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?

Dusty has come onto a thread asking for legal advice where the op is being taking to court over an RTA, and the advice she gave could literally not have been more wrong. On top of getting basic road laws wrong, that makes her extremely stupid, plus careless. I don’t think she should be on the road. I think that mn should have a one strike and you’re out policy when it comes to people giving completely wrong legal advice. This is someone’s life who’s being affected.

I agree. You don't want them to just offer a knock for knock as it will affect your insurance fees going forward.

I sometimes think that insurance companies go for this because it costs them less money to process the claim and if it's a small claim it's win-win for them as your insurance goes up going forward.

@DustyLee123 quite a lot of threads you post on you post incorrectly and unfactually… are you distracted an awful lot?

Time for him to give up driving. That's why he's being obstinate.

Take it as far as you can as next time he will run over a person.

Folks, I THINK we've made it clear that @DustyLee123 is wrong. Can you stop spamming the thread with 159 posts all correcting them?

Maybe Dusty was driving the van?

It sounds like he shouldn't be driving JohnofWessex

But Dusty has already come back one Page 1 apologising and explaining that they got it wrong as they were watching TV and not giving their full attention.

Should people not be allowed to make a mistake, quickly apologise and correct it?

And where did you get the idea OP is being taken to court?!

I've had a very similar situation. Raining and reduced visibility, bus pulled out in front of me, had to stop suddenly, car A behind me rearended me. Car behind car A rearended car A. Silly cow in car A showed no concern for my 4 year old who was in the back of my car. Despite my 4 year old barely shuddering the impact was apparently sufficient to cause car A driver to be in ED all night with whiplash eyeroll. She called me the next day informing me of this and asking if I 'thought I'd stopped too quickly' I said absolutely not and ended the conversation as it didn't feel comfortable. Looking back I'm sure she was recording me to try and get evidence.

I genuinely don't think I stopped too fast and tbh it seemed to take an age for her to crash into me. Tbh anyway it's irrelevent. The highway code is very clear. As the following driver it is your responsibility to ensure a safe stopping distance between you and the vehicle in front. This includes if they need to emergency stop. For that reason almost all of these cases will favour the driver in front. The only exception would be if it could be proved that the driver in front reversed or stopped maliciously.

In my case the driver of car A is still trying to claim off our insurance 3 years later. I'm just laughing about it tbh and not letting it stress me out as she doesn't have a leg to stand on. I would do the same OP. It doesn't sound as if your case will amount to much. The highway code is crystal clear but people gotta people and some will just push their luck in any scenario. Just cooperate with your insurance company and carry on with your life. It's not worth the stress.

This is wrong

Its vice versa

This happened to me. The insurers of the person who drove into the back of me started off by not accepting fault and generally being dicks. It's what they do a lot of the time. Fortunately, they eventually accepted fault - but not before my insurance renewed and so my premium went sky high as it had an open claim on it.
Your insurers will sort it out. Unless the other party can show you reversed into them or stopped dead for no reason then it's their fault; their insurers will just be dragging their feet and counter claiming on the off chance they win (they won't).

It'a worrying how many people really don't have basic knowledge of the highway code...

Dusty has come onto a thread asking for legal advice where the op is being taking to court over an RTA, and the advice she gave could literally not have been more wrong. On top of getting basic road laws wrong, that makes her extremely stupid, plus careless. I don’t think she should be on the road. I think that mn should have a one strike and you’re out policy when it comes to people giving completely wrong legal advice. This is someone’s life who’s being affected.

She's come onto Chat, not Legal, so it's a risk that people will give untrue advice. That doesn't make her a danger on the road! She's said herself that she was distracted by the TV! Should she have thought before she posted? Yes. It's hardly the crime of the century though and worthy of her losing her licence and being kicked off MN!!!
Oh and where does it say anything about being taken to court?
Total overreaction

Why is the first response always so shit.

My in laws lost though when someone went in to the back of them. Never ever heard that hrfore

i had someone hit me from behind with an emergency stop and he paid out

This is actually what the guy claimed after running into the back of me. I must have reversed into him, as he was stationary. Except I was stationary, at a roundabout and he just ran in to me. Madness.

It is very unusual, the only time that would happen is if your in-laws did something like change lanes/pull out too close in front of someone and instantly hit the brakes so the person would have no opportunity to stop. Then person behind would need something like a dashcam or CCTV (or you in-laws being honest about it!) to prove it wasn’t their fault

@AEP123 dont forget to claim for a new car seat for your child coz it’s voided after an accident. There is a way to get a payment towards a new one.
hope you’re both ok.

It’s chat not legal. Seems you’re not paying attention either: are you sure you’re safe to drive?

Seriously, it’s a chat forum, not somewhere for official legal advice. Anyone’s allowed to jump in with their comments, it’s up to the OP to take it all with a pinch of salt.

This happened to me too. I stopped to let someone cross the road at a zebra crossing on a roundabout, and someone pulled out of the road immediately before the crossing and hit me in the back. At the time the young man was very apologetic, but his father's insurance company who covered him said I was going backwards at the time. Luckily, a passer-by who had seen what had happened had given me his details, and he was able to confirm that I was not reversing around a roundabout!!

I think it was to try and make me go 50/50. I refused that though and his insurance paid out.

Not always true , someone went into the back of us and our insurance company said we might have done something to cause the other driver to go into is. There was great pressure to admit 50/ 50 fault. I'm not sure what the point of stopping distances are really if that's the case 🙄

This is exactly what happened to me. I was the first car in the queue onto a roundabout. Car behind decided it was time to go and drove into the back of my stationary car. She then tried to claim against me for a huge amount even though she was going at walking speed and I wasn’t moving. As far as she was concerned I should have pulled out when she decided it was safe, not when I, with the benefit of full visibility, decided.

Several points:

1. hit from behind, it's the person last in the queue of cars who's to blame
2. in a similar situation, my insurer wanted to give me £1,000 and to write the car off, I spoke to the other person's insurer which was happy to repair the car, give me £1,000 to compensate the re-categorisation of the car as crash-damaged and provide a courtesy car for a fortnight. I can only conclude that insurance companies use accidents as an opportunity to fight each other.
3. make sure that use of a courtesy car is approved and confirmed by the insurance company that will be paying out. Near me, the driver of a £100k+ sportscar was driven into. The dealer that sold the car recommended that he rent the same model as the one that got damaged. His claim for £30k+ for the courtesy car (parts for repairs took several months) was rejected by the insurers, so he had to sell the car to pay the bill himself.
4. You may not want to go anywhere near a car for a while, keep receipts for bus/train/taxi fares - the claim may be contested, but if matters ever get to court, it's evidence of the effect of the crash on you.

Sorry but if you’re asking for legal advice on mumsnet chat then you’re plain asking for the wrong info. There was no need for everyone to pile on the poster the way they did! The OP could have done the sensible and normal thing of, oh idk, asking her own insurance 🙄