Car Accident - Insurance Question

Shane732

Quick question:

My mother was involved in a three car accident yesterday. The car two cars behind hit the car behind and the car behind hit my mother's car. (That's a lot of behinds in one sentence!)

Gardai were called and did the the guy in the car two cars behind for dangerous driving. The Gardai took down insurance details and gave them to my mother for both cars behind. The Gardai told my mum that the guy had accepted full liability and that she'd be able to claim off his insurance. She asked the Gardai whether his insurance and tax details were in order and they confirm same. She informed our insurance company of the accident and was told that his insurance would send out an accident report form in the next day or two.

It's now two days later - the insurance policy is an invalid policy number according to his insurance company and apparently they have no record of the reg number being insured with them. The guys mobile number isn't working now (his phone appears to be turned off for the last 24 hours). Mum does have his address. Mum is awaiting a call back from the investigating officer to clarify the situation.

The guy accepted full liability, which personally I think is a bit unusual. He accepted liability for the second car hitting my mum's car.

What would you do?

Seperate

Hope that the guy who caused the accident is insured!

He had no choice but to accept liability if he's rear-ended someone!!

If he is not insured she'll have to claim through the MIBI - which can be a long drawn out process depending on who she's insured with.

Random

Assuming there's no injury involved I might ask my own insurance company to deal with the claim for me. They can then recover the money once the other guys insurance details are known (may or may not effect policy until money is recovered) and if he turns out to be uninsured your mother will have to go through her own insurance anyway (it won't effect her policy, read www.mibi.ie).

It'll hopefully be all sorted out anyway once the Garda come back to you as I'd imagine (hope!) they looked at his license etc and got his name / address.

Gary ITR

Sit tight and wait for the Guard to come back with info, don't even think about going to the guys home

Shane732

Cheers for the replies.

My mum is fine but there are injuries in the middle car. The middle car is written off and the passenger has whip lash. The passenger spent last night in hospital and is only out in the last few hours. From what I've heard the injuries sound very legitimate.

Does he have to accept liability for the middle car hitting my mum's car? If the middle car had had the handbrake up then it wouldn't have hit my mums car. Has he not got an argument and really should my mum not be claiming off the middle car?

My mother won't be going through her insurance company if she has to go through MIBI. My dad has been through the process of MIBI before so we know what to expect.

I was considering popping around just to have a look at the insurance details in the windscreen - but I'll hold off for the moment.

Random

If the middle car was stationary and someone pushed them into you then I would imagine you'll have little problems in that regard.

What's so difficult about the MIBI? Your insurance company handle it for you?

Shane732

Random wrote: »

If the middle car was stationary and someone pushed them into you then I would imagine you'll have little problems in that regard.

What's so difficult about the MIBI? Your insurance company handle it for you?

The MIBI is a brilliant service but there's about a 9 month turnaround.

It's just hassle.

Random

Shane732 wrote: »

The MIBI is a brilliant service but there's about a 9 month turnaround.

It's just hassle.

If you have COMP cover and the other driver is uninsured then you go through your own insurance company and it doesn't effect your policy. Where is this 9 month turnaround?

Obviously if you have TPFT or you are injured then things are different.

Shane732

Random wrote: »

If you have COMP cover and the other driver is uninsured then you go through your own insurance company and it doesn't effect your policy. Where is this 9 month turnaround?

Obviously if you have TPFT or you are injured then things are different.

Oh I didn't know that....


Cheers

Atomic Pineapple

Shouldn't she be claiming off the car that hit her? Due to the fact that the car behind didn't pay due care and attention by stopping a safe distance back?

Random

draffodx wrote: »

Shouldn't she be claiming off the car that hit her? Due to the fact that the car behind didn't pay due care and attention by stopping a safe distance back?

We don't have the full circumstances but I understood from the OP that the car at the back pushed the middle car into his mother and that the middle car hadn't collided with him at all prior to this.

Obviously it gets messy if the car behind hit her first and then the other person pushed her in again.

TJJP

Wow, sorry to hear about all this.

In any event your mother would seem to be faultless in this situation. The middle car, if in moving traffic at the time, could have some blame apportioned. If it was stationary then that's an unlikely scenario. All points towards driver three being at fault for all but there could be an issue between two and three as above. Technically you could action driver two and his/her company would counter sue driver three. All in all I'd wait for Gardai to update you.

L1011

Generally you have to claim off who hit you and it cascades back from there, so it may be the middle car that ends up getting ridden and having to use MIBI.

nogoodnamesleft

Shane732 wrote: »

The MIBI is a brilliant service but there's about a 9 month turnaround.

It's just hassle.

Ok from having personal experience of this before here is what I would do.

As already stated the liability goes back to the car which rear ended the 1st car as the other subsequent collissions would not have occurred due to the disippation of kinetic energy.

