Insurance claim, looking for advice

oli26

Hi,
not sure I am in the right forum but this is the most appropriate i could found.

My wife had an accident yesterday on a small road where she had to go to the side of the road to avoid a truck which apparently was speeding and well on the wrong side of the road. Unfortunatly the side of the road where this happened was a in bad state but a major hole (2ft wide, 7 ft long and 11inches deep).
No one injured but major damage to the mechanical part of the car, the car itself was not touched by the truck.

The guards were on site and took deposition including from a witness which was 2 cars behind the truck and backed my wife's version of the incident.

We are insured fully comprehensive and I now need to report this to the insurance, I however have 2 fears:

-1: that the insurance could turn around and say that it is the truck's fault and will not cover us. (the guards are looking for the truck, we know from which company it is from)
-2: that the insurance will say that the damage was caused by the bad state of the road and send us to the council, hence will not cover us.

Does any one know if my fears are funded or should my insurance cover it if the truck driver is never found.

Many thanks for any pointers

robtri

At least no one was hurt..

As you are insured Fully Comp., you can claim off your own insurance they can't deny you that.
If your insurance company wishes to persue the trunk or the council, that is up to them, but I would sugggest that you push them too, cause if they recover the costs from a Third party the effect on your insuranc premiums will be negilgleble

or
you can try to claim yourself off council or truck company, to recover costs but thats going to be a hard one

stevenmu

I'd suggest contacting MIBI (http://www.mibi.ie/uninsured-unidentifi.html), they will allow you to claim against uninsured and unidentified drivers.

edit: actually looking at it a little closer I think they only cover property damage where there is also personal injury, but if a claim on your own comprehensive insurance goes through them your NCB is protected. I think that's what it's saying anyway. Still, worth contacting them for advice on how to proceed.

SATSUMA

Hiya,

Go see a solicitor (or citizens info do free legal advice), also go out today and take a photo of the hole just in case the guard's sketch is innaccurate. You'll need this photo later on. You should certainly get legal advice asap though so that your own interests are protected. Insurance companies can be very...slippery!

oli26

Hi,
thanks for the advice.

I have taken pics this morning and then reported the accident to my insurance.

They said we would be covered either way but if it goes against our insurance there is an excess of 350 for us to pay. They told me to get as much info as possible on the truck, the guard report etc so they can try to claim someone else.

On my end i am thinking of contacting a local county council to see if something can done from the bad state of the raod point of view in the event where we could not claim against the truck.

I will also possibly look into getting legal advice but want to see where we are going without first, little point in spending extra money if it could be resolved without.

NUTLEY BOY

If you claim under your policy the insurers have a right of recovery against anyone at fault for the loss. They can be very lazy about exercising this right so I endorse robtri's advice about pushing them to do so.

Do remember that the insurers will only bother about recovering their outlay. You still have to recover your uninsured losses like the policy excess, depreciation if relevant and any other losses not covered under the policy. So, keep in close contact with the insurer about all of this and don't let them slide out of doing their job properly...........

oli26

Yes, it sure seem I will have to stay on the case.

Good news in all that, this morning the Garda rang us to say they have found the truck driver (which incidently was involved in something else, that's how they found him!), he declared not being aware of a problem but has been asked to go in for an official statement.
Hopefully with my wife's statement and a witness in our favour this may turn our way, fingers crossed.

Not to mention than the county council has blocked the road where this happened this morning and is doing some repair, what a coincidence!
I will go take pictures of the repairs also.