Reversing car collision and the resulting insurance mess.

grundie

This is a complex tale, so I will try to keep it short and sweet.

Myself and my wife have motor insurance with a well-known Swiss insurer here in Dublin. In August we went to Derry to see my family and whilst we were there we popped in to a local play park to let the woddler have a run around.

When we got back to the car we started to reverse out of of our car park space, carefully. As we were reversing, another car hit us.

You may say that we weren't being careful. However, the other person was driving the wrong way around the car park against the arrows and was using her phone.

The impact was very slow. Our rear light cluster was merely cracked and not slashed, the door of the other driver had a bit of a dent.

The other driver called her daddy out. A big tattooed chap who was attempting to threaten us into admitting responsibility and trying to stop us from filming and taking pictures of the scene. Oddly, he called the PSNI, but the PSNI said they weren't interested as no one was hurt.

We gave them an address in Dublin, they refused to give us any details - not even a name. We stressed that we weren't admitting any responsibility and we would allow our insurance firm the handle the mess.

Four days later we receive a letter from a Derry based solicitor who specialises in such claims saying we were going too fast, not driving with attention and that we were responsible for causing severe back and whiplash injuries. Etc, etc.

Our insurer tells us to let them handle everything.

Last week we got a call from our insurer saying "Their solicitor won't accept anything less than 100% responsibility on your part so were going to have to pay out".

I mean really? We have video and picture evidence of the other drivers car pointing in the wrong direction in the car park, the insurer admitted the other driver acknowledged they were 'just texting' when the collision occurred. We even have film of the driver going down the slide with her toddler minutes after the accident. The PSNI even offered an opinion that had they known the other driver was going in the wrong direction they would have charged her with a traffic offense.

How on earth can our insurer roll over so easily?

So what I want to ask is, can I tell our insurer not to pay out and make them take the matter to court?

Ginger Nut

Well thats bloody awfull. Thats why our insurance premiums are so expensive.

Something similar happened a few years ago in my place of work.

I work in a small hotel. During a very busy weekend (there was a huge concert in the town) we were packed to capacity. My role was to insure crowd safety and that the main exit & fire exits were kept clear etc. I stress this is a very small hotel- only one way in!

A few weeks later we received a letter from a solicitor stating his client had fallen on the premises and borken his ankle. On investigation - I asked why the client did not make this known to any staff on the night. He said he did not want to bother anyone as we were too busy. We contacted our insurance company and they paid the claim - no contest. I asked why and they said it would be too expensive to contest it in court - even if they won. Cant understand it at all

seamus

grundie wrote: »

How on earth can our insurer roll over so easily?

Probably because you were reversing. When reversing, you are required to give way to everything else, regardless of what direction it's moving in or what speed it's doing. You are very much on the back foot here and it will be a series of uphill battles to prove that she was doing something wrong, whereas it's much easier for them to prove that you simply failed to yield when reversing.

Now obviously there are mitigating circumstances here, but the other party may be looking for £3k compensation. The cost to your insurance company of contesting this or referring it onto a department who specialise in UK law may exceed this and so for them, the easiest thing to do is to pay out.

Insurance companies have no interest in doing the right thing, only doing the cheapest thing.

So what I want to ask is, can I tell our insurer not to pay out and make them take the matter to court?

No. They have the authority to do this by virtue of being your insurer. Pain in the ass, but you have handed the issue to them, so they can resolve it however they please.

PCPhoto

I'm not sure if your insurer can go ahead without your permission...but you might need to fight it in the court yourself.....its your insurance policy - you should be in charge of whether you accept liability of fight the matter


its typical behaviour of insurance companies .... lets settle sure we can get the money back in higher premiums anyway.

I would contact your insurance company and explicitly tell them you do not want to accept liability and you want to fight the matter - if they insist then contact a solicitor and explain the situation to them.

from your description - it sounds like the persons involved may be used to this and have tried (successfully) in the past - be careful though ...this matter could take 1-2years ...maybe more before its resolved.

grundie

seamus wrote: »

Probably because you were reversing. When reversing, you are required to give way to everything else, regardless of what direction it's moving in or what speed it's doing. You are very much on the back foot here and it will be a series of uphill battles to prove that she was doing something wrong, whereas it's much easier for them to prove that you simply failed to yield when reversing.

Ah, this is where I have done my homework!

Rules 144, 146 and 147 of the Highway Code seem relevant. Basically, when driving forward you have to anticipate potential obstructions and be prepared to stop short of them. From speaking to an expert in such matters (we paid to speak to an independent investigator) this particularly applies to car parks. My wife is a non-EU citizen and she really cannot afford to take the blame, hence our fight.

His opinion is that if both parties were just not paying full attention, then the blame split would be 30/70 in our favour. With the other driving going the wrong way and using a phone, then we should - in theory- be blameless.

I should also add that our insurer is applying Irish law to the case. When they phoned and we asked about the Highway Code, they responded by saying that they should speak to their NI solicitors then as they assumed Irish law applied.

I sometimes feel like I am banging my head against the wall. We have prepared in the region of 100 pages of evidence, 20 mins of video footage, hi-res aerial shots and loads of pictures, yet our insurer is rolling over because "they said you did it".

Basically, we just want to tell our insurer to fight all the way to the courts if need be.

seamus

See if you can arrange a meeting face-to-face with the person handling your claim.

They have targets to meet in terms of how many claims that they must settle each month. If they can close the claim without any kind of major cost, and with the client being happy for the outcome, that's a win for them. If you make enough noise about it, they'll be reluctant to close your claim so easily.

grundie

PCPhoto wrote: »

from your description - it sounds like the persons involved may be used to this and have tried (successfully) in the past - be careful though ...this matter could take 1-2years ...maybe more before its resolved.

We kind of figured that because the whiplash diagnosis was made by her GP within 24 hours and the claim letter was dispatched a day later.

If they want a fight they've got one.

mathepac

PCPhoto wrote: »

I'm not sure if your insurer can go ahead without your permission...but you might need to fight it in the court yourself.....its your insurance policy - you should be in charge of whether you accept liability of fight the matter...
I would contact your insurance company and explicitly tell them you do not want to accept liability and you want to fight the matter - if they insist then contact a solicitor and explain the situation to them...

As explained by seamus above none of this is an option - the insurance company has decision-making power here and the policy-holder has none; you agreed to this when you took out your insurance, check the T&Cs of your policy They want to settle to avoid an expensive, protracted cross-border, multi-jurisdiction legal battle which they believe will be more costly than an early settlement.

This unfortunate case high-lights my personal preference for reversing into parking spaces and drive-ways and driving out, having done all my driver training and tests in the UK.