RTA - not my fault - help please!

[whatever1980]

Someone drove into my elderly mum yesterday - busy road, road hour, new driver, they weren't paying attention.

Police and ambulance called as she was hurt and in shock.

Ambulance 4 hour wait so bystander drove her to hospital.

Person who crashed onto her didn't approach her at all so she doesn't have name or reg or insurance details of person. Assume police have this.

Policeman at scene said their shift finished in 20 mins so they'd follow up on matter next day - not sure what this means.

Car written off.

Elderly mother very sore with breathing difficulties still as she was slammed against steering wheel. Neck, chest wrists sore - she's on morphine.

Never been in RTA before. Phoned insurance company to inform them of accident.

They didn't explain anything.

They said they'd pick car up from said of road and scrap it for £200.

No discussion on claim against other person.

What are you supposed to do in a RTA not your fault?

1. Do you contact your insurer and submit a claim with them which they then pursue against the other persons insurer? (Policy includes legal cover)

1. Try to find out insurance details of other person via police ourselves and contact their insurers ourselves?

1. Contact a solicitor to represent us in claim?

We don't have the other drivers details - assume police have them but don't know if they'll give us details due to data protection so not sure where we go from here.

Can anyone help us navigate this please??

Sorry, no advice. But I hope your poor mum gets over the quickly.

What did you say to your mums insurance company when you called? their reaction seems very odd especially as your mum will have a personal injury claim against the other driver.

Contact your insurer . They will then go to the police and request a copy of the accident report book and should pursue the other driver on your behalf . They may ask you to ask police for a copy . This is a ploy to save them money . You pay a lot of money to them , and this is their job . Make them earn it .

Contact your insurer and give as many details as you have. Police should be in touch and can give you the rest. As to a personal injury claim, it might be worth waiting.

Thanks all. I don't live near my mum (different country) and I understand police called her today but my mum is sore and not quite sure she remembers what they told her. I contacted police and left my details but obviously they'll need my mums consent to speak with me. It's also 40 mins on hold every-time with the police.

She needs a car as she's a carer for my dad and car was left on side of road and she was worried. She called insurers herself today to try to sort it and she told me they'd said they'd pick up car and (without seeing it) said it was £200 and courtesy car given for 1 week.

I'll need to get consent to speak with insurers too now.

Im concerned they've now taken her car and we've lost evidence of crash.

The car was old but ran well and had no intention of replacing. Wouldn't get anything for £200 for her to drive that would be equivalent.

I have been given dashcam evidence of crash by a bystander which clearly shows crash so no question on liability.

They had a bad time last year with storm damage to the house and were left by saga to get on with it. I took over the claim but no one ever got back to me and it took about 9 months to get the house right again. I've no idea how elderly people navigate all this when companies don't have email addresses and tell you to contact them via twitter and messenger. Im struggling!

Thanks @plominoagain and @LIZS good tips

Ah yes definitely get her to give the insurance company permission to speak to you and talk to them yourself. There will have definitely been more to it than what she says they said. Send them the dashcam footage.

Your poor mum, I hope she's doing ok.

What country is she in? I can tell you about England and Wales but don't know about others.

