Car Crash Help

[shorty2010uk]

Hi There just wandered if someone could help me, i borrowed my fiancee dads van on monday and he borrowed my car to get it serviced for me, i was driving his van for the day and in the morning i had a crash, it was on a traffic light system, the car in front of me went over on the green light and i followed and behind me the 4 cars followed so the lights was definately on green, anyway the car in front of me slammed on his braked because he said the lights was red, it was about 100 yrs after he passed the green lights, well i tried to brake but went skidding into the back of him, i hit his towbar and theres hardly any damage to his car, we exchanged car insurance details and that was that, but i phoned him up and asked if he wanted to put it through the insurance or not and he said if i gave him £250 he wouldnt, so i drove from dudley to leciester last night to give him the money and i was going to get him to sign a recipt to prove i gave him the money to repair his car, well when i got there he said he had changed his mind, so i wasted 4 hrs driving and £35 fuel driving over there, hes polish and he cant really understand much english, so i just wandering whats the best thing to do, if i phone my insurance up to tell me i will have to pay £450 excess and the damage to my fiancees dads van in about £100, ive asked her dad and he said im only insured to drive his van as 3rd party because its going through my insurance as im fully comp on my car, do i leave phoning my insurance and see if he makes a claim or just forget about the whole thing, i know the insurance will say its my fault even tho i left plenty of room behind him and he slammed on his brakes, please help, cant stop thinking about it, it happened on monday morning and the bloke hasnt claimed on the insurance or anything yet please Help !!!!!!

[redcrx]

are you insured to drive the van that you were in? That will be your starting point.

fully comp or your car means nothing, does your insurance state that you can drive other vehicles on your insurance? Her dad will not know that unless he has read your policy. It used to be that fully comp insurance gave 3rd party on other vehicles but its not an automatic thing nowadays.

[redcrx]

btw, you didnt leave plenty of room, otherwise you wouldnt have hit him.

[shorty2010uk]

well i checked my car insurance policy document and under driving other cars extension it states, cover only applies for the specific driver as shown on the certificate of motor insurance, cover is third party only, so this means im insured 3rd party dont it???

[rockyracoon]

I wonder if you're a victim of this insurance scam where people are intentionally causing accidents then claiming thousands for whip lash etc.

[shorty2010uk]

im not sure rockyracoon but all i know is i left plenty of room, about 2 cars distance and the way he slammed on his braked i dont care how good of a driver any1 is, they wouldnt of been able to stop, bearing in mind i didnt have abs on my fiancees dads van as its a p reg van lol, im just worried about what to do next

[ummmm]

Sorry Shorty but you're wrong.....People manage it on the motorway. It happened to me recently on the M1.

[shorty2010uk]

i must be a poor driver then :(, i reacted as quick as i could, anyway what would be the best thing to do now??

[rockyracoon]

That's what the scam is, the hammer on the brakes, you hit them up the bum, your fault, no arguement. They are then left to claim for bogus lealth problems, there is plenty of info if you google it. Here's a link to an article.
http://www.thisislond...r-crash-scams-boom.do

[ChuckFickens]

Hate to point this out... if you couldn't stop in time you hadn't left enough distance by the very definition of not leaving enough distance.

[shorty2010uk]

ok thanks rockyracoon, so am i definately insured and whats the best thing to do now??? forget all about it and see if he claims, or phone my insurance and say theres £100 of damage so i dont need to make a claim but i just wanted to notify them ???

[hc4361]

Your insurance won't cover the damage to your fiancee's father's van, only to the person you hit.

[SpikeyBush]

You shouldn't have to pay an excess for damage to the TP's property, as long as you are indeed covered third party for any vehicle on your own policy. You will only have to pay the owner of the van you were driving for repairs to that vehicle and given the age of it, even replacing the whole vehicle will hardly break the bank.

You'll be stung next year when you renew your insurance after they have paid out whiplash claims for the driver of the car you ran into and his four passengers.

[flip_flop]

What exactly does your Certificate state?

The 'Driving other Cars' extension shown on the Certificate, is, as the name suggests, restricted to cars only - not vans.

So, if the Certificate states something along the lines of "The Policyholder may also drive any other private motor car not belonging to him or hired to him under a Hire Purchase or Leasing Agreement" then you are not insured for this incident.

Should the third party decide to claim, the insurance company which insures the van will be considered the RTA Insurer - that is to say, they are not the contractual insurer (because there has been a breach of contract), but they must satisfy their obligations under the Road Traffic Act. In this eventuality, they have a right to pursue you/your fiancee's father for any payment they make.

Do not involve the police - if you do, it is likely you will be convicted of driving without insurance.

My advice would be to try to come to an agreement with the third party.

If, as has been suggested, this is a 'crash for cash' incident, tell him you are uninsured: I'm pretty sure he will then accept what you have offered him.

[joko]

yes sounds like hes had an idea to claim more cash - did you take photos of the incident and details of the car etc?
you may find suddenly there is loads of damage that you didnt 'see' before...

also you clearly didnt leave enough room - you are allowed to slam on your brakes if necessary and expect not to be hit from behind -
what if he had been slamming on because there was a child in front of his car? if he managed to stop his car just a few feet from the child, the action of you slamming into the back of him would have propelled the car forward and possibly killed a child...

you are suppose to leave enough distance to be able to stop if someone slams on ...

[top_driver]

if he claims, i'd say the best chance you have in defense is that he performed a dangerous maneuver by slamming on his brakes, which is dangerous driving, which would void the claim, but it would be hard proving that you have left regulatory distance between you and the car in front, sometimes cars in front have a better braking system, which would make it difficult

[bednobs]

there is not a "regulatory distance" as topdriver seems to be implying - it depends on the vehicle, the weather, the visibility, the tyres etc. I don't understand how the person would get done for dangerous driving either, seeing as he hasn't been arrested, or the police attended or even called - plus with no witnesses, he only has to say "no i wasn't".

back tot he question, yes tell your insurance company (although if he dosen't claim, you'll have put your premium up for no reason i guess). What happened to the cash you gave him? did he give it back?

[top_driver]

ye actually there is a regulatory (safe) distance, 2-4 seconds gap, and not always do you have police involved in a crash, in which i'm guessing you are not aware of, and it is worth trying to bring it up, it wouldn't make a difference to your case in a bad way if you are going to lose

[bednobs]

i don't get why you are saying "case" The insurance company won't prosecute someone for dangerous driving - only the CPS will do that and how will they ever get to find out seeing as the police weren't called and didn't attend?
You don't need to mount a defence in an insurance claim. If there was such a thing as a standard stopping distance, the op clearly did not leave it otherwise they wouldn't have gone into the back of him!

[bednobs]

ps if you were driving in snow at 70 mph, would you think that 2-4 seconds was a good stopping distance?

[top_driver]

i never said he left enough space, i can only speculate, i'm just saying that pointing things out do help. and i mean case as in an insurance claim, and sometimes what is thought to be a safe distance, even though it clearly wasn't enough, obviously it is going to be different on road conditions and the unknown differences like how powerful the car in front is, because the braking distance on a powerful car is a lot less than one of a non powerful car