Car accident,help!

[ivor james]

Hi all,

Hoping you can help me, I was involved in a car crash recently, I am claiming from my own fully comp insurance. It is a little complex but here goes. I was not wearing a seatbelt because I have recently had bruised ribs from a fall so it was far too sore to wear one at the time,I am wondering if my claim could be affected by this? I certainly wont be claiming personal injuries. The accident occured because I rear ended a trailer which had no lights on the back, He just drove off and I dont even know if he was aware he was hit,I have a witness to this. conditions were foggy and slippy at the time and impact was 15mph.
My car sustained 5.5 k of damage and its book value is 8k,will they fix or write off? there is some finance on the car but i think i would find it hard to get more finance in the current climate,will the cheque be made out to me or the finance company?

 

[ivor james]

Also will just add there were no other occupants in the car.

 

[noel_k]

I stand to be corrected but I don't think you can claim for your own injuries anyway.

I imagine not wearing your seat belt will no impact on the claim. Do the insurance company even know that you didn't wear your seatbelt? Presumably, they see this as an accidental damage claim and see it no different to you running into a wall assuming the other party don't come forward looking to stick in a claim.

How did you manage to do so much damage to your own car and the other party didn't even get out of their vehicle?

 

[ivor james]

Hi Noel,

Thanks for your input, firstly the insurance will know I wasnt wearing my belt because as has been explained to me,there are seatbelt "pre tensioners" which contain an explosive which basically pulls you back to stop you hitting the airbag if it inflates ,when this occurs the belts will lock ,bith the driver and the passenfers belts locked up,if i had been wearing one my belt would be limp after an impact, secondly the trailer was a forty foot type and I honestly dont know if he would have even felt it, i was in too much shock to get out immeadiately and he just drove off.

 

[Jimbobp]

I wouldn't worry about the seat belt issue. You won't be able to claim personal injury from your own policy so the fact you were'nt wearing one shouldn't affect the material damage claim on your car (unless their is a specific condition on your policy booklet about it).

What you will need to be focused on is what the company will offer you for the damage. Based on your post they will prob write off the vehicle and offer you book value - which will prob be a lot less than you expect. Log on to some of the online car sites and try find what a simliar vehicle of your type is making privately. This will give you some ammo against an assessor if he under values the car. Also find out what affect the claim will have on your bonus if you claim and if you have bonus protection. If not this could seriously affect the cost of insurance next year and will need to be factored in to overall cost of the claim.

Best of luck


www.powerinsurances.ie

 

[mathepac]

... conditions were foggy and slippy at the time and impact was 15mph.
My car sustained 5.5 k of damage and its book value is 8k,will they fix or write off? there is some finance on the car but i think i would find it hard to get more finance in the current climate,will the cheque be made out to me or the finance company?

My guess is that the car is an economic write-off.

If you declared the finance company's interest in the car, the cheque will go to them if your claim is successful.

 

[ivor james]

Cant understand why in these difficult times an insurance company wouldnt take the cheapest option of repairing the car for 5.5k as opposed to paying book value which I have had checked with 2 dealers and is no less than 8.5k, on cbg.ie the cars average asking price was 9.8k so thats why i made the point of getting a real valuation. how will it be an economic write off?

 

[ivor james]

sorry 8k was the lowest quote 8.5 was higher of the two.

 

[mathepac]

Cant understand why in these difficult times an insurance company wouldnt take the cheapest option of repairing the car ...

The cheapest option for the insurance company would be to place a scrap value on the car, deduct it from their valuation, and send a cheque to the finance company for the balance.

 

[ivor james]

seems like i am snookered if thats the case, if they value it at say 8k and scrap is say 2k does this mean the finance co gets 6k? which is less than the cost of repair? all ifs and buts at this stage but i hope they can be reasonable.