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.

If they were ever caught they would be refused insurance by all companies and unable to drive.
Not worth it.

When he passes maybe try something like Marmelade pay as you go with black box - that is add on in addition to your own insurance as well and at least you can see the price and only pay for the mileage he drives, and he can accrue a good driving record by trying to get all journeys five star, then hopefully his premium can reduce quicker.

It's not though. A 50 year old consultant is unlikely to be driving around in a pink fiat 500. It's far more likely it's his/her 20 year old daughters car. The insurer is at liberty to ask for proof of ownership of the car, and if the dad/mum doesn't own the car, then the insurance isn't valid as he/she can only take insurance on a car he or she's got a financial interest in. Same as if you've got an 80 year old who has his grandson named on the policy and the car is a souped up modified boy racer car. Whose car is that more likely to be?

Fraud is fraud, whether you think the claims handler is sexist or not, all they're doing is looking into a discrepancy.

On the positive side, your son has seen how to deal with having had an accident. I didn't even have my insurance company name to hand when I was in an accident last year!! Obviously once you've gone through it, you're much more aware and prepared. I now have the number in my phone, always have my coat and mobile, and always go for a wee before leaving

No one was injured and although clearly upsetting and inconvenient, these things happen. Get him back on the horse so to speak, even if he's nervous, encourage him as one accident shouldn't stop him driving. Hopefully his instructor will have experience teaching pupils after an accident and can support him getting back on track.

Hoping it all goes smoothly with the insurance.

There are circumstances where this is ok.

Learners insurance for example, as the car isnt covered by the main policy when the learner is driving. ds also has his car insured by dominos but only when he is delivering Pizza. We checked with his insurance and it is ok.

@Wonnle

Is there really any need for insults? Where have a insulted you? You asked a question and I answered it - I don't profess to know.

But again, if the OP's car is written off, suggested as a potential, then are you saying they don't tell the primary insurer? Please enlighten me on how this will actually work..

Also, where did I say they were claiming on the primary insurance, I didn't, I merely suggested in any case, it would be wise to inform them as they ARE the primary insurer of crashed car.

@WillTimeCome

Should the car be written off op simply cancels her insurance.

i know its too late now but thats why you dont go out without a dual control car-just not worth it

also instructors teach differently to family who also arent up t date with the latest way too teach

i remembe rmy drivinginstructor saying so many times people getting in his car going its ok i know how to drive my dad taught me and everything they did was wrong and had to be untaught which took twice as long

Bit of a worry if he’s written off a car after 18 lessons and practice with parents- that’s more than most people need before passing a test! More lessons in a dual control def needed. And please don’t lie about who was driving. And yes I’ve been in the passenger seat with two of my kids learning to drive.

Yes, that'll solve it. It's not like insurers or the DMV have databases that store information that they share. 😂

There’s no “when” about it, though. “If” is more accurate. Lots of people don’t pass, and never pass.

@HundredMilesAnHour

Op is not claiming on her insurance, her DS insurance is handling the claim.
The whole idea of learners insurance it it's completely separate.

It certainly is , but looking into it i doubt whether the learner will be able to get this type of insurance again !

Most companies will not insure you if you have made a claim before as a learner

Popping up again to say that DD did indeed get learner insurance after having her accident, but we only did it for the last couple of weeks of her learning as far as I can remember as it was so expensive. I think we made the decision that it was cheaper for her to have more lessons with a professional than to insure her & have her drive with us.

So sorry that this has happened OP and hopefully all will be ok.

I see that this thread brings out the know it all. Whether you have to tell them or not, and whether you LI policies will reinsure, is somewhere in between. The rule here is to always check to avoid problems.

@WillTimeCome yes correct there is an obligation to tell your main insurer if anything happens to a car they insure. It will not however impact the main insurance policy.

@Wonnle @whowhatwerewhy Absolute crock of crap. I am with Direct Line and my daughter had LI a couple of years ago when she was learning. She was with Collingwood and both they and Direct Line had to know if there were any issues, damage, accident. I am made sure that I checked with Direct Line before i purchased LI policy.

Also you can still reinsure - some LI underwriters may not, but it is not a matter of fact.

Please don't spout such rubbish when it is always sensible to check on a case by case basis.

@WombatChocolate Please don't listen to others on here telling you to lie who was driving. I'm sure you won't anyway but it amounts to fraud.

How did you get on with the insurance?

We had very similar happen over 5 years ago now. My car was repairable and my insurance not affected as we had learned driver insurance. We ended up replacing the car with a really low insurance group car, I think insurance group 6 and insuring it with a black box thing in it. It was the only way to get our teen on insurance we could afford and it was still expensive. We wanted our teen to drive. I remember despair at the time and the 3 way conversation with the insurance company ... my car, DH supervising and sad teen.

Is it just his own car? - as you can't doubly insure a car (unless it's his personal car it should be him as a named driver on your policy).

We have learner driver insurance for Dd every so often on our car.
It's a stand alone policy and works alongside your own insurance, rather than named driver. It works out cheaper for us as Dd isn't always at home and only needs insuring for the odd week/weekend when home from university..

So, an update….in case it helps someone who unfortunately finds themselves in a similar situation, and to clear up some of the confusions about insurance.

