Rear-ended at lights. Best way to proceed?

[Ken_Code]

nuyorican said:

Yeah. Hardly seems worth it for a scratch. But how do I know there’s no ‘hidden’ damage like.

I’m no ambulance chaser by the way. Just don’t want to get shafted.

If it was a significant jolt then there’s a good chance that the energy-absorbing crash structures in your bumper have done their job, deformed, and can’t now do it again.

[defblade]

Ken_Code said:

nuyorican said:

Yeah. Hardly seems worth it for a scratch. But how do I know there’s no ‘hidden’ damage like.

I’m no ambulance chaser by the way. Just don’t want to get shafted.

If it was a significant jolt then there’s a good chance that the energy-absorbing crash structures in your bumper have done their job, deformed, and can’t now do it again.

25-ish years ago, I was rear-ended at a roundabout with zero damage visible... except when I got home, i noticed the bumper panel gap was tight at the top and wide at the bottom. Well over a grand's worth of repairs in the end.

[Patio]

nuyorican said:

About an hour ago. Sat first at lights. A big van suddenly rear-ends me. Good old jolt.

So I pull over and the van does the same. More damage on his to be honest. He apologises and says he's not used to the van/automatic. I ask for insurance details and he says it's the company's van so doesn't know but gives me his name and number. I take photos of both vehicles and that's that, we go on our ways.

So what's the correct way to proceed regarding insurance?

Visibly, all that's happened to mine is a scratch and one of the number-plate lights seems to have disappeared into the bumper. It gave me a proper shock though and it's hurt my neck. I don't want to wake up paralysed tomorrow or something and not covered myself.

Likewise, I don't want to have increased premiums from my own insurance company for having the audacity to 'be involved in an incident'.

If you're driving an old banger I wouldn't worry and just carry on driving. Obvs report to insurance but ANY repairs are expensive nowadays

If newish car let insurance deal with it. They can ID vehicle and owner via DVLA

start rubbing neck when in public

[popeyewhite]

Patio said:

Obvs report to insurance

Why is that obvious?

[nuyorican]

Patio said:

If you're driving an old banger I wouldn't worry and just carry on driving. Obvs report to insurance but ANY repairs are expensive nowadays

If newish car let insurance deal with it. They can ID vehicle and owner via DVLA

start rubbing neck when in public

I'm just trying to understand how it all works. It's old, but not a banger. It's well maintained and loved. Fair enough, if it were my fault and I'd scraped it up my garden wall I'd obviously not get the insurance involved due to the higher future premiums. But if someone's driven into me, aren't my insurance company supposed to get the repair costs of his insurance company? So I'm not 'claiming' on my insurance, right?

If he was a nice normal guy who apologised I'd just fix it myself (assuming my neck's going to be ok). But he bullstted me then gave me fake details. So he just gets away with that? And I pay higher premiums from now on.

[Southerner]

Your premiums shouldn’t be massively affected by one clearly non-fault incident. The guy is obviously slippery, and you have concerns regarding a potential neck injury as well as a damaged motor, as well as a contractural obligation to tell your insurance company that you’ve been in a crash. The easiest route here by far is just to report the accident to your insurers, let them deal with it, and relax! If there are any other issues further down the line you’ve done what you need to and you can allow them to take care of it on your behalf, exactly as you pay them to do.

As it stands you’ve given yourself only one option realistically, which is to let him sod off and accept you aren’t getting anything out of him. If you really are insistent on not telling your insurers then it’s difficult to see any other outcome. As I said above, you’re also hoping that he doesn’t make some sort of nonsense claim of his own, for example that you reversed into him or similar. If he were to do that then your position isn’t good if you didn’t tell your insurers anything as that’s a condition of your policy; you’re then caught on the back foot looking dishonest.

Seriously, just phone your insurance company and report the accident!

Edited by Southerner on Saturday 25th May 03:42

[Sheepshanks]

defblade said:

Ken_Code said:

nuyorican said:

Yeah. Hardly seems worth it for a scratch. But how do I know there’s no ‘hidden’ damage like.

I’m no ambulance chaser by the way. Just don’t want to get shafted.

If it was a significant jolt then there’s a good chance that the energy-absorbing crash structures in your bumper have done their job, deformed, and can’t now do it again.

