pathetic whip lash claims

pathetic whip lash claims

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Discussion

Spare tyre

9,457 posts

129 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
the back of the appointment card you get for the local hopsital has adverts for the no win no fee stuff

and its all over the hospital

this is annoying

Some Gump

12,671 posts

185 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
OP,
Not defending spurious whiplash, but you should really reconsider this "it was unavoidable" thought. You were to blame. Noone else was at the wheel.
If you improve your observational skills, you'd start preadjusting your driving because there is a crossing - which can be seen from the other end of the street. If you looked for pedestrians near that crossing, it'd be likely that you'd have to stop etc.

A lot of accidents are put down to bad luck, when in reality it's bad observation, leading to bad driving.

The Surveyor

7,576 posts

236 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Back in the real world, people have accidents and people make excuses.

The point the OP was trying to make here I think, is that insurance industry is turning a blind eye to fraud. These days, the no-win-no-fee brigade are tolerated too much by the insurance industry and instead of throwing out all but the genuine whip-lash claims, they just pay-up.

Yes, it's picked up by the OP's insurance but that isn't the point. Just think how much cheaper our insurance would be if these speculative claims were thrown out!


Bennet

2,119 posts

130 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Some accidents feel like they couldn't be helped because of the unpredictability of the events that led up to it. This is really just inexperience of course, but I understand why you'd feel like it couldn't be helped.

I did something similar involving rapid misting of my windscreen (as a result of turning the blower on), someone's badly adjusted headlights lighting it all up like a projector screen and a lot of snow on the road.

You learn from it.



Vaud

50,289 posts

154 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Some Gump said:
OP,
Not defending spurious whiplash, but you should really reconsider this "it was unavoidable" thought. You were to blame. Noone else was at the wheel.
If you improve your observational skills, you'd start preadjusting your driving because there is a crossing - which can be seen from the other end of the street. If you looked for pedestrians near that crossing, it'd be likely that you'd have to stop etc.

A lot of accidents are put down to bad luck, when in reality it's bad observation, leading to bad driving.
^^^^
This.

marshalla

15,902 posts

200 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Vaud said:
Some Gump said:
OP,
Not defending spurious whiplash, but you should really reconsider this "it was unavoidable" thought. You were to blame. Noone else was at the wheel.
If you improve your observational skills, you'd start preadjusting your driving because there is a crossing - which can be seen from the other end of the street. If you looked for pedestrians near that crossing, it'd be likely that you'd have to stop etc.

A lot of accidents are put down to bad luck, when in reality it's bad observation, leading to bad driving.
^^^^
This.
+ the minute your vision is obscured, or affected by something like a big yellow thing up in the sky, your right foot should be lifting.

McSam

6,753 posts

174 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
I can add two examples to the piss-boiling fray.

I had an accident when I was 17, hitting a family in a Clio coming the other way in a 20mph left-hander. The damage to my Mondeo was moderate and the Clio was pretty buggered, but it didn't stop both front-seat passengers jumping out and shouting abuse, banging on my passenger's window calling him every name under the sun for no reason I could think of, etc etc.

They were charging around raising hell while their kids sat quietly in the back. When an ambulance turned up, the woman started walking very gingerly, straight into the back of it. Few weeks later I have various letters from various companies, and the total cost of the claim was £11,500. The Clio can't have been worth anything over £1500, so do the maths on that one. It's been happening for years.


Much more recently, my housemate nudged a learner driver from behind when she stalled entering a roundabout. I'm talking a real crawling nudge, the extent of the damage to his car was a marked-up number plate and to the learner car was a scuffed bumper. Obviously the instructor was less than impressed but it was dealt with perfectly amicably. Couple of weeks later, bang, £2500 compensation claim for the learner's injuries.


I can't understand how the insurance industry can be completely oblivious to all this, they must know what's happening, so why do they - as a collective - continue to accept it? It costs them a bloody fortune, they pass on the cost to increasingly disgruntled customers, and in a society becoming extremely disenchanted with the benefit/compo culture, could there be any better publicity than taking a stand against fraudulent claims? Perhaps someone like ZOLLAR can expand on why companies refuse to fight, or why the industry refuses to introduce proper standards.

eltax91

9,842 posts

205 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Don't want to get into OP bashing so I will ignore the frankly ridiculous lynching the OP is getting over making a small mistake.

This whiplash nonsense is stupid. My wife rolled her car back into a mondeo the other week, at WALKING PACE or less. The passenger jumped out clutching his neck and a claim has gone in. I did post a thread wondering if there was a minimum speed before a whiplash claim could be made

The sooner it's stopped the better.

