Learner Driver has crashed our car

[WombatChocolate]

Hi there. Unfortunately DS has crashed the car whilst out doing driving practice with his Dad. There is damage to the wing, he has knocked down the fence of a residential property and the car won’t now drive.

I have collected DS and taken home (very shaken) and left DH to wait for the recovery truck.

Has anyone else had something like this happen? We have fully comp Learner Insurance with Collingwood as a separate policy to our own, so own no-claims won’t be impacted, but what does it mean for DS and car insurance after he passes? I’m finding it difficult to find out. Do learner accidents need to be declared in the same way as standard accidents?

Such a shame - he was doing really well and besides all the inconvenience and no-doubt costs involved (despite insurance and a low excess) this will clearly be a big hit to his confidence.

Any similar experiences or advice very welcome.

Just out of interest how did the incident happen? Was it a case of him not knowing what he was doing or misjudging a turn? I agree with others who have said that while not ideal can be taken as a learning experience for him. Hope his confidence isn't knocked too much!

That's fraud.

If the insurance found out they could cancel the policy, and block any future policies. That would mean it would be near enough impossible to get insurance in the future as someone who is willing to commit fraud would be an unacceptable risk.

Ok premiums will go up, but this is exactly why you have insurance. He would be feeling a lot worse if he had to pay to fix everything out of his own pocket.

@WombatChocolate - sounds like you are doing and have done all the right things. I am so sorry for your DS and as you say his confidence will have taken a huge knock.

As other PP have said though, while it is a real shame, this may be a silver lining to the cloud in the long run. So many young people get overconfident once they pass their test because they think these things won't happen to them and that tends to be why so many of them have accidents. Your DS will have the knowledge that it CAN happen to anyone and will probably be a better driver from the outset as a result. A very hard lesson, but as you say no-one has been hurt which is the main thing

I do hope your car isn't a write off. Depends on the age and the value of it I guess. I had an 18 month old car which slipped on ice and took out a wall, damaged the wing, the bumper and smashed the radiator ( and I was going at less than 10mph because it was snowing). They did repair it, but the bill was around £2000 back in 2011. I hope you are lucky too

"The one thing is that our own insurance shouldn’t be impacted as it’s just ours and this accident won’t be declared when we come to renewal and dealt with via this separate policy."

Humm. I would have thought that you would have to declare this to your main insurer of the car now and when you renew. Before you "omit" this information I would double check because the consequences coould be serious, i.e., invalidate your policy. If it were me I would be mentioning it anyway because if you didn't need too, then no impact anyway, but are covered if you were obliged to mention.

When DD did similar & also had an accident about a year after passing, it did affect her premiums but not by as much as you might have thought. Also, I think Admiral use the last 3 years, not 5. It did affect her learning, she wouldn't go back to her previous instructor, who she didn't like much anyway. She found a very gentle older instructor who was fantastic with her & she passed about 10 months after her accident.

Not helpful for today, but possibly for going forward, is there anywhere you can hire a dual control car from, we can hire them from Arnold Clark as we have them close, this is what we were going to do for Ds as we didn't want him driving in dps car incase there was an accident and dp would be left with out a car, we didn't need to hire the car as my parents kindly bought Ds a car a few weeks before his test so he practiced in that, we also used collingwood and they seemed really good but there insurance for when he passed his test was not the cheapest and we went elsewhere.

If the car is written off you can buy it back using the settlement money and repair it yourselves. Insurance companies seem to be keen to write off cars at the moment.

NGL I would think about doing this too. I KNOW it's wrong, but if there were no witnesses, I would think to just say I was driving, or my DH was.

BUT I would see sense........ and not do it. As a number of people have said, it's a bad idea. Just be truthful, and say it was your son learning. It WILL impact your insurance, and may bump it up a tad, but it will not cause as much damage/shit as lying. It's unlikely you will be found out, but you MIGHT do, and the shit will hit the fan if you do.

Just be honest. Insurance companies appreciate that. Many MANY people teach their kids in their own car, so I am sure they will be OK with it.

@WombatChocolate is it an option to get the damage fixed without claiming? Could you afford to do this? Sometimes (once you take into account the excess,) you don't end up paying much more if you just get it done yourself.

The one thing is that our own insurance shouldn’t be impacted as it’s just ours and this accident won’t be declared when we come to renewal and dealt with via this separate policy.

If at any point in the next few years you want to add him as a named driver on your policy then you would need to declare it, as they'll ask you about claims and convictions for all named drivers.

Great idea, because dishonesty and perjury is a great thing thing to teach your child. Until they get caught.

Not sure how they could do that without some conclusive proof...my DH often used my DDs car to pop to the shops if she was parked behind him.

@SirGawain
Said I had my helmet on but quite honestly have you read the thread mate? How many more will jump in to call me any amount of names. I got it after the first dozen commnets and I don't need yours but you crack on😀
Have a nice evening

Can you not just pay for the repairs to car and fence.. His insurance as a new driver will be sky high. So it will now be higher. If anyone even will insure him. Some. Don't

I don’t know if we just got lucky but my son had a small accident when learning. Similar as it was single vehicle so no other car involved. When I used money supermarket, I put in details with and without accident just to see the difference and it was less than £100 with Tesco black box.

Son was super shaken up and rather embarrassed. Whilst I agree that definitely don’t lie to the insurance etc, I did tell son just not to tell anyone if he didn’t want to. I said we wouldn’t say anything either. Some young adults are robust to the ribbing / ‘banter’ but I knew he wouldn’t be. We went for the least said, soon mended approach. We also got him out again in a car asap.

They couldn't do it without other proof than 'someone sexist thinks this is a girly car' It's nonsense.

While I agree with getting back to it asap, your flippancy over 'loads of prangs' worries me slightly - what happens if you kill someone next time? Have you thought about getting additional lessons? Something must be going wrong somewhere.

Because failure to report an accident can lead to your policy being declared void by insurers, and you wouldn't be covered by them if you have a future accident.

What is it with some posters?!! Just tell the bloody truth! Thank goodness the OP sounds like she has some integrity, unlike some on here.

Why ?

Neither of the policy holders were driving the car and it was insured for the learner on a separate policy .

Because the main car that the primary insurer is covering has been badly damaged, or is a write off. How can the policy continue to insure under these conditions?

Sorry, just to clarify. The primary insurer has a vested interest in the car that has now been damaged. I would have thought this alone would have been a reason to inform the primary insurer.

@WillTimeCome
I don't think you understand how separate learners politics work.
They are designed so should the leaner have an accident it doesn't affect the other policy .

Unfortunately yes ops DS will probably have to pay extra once he come to insure as he has claimed, ops insurance remains unchanged.

Gosh, people are so terribly law-abiding on here. Even wry mentions of it elicit outraged posts, every time.

Not all insurance policies accept add ons. You still need to have a primary policy in place and this will be in the t&C's of the add on. Mine doesn't, it's in their small print.

@whowhatwerewhy
Please read my post correctly before making suff up. Where did I say it would affect the policy? What I said was that "I would have thought to declare with the main insurer" because I don't know, and I didn't say I did. My point is that IF the car is a write off, for example, how can the primary insurer not know? Will they continue to insure a car that is no longer on the road? If the car is badly damaged and the car takes a while to repair, then you would have to inform your primary insurer, that your vehicle is in a car garage undergoing repair.

I took the view that IF it doesn't impact the main policy, of which I accept it won't probably won't, then why would you not declare this to the primary insuer. What is there to lose?

I am not convinced that keeping it from them is sound advice.

Are you in need of sub titles for the hard of understanding ?

The policy of the main insurers is not being claimed on in any way , shape or form !