Passenger insurance claim

[ash4197]

Hi
One of my neighbours was driving from their friends house with his wife and two kids and as he was driving through country roads scrapped the drivers side of his car.

As he is fully comprehensive insurance and his car is worth about £8000 is a possibly write off.

He is claiming off his own insurance for the car but one of our friends said he should put in a claim in for his family, I said he could not as it was his fault and no third party was involved.

Am I right in saying you can only make a compensation claim for passengers only if a third party is involved and not because there was no-one else involved to claim off.

advise would be greatefull

[GoldyR]

I believe you are correct. You cannot make an injury claim against your own policy if it was your fault. Also, as he only 'scraped' the side of his car, how did his family become injured?

[Chesterexpress]

GoldyR, the OP said he scrapped the side of the car and that it is possibly a write off. So think it is more than just a scrape, though goodness knows what he did on a country road to do such damage.

[GoldyR]

Ooops! Thought it was just a spelling mistake! Still, he cannot make an injury claim unless the highway or someone elses negligence was the cause of the accident.

[reallymadwoman]

But any injured passengers can make a claim against the driver if the accident was his fault.
I've done this, claiming for my daughter's injury when she was in the car with her Dad driving.

[ash4197]

thanks to all the replies.

Re :reallymadwomen that was the point i was trying to make can the passengers claim off their fathers insurance because he was driving at the time.

So the driver cannot make an injury claim but the family can.

The insurance have said their car is a writeoff.

If this is correct please let me know as this was their first accident since passing his test 15 years ago and does not know where they stand,

thanks

[reallymadwoman]

Passengers can make a claim against the driver of the car if he was responsible for the accident. It doesn't matter what the relationship is.
Claims are based on negligence. Anyone injured in any accident makes a claim against the negligent party. Of course if they were the negligent party - i.e. the driver, they can't claim against themselves.

[Darkangelsdelite]

Yes the passengers can claim for personal injury but they would have to substantiate this with evidence (doctors reports etc)
Check the policy wording in the policy booklet, there's a section in there about medial expenses and injury to passengers. The cover isn't normally much, but it may be worth a look.


DA

[Trojan1401]

Just to add to the above, Passenger Liability is unlimited by law as stated in the Road Traffic Act therefore any costs arising from the incident would be covered by the vehicle's insurer. Medical expenses incurred by the passengers would not be limited to the "policy" limits as technically they are a third party.
Also, some policies do provide Personal Accident covers but these tend to be under commercial, not personal lines agreements.
As with any passenger / third party liability claim, medical/hospital reports etc will need to be submitted.

I'm suprised that the insurers have not asked if there were any injuries bearing in mind the potential w/off @ £8k !

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

This is a common misconception. My inlaws had an accident when my mother-in-law fell asleep at the wheel. Father-in-law ended up in hospital. They just couldn't get their heads around the fact that he could have sued her, got compensation from the insurers and could still love his wife.

However, in this case, what I haven't heard here is details of injuries. You cannot claim if you aren't injured and don't have the medical evidence to prove it. If there were injuries then the police should also have been informed.

[ash4197]

Hi thanks to all.

The husband / father was driving the car and they do not know what to do so on the second day they phoned their GP and he said just to be sure go to the hospital.

As they were all wearing seat belts they just suffered minor pains, whiplash as to what the hospital said and lower back strain (not exactly sure, butit was mentioned).

thanks.

Again I have printed off your comments and passed them over to them and they were shocked that they did not know they could claim as the husband / father was driving and as it has been said to sue the husband / father.