Car accident - they’ve claimed against me?!

[AEP123]

Long story short. I had to stop for oncoming traffic and a van behind me hit me. (Personally think he has distracted because I was stationary for a good few seconds before he hit me, he had time to stop it wasn’t an emergency break situation)

we’re going through insurance at the moment but now we’ve had a notification from their insurance saying they’ve made a claim against us?

is that normal, or are they trying to blame me?

It’s always the person behind’s fault in this situation as they didn’t leave a safe stopping distance to you/weren’t driving with due care and attention. Their claim doesn’t stand a chance OP, you will be absolutely fine.

Pass it all to your insurer and make sure they have a good statement from you with drawings of the road (include road markings and speed signs etc) explain you had to stop because another driver forced their way across you and the Van failed to stop. He is at fault as he failed to observe what was happening on the road including you stopping so he is at fault here.

Yes we were subject to one of the slam the anchors on fraud scammers, thankfully the police and insurance companies were aware they were operating in the area and had several previous issues. They actually came out and interviewed my Husband (the insurance) and took down a very full statement including who else was in the car etc. Luckily he had taken phone photos on site immediately after of positioning of cars, the driver and the fact no one else was in the car etc. 6 months later PI claims were sent to us for 3 other passengers....

So answer is go back and photo the junction, photo the damage to your car and the fact there is none on the front of yours, send them a full statement in clear bullet points that make it supremely clear where fault lies and let them deal with it

Other way around.
Car going into rear of another car is at fault. Highway Code states travel at a speed and leave sufficient gap to allow you to stop suddenly if necessary ( words to that effect)
OP State that you were stationary and car hit you. End of.

I don't believe this to be true.
Is automatically their fault if they hit you from behind as they did not adhere to breaking distance.

Was going to say this too. We were hit from behind, it was their fault entirely and our Insurance company claimed for both our child car seats to be replaced even though the children were not in them at the time (thankfully).

Do double check your little one, maybe if you can afford it take to a chiropractor just to check all okay with them? I saw one a week or so after our shunt and felt much better for it.

Maybe you shouldn't do things like that if you write things that are so wrong!

Surely that’s incorrect? It’s the opposite.

That's where drivers braked suddenly/reversed pulled in to the front of a car
Then claimed

They're trying their luck! Hopefully if it ends up in court the judge will
Give them a hard time! Surely though insurance company will push back

Bollocks.

This is totally incorrect.
If you get hit from behind, in most cases(reversing mostly) it is the fault of the person behind.

The rule is to always look where the car is going. That protects from such accidents.

Ugh this happened to me - someone reversed not realising I was behind them. I had no room to reverse back myself. They claimed I had gone into the back of them - so lucky there were 2 witnesses to corroborate my version of events!

This is absolutely wrong. If they go into the back of you they're wholly to blame.

Dont forget to claim for a replacement car while yours is being repaired.

If I was being cruel, ask via your insurance company for a copy of the other drivers mobile phone records for the day of the accident

I was once at a big fast roundabout. There was a car in front of me. There was a gap so we both pulled out. The car in front of me stalled and I ended up going into the back of them. The drivers apologised and said it was her fault. However, my insurance company said it's always your fault if you go into the back of someone.

I just wonder how he didn’t manage to stop, and he seemed a bit panicked about his boss finding out as he’s apparently only just got the van back

If it's a company van it will be the company making the claim, not him personally. It sounds like he's got form, which might result in him losing not only the van but his job. So he's probably told them some complicated story that makes it your fault. Let your insurers deal with it, the default position is always that it's the fault of the driver behind.

Sometimes though an accident at a roundabout can be genuine. We had someone crash into the back of our MX5 at a roundabout when it was being driven by my husband. He had started to move off very carefully and was edging forward as the MX5 is a very low car with a long bonnet so his vision was blocked by a mini bus to his right. He then spotted a car on the roundabout and stopped. Car behind assumed my husband was going to carry on and went into the back.

Traffic wasn’t moving fast so the damage to our car was minor.

Both drivers stopped but the other driver refused to exchange details, so we reported to our insurance company and the police.

The other driver is now claiming no collision took place. If that was the case why did he stop? No collision no need to stop. Or maybe I am being naive in thinking that?

He was also very aggressive and actually pushed my husband. All captured on video.

Why even bother commenting if you're too busy with something else to actually check you're not giving the completely wrong answer?!

Hum methinks the other driver has something to hide.

I hope you made a formal complaint to The Police as he has committed a number of offences

AEP123

He's trying it on and may have lied to his insurance company. That happened to me, when an idiot changed lanes and knocked me off a motorbike, I had a letter and a phone call from his insurance company, demanding £10,000! I asked if she'd read the Police report and she said yes, so I asked why she was lying to harass me.

I called my insurance and they told me, "Well, you ran into him." Again, I asked if they'd seen the Police report and they said no. I had to forward it, along with the phone numbers of two men who picked me up and got the bike off the road.

It turned out that he'd told his insurance that he was stationary and I rammed into him!

There are cases where it is not e.g. scammer slamming on their brakes but no brake lights going on.

This is why you need a dashcam.

No, why do you think people try their luck at crash for cash!

That was our thought as well. We were thinking no licence /insurance.

Turns out he does have both. The police did visit him and speak to him about his attitude but decided not to take it any further due to his age (80s). He also denied to the police that a collision took place.

He is therefore saying the same to his insurance company, which we are challenging. Our insurance is going to send an engineer out to look at our car.

If it's any consolation, my mum's car was hit in the work car park while she was in the office (they heard the crash from inside and everyone ran out) and the other driver tried to claim it was my mum's fault! Some people are just chancers.