Whiplash Claim No Collision

Katien94

Hi Everyone,

I have just been looking for some advice on an incident that happened last Thursday morning, there were really icy conditions out and I pulled out from a T junction where another car was coming, I immediately corrected my action by staying on the other side of the road and the other car involved harsh breaked and got a puncture as he clipped the curb on a road that was 30km/h.

I pulled in immediately and this guy was angry, rightfully so as he got a fright but he was really abusive. I told him I would pay for his tyre but as he was a taxi man he told me I also needed to reimburse him for time missed on the road, I told him to send me on the reciepts and dash cam footage as he claimed to have this.

He sent the information on and it turned out the tyre was €75 and he wanted me to pay him €85 for time off the road although he was only off the road for 35 minutes and I thought that was a bit much, I told him that I was not prepared to give him €85 for one hours work and he then replied to me saying he was not ok with that and his back is now hurting so hed 'be in touch' putting in a personal injury claim.

The guards werent called at the time however i rang after and they told me there was no crash so was nothing to report.

He took my reg details ph number and address but im wondering if anyone has any experience with this? I get i was in the wrong but it just seems now to be gone too far? any advice?

TheBully

Tell him to F off, the guards were not called and there was no collision. Pure greed on his behalf.

billybonkers

Don't pay him anything as this can be seen as a sign of admission.

Also you say you stayed on the other side of the road? Did you move out of the way of his car into another lane? Did it look like he would collide with you if you had not moved?

Sounds like a chancer, would put it down to poor road conditions. He was possibly going too fast, in poor conditions himself, to slow down in time....

CrankyHaus

The courts have awarded damages for injury in motor accidents that didn't involve collision or impact:

http://https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/it-was-like-a-bomb-going-off-woman-injured-after-sunroof-blew-off-car-awarded-16k-in-damages-35758641.html

McGrath5

€85 per hour? Where do I sign?

raxy

Did he send you the dashcam footage? If not then maybe it's not in his favour. He may have been driving too fast for the conditions as mentioned.
Since there was no collision I would say pay nothing unless you see the footage, if you pulled out I'm sure you thought you had enough space to do it safely.

AlanG

Realistically if you were at fault and he has footage you would be lucky to get away with paying €85 plus the Tyre. you could try to offer him 50 but even at 85 it will be a lot cheaper than the hike in your insurance. Waiting time is charged between 39 and 62 cent per minute so you could try to base it on that if you like. You could play hard as he would be unlikely to risk claiming through his own insurance but if you are at fault you should probably offer him an hours waiting time charge to get rid of the risk to your premium https://www.nationaltransport.ie/taxi-and-bus-licensing/taxi/operating-an-spsv/taxi-fares/

endacl

Block his number and crack on with the rest of your day.

magicbastarder

if he already has the details, i'm guessing he's not going to ask the OP's permission and will go to the insurance company.

cronos

AlanG wrote: »

Realistically if you were at fault and he has footage you would be lucky to get away with paying €85 plus the Tyre. you could try to offer him 50 but even at 85 it will be a lot cheaper than the hike in your insurance. Waiting time is charged between 39 and 62 cent per minute so you could try to base it on that if you like. You could play hard as he would be unlikely to risk claiming through his own insurance but if you are at fault you should probably offer him an hours waiting time charge to get rid of the risk to your premium https://www.nationaltransport.ie/taxi-and-bus-licensing/taxi/operating-an-spsv/taxi-fares/

It doesn't remove the risk. He can just take the money, say it's an admission and invent a back injury that he didn't know about at the time of taking the first round of money and come back for more. If you have sent email's or letters or even calls he may already have this admission though.

Sleeper12

TheBully wrote:

Tell him to F off, the guards were not called and there was no collision. Pure greed on his behalf.

OP has admitted that he caused an accident. There doesn't have to be a collision. Many times the car that pulls out & causes other cars to crash does not crash itself. It's still responsible

seamus

He's a chancer.

If he has dashcam footage, let him present it to his insurer.

Contributory negligence could be claimed, but as he didn't have to maneuver to avoid a collision, he merely panicked due to your behaviour, then most of the blame is on his side. Also reasonable to assume that if he braked hard and lost control, he was travelling too fast for the conditions.

Stuff about "admission of fault" is irrelevant. An admission at the roadside is not evidence of fault.

Ignore any future contact from him. If your insurer contacts you about it, tell them the facts, dispute liability and let them deal with it. They may decide to pay out, and so be it. You made a mistake and you pay your insurance to indemnify you for mistakes. So use it.

rgodard80a

If he hit the curb with enough force to burst/puncture a tyre, his tracking / wheel alignment could be off too. I'd say he was probably underestimating the potential damage to his car even at 30kph.
I'd say 4-wheel alignment is another €70 on top of cost of the tyre.

€70 + €85 is roughly only recovering his costs, with a little something extra for his troubles/stress/hassle.

He's unlikely to really put in a whiplash claim as fraudulent claims could leave you practically blacklisted from motor insurance.

The moral thing to do is to pay him since you admit pulling out in front of him.

magicbastarder

CrankyHaus wrote: »

The courts have awarded damages for injury in motor accidents that didn't involve collision or impact:

http://https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/it-was-like-a-bomb-going-off-woman-injured-after-sunroof-blew-off-car-awarded-16k-in-damages-35758641.html

a colleague of mine received damages, after receiving injuries incurred avoiding a collision when a motorist pulled across his path without looking. my colleague was on a bike, and had witnesses to corroborate his story.

AlanG

seamus wrote: »

He's a chancer.

If he has dashcam footage, let him present it to his insurer.

Contributory negligence could be claimed, but as he didn't have to maneuver to avoid a collision, he merely panicked due to your behaviour, then most of the blame is on his side. Also reasonable to assume that if he braked hard and lost control, he was travelling too fast for the conditions.

Stuff about "admission of fault" is irrelevant. An admission at the roadside is not evidence of fault.

Ignore any future contact from him. If your insurer contacts you about it, tell them the facts, dispute liability and let them deal with it. They may decide to pay out, and so be it. You made a mistake and you pay your insurance to indemnify you for mistakes. So use it.

This may be true but the OP seems to be at fault and antagonising the other driver is likely to leave the OP with a significant hike in their insurance premium. The sensible thing to do based on the information we have been given is to pay up, the hassle and worry alone would not be worth €85.

Katien94

Thanks everyone for the comments, really helpful to see different perspectives. We will see what happens though I won't be willing to pay him personally anymore as am not responding to him threatening that. Looks like he will be going through insurance now. Just as my insurance premium started to fall after getting fully licensed!! Typical!

magicbastarder

seamus wrote: »

but as he didn't have to maneuver to avoid a collision, he merely panicked due to your behaviour, then most of the blame is on his side

as things panned out - going on what the OP said, swerving to avoid a collision seems to have been redundant after the fact.
he may not/could not have known that the OP was going to stay on her side of the road. in a situation where someone pulls out like that, you make a decision based on what *might* happen, rather than waiting to see exactly what path the other car takes before deciding what to do.
not having dashcam footage means we can't be sure of the exact details, but claiming he was in the wrong to have swerved is premature.

oholly121

endacl wrote: »

Block his number and crack on with the rest of your day.

Brilliant