Had a crash, not my fault, cant get in contact with person

lotas

On Saturday, I was waiting to get onto a round-a-bout in Tallaght when I got hit up the backside by someone else... she claimed when I got out of the car that the clutch would not go down... My general though when coming up behind someone in traffic is to use the break, but anyway...

So, she has claimed responsibility... Now, this was not a massive smack, and I hate to admit it, but I was in quite a lot of shock when it happened... asked very few questions, said very little, etc... Anyway, I got a name, phone number and reg plate of the other car, took photos of both mine and hers, but never got insurance details...

After all the usual stuff, I left the scene of the accident (as I said, not a major crash, no one seemed injured... so, we both left) I rang my father, and he suggested I make a statement to the guards. I went up to Tallaght Garda station (I rang first, they said I needed to make the statement in person) and made a statement to a guard. He gave me a business card and suggested I inform my Insurance Company. I rang them, went through all the details, and told them that it would be calming either though her insurance or she would pay in cash...

So, haven’t been able to bring it to a garage all week, but getting around to this tomorrow. While telling someone in work about this, they asked did it have the insurance details of the young lady... I said it didn’t... They suggested I ring or text her and get them ASAP... That was at 9AM this morning... I have not been able to get in contact with said young lady all day... I sent a text on Monday afternoon telling her I wouldn’t get to the garage to get it looked at till Friday, but have heard nothing back...

So, after all that... the question: If I can’t get in contact with her (I am going to try a few more times today and tomorrow) what should I do? Is it too early to be informing the Garda about this yet? There was some visible damage to the car (bumper has a hole in it where her reg plate hit it and some minor scratches) but given this is a 2006 BMW and it was not a cheap car, I don’t want to just leave it… I don’t think it’s something that’s going to be cheap (guys in work are saying it could be upwards of a grand… being BMW, I am not surprised) and I don’t think I am unreasonable wanting this repaired properly from a main dealer… So, if this was you, what would you do?

While I am here, I mentioned above that when we left the scene, there were no known injuries… since this time, my neck has been sore… not massively sore, but sore enough… It has been suggested to go to a doctor and get it checked… Overkill?

MidlandsM

get the guards to chase her down thru her reg. You got her reg right?

mullingar

Smells of no insurance to me.

Get back in touch with that Guard. They will have all the car details including the insurance policy on the car (but the driver might not be covered)/address etc.

lotas

yea, have the reg number, so will have a chat with them... What happens then? If she has no insurance, what do i do about the costs for the car?

MagicMarker

It's not overkill to make sure you won't suffer from any long term ailments.

If you don't hear from her in a day or two then contact the guard you were speaking with. At least you got her plate number!

mullingar

lotas wrote: »

yea, have the reg number, so will have a chat with them... What happens then? If she has no insurance, what do i do about the costs for the car?

http://www.mibi.ie/

Reloc8

lotas wrote: »

So, if this was you, what would you do?

Leave a voice message and text saying you don't have her insurance details although you obviously have her reg and phone number.

Say that if she doesn't contact you with her insurance details you have no option but to report the incident to the gardai as your insurer needs her details.

Say also that if she wants to sort it out herself without involving insurers there's no problem, she just has to make contact with you.

When/if she does make contact with you tell her you'll get a quote and come back to her. Then give her the quote. If she balks at the quote invite her to get her own quote from a BMW main dealer. I do agree that you're entitled to keep the car with a main dealer for the repair presuming the car was in every good general condition.

If she says she won't accept the cost for the repair tell her you won't fall out over it, it'll just have to go through her insurance. Obviously that'll take its own sweet time to resolve and you'll be out of pocket in the meantime but so be it.

If you are sore go to a doctor.

If she's uninsured you still have a remedy through the MIBI. Discuss this with your own insurer.

MidlandsM

I think the person who whacked you, has gone to ground.

If I were you, I'd do the following -

go to the Doc, make sure your ok.
go back to the gardai and make a formal complaint again the person who struck you
get a solictor - they will (for a fee but you'll not wind up paying it) use the system to track down that person and their insurance co (if they have a policy that it), and let them sort it out.

RangeR

Hang on. You sent a TEXT? Ring the woman. SMS's aren't guaranteed to get through. And with something as important as this, I wouldn't do anything but an actual voice conversation.

If she still refuses to talk to you, give the reg number to your insurance company and they can try chase her down. Maybe give the reg number to the guards too.

lotas

RangeR: i have sent multiple texts, and all calls are just timing out... Cant actually get her on the phone and cant get her voice mail either... Dont know if she is ignoring me or whats going on...

mullingar: thanks for the link... bit worried about all the PHP and MySQL errors their site is throwing though... dont know if i trust them...

Reloc8 and MidlandsM: thanks for the reply... Will have a chat with my Doc tomorrow morning... seems that going the legal route may need to play out...

will try contact her again via phone and text... If i dont hear anything by COB tomorrow, will give the guards a ring and see what i can do...

Thanks again all.

5500

Whilst she might have a genuine reason of some sort for not getting back intouch with you, I wouldnt bother wasting anymore time on her, but I wouldnt be running to a solicitor yet either.

Get onto the gaurd who was dealing with it, tell him you cant get intouch with her and ask him for her insurance company details (simple for him to get off pulse) Then ring her insurance company yourself and let them send out an assessor if needs be ect. If their not insured then the gaurds will follow it up and mibi will hopefully sort you out.

I've been in the same situation myself twice before and it's a pain when the other party ducks & dives and avoids things but hopefully you get it sorted out sooner than later.