If the gardai attended the scene they should have the registration plate of the car which cause the accident. Ask the gardai to request proof of insurance from this party. AFAIK they have 10 days to produce the doc if they dont its an offence. Get the policy number off this and claim off their insurance company

Obviously make sure you report the incident to your insurance company also mentioning that you are not at fault.

corktina

leave your insurance company deal with it....either or both of the other drivers insurance will pay. They'll work it out between them.

Shane732

Ok update on the situation:

Investigating officer is off for the next few days so another officer is dealing with it in his absence. He checked the insurance details of the 3rd car out and it turns out that the insurance disk related to the previous owner of the car.

The 3rd guy has been requested to show his details, insurance and licence, within 10 days. It appears there's not a lot that can be done prior to the 10 days elapsing as he's legally entitled to 10 days. (Thought you could penalty points for not having your licence on you now?)

We're left with a situation now where my mother wants to have the car repaired/ or buy a new one and she can't.

The officers unfortunately appear less than interested. It amazes me that a person with no insurance (the officer dealing with it now said that it's 90% likely he hasn't got insurance) could provide the Gardai with fake information and get away with it! Unreal!! Naturally this could turn out to be wrong if he produces his insurance.

Random

Does your mother have comprehensive insurance? Go through her own insurance. If possible they'll get the money back from the other company. This will mean she has minimum time without a car. Who has told you she can't?

Shane732

Further update:

The investigating officer called this evening to discuss the matter. Apparently he was a bit pissed off at the beginning of the conversation as he'd been called at home about the case by his Sargent.

Anyway my mother explained the situation and his reply was "well really you should be claiming off the second car, so what's your problem"? I'm not certain how legally accurate this is... From what people have told me that as the last driver pushed the second car into my mother's car it's the 3rd guys fault. Now my mother is a self righteous and strong person who naturally didn't take to well to this. The conversation progressed and in the end the Garda hung up.

The Garda tried to completely back away from the whole case as I'd imagine he's getting worried that this might come back on him. Now my mother wants to bring in the big boys - I'm thinking this could end up in the ECJ!!!

Anyway I just want to know what's the easiest way to get the money to repair the car?

Technically we don't know that the driver doesn't have insurance as he has ten days to produce his cert of insurance. So what do we do? Just call our insurance company and they'll handle everything? The insurance company is Quinn which I've heard aren't the best in these situations.

3DataModem

Shane732 wrote: »

Anyway I just want to know what's the easiest way to get the money to repair the car?

Step 1: Ring insurance company.

Step 2: Give them all details of accident including what guard said.

Step 3: Wait

There is no magic solution that will make a cheque arrive in the post fast. Ringing the guard and acting self righteous had already set this process back. Just let the insurance co. deal with it.

Anan1

MYOB wrote: »

Generally you have to claim off who hit you and it cascades back from there, so it may be the middle car that ends up getting ridden and having to use MIBI.

That's what I would have thought too.

slimjimmc

Shane732 wrote: »

Anyway my mother explained the situation and his reply was "well really you should be claiming off the second car, so what's your problem"? I'm not certain how legally accurate this is... From what people have told me that as the last driver pushed the second car into my mother's car it's the 3rd guys fault. Now my mother is a self righteous and strong person who naturally didn't take to well to this. The conversation progressed and in the end the Garda hung up.

I think the way it normally works is :
Your mother claims off the second driver since it hit her. The second driver's insurance then pays for damage caused to your mother's car.

The second driver claims off the third car for damage caused to his car. The second driver's insurance company will also claim off the third driver for the damages they paid to your mother since the third car caused the whole mess in the first place.

If the third driver had no insurance then that would be a matter for the second driver's insurance company and the Gardaí. Your mother should deal only with the second car's insurance company. However, if she wants compensation quickly and has a fully comprehensive insurance she can claim off her own insurance. Her policy will have a claim against it until her insurance company gets compensated by one of the other driver's.

Shane732

3DataModem wrote: »

Step 1: Ring insurance company.

Step 2: Give them all details of accident including what guard said.

Step 3: Wait

There is no magic solution that will make a cheque arrive in the post fast. Ringing the guard and acting self righteous had already set this process back. Just let the insurance co. deal with it.

Quinn's quote on it was that the 3rd guys insurance company would send the forms out.... The 3rd guy doesn't have insurance.

When we told Quinn this they said to confirm it with the Guards.... How do we do this without calling them?

Gary ITR

Shane732 wrote: »

Quinn's quote on it was that the 3rd guys insurance company would send the forms out.... The 3rd guy doesn't have insurance.

When we told Quinn this they said to confirm it with the Guards.... How do we do this without calling them?

The 3rd guy legally has ten days to produce, the Guards can't prosecute him until this ten days are up. Sounds like you have been hounding the Guards when you have been told this already. Unfortunately there is due process to be followed, after the tens days are up you can start doing things

Your mother being self righteous and strong with the Guard will get her nowhere. Has she got comprehensive insurance?