance won't pay out, for some reason. The chap is young and said he'd rather not go through insurance but I think he thought it would be a few hundred. Also not sure he gets that his insurance won't be affected.

I'm livid with myself and really rather frightened. Please share your accident stories to make me think, could be worse, I could have been them!

[overthehill]

If the other driver is young and doesn't want to go through his insurance company, are you sure he is actually insured?

Accidents happen to the best of us, Lily. The number one rule is never admit liability (even if you think you're at fault). In fact, this is so important that the French (and possibly other jurisdictions) have a form supplied by the insurance companies called something like "friendly statement of accident" whereby both parties complete the form with no apportioning of blame.

Do you have the other driver's details? If you intend to claim on your own insurance, you're going to need his insurance details. If he's driving uninsured, he's committing an offense. The other thing is, if you don't get a proper insurance adjuster to inspect the damage, you'll have no idea whether your bump was actually responsible for all the damage.

R and I had something similar happen to us when we were staying in the UK after mum's death. R had a senior moment and pulled out of a T-junction and hit a car coming from our right. I was horrified - more because R is normally such a good driver, it was totally out of character, than the actual accident itself. It was a slow-speed impact and no one was hurt, but we lost our number place and had put a dent in the door of the young woman's older Ford Ka. She didn't want to go through insurance and said her dad owned a garage so would get a quote. We were quite relieved - being "abroad" and not sure how efficiently our Irish insurers would handle the situation. But, when we got the quote back, we were told that the impact had damaged the sub-frame! It absolutely hadn't. In any event, due to the dad's garage ownership, the repair wasn't hugely expensive, but it was still an unpleasant surprise after an apparently amicable agreement with the other driver.

[sally maclennane]

I can always cheer people up after a bump by telling them I once crashed a courtesy car, while my own car was being repaired (due to my brother crashing it, not me). The garage were very nice about it, they said it happens a lot. My insurance did go very high after it though.

I'll be honest, I'd always go through insurance. Cars can end up being quite pricey to repair and folk can tell you anything. I'm sure if you don't tell your insurance, it can invalidate it for future claims.

[Dandelion]

I would also recommend insisting that this is done through insurance. I bumped into the back of someone at a roundabout (we had already stopped, so the speed at which we both edged forward was very low!) - and she was nice as pie on the roadside.
Promised she would get her friend (a mechanic) to look over it and let me know if there was any damage.
There wasn’t, as it happened, but then she suddenly decided to go for a whiplash claim. :ella: She won the capped amount as well, which was outrageous but whatever. It was very stressful as it would have ended up in court had the insurers not managed to settle. I did admit liability the whole way though which I think was the right thing to do (and as I hit her from behind, I believe it defaults to being my fault anyway).
But I don’t envy you, Lily - it is stressful. Just accept that this will be the case, but also have faith that your insurance will sort it out.

[Derek Nimmo]

Definitely go through insurance Lils, it's in your best interests.

It's a horrible feeling when you crash, but it really does happen to the best of us. J is an expert driver in the normal course of things, but managed to knock a delivery driver off his moped - at very low speed - at a blind corner a couple of years ago. It was found to be 50/50 blame, and the police quickly decided there was no action to take but it was terrifying when it happened (I was in the car) and until we heard he'd had the all-clear from the hospital.

The moped driver got a payout from J's insurance, his premium went up a tiny bit, and that was the extent of the fallout. Do try not to let it consume you with anxiety, it's exactly what we pay insurance for.

[sally maclennane]

I did admit liability the whole way though which I think was the right thing to do (and as I hit her from behind, I believe it defaults to being my fault anyway).

It does, having been both the person who hit someone else, and the person who was hit. As a driver, you're (generic you)supposed to leave enough space as you don't know what the car in front might have to brake for, which is easier said than done especially in heavy traffic.

[Lily]

Thank you chums. I admitted liability straight away, because it was my fault and if someone drove into me I'd be a bit calmer if they had the courtesy to say sorry. I reported it to the insurance anyway and they rang the other driver with whom I''ve been in touch. He seems OK enough, thanked me for contacting him and said he will get some quotes and let me know. My friend's boyfriend used to work in a bodyshop and said it would be approx £3k so :ella: BUT nobody was hurt. I have protected NCB and gocompare.com will pay the first £250 of my excess, but my premiums will still go up.

