What to do following car accident today - other driver wants to settle without involving insurance

[merrygoround]

Today a driver drove straight into the back of my car. I was stationary, in a queue waiting for the lights to change. He has damaged the bumper but also the frame of the boot, and the left side lights. The boot can't be closed any more. My partner was in the passenger seat, and his head was thrown forward and back. I suffered less as I could see the crash coming in my rear view mirror. Anyway, this is my first experience of an accident and I don't really know what to do. The driver wants to settle in cash with us, but seems to think that the damage was minor. I don't know if he is right. If I don't report the accident within 48 hours then is it right that I forgo the possibiilty of insurance settlement if he doesn't agree to pay up?

agree with twig that this 'middle man' will be taking a cut, and you can guarantee it will be from you.
it was not your fault so you should claim off his, assuming he has some and this is not the reason he wants to settle between yourselves. if you claim off yours if he is uninsured it will ruin your ncb.

there is no way he will give you enough money anyway to sort the damage properly. you will need to take your car to a reputable garage to make sure everything gets repaired and get a quote for all the parts, plus labour and vat.

mazda labour is around £70 per hour and volvo is around £95.....

Also with my bump ,as it wasn't my fault I had a like for like coutesy car, so my estate car was off the road whilst it was repaired so they gave me an estate car instaed of some two door toy town car.

This was supplied by an independant company was conatcted by my insurers.

Just phone your insurance compnay and they will sort it all out for you .

No, apparently the accident people take their cut from the other person's insurance, and we know someone who has used them in the past. The letter I got from my insurance (Direct Line) said my no claims may be affected even if the other party did admit complete liability (which they did)

Thanks again for replies. You've really helped me to decide what to do. Have just rung the man who drove into me and his wife has given me his insurance details. Tomorrow I will ring my insurance co and also try to arrange medical appts for me and dp regarding poss whiplash. DP said he had no idea his head could go as far forward as it did at the time of the collision, so I am concerned that he doens't ignore this. Thanks again.

That sounds awful, hope he's OK. Is he in a lot of pain today?
Glad you've come to a decision, your insurance company will let you know exactly what you need to do from now, mine did (even though we've decided not to go with them) - which is good, as you just need it to be as little stress as possible. Hope it's sorted and your car repaired quickly.

We had a major accident last year, when a van drove into the back of us. We also were sat in a quene but he hit us at such a speed i pushed the car in front under a car transporter. The police, fireman and paramedics turned up, and me and driver of other car (who was preggy) were backboarded to a&e. I had quite a few injuries including burns and broken things. DH felt fine until next day, ansd has just had compo chque though
The driver gave us his details at site and same to poilce stating he didnt know details as it was company insurance. Turns out not insuranced, not got linesce, no tax, or mot!! he ran off.
I would always be wary of doing non insurance. Ring yours.

Hopee hubby is ok.

Hugs

Lisa

whiplash comes on within a few days .. not instant .. you don't need to sort out medical appointments the solicitors from your insurance will

oh and if either of you get a sore neck get it seen to because whiplash isn't funny .. at all

Haven't read all the thread yet - but I think you are supposed to report the accident to police regardless of any injuries - I got told off by the coppers for not doing it straight away when I went down to present my papers a few days after my car was written off (which I didn't know at the time) by a lorry who drove into me side-on. funnily enough I was in shock and just wanted to get my battered baby home in more or less one piece - my headlights and sidelights were hanging out!!

Definitely go through insurance and make sure that if you get back your excess (ie you can prove you were not liable), that your NCB is restored equally. You can report it via your own company and let them handle it if you have the name/address/car reg of the other party. They should be able to trace them via the insurer's databases .

FWIW, it's shocking how far your head can snap forwards in even a stationary crash - it's that which actually does the damage. Made my toes go all cringy at the time but a doctor explained it to me when I had to have a medical report on an accident once. Think he was quite liberal on what he wrote though as our compo seemed quite generous to me at the time - but then he did have his surgery on Harley St.

This happened to me 3 weeks ago. At first I thought the damage was superficial, then I discovered the boot wouldn't close properly. When the man from the garage came around to inspect the car he liftend the lining of the boot and found it all cracked.

The insurance company has now written off my car.

Just a brief update:

So far the insurance company has been very helpful, but they do warn that the car is likely to be a write off. It is old, and not in the greatest condition, but is reliable and has sentimental value as it was my dad's. We are likley to get next to nothing for it. They will send mechanics to inspect it this week as it is deemed not roadworthy.

Doctors said we were both ok, just minor soft tissue damage, but to go back if no improvement. We will get a hire car as I had legal cover, so that is good, and my no claims is apparently not affected. I am feeling worse than I was, but that is normal I think. I am most surprised by how weepy and depressed I feel - given that we are all ok I can't understand why I feel so miserable.

it could be the shock of it all. Take good care of yourself xxx

It may well be shock , I suggest that you also tell your GP
about how you are feeling and get it all noted down . It can all go down on the claim form , shock is a type of injury in this matter.

Hope you feel better soon.

How are you today?

Katy 44, thanks for asking. I am still feeling a bit flat, but think the weepiness is going. Have just read the thread on baking a victoria sponge for the village fete(it's on the front page) and that helped cheer me up no end!! My neck feels sore and tender in places, and my back feels stiff, but I've phoned osteopath and hope to get checked over tomorrow if he has an appointment. I have a long history of back problems and tend to panic if anything goes wrong. I do a lot of exercise to try and avoid back pain, and need qualified advice on what sort of movements will help me to get back to normal. Decided not to go to work today but hope to get in tomorrow at least for the morning.

Our policy says that we are not allowed to do this (thread title). If we settle for damages without notifying the insurance company it could make the entire rest of our policy void in case of a future accident. We also mustn't admit liability or make any assurances or admissions of guilt or accusations to the other party; our insurance company talks to their insurance company. full stop, all we can do is exchange name and address and insurance company details.

Wouldn't surprise me if every motor insurance policy has this clause in their fine print.

get baking! Preferably with some happy music on.
Hope the osteopath helps, and the pain goes soon.

lljkk that's interesting - i told my insurance company that the other party had offered to settle with us, and was told that there was no problem in doing so. Could it be that it is ok to be on the receiving end of such an offer, but not on the "liable" end?

Remeber it 's a "No Claim Bonus", not a "No Blame Bonus". S make sure that the other party does pay everything from your calim.

Much better for you to deal with your insurance company - much easier for you if there are anuy issues. Suspect that insurance companies want to deal with other insurance companies as it also makes it easier for them.

But, whatever the situtation, even if you are not planning on claiming, you do still have to report any accident to the insurance company - otherwise future claims could be invalidated.

We had to report a minor bump to the insuarance comany, even though we thought we ould be able to pay it ourselves, as we have chosen to have quite a high excess. it was a tiny bump, just behind/above the rear wheel arch (about fist sized) - dh's fault, totally, as he reversed (turning) into this car (whcih was parked illegally besdie some parking spaces, but that's not the point). But the bastard then claimed for 12 days car hire, respraying of the whole car, removal of the front badge, replacement of the front bumper..... So it's alwys better to err on the side of caution.