Had a bump on a roundabout - advice needed

[smithyithy]

Need some advice from any insurance bods and/or anyone with a similar experience.

Leaving the services near my work today at lunch. The exit road splits in two with a give-way line. I'm stopped in Lane 2 which is marked as straight over to the M54. Guy on my left is the Lane 1 which is signaled left only, down an A-road to the local town.

We both pull away at the same time, I stay in my lane and he comes right across my lane / path and we hit. He follows me back into services, park up, photos, exchange details and speak to our insurance.

Now Churchill tell me I can get mine repaired if I pay my excess of £550, which I'm not prepared to cough up up-front. She says I can delay the repair while liability is determined but as it's on a roundabout it often goes 50/50.

The guy was Chinese, in a rental Mazda 4x4, from London - so I'm assuming unfamiliar with the car size / visibility and the roundabout layout / local area. I've used this roundabout 5 - 10 times a week for over a year in the same way without incident, in fact this is the first claim I've ever made in my 7 years driving, but anyway...

He didn't 'admit' fault, he did apologise as if he was to blame but his English wasn't great and I've no idea what he'll say when my insurance contact him.

I have to wait for an accident form in the post from Churchill to send back with a full account of the bump etc. but in the meantime have sent them an email description, photos of our cars and map / streetview / diagram etc of the location.

So with this in mind, what are my chances of not being bent over for £550 for an accident that wasn't my fault?

[smithyithy]

shandyboy said:

Without reliable witnesses or dashcam footage I'd say slim to none.

Is there CCTV anywhere near that you could use as proof they moved into your lane?

No witnesses, he had 2 passengers.

There's ANPR cameras but they're further into the services entrance, they don't cover the roundabout.

[smithyithy]

thelawnet said:

It will be much more than £550 by the time you get next year's nicely inflated premium I should think....

Are you saying that essentially you went into the back of him, albeit because of his driving?

I would dispute liability, not sure what the hire company would do, if you are lucky they will blame the hirer, but I would expect a 50/50.

His driver's side wing hit my passenger wing. Even if he was aiming for the same exit as me, there was no reason for him to cut into me so early into the roundabout other than terrible judgment / discipline.

[smithyithy]

lufbramatt said:

Been in the exact same situation. Was offered 50/50, I declined this and it went to court. Middle aged, female judge sided with the little old lady in the other car and it went against me (24 year old bloke in a modified car). No witnesses so she argued I was driving too fast, as it was my word against hers that was that.

Should have taken the 50/50...

That's ridiculous. But if we're going that route:

25(almost)-year old in a relatively valuable car with no prior claims or convictions that uses the roundabout / road on a daily basis.

Chinese guy, similar age with 2 passengers in a large rental vehicle travelling miles away from London with probably no idea where they were going.

[smithyithy]

saaby93 said:

Any idea how much to repair? Is it just a matter of getting a replacement wing?
But dont let on you're prepared to sort yours out or you'll end up with the whole bill

Annoyingly on these Mini's, there's a lot of panels in a small area. So the 'wing' and door are damaged, the indicator and surround, the plastic arch trim is scuffed, the wing mirror cap is scuffed and the folding mechanism may be iffy, and if you see the bottom left corner there's now a bulge in my sidewall presumably from where his large tyre tread contacted my sidewall.. Doesn't look cheap

[smithyithy]

saaby93 said:

Lot of work there but not too deep
Was it his front or rear wing?

Bigger / taller vehicle obviously fared a bit better..



Now I'm putting off the body repair until liability is sorted, but I'm gonna want to get the tyre replaced as that bulge is a bit unsettling! How do I go about this, I mean do I just inform my insurance that I'm replacing it as a safety concern but still expect it to be claimed back through the insurance when the claim is settled?

I don't want them to take me replacing it as an offer to pay out of my excess, if that makes sense..

[smithyithy]

I got in touch with Hertz, his rental company. The first guy I spoke to was very arsey about it, got very defensive and wouldn't tell me if the customer had contacted them, even though I was put through to him by customer services.

They gave me an email address to send a description of the event and photos to, so I've explained what he did and said I was NOT accepting any liability.

But even if I try to claim from their insurance (whoever they use) he still needs to admit fault doesn't he? Churchill should be contacting them on my behalf so I'm just waiting to hear from them now really..

[smithyithy]

saaby93 said:

It'll be easier for your insurer to take your no claims and fix it without the hassle of tracking down the other party. Arguing with your own side isnt the easiest thing to do.
What's best for an easy life?

Best is not having to cough up £550 right now to be honest

Davel said:

Do the photos show direction arrows on the roads surface for each lane?

Good luck by the way.

