Car accident involving colleague

[WrendaleCountryDogs]

On Thursday, a colleague was driving into our work place car park and swerved to avoid a car coming out, and went straight into my car. Cctv shows she was going too fast and the other driver had right of way as it's a narrow entrance/exit and road signs show priority is to the one exiting the car park.
Anyway my car is damaged. I was parked in a bay and not in the car. I took car to garage yesterday and they said its going be around £800 to sort the damage. I've got my MOT in February and the car won't Pass based on the damage.
Spoke to colleague,.who I've known for years and we get on really well. I said we can go through her insurance or she can pay for it. She was very evasive and has now said she's not actually insured. She is also adamant she can't pay £800. This is probably true as she's got twin 2 year old and a 15 month old.

What the he'll do I do? I cannot afford this. Car is a 2010 and done over 150k miles. If the mot failed and it was to cost me £800 I'd scrap it and get another car. But it's not me that has caused this damage.

What do I do???

Contact your insurance and give them all her details, and inform them of the CCTV footage too.

It's not your fault she has got herself in this situation. Being the parent young children doesn't absolve her of her responsibility.

Also bear in mind that she is driving uninsured every day, and will often be transporting her children whilst driving uninsured.

This is a choice she has made.

You are not responsible for any consequences - her choices, her responsibilities, her fault.

Next time she does it the consequences could be far higher.

None of that is your problem

Make sure that a copy of the relevant CCTV footage is stored, then you should claim on your insurance and let them sort it out. Almost every insurance provider will have a clause in their policy requiring you to declare any incidents you've been involved in while driving in the past 5 years. Failure to report an accident can lead to your policy being declared void by your insurers which could result in you being uninsured in respect of vehicle damage in the event of a later accident. But you will likely lose your no claims bonus, and you should also consider that the insurance company may not consider the car economically repairable, i.e. write it off.
You should also consider that failing to report someone who drives on public roads without at least 3rd party insurance means that you are aiding and abetting this illegality.
You're going to be paying for the actions of this idiot driver, so I'd quit feeling sorry for her.

I wonder what your colleague would do if the roles were reversed and it was you who damaged her vehicle

Please report to your insurance as others have said

Thanks everybody. Will be contacting insurance tomorrow.
I've not long got to work and colleague was meant to be working today but has phoned in sick....guilty concisous me thinks.

Well done for coming to that conclusion. Stick with it.

You can phone them now, they will have a 24 hour reporting line.

If she doesn’t have insurance then she has been spectacularly stupid. But that isn’t your fault and you shouldn’t feel bad about going to your own insurer.

You really don’t have anything to feel guilty about, this is entirely her own doing.

She'll be lying about not having insurance. Definitely go through yours and see what they can do for you.

I agree, phone your insurance company now. Also stop talking to your colleague. If she asks you questions about insurance, or tries to guilt trip you in any way just say "the insurance company is dealing with this." Then walk away or stop talking to her.

Have a meeting with your boss tomorrow to let them know what has happened just in case there are any work repercussions.

You have done nothing wrong, but you need to protect your own interests here. This might also be the wake up call your colleague needs to stop driving around uninsured with her babies in the car.

Get a copy of the CCTV as soon as possible. She might try to get it deleted you see.

Maybe she's going to fake whiplash for sympathy!

That’s the annoying thing, if injured they could claim off the OPs insurance. They would look to claim back from MIB.

My son's car was recently written off after being hit by an uninsured driver (15 year old in his mother's car).
My son's insurance company paid him in full for his car and also arranged a courtesy car whilst he waited for the payout/bought another car.

@WrendaleCountryDogs did she offer a suggestion of what you could do when she admitted she had no insurance and couldn’t afford to pay you?

That’s the annoying thing, if injured they could claim off the OPs insurance. They would look to claim back from MIB.

The op’s car was parked in the car park.

She might lose her license as she's committed a criminal offence by driving without insurance. She's breaking the law!

I absolutely agree you can’t just roll over and accept she can’t afford to pay but I would give her one final chance but making it clear if she can’t come up with the money to pay you will be going through your insurance which will still mean she has to pay but also likely they will report her for driving without insurance. Ie find a way to bloody pay it!

But if it’s involved and has insurance they could claim off the policy. I’ve seen it all when I dealt with collision insurance claims.

Quite.

she is relying on you to make her problem go away.

How would she be able to claim whiplash on OP's insurance when she drove into a parked car that OP wasn't even sitting in?

When you give the reg to your insurance they will investigate her insurance status so lying about it won't help her.

What’s happened @WrendaleCountryDogs ?

@WrendaleCountryDogs I would bear in mind that depending on the value of your car, your insurrance might not agree to pay for those repairs either....

Having an old car is crap on a lot of levels...