Rear ended whilst stationary

[Honestherbert]

I was rear ended at approximately 50mph whilst stationary a couple of days ago and am looking for some advice if anyone has been in the same situation? The guy who hit me held his hands up straight away and admitted he was playing with his stereo at the time ( 3 independant witnesses in the car behind him too). I was punted down the road approximately 6-10 car lengths and am now off work with a f***ing sore back and neck and can't drive due to a combination of pain and the medication I am on. I contacted my insurance immediately to inform them of the situation but due to his insurance (admiral) admitting no contest they said they didn't need to be involved but thanked me for letting them know.

Admiral have taken my vehicle away for assessment and provided me with a replacement van at their cost (his vehicle was a pretty much guaranteed write off) but have since the accident called me every day to ask how I'm doing etc and asking if I intent to make a P.I claim, I said it was too soon to know.No doubt they will ring again tomorrow and after today I am feeling I am now in a position where I may have no other choice,my back is worse if anything and I can see myself being able to do anything without my fiancee driving me around for maybe (hopefully) another week?? I am on codine and diazapam

Quite simply would I be better to deal directly with Admiral or pass the P.I side over to a company working solely on my behalf? I am just worried that Admiral will be looking after their own interests and that of their customer more than mine? I have never been in this situation before as although I have had accidents (non fault!) they were both rear enders at traffic lights with traffic crawling, not at 50mph with me sitting stationary!

Any advice much appreciated and thanks for taking time to read my post.

[Honestherbert]

TooMany2cvs said:

I suspect 50mph might be a bit optimistic, but...

Get your injuries documented medically, and keep records of when you can't work because of them. It shouldn't be very different going through a claims handler or direct. Loon will probably be a long shortly.

Possibly?? I didn't see it coming! 50mph is what the guy who hit me said he thought he must have been doing, he was travelling at approximately 60-70mph and only managed to brake for split second. The girls behind him had seen me stop and sitting waiting to turn and already stopped a good 15 car lengths behind him after he had hit me they said the brake lights came on and then the back of his car lifted of the road. The whole front end of his car will need replacing and the engine had moved back a few inches.

[Honestherbert]

PurpleMoonlight said:

Do not under any circumstances agree any PI compensation with them yet. As you state it is far to early to properly assess any long term injuries.

If they persist in trying to pressure you to do so tell them you will make a formal complaint.

Hope you recover quickly.

Thankyou, and thankyou again!

[Honestherbert]

Firstly, thank you all for the replies, I appreciate that this is an issue that divides peoples opinions, including my own. However I would like to make it 100% clear that I am NOT interested in shafting Admiral for the fact I have a sore back and dragging this out for an extra £500 or whatever. I would rather be better and back to work earning money again, I run my own company with only one other employee who simply cannot cover the workload on his own, I am not interested in claiming loads for "personal injury" I just want to make sure I can recover the cost for my companies loss of earnings (circa £1000 per day turnover) and my medical expenses ( currently £28.50!) which admiral have told me will come under PI.

I will be informing them when they call today that I will be making a claim, although I have no idea when that claim will be as I am still in agony and don't know when the pain and stiffness in my back and neck will subside. We were supposed to be going away this weekend with friends to Norfolk, however this will no longer be happening due to me not being very comfortable sitting in a car for 2 hours! however this is not something I feel needs to be compensated, it was a weekend break and anything could have come up to stop it, kids unwell, work etc... so I don't think I am being unreasonable, I just don't want to be feeling like this for the next however many weeks and financially out of pocket too!

[Honestherbert]

I suppose what I am saying is I am not out "for all I can get" and until I was put in the situation I too looked down on those who put in claims for PI at the drop of a hat. But this isn't drop of a hat, and my reason for asking advice is quite simply the only experiences I have had of insurance companies and claims is negative ones where they try to offer half the price on the value of a car! only to pay a reasonable amount after months of negotiating. I don't want to have this situation with both my work van AND my loss of earnings.

Edited by Honestherbert on Friday 27th March 08:35

[Honestherbert]

LoonR1 said:

You're missig the point. It's not about going back with a fixed claim figure. Let them get you into rehab for your pain now at their cost, that's all part of the claim, but means you're not out of pocket. It's also helping to mitigate the cost of the claim. If you ignore their offer and then the daily claim of £1000 keeps growing then you're not helping yourself at all.

Apologies, but how am I missing the point?? I haven't been offered any form of rehab? or offered anything to be honest? I appreciate your posting on this thread as you obviously do this as a profession, and am not being pedantic in any way,at least not intentionally!

[Honestherbert]

PurpleMoonlight said:

Yeah, right.

Hey OP, Have the insurer offered you any private medical care by any chance? Bet not ....

No, not at all, they just keep ringing and asking if I intend to put in a claim for personal injury, and when I have said that I don't know yet as it is too soon, ring back the next morning to ask the same question. I did ask if I could claim back my costs for the diazepam and codiene but the girl said she had to put me on hold to speak to her supervisor, she came back saying they certainly would, but would like to pay in one lump sum all at once, not for each and every time I have an expense which is fair enough.

[Honestherbert]

DAN TEMPLE said:

Mmh, in my experience the insurance company has been reasonable in settling if the car has been written off. The PI claim should be just for that a PI. Codeine and Diazepam seem hard core from the start. Diazepam has a half life clinically of around 20 mins, so would suggest something longer acting if it is bad. Also unless you have a contraindication I would ask the GP for something different to Codeine, it's excellent for chronic pain but a non steroidal is probably for acute issues. Should be better data on insurance company performance on claims, that's what counts. Now some entrepreneurs amongst you should set up a website that reveals how much a particular company pays out, at least then we the general public can see whether we are likely to get market value for our pride and joy if the worst happens.

I don't yet know if my van will be written off, I have heard nothing in regards to the assessors decision since they took it. I did receive a text message to say it had arrived at the bodyshop later that afternoon though. I highly suspect it will be written off as it was a £3.5k van and I'm sure the labour rates and use of new genuine parts will deem it financially uneconomical to repair.