Friend hit cyclist - claiming not her fault. Next steps?
Discussion
A friend of my Mrs hit a cyclist last week. Her story is that she was turning right at lights on green, when a cyclist rode in front of her. She was going 25mph and the cyclist ended up on the window, causing her screen to crack quite significantly. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries and the young lad on the bike was okay despite not wearing a helmet!
The Police arrived on the scene and took information from witnesses, and said that there’d be no further action taken against any party. Unfortunately my friend’s English is limited and she didn’t take a Police reference number or the details of witnesses and the cyclist.
Her windscreen is pretty badly damaged and my advice to her was to pop it on the drive and get Autoglass out to fix it, as it’s an old Golf. This is what I’d do, personally as I think it’s the most hassle-free course. I’ve told her that it’s unlikely anything will come through from the cyclist as he was a young lad without a helmet, he’s probably had the fright of his life and a b
king from his folks!
However, she wants to:
A) Claim on insurance that she woke up in the morning and the windscreen was damaged like that. I told her that this is Insurance fraud and you should never lie to your insurers! If she is going to claim, she needs to be truthful. I advised her against claiming full stop as I am concerned they may write the car off!
B) Go to the hospital pretending to be injured and try to sue the lad. I think this is outrageous, personally. Young lad has been through enough and it is again fraudulent in my eyes.
Some advice from here may go some way in backing up my thoughts or providing some other options. It’s a piece of st Golf and she’s still pottering around in it even with the damage. Truthfully if she wishes to pursue either of those paths I hope she gets done!
Thoughts? Cheers
The Police arrived on the scene and took information from witnesses, and said that there’d be no further action taken against any party. Unfortunately my friend’s English is limited and she didn’t take a Police reference number or the details of witnesses and the cyclist.
Her windscreen is pretty badly damaged and my advice to her was to pop it on the drive and get Autoglass out to fix it, as it’s an old Golf. This is what I’d do, personally as I think it’s the most hassle-free course. I’ve told her that it’s unlikely anything will come through from the cyclist as he was a young lad without a helmet, he’s probably had the fright of his life and a b
king from his folks!However, she wants to:
A) Claim on insurance that she woke up in the morning and the windscreen was damaged like that. I told her that this is Insurance fraud and you should never lie to your insurers! If she is going to claim, she needs to be truthful. I advised her against claiming full stop as I am concerned they may write the car off!
B) Go to the hospital pretending to be injured and try to sue the lad. I think this is outrageous, personally. Young lad has been through enough and it is again fraudulent in my eyes.
Some advice from here may go some way in backing up my thoughts or providing some other options. It’s a piece of s
t Golf and she’s still pottering around in it even with the damage. Truthfully if she wishes to pursue either of those paths I hope she gets done!Thoughts? Cheers
Thanks for the good advice so far. I have passed on the comments from this thread to the missus and she'll be passing it on.
I should point out that this girl is an utter muppet and not really a 'friend', but more of an associate through very long and convoluted relationships. Suffice to say that we know her and that we're the first point of contact in anything like this as my missus is the only one who can fluently speak English. Cheers
I should point out that this girl is an utter muppet and not really a 'friend', but more of an associate through very long and convoluted relationships. Suffice to say that we know her and that we're the first point of contact in anything like this as my missus is the only one who can fluently speak English. Cheers
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