So angry. AIBU the driver who is now disputing he caused crash

[Eastie77Returns]

I was sitting stationery in my car when another driver drove into the side of my car causing substantial damage. He was an elderly man who emerged from the car looking quite confused and buffudled. He was extremely apologetic and we exchanged details. My claim was initially a no-fault claim but the other driver has now claimed that I drove into his car (impossible, I was not moving) and damaged HIS car. This despite the photos showing my doors are caved in and his car barely has a scratch. The incident happened outside a local business but the owners will not release the CCTV footage due to GDPR etc.

This will obviously impact my premiums going forward and NCB. I have been driving since the age of 17 and have never had an accident.

I have this person's number and am tempted to send him angry text message. I know this will not acheive anything. WWYD in this situation?

While youre arguing about the footage with the gym, make sure that they retain it. Put it in email and tell them verbally as well. Otherwise you could go through the whole SAR/legal process only for them to say it automatically deletes after 30 days (some systems are much shorter).

Maybe point out that this guy could do the same to one of their staff members if hes a regular at the gym.

I have been in this situation. The word to use about your position in the crash is 'parked'. Stationary implies just not moving. Parked implies engine off.

In my case, the other driver said I was driving on the wrong side of the road. But my being 'parked' put a completely different complexion on the situation.

Let insurance deal with it. Your insurer will take his insurer to court to claim costs on the basis you are not at fault. They will ask all parties to go to court. You will say yes because you are telling the truth. He will probably say no because he’s lying - or a relative has told him to lie. His insurer will pay out as they know they won’t win. This is what happened to me.

Ask the gym to keep a copy of the cctv.
Report to police and ask for their assistance in obtaining the cctv.

I'd take him to court myself if insurance weren't interested. Also it's best to report to the police when the other driver looks confused, for their own safety and for everyone else on the roads.

You could take him to small claims privately if insurance are not interested. It should be obvious by the damage that he was at fault.

As PP have suggested, I would try and find a witness from the gym.

I sympathise. I am battling with car insurance at the moment too - my car was written off on April 10 and I am still waiting for the £.
The delay is now making me wonder if driver is disputing it - we have a dashcam from independent witness though so he would be mad to !

Makes you wonder what we pay extortionate premiums for doesn't it ?

My premium has gone up too despite me not being at fault (common apparently as risk still goes up !)

Interesting as when I was in a roundabout accident many years ago it ended up settled as a non fault/without prejudice claim. Could that not happen? You'd lose some of your years of ncb but not all?

Skipped a bit through the posts. I’ve had similar in January car went into me- he even put in a whiplash claim even though he drove side on into my car!! Use AI for help as under gdpr you can request footage that shows your vehicle. I had to do this personally as insurers have to go through the courts. My insurance had to settle 50/50 but I can truly empathise how peed off you are!!

I'd put a FB message up on your local page asking the kind people who checked on you to get in touch. Most people want to help and I am sure you will get a response.

Agree about asking for witnesses. Worth a shot.

I had a similar sort of thing. Went to the police who opened a case but essentially did nothing and closed the case after 6 months. No cctv evidence.

My insurers did actually take the case to court as they were fed up with the other insurance company taking the piss and getting away with stuff like that. I (or my insurance company) won in court and I had my excess returned to me. If i'd have had time of work because of it then id been paid that too.

Surely they can tell from the damage that you were not at fault?

The insurers will deal with it. Same thing happened to me. It went all the way to court and my insurance company won. Took ages.

Insurers aren't daft, they will know who's at fault

Yes do this!

Because they are commercial businesses, their primary goal is minimizing payouts and saving money.

I had this and I refused to accept any responsibility. I sent a lengthy description of the accident and eventually the other party backed down. I fear the insurer takes the easiest option. It wont necessarily cost them much more as in their interest to resolve quickly and up premiums! Good luck!

We’ve just had this. Three lanes of traffic, DH in the left lane, ready to go round to the left and a vehicle in the middle lane decides to come into the left lane without looking, then had the nerve to ask DH what he thought he was doing. There was a bit of back and forth before he accepted he was at fault and then came the excuses that someone had cut him up etc. His insurer ignored us for a week, then eventually and casually dropped it into conversation that the other driver was now disputing liability. The claims handler and I had a frank exchange of views which was solved by them asking where my DH was going. Once that was confirmed, Google Earth confirmed he’d been in the correct lane for his destination and they paid out the next day. Our insurer (a budget company I found on Go Compare) were absolutely fantastic. They told us to let them know if we had any dispute over it and they’d fight it on our behalf.

In our case, our insurers were fantastic but, having worked in insurance before, it’s my experience that the more fuss you make, the more likely they are to do what you want, just so you shut up and go away. You’re absolutely in the right, so make an almighty great fuss with your insurers and insist that they fight this for you.

Also, I’d be reporting the other driver to the DVLA.

Do NOT text him... it will end up going against you.
Have you sent an SAR request to the business with all the relevant details?

Put a retrospective police report in and then make a request for cctv under gdpr or ask your insurers to do it for you. Warn gym not to wipe cctv.

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Can the police help get the footage for you? I hope you can sort it out, what a shitty thing to do. I wonder if he’s under pressure from his family to stop driving and is afraid this will be used against him.

I had something similar happen to me except in my case it was a driver exiting a side street and driving into my right hand door. She apologised and said she’d been distracted by her kids. When the report came in I was livid to see that it was described as a case of joint liability.

Like you I was tempted to call her but on reflection I decided that wouldn’t help. Instead I wrote back to the insurers saying why I objected to this, complete with a diagram that showed how ridiculous the decision was (all the damage was to my front right door). The insurance company changed their position and she was found liable. I would suggest you do something similar.

two things I would suggest.
firstly report the accident to the police, and any witnesses, plus your photos etc. report the concern that the driver was very confused and may be unsafe to drive etc.

secondly you can request the cctv within 30 days as a subject access request about you. The ICO have template letters. You will have to provide ID and describe what you were wearing in the day and car reg etc. they then simply have to blank out the faces of all other people etc. you request it as a subsidy access request. You won’t get his face, but if the footage shows the vehicle hitting yours, it’s all you will require.

You need to contact the police. The footage will be released to them. They create an incident report and the insurance company use this.

To note, this will take time and patience. You create an incident report today, it could be weeks before they get the footage.

The other side of it (if you were in such a disposition) is that if you can prove he did do that, and then denied it, he is opening himself upto a civil case from you, e.g., distress to you denying the accident. This would be through a solicitor.

Do you have legal cover on your policy? If so ask them to pursue it via that route.