Other car hit cone into my path, my car damaged

[rainagain]

I was driving on a motorway, my carriageway was closed and there were roadworks directing us to drive on the opposite carriageway. The two flows of traffic were separated by a line of traffic cones, a car coming the other way was drifting towards my side of the road (this isn't obvious until you see the dashcam footage), just as it got to pass my car, it hit a traffic cone which smacked into my bumper damaging it (deep scratches), As it hit the cone just as it got to my car there was no way I could avoid it.

The cone ended up going under my car, I've not yet checked under my car so I don't yet know if the underneath of it has any damage or if any of the under bumper fasteners are broken. The impact was so great it triggered the emergency recording in my dashcam which has captured the whole event including the other car's number plate. I glanced in the rear view mirror and possibly saw the car behind me hitting the same cone once I'd run it over but I'm not sure.

I'm just wondering can I claim for the damaged caused by the other driver's negligence?

TL/DR car coming other way hit a cone into my path, can I claim for the damage this caused.

[Pericoloso]

If you have the reg of the offending car,I don't see why not .

[rainagain]

donkmeister said:

Is the reg of the other car clearly visible in the footage? I would say you're onto a loser if not.

Luckily I recently bought a new dashcam so it is easily readable

[anonymous-user]

Just go straight to their insurer. You can get the details from AskMID.

https://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

[Tomo1971]

Also consider calling the police for that area and passing on the information - purely so the car behind you can claim AND they dont think it was you - their vision will have been impeded by your vehicle and assume you were the one to dislodge it.

A, it is the right thing to do for a fellow motorist and B, stops any nasties later on.

[surveyor]

Lucky escape. Friend has an M5 that was written off by an escaped cone..

We do not take the piss. Much...

[rainagain]

Well things are going well with this.

I used the askmid link to find out their insurer and started a claim on Friday night. I was told someone would call me back on Saturday. Guess what no one called.

I tried to call the number the claims hander gave me this morning and wasted 28 minutes on hold before I gave up. I then tried to call the claims number off their website and wasted another 18 minutes before I hung up.

I’ve filled in an online contact form on their website but I’m not holding breath.

What do you think I should do now?
1. Raise it with my own insurance company and hope they’re better at keeping in contact
2. Involve one of those accident management companies
3. Nothing and hope they call back at a time when I can answer the phone

[anonymous-user]

Personally I'd give them a couple of days. They are probably trying to contact the driver to see if they dispute it or not.

Then I'd give them a call and tell them you'll be involving an AMC unless they buck their ideas up, that usually improves their responses considerably.

[jamei303]

If you have clear video evidence you are not at fault then the obvious things is to use your own insurance company, why wouldn't you?

The other driver's insurance company act for the other driver, and have no interest in dealing with you. In fact the best thing from their point of view would be if they never heard from you again.

[xjay1337]

Hang on, you haven't even checked to see if there is any damage but you are already reaching out to insurers?

[anonymous-user]

I would have worked out how much it would have cost to fix a deep scratch before trying to claim, unfortunately that is the world we live in.

[Rude-boy]

Thesprucegoose said:

I would have worked out how much it would have cost to fix a deep scratch before trying to claim, unfortunately that is the world we live in.

When i first started driving in the mid 1990's this is certainly the way that almost all 'minor' bumps and grazes were dealt with.

Sadly these days though what was a minor £500 blow over at worst due to a mis timing at the lights or whatever can suddenly 2 years after you thought it was all sorted become a PI claim...

These days the risk is just not worth it, and in the OP's position whilst i would be thinking first about sorting it myself the potential risk for others to try to claim off me would be high.

[EU_Foreigner]

xjay1337 said:

Hang on, you haven't even checked to see if there is any damage but you are already reaching out to insurers?

Damage to the bumper was already confirmed.

[Mandat]

jamei303 said:

If you have clear video evidence you are not at fault then the obvious things is to use your own insurance company, why wouldn't you?

Not being at fault does not automatically mean that you have a claim against a third party.

What the OP needs is clear evidence of the third party being negligent, since negligence is a pre-requisite to a successful claim being launched. If the third party has not been negligent or the OP cannot prove that they have, then a claim against them is unlikely to succeed.

I appreciate that it is a small difference but a crucial one nonetheless.

[BertBert]

Mandat said:

Not being at fault does not automatically mean that you have a claim against a third party.

What the OP needs is clear evidence of the third party being negligent, since negligence is a pre-requisite to a successful claim being launched. If the third party has not been negligent or the OP cannot prove that they have, then a claim against them is unlikely to succeed.

I appreciate that it is a small difference but a crucial one nonetheless.

Given the circs described by the OP , what would be the differentiation between negligent and not negligent in the circumstances?

[Mandat]

BertBert said:

Given the circs described by the OP , what would be the differentiation between negligent and not negligent in the circumstances?

Hard to say without seeing the actual video in question.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

BertBert said:

Mandat said:

Not being at fault does not automatically mean that you have a claim against a third party.

What the OP needs is clear evidence of the third party being negligent, since negligence is a pre-requisite to a successful claim being launched. If the third party has not been negligent or the OP cannot prove that they have, then a claim against them is unlikely to succeed.

I appreciate that it is a small difference but a crucial one nonetheless.

Given the circs described by the OP , what would be the differentiation between negligent and not negligent in the circumstances?

The cone may have been dislodged by a previous mystery vehicle, giving the tp little chance to avoid it, and thus it hitting the OP's car.

[Trevor555]

If it's only a front bumper repaint I wouldn't bother involving insurance.

Even though your not at fault it'll still go down as an incident and raise your premium next year??

Anyone in the industry confirm? Or correct me?

[Sheepshanks]

jamei303 said:

If you have clear video evidence you are not at fault then the obvious things is to use your own insurance company, why wouldn't you?

Agree.

I never understand this "go to other party's insurance company" lark. Why bother paying for fully comp insurance if you're going to do all the legwork yourself?

You're obliged to inform your own insurer anyway, and if the claim with the third party insurer gets messy, or the repair is crap, they have no incentive to help you as you're not their customer.

[xjay1337]

Trevor555 said:

If it's only a front bumper repaint I wouldn't bother involving insurance.

Even though your not at fault it'll still go down as an incident and raise your premium next year??

Anyone in the industry confirm? Or correct me?

100% correct.