HELP - Bolder on the motorway - Ruins car

[JoCannon]

A friend of mine was driving down the motorway yesterday doing about 75, when a huge boulder came hurtling down the road and hit the front of his car, damaged the grill, bumper is ruined but also badly dented the bonnet. He is not 100% sure where the boulder came from, there was a big lorry 2 cars in front carrying rubble so it may have fallen from there. Or it was simply lying in the road (bit odd).

He was on a business trip, and I thought maybe his work could claim it on their insurance, unfortunatly a few people today have told me this is not true, he would have had to declared on his own insurance that his car was used for business trips.

So faced with a �800+ repair bill, or claiming on his own insurance, what could he do? A few people have suggested maybe he could contact the police and see if they have any footage of the lorry carrying rubble, get a number plate, and take it further from there as the boulder could have killed someone (Thank God it didn't), someone also suggested contacting the motorway highways as it is there responsibility to ensure huge boulders are not in the middle of the road....

Do you have any suggestions as to what could possibly be done?

Bit of a weird one, I would appreciate your thoughts.

[spaced]

why would he have to pay over his excess???surely he has an excess of less than �800 on his own insurance?!? Is he fully comp? If he was using his own vehicle for business he will have to claim off his own insurance. Its stupid to think that his company would pay for it.

You could try and get video footage, but dont expect them to be helpful or get quick results, this goes for the Highway authority too.

Looks like hes gonna have to swallow the repair costs. Also, to be Devils Advocate...he was doing 75mph, therefore he was "technically" speeding. Do you REALLY want to get the cops involved???

[JudgeJ]

Your friend needs to check his insurance policy and any that his employer might have under which he may be covered.

As far as his own goes, most ordinary policies restrict driving to �Social, Domestic and Pleasure� use only. This excludes not only business trips, but also driving to and from your normal place of work. As a part of most policy proposals you will be asked to declare if you use the car to travel to and from work. They will not normally charge you extra to cover this risk, but they expect you to tell them about it. Nonetheless, business use is usually specifically excluded from most policies unless it is declared and, usually an extra premium is charged.

This could mean that, effectively, your friend is driving without insurance whilst on these trips. If caught he is liable to a conviction, fine and a minimum of six penalty points. More importantly, if involved in an accident, he would not be covered for Third Party injuries/damage. So, in a perverse way, it is fortunate that he found out the error of his ways before causing damage to others.

As far as gathering evidence for the origin of the boulder goes, and recovering his losses from whoever was responsible I would say that he has two chances: very slim and none whatsoever.

[JoCannon]

Thanks Spaced, it seems a bit unfair that he should have to claim and ultimately have his premiums increased because of this boulder, if it had not been for work, he would not have been on the motorway driving, and would not have to pay a penny. I know it could happen if you were going to the local shop, but that would be easier to accept, as you were going for you, not someone else.

I (ignorantly) assumed that companies might have some kind of protection for this sort of thing. I have no clue about stuff like this hence my asking; but it seemed logical to me.

Your right about the 75mph comment, but if the boulder had caused serious damage to a person, would the extra 5mph matter?

Would videon footage indicate the exact speed he was doing? Hopefully however it would give a registration number for the lorry, to ensure in future they securely tie down their rubble, to prevent anything horrendous happening in the future. He was really lucky looking at the damage the boulder caused.

Or if it the boulder was not from the lorry but just happily trundling down the fast lane of a motorway, it could suggest the highway maintenance need to be a bit more vigilant.

[JoCannon]

Thanks JudgeJ. I will get hm to look into it, and might just check my own insurance too.

Much appreciated.

[bluejonjo]

Did "your friend" hit the boulder lying in the road, or did it come flying down the road?? I'm confused. I dont see how a "big boulder" capable of casuing the damage you say can technically fall from a lorry 2 cars in front and hit "your friend's" car. This, in physics terms, is a crock of ****.

The whole story seems a bit far fetched. Sounds like someones is in the ****, and is telling porky pies.

[JoCannon]

Bluejonjo - Why would someone make this up?

I was only asking for suggestions, so I could possibly go back and offer him a bit of advice. See if anyone else had ever experienced anything similar.

Your sugtgestion that this is a crock of **** is useful, thanks.

[bluejonjo]

Put it this way, if this is what you tell your insurers, they will say what I just did. Its laughably poor and full of inconsistancies.

[PhilBy]

If indeed it was as large as suggested then the police/council will have a record of some incident as it will of had to be removed from the motorway.

Hope this helps.

[madein1978]

Was he passing under a bridge at the time? Yobs seem to think it's really funny to throw heavy objects at cars on the Motorway in order to cause an accident (Theres no scrutinsing the mind of a yob, if indeed theres one to scrutinise!). It sounds like a really unfortunate incident to have happen and a horrible situation. I would report the incident to the police first of all and then get onto the highways agency, perhaps there was a CCTV camera nearby that captured what happened. Thankfully the car is all that suffered here but it could have been so much worse. I hope you manage to sort it out without losing your no claims bonus, its such a rotten thing to have happen.

[spaced]

Jocannon, you are not ignorant, and I totally agree that its unfair that you friend may have to swallow costs, but this is the way it goes unfortunately. Only a the company's group insurance would cover him. unless his own, not company, vehicle was insured with the group policy he would have to claim through his own insurers.

[madein1978]

Just reading what spaced is saying about your friend speeding, he wasn't at 75, the police are not allowed to do you for anything under 80, because of the rule to counteract any inaccuracy in your speedometer, 10% + 3 MPH in a 70 MPH zone is 80! This scaremongering about 1 MPH over the speed limit and you're done is a crock of sh*te, it's not legally enforceable and you could argue that in court.