A lorry pulled out into the side of us at 60mph on the motorway last week so what I need to know is...

[Jill60]

do we need to get new car seats for the dc? The car is dented and scraped all down the passenger side, the back passenger door is quite badly bashed in - you can't open it properly and the wheel arch was pretty trashed too. We were all a bit shaken but no-one was hurt thankfully. I don't know how bad an impact has to be before you need new seats. If we do need new ones, is it likely we can claim for them on the insurance (I know I will need to check with them, just general questions at the moment!)? Thanks!

Jill I assume the lorry was at fault and you will be claiming on their insurance? Yes, you can get new car seats

i had someone go into the back of me and made a calim against them - inc cost of a new car seat (£110 but it was same as original) -0 think you are advised to get new after an accident.

Have your insuacne co given you solicitors details? THink you could either buy and keep receipts, or ask toehr side (if they are admitting liability) to give you an interim paymetn to replace them now.

That sounds scary Jill - glad none of you were hurt.
If it was me I would get new car seats - small price to pay for safety.
Can't help re: the insurance I'm afraid.

No idea Jill - but glad you're all OK. That could have been much worse.

yup,after any impact you must get new seats,
some insurance companies cover carseats but not all,you might have an insurance cover on things inside your car though,best thing to do is just ask them,
also make sure if they are fixing your car that they replace the seatbelts as they may have been damaged (although you wouldnt see any damage to them), make sure when you put your carseats in the tip/bin you cut the straps incase anybody see's them rescues them,as they wont be safe,

yes get new car seats and make insure4nce pay for it.

Exactly the same thing happened to me 18 months ago, I was 8 months pregnant with DD and had the car seats in the back but luckily no children in them!
The lorry knocked me into the central reservation and then I span across both lanes and ended up facing the traffic in the inside lane

My solicitor/insurance comapny are still sorting out the claim but I included the car seats in the claim.

It was totally his fault but he was denying he even hit us and wasn't even going to stop. Thankfully a WONDERFUL lady (thank you again if you happen to be a mnetter!) saw the whole thing happen and pulled ahead of the lorry, put her hazard lights on and made him pull over!! He didn't speak much English and was denying anything happened so we called the police. They got all the details from him and we have passed them and the witnesses details on to the insurance co.

I don't think we will get interim payments though as it was a foreign lorry that hit us so apparently everything has to go through a middle agency . I will check we are covered and then I think it's off to Halfords on monday to get new seats then I guess.

It was a foreign driver who hit me to, luckily he stopped and was in tears when he saw how heavily pregnant I was, even worse when I started having contractions!!

Hope you get it sorted

Jill, even if you are NOT covered on your own insurance, you should be able to claim against his ins co for the cost of replacing them, so keep your receipts.

Thanks btw for the kind thoughts. Thank goodness DH was driving he held it together brilliantly and got us over to the hard shoulder. I don't think I would have acted so calmly.

Did he just not see you?

As an side don't want to worry you but my mum got sideswiped by a Dutch lorry ( she was in his blind spot and he pulled into her lane),he admitted it at the time then it became a protracted process and ended up with her having to pay excess etc and being out of pocket for a year on the bill. Once she had declined her insurance company's kind offer of pursuing a personal injury claim , they rather lost momentum in resolving it .

I don't know! Either he was playing it dumb or he genuinely didn't know. It was the back part of the lorry (the trailer) bit that hit us not the cab so maybe he didn't but still you would have thought with us showing him the damage to the car (containing two young children and a pregnant woman) and the other witness he would have at least shown some remorse but he clearly couldn't give a monkeys.

LIZS - I could make a sarcastic comment about that not being what I want to hear but actually I have had dealings with a foreign lorry before with an insurance claim and you are right it was a MASSIVELY drawn out process. As long as it is resolved in the end I don't mind. Just waiting now to hear if the car is a write off, that's our big worry.

yep u need to replace them a bloke reversed into us we were parked and he banged into the side the carseat was on and i rang britax they said no matter how littlwe impact it is they should be replaced so i rang the insurance and said i wanted the carseat counted for i didn't ask if they replaced them i said i want them replaced and they did we had to buy it £120 and send them the recipt and they sent us a cheque

You need new seats, no question.