25-ish years ago, I was rear-ended at a roundabout with zero damage visible... except when I got home, i noticed the bumper panel gap was tight at the top and wide at the bottom. Well over a grand's worth of repairs in the end.

Daughter’s Golf was rear ended by a van. She didn’t have whiplash. Boot floor of Golf was creased and both c-posts had tiny kinks in them. Insurer (hers - the Argos van’s insurer wouldn’t respond) wrote it off.

[GasEngineer]

Southerner said:

Seriously, just phone your insurance company and report the accident!

Edited by Southerner on Saturday 25th May 03:42

OP said he did that yesterday evening. Hence his question about being unrepairable.

[E-bmw]

popeyewhite said:

Patio said:

Obvs report to insurance

Why is that obvious?

Because this exact scenario is why you bent over & let them rape you with their price xx months/weeks ago.

[Griffith4ever]

119 said:

bigothunter said:

Missing an opportunity for ££££

As always.

It’s highly unlikely you would get serious whiplash from a low speed impact I would say.

Plus, there is no reason at all to have increased premiums from a non fault accident claim.

We got shunted at a roundabout. Good bang, minor car damage. Both awoke the next morning to find neither of us could move our necks! Locked in place. Bloody inconvenient. Cleared up in a few days.

Another time, I went to set off on my motorbike with the ex on the back. Forgot about the front wheel disc lock. Moved a foot or so then a violent stop (can't imagine how low speed that was) she headbutted me. Both awoke with whiplash.

Its remarkably easy to get whiplash

[Mammasaid]

nuyorican said:

I'm just trying to understand how it all works. It's old, but not a banger. It's well maintained and loved. Fair enough, if it were my fault and I'd scraped it up my garden wall I'd obviously not get the insurance involved due to the higher future premiums. But if someone's driven into me, aren't my insurance company supposed to get the repair costs of his insurance company? So I'm not 'claiming' on my insurance, right?

If he was a nice normal guy who apologised I'd just fix it myself (assuming my neck's going to be ok). But he bullstted me then gave me fake details. So he just gets away with that? And I pay higher premiums from now on.

Pay a tenner, and get the 3rd party's details here - https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

Then use the 3rd party's insurers to claim.

[119]

Mammasaid said:

nuyorican said:

I'm just trying to understand how it all works. It's old, but not a banger. It's well maintained and loved. Fair enough, if it were my fault and I'd scraped it up my garden wall I'd obviously not get the insurance involved due to the higher future premiums. But if someone's driven into me, aren't my insurance company supposed to get the repair costs of his insurance company? So I'm not 'claiming' on my insurance, right?

If he was a nice normal guy who apologised I'd just fix it myself (assuming my neck's going to be ok). But he bullstted me then gave me fake details. So he just gets away with that? And I pay higher premiums from now on.

Pay a tenner, and get the 3rd party's details here - https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

Then use the 3rd party's insurers to claim.

It’s been written off so I doubt the third party insurer would repair it?

[Mammasaid]

119 said:

Mammasaid said:

nuyorican said:

I'm just trying to understand how it all works. It's old, but not a banger. It's well maintained and loved. Fair enough, if it were my fault and I'd scraped it up my garden wall I'd obviously not get the insurance involved due to the higher future premiums. But if someone's driven into me, aren't my insurance company supposed to get the repair costs of his insurance company? So I'm not 'claiming' on my insurance, right?

If he was a nice normal guy who apologised I'd just fix it myself (assuming my neck's going to be ok). But he bullstted me then gave me fake details. So he just gets away with that? And I pay higher premiums from now on.

Pay a tenner, and get the 3rd party's details here - https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

Then use the 3rd party's insurers to claim.

It’s been written off so I doubt the third party insurer would repair it?

Not correct, the OP said, "Now the insurance company has emailed me saying 'your car is potentially unrepairable'."

Probably based on a couple of pictures, not by an assessor. the 3rd paty insusrers could have a different view.