Collingwood took the car away and it was deemed a Cat N total loss/write off. That means not structurally damaged, but because of the costs of using dealership parts and labour costs in the calculations, not economically viable to repair.

Collingwood, who had insured my DS paid out to the owner if the fence that was hit, without any quibble. They also offered us £8k for the car and upped it to £9.5k when we provided adverts if identical cars for sale at that price. There was a £95 excess. I had noted when purchasing that the excess was £95 on yearly policies but £350 on short term ones.

Now, the interesting thing is that as we had taken out a full year policy, the rest of the year could be transferred to another car. So what has happened is DS has now been insured on our other car and we had to pay £35 admin. We hope the remaining 8 or 9 months will be enough for him to pass and we won’t have to renew learner insurance, with the increased premiums due to his accident.

Regarding our own insurance….lots of people were sure it would impact that policy too. The main insurance was for myself and DH. Collingwood told them about the accident and accepted full responsibility for the claim as DS was the driver. This meant, that as I had understood it, that the insurance myself and DH had was not impacted at all. There is no claim against our name and we have had it confirmed that when we take our further insurance with anyine, we won’t have to declare any accident. So that policy was cancelled after Collingwood had paid out and we received a refund minus a £40 admin fee. We then used the insurance money to buy a new car (pretty identical) and I sure just myself and DH and the insurance premium remained below £200 and unaffected by accidents…..as we haven’t had one. DS won’t be insured for this car, as he has been insured by Collingwood on the other car.

DS was shaken by the accident…as he should have been. We were worried he would lose confidence to learn, but we focused on the fact no-one was hurt and the fact his instructor said he was really surprised it had happened, as he hadn’t used the pedals in the instructor car for weeks. It was agreed DS would have a lesson as soon as poss to ‘get back on the horse’ which he did and has since had about 5 lessons. He hasn’t been out driving with his Dad again and becaus he hasn’t been getting the extra practice and because of the accident, we’ve put his test back by 3 months. We expect he will start driving with DH again in the next few weeks. We will speak to instructor again before doing that.

So, what have I learned? Obviously the whole thing was bad and it’s not good for anyone to crash. It shows how easily these things can happen and helps me understand particularly why new drivers who’ve passed have so many accidents. They simply don’t have the experience to be able to judge situations and react quickly, which experienced drivers have. I’m glad we had the separate car insurance with Collingwood, as it has meant our insurance isn’t impacted. That was why we chose it. The yearly policy has worked out well for us, when a short term policy would have had to be renewed for further learning with a hefty hike in premiums. Of course Ds will face much higher insurance himself when he passes. I’ve run a few numbers and if he had his own car (which he won’t) the insurance would be very hefty. Being a named driver on our insurance will be cheaper. It will hike the premiums by about £700 but a new driver was always going to hike it a lot anyway. It might be that he doesn’t have his own car with his own insurance for 3 or 5 years, until the accident is distant enough to not matter or have a much more limited impact. As he will be at uni for most of this time, he won’t need his own car anyway.

I’ve probably had to make over 30 phone calls across several weeks to get this all sorted out. I’ve done it all. DS would have really struggled to do what was needed and to understand the different insurances and their interactions, and to get a good pay out from the insurer. We hope he will be a better driver as a result of this. Who knows really.

Hope this helps someone in future.

I am so glad that you have got this sorted. Your ds has done exactly the right thing in getting ‘back on the horse’. At the end of the day it was an accident and accidents happen, hopefully it won’t dent his confidence too much over the long term and it may even make him a better new driver when he passes.
new driver insurance is expensive anyway so I can’t see it being that much worse especially if he pays it monthly (as we’ve just had to do for our newly passed ds).
good luck to him with his future driving and I hope he passes his test with no more troubles.

@WombatChocolate a learner driver went into the back of a friend's car. Their insurance company contacted my friend and said the learner's mum was willing to pay for the repair if she would be willing not to report it to her insurance company. My friend readily agreed as she felt sorry for the learner. Then the learner's insurance company paid her £100 as a "thankyou". Not sure of the ethics, but it was the insurance company's suggestion.

@WombatChocolate thanks for the update, really informative. I'm glad it's worked out and that DS is still driving. Best of luck to him.

Thanks for the update, I wasn’t aware of learner insurance as a “bolt on” but it’s been useful to know, and how it (doesn’t) affect the main insurance. I’ll still check details if/when I come to teaching my kids.

and I’m glad he seems to be bsvknon the horse. As someone said, these things happen and it might actually be a good thing to burst the “I’m indestructible” bubble before he’s on his own in his own car.

Thank you for the update. I'm glad things are sorted now for all of you. Glad your son got 'back on the horse' too. These things do happen, but as you say, hopefully it will help him not to think an accident won't happen to him and make him ultimately a better driver once he does pass his test.

What a palaver for you though.

Only just read this, but glad it all seems to be sorted now. For info, and I think someone else mentioned it, some companies, such as Admiral only ask for any claims for past 3 years rather than 5. Add on separate policies like you’ve got are excellent in my opinion and often seem to be cheaper than adding to your own policy. We used similar (Veygo) for both my dcs.