How do I prove kids were in car?

[Icantstopeatinglol]

Hi, I just wanted some advice really. A (stupid) woman drove into the back of mine and dh car a few months back when we were on the way back from an afternoon trip with our 2 dc. She has lied all the way along saying there was no damage to the cars....which has now been sorted as garages have shown there was £2.5k of damage over both cars. She has also stated no dc in car!? To be fair she was very shook up but was only interested in herself as all she went on about was how she'd had such a bad day and this was going to affect her insurance badly! We do have rear tinted windows so she probably couldn't see them anyway though she has stated she noticed a pushchair in her statement. My ds banged his head and was quite upset afterwards and dd was thrown forward so much it woke her up and consequently she has woken up screaming quite alot since (this has never happened before). Anyway, the other insurance company are now saying they have received a 'statement of truth' or whatever from said woman saying no children in car?! What do we do now? Why is it upto us to prove our dc were in the car when this woman has lied all the way along?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My car was written off by someone driving up the back of me - I had no problems replacing DD's car seat- my insurance company told me to replace it as soon as I had sourced a new vehicle and I could be sure the new seat fitted. Her new seat is different to the old seat - again no issue with it being paid for.

I had whiplash in the crash, DD (then 18 months) bit through her tongue, but was otherwise fine.

the car seats have been in an accident and need replacing, end of. Regardless of any injury to anyone.

When I had some idiot drive into my (empty) car, it was one of the first questions asked by the insurance company - even after finding out that no-one was in it, they still wanted to know if there were any child seats in it. (There weren't)

also the person who drives into the back of someone is ALWAYS at fault. Don't quite see why there is all this arguing.

The car seats need replacing regardless of whether the children were in them or not. I would not get hung up on arguing about whether the children were present or not. Just state that car seats were in car and have to be replaced.
I have extensive experience of other driver lying. You just stick to your account of events.

Icantstopeatinglol without medical reports from the time you will not be able to make any claims for personal injury to you or your DC. My sister had an accident a couple of years ago and the other party made claims for personal injury, IIRC they had to provide 2 separate medical reports for each person.

DH was involved in an accident last year with DD (5) in the car. The other driver went through a red light, and wrote off our car. DH didn't take her to the GP because she said she was OK and he didn't think she'd done any damage, yet she told me months later that she'd banged her head on the window

DH didn't claim for the car seat on the insurance as his friend had told him it was a faff .

DD started waking up screaming immediately after the accident, several times a night. That morphed into also refusing to go to bed. We didn't connect the behaviour to the accident at all and got more and more frustrated by it. Then the insurance company asked if she'd been affected and told us that if we didn't claim for her "injuries" she could sue us when she was an adult . I don't know how true that is.

But they told us we could claim for counselling/ psychiatric treatment for DD, rather than money. They sent us to a GP and a private psychologist who agreed that what she was suffering was classic behaviour following an accident.

It has taken 9 months of endless phone calls and form filling and they have just got back to us this week to say they've agreed to a pay out (not what we were expecting at all) for DD, but we have to go to court. It will be held in trust for her. They will also pay for her replacement car seat.

This has turned into an epic but I wanted to counter everyone saying that because you didn't take your DC to the GP you won't be able to claim. I will also say that ordinarily I loathe this compensation culture and certainly would not be claiming for a non-existent complaint but she really was traumatised for months by what had happened. (But had they told us from the off she would get cash we wouldn't have claimed - we were led to believe we'd get private medical treatment).

I'm sorry, I can't get past the fact you sought treatment for yourself but not for your children in what sounds like a fairly serious collision.

I can't even begin to answer your question in the light of that. I mean FFS.

And you didn't call the police! How fast was she going?

If she'd realised she needed a medical report to claim compensation, she might have done, Rooners. There's no other conclusion to be drawn from this.

It sounds to me as if the other woman is trying to 'prove' that only the OP and her dh were in the car, in an attempt to minimise any subsequent claims for injury to passengers in the car - ie. it is cheaper to pay compensation for 2 people with whiplash/other injuries than for 4 people.

This is dishonest, and if I were the OP, this would make me angry too. Why should she get away with lying?

It is too late for the OP, but the advice given on this thread, to film both cars, the passengers and the circumstances, seems good to me. We took pictures of the accident where a car towing an overloaded, unbraked trailer rear ended the car behind us in a traffic queue, shunting it into our car and causing a fair amount of damage. These pictures helped, when it came to making the claim.

It sounds to me as if the other woman is trying to 'prove' that only the OP and her dh were in the car, in an attempt to minimise any subsequent claims for injury to passengers in the car - ie. it is cheaper to pay compensation for 2 people with whiplash/other injuries than for 4 people

Thats not strictly true. It makes no difference to individual premiums affected by the claim if one injury claim is paid or 20. Has the same effect at renewal either way. Many times people only recollect seeing 1 or 2 people, haven't had a good look inside the other car, and jump to the wrong conclusion when more injury claims roll in that they thought there could be. Just as the OP is getting worked about about being called a liar, the other driver could be equally as worked up at the thought of false injury claims being made when she is convinced there were only 2 people in the car. That's why it's important to see what she actually said, as opposed to coming to the wrong conclusion about what has been suggested by someone at an insurance company giving information out second hand. Read the statement first, then see if she's saying there was definitely only 2 people because she stuck her head inside the car, the interior looked like this blah blah when the OP could know if that's a lie or not.