[119]

Mammasaid said:

119 said:

Mammasaid said:

nuyorican said:

I'm just trying to understand how it all works. It's old, but not a banger. It's well maintained and loved. Fair enough, if it were my fault and I'd scraped it up my garden wall I'd obviously not get the insurance involved due to the higher future premiums. But if someone's driven into me, aren't my insurance company supposed to get the repair costs of his insurance company? So I'm not 'claiming' on my insurance, right?

If he was a nice normal guy who apologised I'd just fix it myself (assuming my neck's going to be ok). But he bullstted me then gave me fake details. So he just gets away with that? And I pay higher premiums from now on.

Pay a tenner, and get the 3rd party's details here - https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

Then use the 3rd party's insurers to claim.

It’s been written off so I doubt the third party insurer would repair it?

Not correct, the OP said, "Now the insurance company has emailed me saying 'your car is potentially unrepairable'."

Probably based on a couple of pictures, not by an assessor. the 3rd paty insusrers could have a different view.

Ah, fair enough.

[Steve H]

Let it get into the system.

Regarding the car, even if it is not an economical repair you will get paid the value of it as a writeoff and have the opportunity to buy it back at a cheap rate and fix it yourself. Don’t let it be taken away in the meantime, I guess you are still able to use it so that’s probably not an issue?


You have a potential claim for injury, see how you feel about that and how you recover. Once it gets into the hands of the other insurance company they are sometimes quite keen to settle quickly if it avoids the ambulance chaser companies that double the costs for them.

[Gary C]

Mammasaid said:

nuyorican said:

I'm just trying to understand how it all works. It's old, but not a banger. It's well maintained and loved. Fair enough, if it were my fault and I'd scraped it up my garden wall I'd obviously not get the insurance involved due to the higher future premiums. But if someone's driven into me, aren't my insurance company supposed to get the repair costs of his insurance company? So I'm not 'claiming' on my insurance, right?

If he was a nice normal guy who apologised I'd just fix it myself (assuming my neck's going to be ok). But he bullstted me then gave me fake details. So he just gets away with that? And I pay higher premiums from now on.

Pay a tenner, and get the 3rd party's details here - https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

Then use the 3rd party's insurers to claim.

What's the betting they don't have insurance.

Our eldest got hit 6 months ago, the other driver did the same blagging and it turned out they didn't have insurance. His paid out obviously and the other driver hasn't even been charged and it won't affect his premium as he hasn't got one

And even though he was a Policeman himself, its not his force and they won't talk to him.

[PorkInsider]

Gary C said:

What's the betting they don't have insurance.

Our eldest got hit 6 months ago, the other driver did the same blagging and it turned out they didn't have insurance. His paid out obviously and the other driver hasn't even been charged and it won't affect his premium as he hasn't got one

And even though he was a Policeman himself, its not his force and they won't talk to him.

That's scandalous! Is there no way to report him to his own force's standards authority, or whatever they have?

[Patio]

E-bmw said:

popeyewhite said:

Patio said:

Obvs report to insurance

Why is that obvious?

Because this exact scenario is why you bent over & let them rape you with their price xx months/weeks ago.

Exactly!

[Gary C]

PorkInsider said:

Gary C said:

What's the betting they don't have insurance.

Our eldest got hit 6 months ago, the other driver did the same blagging and it turned out they didn't have insurance. His paid out obviously and the other driver hasn't even been charged and it won't affect his premium as he hasn't got one

And even though he was a Policeman himself, its not his force and they won't talk to him.

That's scandalous! Is there no way to report him to his own force's standards authority, or whatever they have?

Maybe, but he has since left the Force so just let it go.

[popeyewhite]

Patio said:

E-bmw said:

popeyewhite said:

Patio said:

Obvs report to insurance

Why is that obvious?

Because this exact scenario is why you bent over & let them rape you with their price xx months/weeks ago.

Exactly!

Hmm. Naive?

Sooo the following year and years after that your premium rises, so it's a rape+ situation: you have the hassle if the third party's insurer decides to go 50/50, you have the hassle of dealing with the loan car company, you have the hassle of having to declare the incident/whatever every year for five years, you have the hassle of not having your own car whilst repairs are carried out, and as the OP has already discovered you have the hassle of your own insurance company potentially wanting to write your car off etc etc

At least get your motor checked over before telling your insurance company I mean if the fix is £2k then use them,,,but if the fix is £200?