Accident - No damage

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TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
Good Morning All

Looking for some advise.

My wife bumped someone at a roundabout on Tuesday - She got out, spoke to the women, the women was extremely nice, told her don't worry about it, neither vehicle was damaged, they never exchanged details and off they went.

Today she has received an email from her insurance company stating she was involved in an accident with another vehicle and a claim has been put in?

To confirm, it is a legit email as the PDF attached had all her contact details, reg, address etc on it.

How does she proceed with this?


ScoobyChris

1,890 posts

215 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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She’ll most likely want to talk to her insurers…?

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
She is phoning them just now to find out what the situation is.

Unfortunately she never took any photos either but there was zero damage and it was a very pleasant interaction as my wife offered her details but the women said it was OK.

Yellow Lizud

2,604 posts

177 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
She speaks to her insurance company.

They already know there was an incident so just tell/ask them what they want to know.

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
The opening part of the letter - A claim has been made against your policy.

I shall report back after she has spoke to them.

SteBrown91

2,783 posts

142 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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There is almost never "no damage". The other driver will have got home, partner will have looked at the car and seen the bumper was creased or scratched etc.

I never understand how people think a 1.5 tonne car can hit another at anything other than crawling pace and genuinely think there is no damage.

Plastic creases, paint marks/scratches, trim clips snap. There is almost always damage.

jonathan_roberts

525 posts

21 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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SteBrown91 said:
There is almost never "no damage". The other driver will have got home, partner will have looked at the car and seen the bumper was creased or scratched etc.

I never understand how people think a 1.5 tonne car can hit another at anything other than crawling pace and genuinely think there is no damage.

Plastic creases, paint marks/scratches, trim clips snap. There is almost always damage.
Yes, second this. There is always damage.

chrisch77

817 posts

88 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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Or it was a scam from the start and the other driver set about to be 'bumped' so they could put in a fraudulent claim?

p4cks

7,103 posts

212 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
Or the woman has then got to work/home and been persuaded to put a whiplash claim in. Easy £3K init

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
So insurance have said her car now has damage on it and they are awaiting photos.

The wife has provided photos of our vehicle as well.

Oh well st happens it would appear.

And yes you can hit a vehicle with no damage, 2 of my employees bumped each other at traffic lights, into the back of the van in front, zero damage.

jonathan_roberts

525 posts

21 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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TheHighlander said:
So insurance have said her car now has damage on it and they are awaiting photos.

The wife has provided photos of our vehicle as well.

Oh well st happens it would appear.

And yes you can hit a vehicle with no damage, 2 of my employees bumped each other at traffic lights, into the back of the van in front, zero damage.
So you inspected the fastenings you can't see under the bumpers, right?

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
jonathan_roberts said:
So you inspected the fastenings you can't see under the bumpers, right?
No the bumper was a solid on both vans before he bumped him........... No damage.

GasEngineer

1,389 posts

75 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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jonathan_roberts said:
SteBrown91 said:
There is almost never "no damage". The other driver will have got home, partner will have looked at the car and seen the bumper was creased or scratched etc.

I never understand how people think a 1.5 tonne car can hit another at anything other than crawling pace and genuinely think there is no damage.

Plastic creases, paint marks/scratches, trim clips snap. There is almost always damage.
Yes, second this. There is always damage.
Isn't the purpose of bumpers to absorb minor knocks?

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
GasEngineer said:
Isn't the purpose of bumpers to absorb minor knocks?
Correct.

So she has spoken to them again, submitted her photos.

They need to wait for the other women's photos before they can decide, the wife has 12 years no claims so they have said if the women claims it will go back to 3 years.

Now is there an option to settle this out of the insurance? As my pal owns a body shop and would do it for us if it's a legit claim - The vehicle she hit was red and the wife had a proper look at the back of it with the women and they couldn't see anything, not to say there isn't a faulty parking sensor or something.

We just need to wait until the other party submits the pics, and stupidly the wife never took any photos.

vikingaero

11,760 posts

182 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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Sometimes the thing that prompts people to claim is the promise of a few thousand with coaching from an accident/claims company.

My mum had a non-fault accident in 2019 and we got about 20 calls from various scamming companies advising us to claim for her whiplash injury. It wasn't until I told them I wouldn't be claiming and I would be telling them to fk off each time they called.

pigface1001

38 posts

53 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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TheHighlander said:
Correct.

So she has spoken to them again, submitted her photos.

They need to wait for the other women's photos before they can decide, the wife has 12 years no claims so they have said if the women claims it will go back to 3 years.

Now is there an option to settle this out of the insurance? As my pal owns a body shop and would do it for us if it's a legit claim - The vehicle she hit was red and the wife had a proper look at the back of it with the women and they couldn't see anything, not to say there isn't a faulty parking sensor or something.

We just need to wait until the other party submits the pics, and stupidly the wife never took any photos.
Does your wfe not have protected NCD?

TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
pigface1001 said:
Does your wfe not have protected NCD?
Nope and I think that's my fault to be honest.......I've not told her it's my fault tho, might keep that to myself.

Steve Campbell

2,229 posts

181 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
If there really was no damage to your car and the other driver claims thousands, it may well get referred to fraudulent claim. My one and only accident was me slowly rolling into a taxi in front of me in traffic queue. My fault, totally distracted on a morning commute. Max 5mph collision. Took photos of both cars, swapped details and away we went. Cue a £7000 claim from the taxi including whiplash etc etc. My insurance sent an engineer to view my car and they found £75 damage (the clips on the plastic radiator grill had been broken). The output of this was that he concluded that there was no way my car could have caused the amount of damage claimed on the taxi...so it got referred to the fraudulent claim department. No idea what happened after that as it was out of my hands once I'd provided my statements etc. Was still a ding on my insurance as I was the idiot that caused the coming together. I now have a dashcam.

Wacky Racer

39,585 posts

260 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
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TheHighlander said:
pigface1001 said:
Does your wfe not have protected NCD?
Nope and I think that's my fault to be honest.......I've not told her it's my fault tho, might keep that to myself.
Think how much you have saved over the years by NOT having protected NCB,

(I have it btw)



TheHighlander

Original Poster:

1,357 posts

211 months

Thursday 19th December 2024
quotequote all
So what happened was.

Rolling up to a clear roundabout, the wife looked round at my 3yo who has this crazy lurgy, she was coughing like she was going to spew, anyway my wife looked forward and just assumed the car in front was going and very very slowly bumped her, enough that they both knew.

My wife never took photos or got details as the other person was so nice (I still would of) it's done now so she can't go back in time unfortunately.

I will update this when we know and take it from there.