See, even if I was turning right or looping round to re-enter the services, I'd have had nowhere to go, he must've not seen me at all to cut across and hit me that early on the roundabout..

[smithyithy]

cobra kid said:

"The guy was Chinese". So?

His English wasn't perfect so it was difficult to communicate clearly with him.

From this I'm also assuming he may have struggled to read the road markings or chose the wrong lane for where he was hoping to go.

He had traveled from London up to Telford in a rental vehicle, so perhaps a tourist or someone relatively new to the UK and our roads that doesn't fully understand the lane disciplines.

[smithyithy]

It's baffling to think it could go any other way when his lane is clearly marked as left-only :/

[smithyithy]

Good afternoon!

Thought I'd update you guys on this situation.

Since my last post, I got dicked about by Churchill a bit, at one point when I was at the Isle of Man in June, the repair centre contacted me and said my excess had been waived and I could go ahead with the repair. Chased up Churchill and this turned out to be nonsense. A 'clerical error' that almost had me sending my car to be repaired remotely which I'd have had to pay for.

They compensated me £50 for that error, also due to the fact that I racked up over an hour of calls to their ridiculous call centres trying to get straight answers.

So for the past few months the claim has sat dormant, I've chased them up monthly and been told it's still ongoing, they can't get in touch with the other driver, the letters were lost in the post etc etc.

Last week I renewed the insurance for the Mini - Elephant being the cheapest at £800, a £200 increase due to loss of NCB and a 50/50 claim against me (this verified on the renewal notice that Churchill sent to me, with a lovely price of £1300).

So I coughed up the £800 to Elephant with the plan to just phone Churchill when I got back from holiday to settle the claim as it was clearly going nowhere.

Low and behold, last week as I was catching some rays in Poland, Churchill's claim handler phoned me, and basically said the third party is accepting 100% liability, my excess will be waived for the repairs and I'll have my NCB reinstated!

I've been on the phone to them all this morning. My car's booked in for next Tuesday to be repaired, no cost to me, courtesy car sorted, and Churchill will give me back my NCB, that I can forward to Elephant and hopefully get a couple £hundred refunded.

Slightly unrelated but in addition to this: I got an unexpected pay rise last week and my holiday was wonderful.

Karma, I thank you.

TL;DR Third party is coughing up full blame. Car being repaired, no costs to me, NCB reinstated, refund from insurance premium expected.

[smithyithy]

popeyewhite said:

Well done.

A question if I may: Have you driven a battered mini around for 5 months or have I misread somewhere? I'm curious as to why you did not get the mini repaired quicker and pay the excess, with the excess either paid back to you in full (if you won), or at 50% (50/50), by the insurance company on settlement.

I managed to polish a lot of the damage away myself, leaving only the dents to the panels which, in fairness, don't really jump out at you.

I made the decision to hold fire on repairs as the car was perfectly driveable, with the exception of having to replace a tyre when the sidewall was damaged.

Also as the excess was half a grand, financially I thought it best to wait for a final decision before paying up. For what it's worth, I have a quote from a friend that owns a bodyshop to repair it for £280 - half my excess.

I was about to suck it up and book it in with him to be honest, and just settle for a 50/50 liability as I was getting nowhere trying to fight my side.

This has just been a massive stroke of luck!

[smithyithy]

Cheers, I was too! I was a bit arsey when I answered the phone to be fair, sat by a beach on hol..

Then the lady said 'well I have some news that may make your holiday even better..'

[smithyithy]

I do wonder what prompted the third party (hire car) insurer to change and accept full liability though..

It might be that the driver has buggered of and they can't chase him up.. According to Churchill, his responses and accounts (via post) were rather short and unhelpful.

Perhaps the hire company realised that neither of us were going to get anywhere and just wanted to settle the claim and get it off their system?

[smithyithy]

It would've pushed this whole episode along much quicker, that's for sure.

I have a Drift helmet cam I used on my bike somewhere - I'll see if I can rig that up in the car.

[smithyithy]

VX Foxy said:

OP - did you ask Europa Consultants for their help or advice.

PS. Thanks for the update.

I didn't, no.

I understand what you're all saying and it's why I was so frustrated over the whole thing. It was (in my eyes) clear as what happened based on the road markings approaching the roundabout and the positioning of the impact.

I'd sent diagrams, maps, photos, detailed explanations - the lot. The other driver, on his initial accident report form, literally wrote 'the red car hit me' and ticked the 'other driver' box when asked who was to blame.

So straight away it went to a 50/50 dispute and with no witnesses I was told immediately that roundabout claims almost always go 50/50. Honestly it seemed like Churchill didn't want to spend the time or resource to fight my corner, they just wanted the quickest and easiest resolution for themselves. This is why I have no faith in car insurance frankly.