Uncle John

4,269 posts

190 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
This happened to my wife a few years back.

Lights went green, car in front puled away then put on the brakes, wife pulls away and hits car at less than 10mph, tennis ball sized dent in our front bumper, no obvious damage to the rear of the stheap Passat.

Wife checks all ok, lo and behold kids in the back are holding their necks in pain, the female of the spawn is ranting and holding her neck.

Cops and ambulance called, wife breathalysed, my kids now upset ,ridiculous scenes.

Turns out she even claimed for damage to clothing!!! WTF!! This only happens if you are cut out of bloodied clothes.....

Now doubt the scum enjoyed their fourth trip to Disneyland on the proceeds.

The whole thing was a scam.

And the reason why I now have a dash cam.



Rawwr

22,722 posts

233 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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J4CKO said:
I can see why it happens, people are skint in a lot of cases and they get a chance to have a few quid, tax free to spend on something nice they couldn't ordinarily afford, it takes some serious strength of character and principles to say no to the repeated offers, I think some just say yes to stop the bloody phone calls. They know they can by and large get away with it and in terms of morals and principles, when you see what the great British public are prepared to do for money, getting a few quid for a fictitious neck injury is pretty low down the list behind benefit cheat, mugging, fraud, scams and selling bricks in Xbox boxes.
If it makes you feel any better; I was knocked off my bike at the start of July. No broken bones but quite badly bruised and battered right shoulder and left knee. It feels a lot better now but I've been told I'll probably feel little aches for years to come, if not the rest of my life. I was plagued by nowinnofee companies for weeks after the accident and said no to all of them. I'll live and no amount of money is going to make the accident any better.

Hoink

1,424 posts

157 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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Two years ago someone reversed back into the front of my dad's car whilst he was in a car park. No witnesses and only minor damage. Their insurance paid out through an accident management company my dad contacted and my dad's car was fixed...sorted. Or so he thought.

Roll forward a few months and two witnesses appeared who stated ny dad drove into the back of them whilst chatting on the phone and whiplash was being claimed. My dad's insurance company decided something wasn't right so fought it. My dad was furious and he had to give statements, be interviewed, etc etc.

This dragged on for a long time.

Two weeks before the hearing and the other side started getting nervous. The witness stories started to change and one of the claimants dropped out. My dad was a little relieved as the whole thing was really getting to him, afterall he couldn't believe how long it had been dragging out. Cracks were starting to appear.

A few days before the case and the other parties solicitors dropped the case due to inconsistencies in the stories and the hearing went ahead as planned. My dad heard the full story at this point; the claimants and witnesses were linked on Facebook, they had all been for medicals at the hospitals and they all had a criminal past.

The case was thrown out and the other party has been charged full costs. These are many thousands of pounds.

Whilst I'm sure not all cases are thrown out it was nice to see this one turn out the way it did. The process could have been better thought as my dad had a terrible two years worrying about it. Obviously the other side thought they would get an easy payout.

Sorry for any typos, typed on a phone .

NicheMonkey

458 posts

127 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Real whiplash is not very nice! My wife was driving and someone crashed into the back of the car - didnt claim whiplash and just a bit shaken up, although it was a hard enough impact to write car off (05 Civic Type R estimated crash impact was 20mph). Fast forward 3 years and she has a very weak neck and is always suffering with migraines related to the muscles in her neck. When it was too much for her, she got it checked out and turns out she had been suffering with whiplash for a number of years and just put it down to "a stiff neck fron the pillows" she doesnt go gym/running anymore and her head movement is very restricted ie looking left and right whilst driving she regularly pulls muscles in her neck which leaves her in a lot of pain - never had problems like these before the accident and migraines were virtually none existent - now she gets attacks quite regular, lots of physiotherapy at our own cost and shes getting better BUT real whiplash takes ages to manifest itself and takes ages to get sorted, we are still dealing with it from a accident in 2011. Even the pysiotherpaist said that he's constantly seeing people who can give all the "symptoms" verbally but upon examination they are none existent in his view, and the insurance companies will not pay for further more detailed examinantions with x-rays etc that are costly to organise so they just "pay out". its bloody ridiclous what some people will do for money.

Agent Orange

2,194 posts

245 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
The Surveyor said:
The point the OP was trying to make here I think, is that insurance industry is turning a blind eye to fraud. These days, the no-win-no-fee brigade are tolerated too much by the insurance industry and instead of throwing out all but the genuine whip-lash claims, they just pay-up.
I guess it's not in the industries interest to fix it.

