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Bumped tin top - the collective's advice pls
jabs - 19/10/11 at 06:05 PM

Wife bumped her tin top today, usual thing, second at roundabout, gap appears to right, car in front goes then thinks better and does a sudden stop. Wife bumps him and car behind bumps her. Very slow speed bump, no visible damage to first car or our front bumper, our rear bumper has slight crack, no damage to third car. No one hurt. Exchanged names and addresses just in case. Pretty sure the first car driver isn't one of these professional "ram my arse and I'll claim 1000's" as guy is local and wife knows his brother.

Now what should she do as she isn't bothered about claiming for her bumper. Does she report to insurance company but not claim just in case first driver puts a claim in- I saw on watchdog that is bad as claiming as goes on your record as an accident (she has protected NCB by the way), or does she not report it.

know there may be a few opinions on this so thanks in advance

John

samjc - 19/10/11 at 06:32 PM

Report to police and issurer and get them to understand it all as happen to my mother we didnt claim sorted it all followed the rulse and was ok but insurer said we claimed at the time for renewal so we requested recording and threated to claim on their negligence and they quickly changed their mind so watch out for the robbing sods,

JoelP - 19/10/11 at 06:37 PM

Bad advice IMHO

Telling them will affect your renewal, they will regard you as an accident prone driver. Dont tell them, there is nowt to fix.

johnwilders - 19/10/11 at 07:14 PM

Sound to me as the only one who has grounds to make a claim is your good lady from the car behind. If no other damage was done & no ones bothered its no one else’s business, The only other problem could be when one of the drivers gets home & has a proper look they find damage not immediately visible. I’m always getting people come in wanting to pay for there own repairs & those of the car they hit, No problem apart from cost.

owelly - 19/10/11 at 07:16 PM

+1 for not telling them. All involved have done all they need to. They have stopped and exchanged details. Take pictures of any damage and just keep the names of all involved just in case you get a call in a few weeks time from those cretins who do such things!!

scootz - 19/10/11 at 07:19 PM

Crucial question... how were the other parties attitudes at the time and how was the matter left!?

Did everyone give the impression that they wouldn't be contacting their insurance companies?

omega 24 v6 - 19/10/11 at 07:27 PM

As Scootz says.
defo try to do it all amicably first. Other than that I'm sure your wife didn't hit the car in front rather she was pushed into it by the car that nudged her IYSWIM.

jabs - 19/10/11 at 08:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Crucial question... how were the other parties attitudes at the time and how was the matter left!?

Did everyone give the impression that they wouldn't be contacting their insurance companies?


The 3rd driver was ok at leaving it, wife ok as knows I can fix her car but little damage anyway. First driver was a bloke and sounds like a tw*t. He said to wife "Get you husband to call me" that got right up her nose I can tell you. Perhaps he thought she doesn't know how to use a phone - lol. his car was a 'Y' reg astra or something like that, if he claimed on insurance it would be written off :-)
No mention of insurance claims by anyone at the time.

[Edited on 19/10/11 by jabs]

[Edited on 19/10/11 by jabs]

austin man - 19/10/11 at 08:14 PM

I was tapped in the rear and reported it to the insurance company, had a major faff about and decided not to claim. When I came to renew they upped my renewal as I had declared and accident. I went balistic with them and changed insurers

scootz - 19/10/11 at 08:17 PM

My wife had a similar situation a couple of months ago where she was bumped from behind at a junction (I was a passenger). The unoccupied lady driver in the other car was apologetic and although there was no immediately apparent damage, we exchanged details just in case.

We got the car up on the ramps later and saw that there was a split in the rear bumper at the corners that we had missed (it was hidden under crud ) and that the rear crash-structure had a slight bend. We got a price to repair from a local garage (£200-ish).

My wife phoned the lady and she handed the phone to her husband straight away. He got all arsey and claimed that because there was no damage to his car, then there couldn't possibly be the damage we were talking about (he works in a garage and that's why he was qualified to make that statement... apparently!). He also said that his wife had told him that we barely touched. Granted, it wasn't a huge impact, but it was enough to nudge us forward a couple of feet.

My wife politely said to him that if he wanted to take that stance, then fine... she would report the matter to our insurance... and his wife to the Police for careless driving. He immediately changed his tune and agreed to cover the cost!

I guess the point I'm making is that the guy at the front is the only one with any cause to be annoyed about anyone else's driving. And if his car turns out to have damage (even if it's a 12 year old Astra), then your wife has a responsibility to see him right.

I'd get your wife to give him a buzz and see what he's saying to it now.