Rear-ended at lights. Best way to proceed?

[nuyorican]

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'.

[Southerner]

Report it, if his employer is a bit disagreeable you don’t want your own insurers asking you in a few weeks’ time if you accidentally reversed into him at the lights…

[nuyorican]

Report to who?

[Southerner]

nuyorican said:

Report to who?

Your insurance company! That’s what you pay them for.

[Silvanus]

nuyorican said:

Report to who?

Your insurer, you technically have to anyway.

[davek_964]

nuyorican said:

Report to who?

To your insurer.

It's then up to you whether you claim from his insurers directly or yours. When I had a non fault claim, I claimed from the third party insurer and had no issues - but I did notify my insurer.

[Geffg]

Although it may look superficial damage to yours you may find it’s more than you think. Rear ends tend to be good at hiding damage.

[KungFuPanda]

If you can get in contact with the third party company or their insurer, they normally bend over backwards to repair your car and get you a hire car at no cost to yourself. This is to stop you getting into the hands of the evil Credit Hire Companies who will inflate the value of your claim.

With your whiplash, the government have now developed a website where innocent parties such as yourself can run their own personal injury claim. Your own insurer won’t be interested in helping you with a personal injury claim or a claim for any other uninsured losses as that’s not their job.

[bigothunter]

Will you be claiming for whiplash injury? Potential compensation for time off work.

[Bill]

Or take some pain killers use heat or ice (for pain relief depending on preference) and crack on.

[bigothunter]

Bill said:

Or take some pain killers use heat or ice (for pain relief depending on preference) and crack on.

Missing an opportunity for ££££

[119]

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.

[Pica-Pica]

The outcome may well be:
Insurer takes details.
You get car fixed, paying your excess.
Your insurer recovers cost from the third party, and reimburses to you your excess.
That’s what happened to me.

[nuyorican]

Pica-Pica said:

The outcome may well be:
Insurer takes details.
You get car fixed, paying your excess.
Your insurer recovers cost from the third party, and reimburses to you your excess.
That’s what happened to me.

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.

[loskie]

Speak to his company, get the co's insurance details and speak to them. Notify your insurer only

[nuyorican]

loskie said:

Speak to his company, get the co's insurance details and speak to them. Notify your insurer only

How do I find out his company? Or even insurance details?

The phone number he gave me doesn’t work. Quelle surprise…

[loskie]

reg number?

Report to Police as failure to exchange details at an accident.

[nuyorican]

Yeah I have reg number.

So this is starting to get weird. I reported as advised. On inspecting the car properly I noticed the number plate light had been smashed in too. So took some photos of the very minor damage and submitted them. Now the insurance company has emailed me saying 'your car is potentially unrepairable'.

What the hell does that mean? It's not a valuable car, but I like it so I don't want to just scrap it over a scratch.

[popeyewhite]

Repair it yourself if your neck's OK tomorrow. Like as not you'll get a premium increase just for notifying your insurance company.

ETA just read the post above. Doh!

Edited by popeyewhite on Friday 24th May 19:22

[119]

nuyorican said:

Yeah I have reg number.

So this is starting to get weird. I reported as advised. On inspecting the car properly I noticed the number plate light had been smashed in too. So took some photos of the very minor damage and submitted them. Now the insurance company has emailed me saying 'your car is potentially unrepairable'.

What the hell does that mean? It's not a valuable car, but I like it so I don't want to just scrap it over a scratch.

What car is it?

Mind you, insurers seem quite keen to write anything off these days.