I was involved in what I consider a major accident yesterday, three cars basically totaled and fortunately, one of the victims said miraculously, all walked away basically physically unscathed. The other 2 cars were valuable, a muscular Audi and a heavy Tradie car from the GMH stable, both worth heaps. Mine is, correction was, an ageing Nissan sedan and worth peanuts. But it was my peanuts and it was running fine. Now it’s dead. But I’m not, which is a serious positive and in retrospect was not guaranteed. Generally it’s said responsibility is shared and all that, but in this case it was clear cut. The Audi was stationary and had its blinker on waiting to turn right, we were on the other side of the road, oblivious to the impending doom. The tradie car rear ended the Audi and then bounced into the on running traffic, namely us. Hit us near the driver’s door and ripped along our right flank. We spun 180 degrees and ended up facing the other way and the car was/is a mess, but we walked away, and seriously we were inches away from much worse and know it. The lady in the rear ended Audi stayed in her car for nearly an hour in shock before finally emerging and telling us she couldn’t believe we all walked away relatively OK.
Anyway today the tradie’s insurance mob sent us a hire car, which is OK I suppose, especially since we hadn’t asked for it, but what I want to know is are they softening us up before low balling us on a payout.
I know our car ain’t worth a lot BUT we got totaled and it wasn’t our fault and I hate having to buy a new car, especially in a pandemic.
Anyone who’s been in this situation and have advice would be much appreciated.
Oh no. I am very happy to hear you’re ok.
If you have insurance on your car, then they will sort it out. You won’t pay an excess because it is pretty clearly the other driver’s fault.
Be aware that even though you aren’t making a claim, they will add it to your file and give you a more expensive premium in future. I’ve gone throught the “you are keeping your rating 1, but we are charging you more because you’ve been in an accident.” I just changed insurance companies and got a better deal when that happened.
If you aren’t insured, give the other party’s insurance company a call and ask how they are going to handle this. It should be on them. I haven’t been down this path before.
Edit - also… holy crap!!! So very glad to hear you are all ok. That stuff can go very badly very easily. Whatever irritations this brings, hold onto that lucky feeling.
We do have insurance but at the moment it appears the tradie’s insurance mob are taking the reins. Our mob just told us to keep them informed. The cops were there and there was only one party they were focusing on so I suspect that might explain why the the hire car turned up today out of the blue. Not sure though, never been totaled before.
Phone call with that insurance company will give you the lay of the land pretty quickly. Insurance companies generally want these things to go away very quickly, so will pay a little bit more to avoid mess. Hence the hire car I suspect. If it does go sideways, just default to your insurance company. It’s their job to sort this out, so the “keep us informed” thing is a bit of a cop out.
Others might have a feel for how to contest an insurance offer. I’ve only dealt with repairs, no write offs. I suspect the other party will make you an offer for the value of your car in short order, they may just want to value it first.
I was in a similar accident and the car that ran into me, causing we to hit oncoming traffic was deemed 100% in wrong. Driver was charged and lost his licence. We’re police present ?
Yes. And I won’t go into what I heard from others listening in but I suspect he’s in trouble. Not sure though. There were at least two witnesses.
My advice is to get photos and independent witnesses.
But late for that now though.
Oh, and phone numbers and addresses.
Took a few pics and have numbers of both witnesses, plus the cops took pics as well.
Seriously I thought I was OK at the time but in retrospect the brain wasn’t on full throttle. Happy to be breathing though. My neighbor who knows more about cars than I do, doesn’t everyone, reckons if it had hit the front part of the front right wheel instead of the back part around the front of the driver’s front door, we were in serious trouble. That’s like 2 feet at high speed. Wow.
it’s happened to be
he’ll be made to pay all damages to all cars.
If he’s not insured, then your insurance company pays it out and seeks the costs front the at fault driver.
But it sounds like the guy is insured.
First thing to do is get on Carsales and find out how much it would cost to replace your car. Same make, model, km, condition, everything. You won’t find anything exactly the same, but you’ll see several quite close.
Whatever it was worth is what they have to pay you. Don’t accept less.
Glad you and all are OK, physically, maybe not mentally sounds like a traumatic experience, so will take a bit of time to recover.
I know nothing re insurance companies apart from it’s their job to sort it. So let them sort it and you just keep informed.
You don’t need the extra pressure at this time.
It’s not even his car, it’s his mate’s car. The car was insured even though the driver wasn’t, which we were told is OK. We have comprehensive if it doesn’t but the husband of the Audi driver told my Better Half she hadn’t paid the most recent insurance bill. The car owner turned up and said it was all fine and he was insured which is apparently OK. Note, our car ain’t worth much, her audi is worth a heap.
Incidentally the tradie car owner made a point of checking on our health and the health of the audi driver so more power to him. Imagine you lend a car to someone and then he rings you to tell you he totaled it… and 2 other cars.
Sounds similar to what happened at Dadswells Bridge 2 or 3 weeks ago.
Car turning right, truck smashed into it and into an oncoming car…both people killed in the rear ended car, passenger in the oncoming car killed. Can easily happen.
What her car is worth is irrelevant. You’re the injured party, and it’s what your car is worth that matters. If the tradie had been driving a Rolls-Royce SUV it wouldn’t matter a damn, except to him; you are still entitled to what your car is worth. No more, no less.
Good work by the owner.
I think you are good. You know the driver. You’re insured. The police were involved and will have a record.
You don’t need to stress about the insurance of the other party. You’ve identified the other driver, if things go pear shaped on the other side your insurance steps in and pursues the other driver for costs.
I like the check carsales advice. The other insurance company may offer you less than you’re covered for. You might be able to get the other mob to offer you more than you are insured for. Worst case you get your insurance company to step in and pay you your comp value.
I reckon we’re um…shaken but not stirred. And super glad we haven’t emulated the final scene of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. I do wonder about the Audi driver though. She was in a state.
My better half got a tweet from the traffic trauma mob saying they’d be in touch to see how we were. Still waiting though.
Hopefully they will get in touch soon.
sometimes it’s standard practice to offer a car.
due to car parts shortages all cars likely will be written off.
you will likely get what the market rate for your car is, tend to lose out when they are low mileage etc.
suggestion above was good to look on carsales for similar make model as yours so then you know if offer is fair.
also once you tell your insurance about the accident/collision they will liaise with the other insurance ands make it easier for you.
it is a problem replacing your car though as more expensive to get a used car than before covid.
maybe u should buy a lotto ticket, after walking away no injuries.