Thanks @Hellocatshome

Thanks @EdithDickie she's in England

I'm assuming you're in England and your Mum has fully comprehensive insurance. If so, based on my recent experience you can expect her insurers to pay out for her car (less the excess) fairly quickly. Then, depending on how blame is apportioned they will pursue the other party's insurers. If the other insurers accept full liability your Mum should (eventually) get her excess back. That took about a year in my case, even though the other driver had been to court and convicted within 6 months.
If your mum has legal cover through her insurance they should allocate her a solicitor to handle the personal injury claim. Don't expect anything to happen fast though. Admittedly my injuries were complex and I am still needing treatment so I've waited longer than average but it's getting close to 4 years since I had my accident and I received a first offer of settlement from the other party's insurers this week - one which my legal team have advised me to refuse so it could still be many months before it's finally settled. On the other hand, my DD was hit from behind whilst stationary a few years ago and her personal injury claim was done and dusted in less than a year, though it was very straightforward and fairly low value . But I would say expect it to be a long process and then you'll be pleasantly surprised if it's quicker, rather than the other way round.
I'm fairly bitter and cynical about the whole thing to be honest. A lot of the process is about protecting the interests of the insurance companies, and the lawyers don't do too badly out of it all either. Hopefully your Mum will have a better experience than me, but my advice would be to keep your wits about you, don't take anything at face value and if you don't understand anything or something seems not right, question it, as many times as you need to.
Sorry if that is unduly pessimistic but I feel like I have been a victim twice - first of the accident and then of the process afterwards. If I had been less trusting initially it would probably have been better, so just take care. Hope your Mum feels better soon.

@MrsAvocet sorry to hear about your accident - how are you doing now? 4 years is a long long time - how can you even get closure during that time with the claim still trundling along. I naively thought all this could be easy but I don't think it will be...

Thanks @whatever1980 It's very difficult to have closure when things keep getting dragged back up to be honest. And I still need at least 2 more operations so I am a long way off being finished with it. But I do go for quite long periods without thinking much about it now, until something like this week's solicitor's letters brings everything back into my mind.
I'm sorry if I've worried you. I am probably more negative than usual at present as I am super stressed as I have a meeting with my barrister about the next steps in a few days. You may not find it anywhere near as bad. It's just I was incredibly naive at the beginning. I was obviously not at fault, the other driver got a criminal conviction so how could it possibly not be straightforward? I just trusted that justice would be served swiftly. I wish someone had warned me then I would have had more realistic expectations - and made sure I got everything in writing , got the names of everyone I spoke to from day 1and kept detailed records of everything that happened and so on. I really don't want to add to your upset, but just to try to stop someone else having quite as bad an experience as I have had.

You can use an accident management company. We used one when DH had a no fault accident and the insurance company were initially unhelpful. They dealt with everything, including the police. They got full value for the car and a courtesy car for months while it was being settled. There was a solicitor involved and a small amount of compensation for minor injuries. They claim all their costs and any legal costs from the other party's insurer and DH didn't have to do anything beyond the initial phone call. It was a good few years ago so can't guarantee the procedure is still the same.
DH used Kinderton based in Crewe but I am sure there are others. Definitely worth looking them up in your circumstances.

Unfortunately, if your Mum's car was only worth £200, that's what the write off value will be. That's why people who have expensive cars on hire purchase have to get 'gap insurance' because often the value of the car is less than the remaining finance, so if it's written off, they still have finance to pay off.

Are you sure they told her they'd give her £200 for the car? That seems very fast for them to decide that. Is it possible they told her that her excess on the policy was £200?

@MrsAvocet thanks - I hope everything gets settled for you very soon sounds like you had a really bad time. Like you I would expect everything to be straightforward where it's clearly not your fault, liability proven and the other person convicted. I think sometimes some of the battle is, like you've said, just being told what's happening, what you need to do, what you should expect, who is likely to be involved, the process etc so you have the knowledge and can manage expectations.

Thanks everyone I'm going to ask my mum to contact her insurer today and inform them that I have consent to deal with the claim on her behalf. Same with police at least I'll be able to find out what needs to be done.

I'm torn between using the insurers legal panel or finding a no win no fee solicitor for this type of thing.

I don't know what the insurer said exactly about the car. I think they thought she was claiming on her insurance rather than notifying them hence it's a write off, £200, courtesy car only for 1 week (policy says no courtesy car if write off) and we'll take car off road

I would start your own thread. And consider why you asked for, and were granted a non mol in the first place.

An accident management company is perfect for this sort of claim - they’ll push the insurer for a good deal.

Cheers @mattyprice4004 I've contacted a PI claim company which had excellent reviews on trust pilot so hopefully they'll help navigate the claim.