A friend works in the car insurance industry and deals with claims. Apparently as soon as someone mentions the words "whip lash" during a claim they immediately offer a settlement of £1500. The figure is deemed to be sufficient to pay off everyone without getting the firms legal team involved and a costly admin process. The firm don't ultimately pay as it's passed on to us via increased premiums so would guess their profit margin doesn't change - hence no incentive to solve the problem.

The only incentive the firms would appear to have is as a result of "whip lash" hot spots, and the NW of England is apparently one, that region sees vastly increased premiums from that firm to the point they are deliberately pricing themselves out of the market in that region and therefore reducing their potential market.

wolves_wanderer

12,356 posts

236 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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Tuvra said:
Annoys me that I had to fight for two days to get what I was due (decent courtesy car) and yet these bds are still trying to drive up the claim with bullst compensation claims frown
That is a big pile of irony. You had to "fight" for what you were "entitled to" ie a fancy/sporty car when any car would do, and moan about people driving up the cost of insurance?! Incredible.

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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eltax91 said:
Don't want to get into OP bashing so I will ignore the frankly ridiculous lynching the OP is getting over making a small mistake.
He says he hasn't made a mistake, but the accident was unavoidable. That's why he's getting a lynching.

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
The Surveyor said:
The point the OP was trying to make here I think, is that insurance industry is turning a blind eye to fraud.
No evidence this is fraud. He hit tp at 10-15mph. That's a pretty hard impact.

Schermerhorn

4,342 posts

188 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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richatnort said:
Thought i'd post a rant about whiplash and how annoying people are with it. I was in an accident about 3 weeks ago and ended up going into the back of someone at around 10-15 mph. At the time all out all friendly and not a single injury apart from my pride.

Two weeks later i get a letter from one of these no win no fee boll** companies saying one of the passengers is claiming whiplash injuries. I think to myself ok one isn't too bad it must be genuine. I had a letter through last night from the same law firm saying that the driver is putting one in. All i'm thinking now is how stupidly high my claim is going to be with the repairs to my car, his car (very little a new bumper was my guess) and now all these fking bull st whiplash claims. The worse thing about it is there were 5 people in the car so i'm expecting 5 claims to come through.

So annoyed right now.

Before it comes i know it was my own fault for going into the back of them but it genuinely couldn't be helped.
You should have taken photos of respective damage to both cars and video footage and interviews with the other occupants

"are you ok?"

"can you verify the extent of the damage to both cars?"

"I am going on record there is no damage to me or the car" (reverse psychology)

"Do you have pain, are you able to move your neck, back?" etc


richatnort

Original Poster:

3,018 posts

130 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
The Surveyor said:
Back in the real world, people have accidents and people make excuses.

The point the OP was trying to make here I think, is that insurance industry is turning a blind eye to fraud. These days, the no-win-no-fee brigade are tolerated too much by the insurance industry and instead of throwing out all but the genuine whip-lash claims, they just pay-up.

Yes, it's picked up by the OP's insurance but that isn't the point. Just think how much cheaper our insurance would be if these speculative claims were thrown out!
Yes unfortunately this is what i was trying to say but it seems it went a bit off topic due to me putting the bit about unavoidable. If it makes people feel better then OK it was my fault i should of been wearing sun glasses/ more observant so i'll take that point out.

I just know that with all these whiplash claims and as one person has said at around £1500 each that's 3k before we even get to the repairs. The most annoying part about it is i know there were 5 people in the car so it could go up to £7500 just on whiplash claims. So when i come to renew next year a claim that could of cost maybe 3-5K it will most be like 10-20k because of the whiplash claims. I just wish the insurance would fight it a bit more.

PanzerCommander

5,026 posts

217 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
Its total bks isn't it; I was rear ended nearly two months ago it was enough to bend the offside exhaust (car hit me off centre) crease the bumper and break the underslung fog and reverse lights.

Oddly enough I was not injured in the slightest, in fact other than a light thump the impact force translated to me was negligible.

Thankfully I haven't had loads of calls asking me if I am injured, me saying no once to the third party insurers and to my own insurers appears to have been sufficient.

Vaud

50,289 posts

154 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
quotequote all
TwigtheWonderkid said:
The Surveyor said:
The point the OP was trying to make here I think, is that insurance industry is turning a blind eye to fraud.
No evidence this is fraud. He hit tp at 10-15mph. That's a pretty hard impact.
Correct. Can easily get whiplash at 10-15mph.

Whilst diverting from the fact that he was at fault and it was avoidable with better observation skills.