I feel a bit calmer having read your stories. I'm sorry you have all had so much stress, particularly J - how frightening for him (and the moped chap). Dandelion, the cheek of the whiplash claim woman. I can't believe she got a payout! And poor you Sal crashing the courtesy car; I'm glad the garage were nice about it

[Lily]

Sorry to bump own thread but am panicking again... when I talked to insurance I said I had dashcam footage (although I don't know what it would show, as I don't remember even seeing the other car) but I've checked and it's on a loop so it has wiped over the footage. Will they try and get out of paying because they think I'm making stuff up?

[sally maclennane]

No, I don't think so, lots of people don't have dash cams.

[Derek Nimmo]

Nope, a friend of mine thought he had dashcam footage of an accident he was in, but it turned out he hadn't reset the card since he had the car (apparently you're meant to once a year or something?). ANYWAY, point is he had to tell his insurance company he didn't actually have the footage. Made zero odds.

Do not panic!

[Derek Nimmo]

Also, you've accepted responsibility already, why would having the footage v not having the footage make any difference to the case?

[TracyA]

I've banged on plenty about my accident Lily - I crashed into the back of an old van, converted into a motorhome, in the pouring rain on the M6. Ironically, I was in the inside lane, waiting for my satnav to divert me, so I could avoid the 6 accidents it had warned me of ahead of me !! I had stopped at the services to check traffic to see if it really was worth me turning off. I still don't know how i managed to end up going into the back of him, as I wasn't speeding (the airbags didn't even go off, and the repairers have assured me they have tested them and they're ok) I guess I got distracted and looked at my satnav, or picked my coffee cup up. No-one was hurt, the guy whose van I went into was lovely, and the taxi driver who drove me the 70 miles home was extremely entertaining.

I only just got my car back on Friday and the accident happened on 22nd July, it was very crumpled and the body shop told me that every time they started repairing stuff, they found something else broken , so needed more parts. I had a courtesy car, and was warned it would take weeks to fix, I think there is a parts shortage at the moment. The bill for the insurance company was £10k .

If yours is cosmetic then I think you'll be fine !

[Lily]

Tracy, you poor sod, I missed that! Thank heavens you and the other driver are OK. It makes me look like a real drama llama.

Thanks all, I am just on HIGH ALERT at the moment and convinced insurance companies never pay out.

[Topcat]

Don't believe the myth. It isn't in an insurers best interest to not pay out, nobody would use them if that was the case!

[Zoomer]

I don't really understand why you think your insurance wouldn't pay out, Lils? You damaged the other guy's car, admitted liability, and have handed over your insurance details, so now the insurers just need to wrangle it out between themselves.
Are you thinking that your insurance will refuse to pay for the guy's car and his insurance will come after you personally instead? Because that's not a thing that happens.
If you're worried that your insurance won't pay for the cosmetic damage to your car, which also seems unlikely, but let's go with it, the worst thing that would happen then is that you have to continue driving around with a slightly bashed-up car... and so what? You should see all the "cosmetic damage" to my car from my various misadventures (I once merrily backed into my own post box, knocking it right over in front of a very bemused group of German tourists) and my car still runs fine and gets me where I want to go.

[Lily]

I don't know, I thought everyone worried about insurance not paying out. I'm scared I didn't tick the right thing or something. I genuinely thought this was the norm!

I haven't heard back from the chap yet and he was looking at quotes yesterday. Was wondering if I could get a mate to nick his car and burn it or something so I stop thinking about it.

My car still works fine thank heavens. I've long gone past caring about how it looks!

[Disco]

It isn't the norm. I wrote my car off by accidentally surfing the top of a privet hedge and rolling into a lamp post. It was very windy that day and the insurance accepted the 'fact' that the wind picked my car up and plonked me on top of a hedge on the side of the road.

[sally maclennane]

I guess you hear about it because it's not the norm. You'll get media reports of companies not paying whereas them paying out would hardly be news, IYSWIM.

[Disco]

I hope it all goes smoothly and your fears are unfounded. I'm sure they will be. I worry a lot about all sorts of stuff so I do get it even though this wouldn't be the type of worry that blights me.

[Lily]

Thank you guys, appreciate it!