Thanks for the responses, I think my issues are the fact that our insurance company and solicitors haven't really given us suitable advice after the accident. Plus the fact this woman has given misleading information. We received her statement and it is outright lies. She states that we said we were fine when I told her then and there my neck was sore. She also stated that she suggested we called the police when she certainly did not, she was trying to avoid even involving the insurance companies. We were just happy the next day when her insurance company called as we thought she was pulling a fast one!
To all those who think I put myself before my dc please do one cos that is absolutely ridiculous! Obviously in hindsight I wish I had got them checked over but they are fine. I went myself as I have health issues myself which could be made worse by the accident.
Our insurance company advised they don't replace car seats and that was that, no advice really.
Strangely enough I'm not an accident expert and I didn't think police needed to be called to a minor accident nor did I think whiplash needed looking at as I'm not interested in claiming unless I need to so this didn't enter my mind.
Thanks for the practical advice though I'll have a think and try and decide what to do.

Icant, if your own insurer didn't provide cover to replace car seats, then it falls under your uninsured loss claim, which basically is anything/everything your insurer doesn't pay for. You really need to replace the car seats, keep the receipts and add it to your claim. It doesn't matter if she says you said at the scene you were ok - you have it in your medical records that you attended hospital and that record will confirm the diagnosis. Whiplash can come on rapidly or take a few days to really kick in, so even if you were fine at the scene you could still develop symptoms after 12/24/36 hrs. You really only need to point out that your rear window is tinted, and describe in detail where she stood, what discussions took place from your POV to respond to what she's saying and any competent claims handler should be able to determine from that info that there is enough evidence to support what you have said.

If you want any more specific advice, PM me. But please, get new car seats!

You say her information given to the insurance company was misleading, but you say your neck was sore but you didn't even call for medical assistance? Therefore, her stating you were ok at the scene is not misleading is it? You could have seeked medical attention, you chose not to, so to the outside world you appeared ok.

What a load of sanctimonious bitter vipers on this thread. OP if you got whiplash then your children probably got whiplash too. TBH there is nothing a gp can do, other than tell you to dose them up on calpol. And your quite entitled to claim compensation, as are your children. This is legal. Everyone moaning that this puts their insurance up???? STFU. All claims put insurance up. The only claims that people should be getting worked up about is fraudulent claims. This is not a fraudulent claim.

I answer to your question just tell the truth. If your children were in the car, then they were in the car. The other driver not seeing them doesnt make it so.

Lola, if you read properly I did seek medical attention!?

I haven't read all the replies but when we had an accident when the children were sleeping toddlers, I did take them to seek medical advice and was told that babies and toddlers cannot suffer whiplash as it is caused by tensing your neck when you feel the impact or see the other car coming and the fact that small children cannot anticipate what is happening they don't tense up! (I didn't seek advice so I could get compo, it was to make sure my children were not in pain!) x

Thank you Ilovebaby, I know it wasn't a serious accident but we were hurt but not seriously. You're constantly told how the police and nhs are over stretched so I didn't see the point in going or calling the police when I knew they would just say calpol etc. I've paid insurance for over 20 yrs and never claimed once. Some idiot drove into us and were claiming on her insurance for damages, if this upsets people then get over it.

This is not a fraudulent claim

actually if she was wanting to claim for non existant injuries then it would be a fradulent claim.

A child correctly restrained in a car seat certainly shouldn't get whiplash anyway. But if they didn't need to be checked out afterwards then they were lucky and therefore there is no need for a claim for injuries.

Thanks feellikea, I was torn on taking them and they seem fine now so I'm sure I did the right thing but to put my mind at rest I wish I'd taken them but I can't change things now unfortunately.

So sirzy are you saying childrens carseats prevent any whiplash?? I think you're wrong otherwise no children would be hurt in accidents! Car seats are to restrain children and to prevent serious injury, they can't prevent the childs head being thrown backwards then forwards at speed therefore causing potential whiplash!

I'm guessing she stated you were alright AT THE SCENE because you refused medical attention AT THE SCENE. She can't base her statement on what you did after the accident can she? Because she can only go on what she saw. You didn't request medics at the scene, and you didn't take your babies to get checked out after a car crash. So I think that shows you were not hurt.

At a low impact crash like you are described it certainly should prevent that happening to the extent a child is injured!

and also surely you got the children out of the car after the accident?

No I told her at the scene my neck was sore but obviously she'd just drove into us so that wasn't a surprise. I certainly didn't want an ambulance called for a sore neck!? However a few days later it was alot more painful which is why I then saw a dr. If everyone called an ambulance for whiplash I think you'll find alot more people who have serious problems would die!!? I'm not going to feel bad about not calling an ambulance when a child could be having a serious asthma attack or someone could be having a heart attack who needs them alot more than I would. That is ridiculous!!

Have you all noticed that you are posting on Legal not aibu?

If you can't actually help answer the question what is the point in posting?

Op you don't prove anything. You just write your statement. It differs from hers. Par for the course. It's all he said she said in a crash. Just tell yours as much as possible.