Alleged Car Accident

[dazer]

A third party has claimed that my wife was involved in a car accident. My wife is unaware of any accident. We received a notice of intended prosecution from the police, to which we replied saying we are unaware of any accident. The police said there is an independant witness, and subsequently said they intend to take no action in the matter.

 

I now have a telephone message from the third party saying she has estimates to repair her car and wants to talk before reporting to insurers.

 

There is no new damage to our car as far as i am aware, so any damage to her car must be small. I have an excess of a couple of hundred pounds - so my thinking is that if the alleged damage estimate is smaller than my excess, I could pay without admitting fault to end the matter. But I am reluctant to do it as my wife is unaware of any accident - but there is a witness which might make the insurer reluctant to defend.

 

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[raydetinu]

I would get more details before admitting or paying anything. Have they informed their insurers, not to claim but info.When and where was the alleged incident, circumstances etc. thsi may jog the memory or you could prove you were somewhere else.

[patdavies]

It sounds like a try on. She is anyway contractually obliged to infornm her insurer whether she is claiming from them or not. Tell her to take it to her insurer and you inform yours - but make it clear that you are unaware of any collision, there is no damage whatsoever to your vehicle and you are not claiming.

 

If the Police believed that there was prima facie evidence of an accident, they would have pursued your wife for leaving the scene and failing to report.

 

She states that she has a witness, but you have no knowledge of this witrness and just how independent he/she really is.

[theclaimbroker]

I would request the circumstances of the incident including date, time etc.

 

They must be alledging that your wife drove away from the scene.

 

Could be a case of mistaken identity. Ask them what colour your car is with make, model etc. Where did the accident happen? Was it near to where you live? Could easily have taken down the registration wrong as well.

[dazer]

Thanks for the replies. The police were involved at the outset - it seems a witness reported it to the police. In the police's letter they set out the date/time - and my wife would have been there then as she was picking up our daughter from school. But my wife is unaware of any accident - its curious.

 

Thankfully the police have decided to take no further action in regard to any of the alleged offences (leaving the scene/failing to report/careless driving) - even though the police say there was a witness and even though the complainant says her car was damaged. It cannot be much damage as there is no damage on our car - if indeed the 2 cars touched.

 

But the fact there is an independant witness makes me think that my insurer might not defend 100% and i end up paying the excess. If my excess is larger than the repair cost then it is more economical for me to settle it without admitting fault.

 

I do not know if she has told her insurance company - but the fact she is trying to contact me to do a deal suggests she has not.

 

If both sides do a deal, is there any need to tell your own insurers of things like this even though you are not making a claim and the matter is settled privately?

 

I might do the following:

 

1. tell my insurers of the matter for inforamtion purposes but make no claim

 

2. write to her for details of the witnesses and what they think they saw, copies of photos of the alleged damage and repair estimates - all without prejudice to liability. I want to do this becuase if we are talking about a scratch which costs £100 to fix then i dont want the hassle of dealing with insurers etc

 

thanks

[dazer]

It sounds like a try on. She is anyway contractually obliged to infornm her insurer whether she is claiming from them or not. Tell her to take it to her insurer and you inform yours - but make it clear that you are unaware of any collision, there is no damage whatsoever to your vehicle and you are not claiming.

 

If the Police believed that there was prima facie evidence of an accident, they would have pursued your wife for leaving the scene and failing to report.

 

She states that she has a witness, but you have no knowledge of this witrness and just how independent he/she really is.

 

 

PatDavies - you might recall I posted on the parking/offences forum about the s112/s172 issue - the police sent s112 RTRA notices giving 7 days to reply when they should have sent s172 RTA notices giving 28 days to reply. My concern here is that the police might have decided not to proceed becuase of this procedural difficuly they have, rather than because they think the evidence is insufficient. that said, my wife is unaware of any accident.

 

thanks