Insurance Claim Question
Discussion
Quick one here;
My friend was involved in a minor collision the other day. He was pulling out of a service station in heavy rain, looked right to see if there was any oncoming traffic, proceeded and then only noticed the oncoming car when they hit.
He said that because he pulled out it was his fault (obviously), but wondered if he could lessen the damage by claiming the other driver did not have his lights on in heavy rain thus reducing his visibility to other drivers in bad weather/light conditions?
Think it's plausible?
My friend was involved in a minor collision the other day. He was pulling out of a service station in heavy rain, looked right to see if there was any oncoming traffic, proceeded and then only noticed the oncoming car when they hit.
He said that because he pulled out it was his fault (obviously), but wondered if he could lessen the damage by claiming the other driver did not have his lights on in heavy rain thus reducing his visibility to other drivers in bad weather/light conditions?
Think it's plausible?
Sean, chill. HS was just asking a question, and it's possibly a valid question.
My view - he can try, but where will it get him?
1) He's 100% responsible, he loses NCB or an protection 'life'. he coughs up the excess.
Other person suffers no loss.
2) He argues, it takes a year or two to go to court, at court it's assessed e.g. 75-25 against him. He suffers as above - loss of NCB and excess, plus 75% of his court expenses* on top.
Other person also suffers loss of NCB or protection 'life', AND their excess, AND 25% of their court expenses.
My view is that, if he accepts he's responsible, does he REALLY want to put the other person (and himself) through the stress of a court-case, and THEN potentially cause the other person financial loss with no gain to anyone but an insurance company. Sounds anti-social, unless he's a genuine grudge against that other person. But that's just me.
One other option I don't recommend is that he approaches the other person, discusses this with them, asks for half his excess in return for not disputing...but that would be blackmail, and potentially get him into even more bother than currently.
* - 'expenses', not costs - so travel, time-off, etc.
My view - he can try, but where will it get him?
1) He's 100% responsible, he loses NCB or an protection 'life'. he coughs up the excess.
Other person suffers no loss.
2) He argues, it takes a year or two to go to court, at court it's assessed e.g. 75-25 against him. He suffers as above - loss of NCB and excess, plus 75% of his court expenses* on top.
Other person also suffers loss of NCB or protection 'life', AND their excess, AND 25% of their court expenses.
My view is that, if he accepts he's responsible, does he REALLY want to put the other person (and himself) through the stress of a court-case, and THEN potentially cause the other person financial loss with no gain to anyone but an insurance company. Sounds anti-social, unless he's a genuine grudge against that other person. But that's just me.
One other option I don't recommend is that he approaches the other person, discusses this with them, asks for half his excess in return for not disputing...but that would be blackmail, and potentially get him into even more bother than currently.
* - 'expenses', not costs - so travel, time-off, etc.
sean5302 said:
How could an argument be made that the other driver was speeding?
Our poster said that he had not even seen him and the first he knew was the collision.
The Highway code uses the definition of poor visibility as seeing less than 100m. If we say that it took maybe 5 seconds between pulling out and "the bump", to cover 100m in 5s is equal to 20m/s.
This is 1200m/minute. And 72 km/hr. About 45mph.
If I see someone 100m away from me, travelling towards me at 45mph, the last thing I'd do is pull out in front of them.
Maybe there was a bend 80 metres away, and it was a 30 mph limit
Parrot of Doom said:
sean, I think the last post could be loosely described as 'pulling your leg'
...none so blind...!!!
Sean, we agree with you, OK. But there are ways and means of making your point...and your way is just getting people's backs up. Take a deep breath, take a minute or two to read your post before you send it, and ask yourself if it's going to add anything. I would imagine HS's mate is rather gutted at what happened, and IS going to be more careful when pulling out in future. Also, HS isn't the one to be shouting at - he's just the messenger.
Anyway, time for some
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