DS17 has crashed his car, then cancelled his insurance help please !!

[iloveshetlandponies]

He only passed a few weeks ago and yesterday was driving home from school and he went into the back of the car in front of him. This was due to someone pulling out on the driver in front and my son braked hard but unfortunately did not stop in time and has bumped the back of the car in front

Luckily no one was hurt and the other driver was reasonable and exchanged numbers and agreed DS (aka me!) would pay for the damage rather than going through insurance . The other chap is going to get a quote for the damage and contact us today to sort

However in his panic my son decided he doesn't want to drive for a while and so went onto his car insurance app and cancelled his own policy 🤦‍♀️ (he has pay as u go with Veygo and it's still insured because I've got my own insurance on the car which you have to have when insured with Veygo)

But now I'm panicking in case the damage is not affordable / the car is a write off and the chap has no choice to go through his insurance. My son now isn't insured - although he was at the time of the accident - so what will happen ?? And it's not like we can just reinstate the insurance as he's now had an accident, Altho not reported

It sounds daft but in all my years driving I've never had an accident and never had to claim so I'm not even sure how it all works !!

He had the accident at approx 1pm, car insurance was cancelled around 3/4 hours later

he didn’t tell his parents in that time

i suspect the op only found out when she received the email notification that insurance had been cancelled

he’d hope to get away with it

Absolute bullshit.....

Insurance does more then pay out in the event of a crash it also.....

•checks the car driver that pulled out was liscenced
•The cars owner was driving it (only a car owner can claim repairs or damages through insurance)
•looks for evidence the driver at fault (your son) wasn't under the influence up to 24 hours before the crash
• keeps things civil between both drivers if the costs are disputed
•checks the ID of both drivers to ensure there isn't a history or this sort of thing

just to name a few.

Your sons being dishonest to some degree about what's happened & your being very kind hearted to pay for this without any checks or verifications in order to protect him

I hope you can encourage your son to keep driving and reinstate the insurance. The fact its a pay as you go monthly one is better because he can reinstate it at any time once he feels better.
I had a none fault accident where someone struck the side of my car entering the roundabout on my left hand side just as I was leaving it on an exit. I have been going through a bit of anxiety driving since then, but its got a little better now. I can't avoid using that roundabout as its on my main route to the local supermarkets and to other places.

As an adult with more experience yes, but a 17 year old new driver, he panicked, don’t be so bloody judgmental

I have my own new driver in the house and I can tell you that that is not a normal or logical reaction from any 17 year old. Parents are almost always the first port of call and it is frankly bizarre that he didn’t even tell his mum, she only found out from the cancelled insurance. That raises the suspicions a lot, especially since it was her car he was driving

So on the basis of having one 17 you can confidently predict the behaviour of every single one of them?

On the basis of having one and knowing many 17/18 year olds who have had a typical small bump in their first year of driving, yes. To immediately have a sound enough mind to be able to jump on and cancel your insurance yet not even think to inform your mother who actually owns the car (and who is paying the damages) isn’t normal or reasonable in the slightest. It is incredibly strange behaviour

or the other driver scared him enough to give him his contact info, agree to a payout straight away & cancel his insurance which had all his personal details provided to the company if he let it be sorted out through them.... ?!?

whos just "ok" with a 17 year old new driver hitting their car from behind because they didnt leave enough time or space to brake & assumes they'll have enough money to privately fix it ???

(Other then Somebody who has no intention of waiting for proper protocol to take place & can intimidate people to get things sorted)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but he should have told his insurers at the time. Depending on how long ago he cancelled, you need to say it was cancelled by mistake

Yeah.. the other driver definitely told a 17 year old boy to immediately cancel his car insurance ‘or else’. Don’t be so ridiculous

🤔 that's not what I said though is it - It's not hard to intimidate a young driver who's in the fault to settle as quickly as possible (far faster then insurance would ever pay out) & hearing "I have insurance" isn't always a good thing if you want immediate repairs to your car but can be easily used to further scare them if they've recently taken out a insurance policy using all their private info.

I don't agree that OP's son genuinely panicked & cancelled his insurance after a crash - who would ? But I doubt it was a minor thing either that's just made him nervous about driving & the OP would be foolish to not properly look into this beyond who will pay.

To be clear

DS called me straight after the accident happened to let me know, he never tried to hide it from me like some posters have suggested. The damage to the front of his car may possibly have given it away somewhat anyway 🙄

It wasn't till a few hours later that he cancelled his insurance (I wasn't around as was working) . he also said he (incorrectly) assumed that because it had been arranged to settle outside of the insurance, he would be okay to cancel 😫🤦‍♀️

Anyway Thanks again for the advice it's much appreciated .

I will do don't worry, he'll be okay to drive again soon I'm sure .

I'm glad you are confident enough to be back behind the wheel, must have been scary

This was due to someone pulling out on the driver in front and my son braked hard but unfortunately did not stop in time and has bumped the back of the car in front

So your son being too close to the car in front was not a contributing factor?

Why?

so he called you straight after the accident

you discussed that you would pay rather than insurance (even though you hsd no idea of cost at the point)

and then a few hours later without consulting you he cancelled the insurance. Why? did he have no intention of driving the car again?

if you’re being honest op…. he didn’t tell you straight after the accident

you only found out when you got an email motivation telling you insurance had been cancelled

well he’s cancelled his insurance
so presumably he’s not intending to drive for the foreseeable future!

he also said he (incorrectly) assumed that because it had been arranged to settle outside of the insurance, he would be okay to cancel

so within 2 hours of the accident you and the owner of the damaged vehicle had discussed and confirmed that you would pay the damage and no need to call insurers? 🤔

In any event
his premiums will now have shot through the roof
because you have to declare accidents or damage even where no claim

I damaged the side of someone's car while I was parking beside them. We agreed to pay outside of the insurance there and then.. what's unusual about that?

Where are you getting that from?

And even if the OP is lying about that for some reason what difference would it make? It wouldn't change the time of the accident or the time that the insurance was cancelled.

the op goes on to panic that maybe damage too expensive or even a write off!!

added to which, the op hasn’t even seen the damage

Thats not what happened though is it, the son unilaterally decided that he didn't need the insurance, nothing to do with discussions between the OP and the other driver

He did a stupid thing, he's 17, why are you introducing made up stuff