Car accident

[yves1234]

I was involved in a car accident in May 2009. Basically I was the last vehicle to hit a car after a vehicle had stopped suddenly on a busy stretch of road. There were 3 cars involved including my own. My car was quite old so the damage to it was enough that it wasn't worth fixing so it got scrapped. Since then I have had no car - don't reallly need one.

 

I notified the insurance company and didn't hear any more from them. My policy subsequently ran out a month later.

 

At the time nothing was said by the police officer and he just took a few details. A couple of days later he phoned me and said that his report would take into account the terrible conditions at the time and he didn't think anything would come of it but there was a chance that they could decide to charge with dangerous driving. No statement was taken and since then I have heard nothing and a whole year has now past.

 

I gave my insurance company a call today to ask about proof of no claims. I assumed that there had been none as I hadn't heard anything. They said that a claim was ongoing with the claims department.

 

I'm not worried about the insurance. However, do you think I should check with the police to see if anything is happening? It has been over a year and i've heard nothing from them. I just assumed that nothing was happening and that no news was good news.

 

Advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

However, do you think I should check with the police to see if anything is happening? It has been over a year and i've heard nothing from them. I just assumed that nothing was happening and that no news was good news.

 

Advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

No! As far as I am concerned this is now entirely a non-police matter.

[crem]

How can there be "an ongoing claim" if you are not receiving, and replying, to letters from your insurance company?

 

Sounds more likely to me that they opened a claim when you reported it last year, and in teh absence of anyone contacting them regarding this, it continues to sit on their system as an "ongoing claim".

 

If you think otherwise, I would ask them for copies of everything in their file regarding this claim.

[Old Snowy]

Its perfectly possible for a claim to be ongoing and for you to have no knowledge of it. We pay our insurers to deal with such things and it shouldn't really come as a surprise that sometimes they do! The fact that you are unaware of this suggests that the various insurers are haggling between themselves.

 

Don't forget that such details would have been exchanged between the various parties and the police at the scene or pretty soon afterwards.

 

As for any police matter arising unless they were considering some very serious offences, which is extremely unlikely given that there has been no contact between the OP and them, then any court proceedings (assuming that we are talking England & Wales here) for run-of-the-mill offences arising from accidents, such as driving w/o due care and attention, must be instituted within 6 calendar months. It is possible that the service of a summons obtained in time has been delayed but a year after the event would be somewhat unusual.

 

Unless the OP has missed out some important detail then I think he can rest easy.

[dragonkeeper]

Hi all

 

there could be a claim outstanding from one of the other parties involed ie. other driver or passenger from different car.

i was hit by a drunk driver therefore his insurance void, his passenger could therefore claim of my insurace. it turned out that he did not claim but was still against my policy 10 months later when i renewed insurance my broker manage to clear it up and had NCB re-instated. until then i did not know of potential liabilty being left open for passenger and drunk driver to claim against me.

 

thats our insurance money at work for un-insured people to abuse.

 

nice is it not

Edited June 4, 2010 by dragonkeeper
changed an 'i' 4 an 'a'

[sailor sam]

I was involved in a car accident in May 2009. Basically I was the last vehicle to hit a car after a vehicle had stopped suddenly on a busy stretch of road.

 

While I would agree with what has already been siad, from your above quote would suggest to me that you were at fault but as you havn't heard anything, I wouldn't worry about it. As for your NCB, obviously this will be affected.

 

__________________

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my scales at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice usefull.

[yves1234]

Thanks for all your responses - I really appreciate it.

 

As I said i'm not bothered about the NCB and if the insurance companies are having a battle with each other. I might as well contact them again to gain a bit more detail about the nature of the ongoing claim and how long it is likely to take to resolve, just as a matter of interest. It may well be that the if the police have decided that no action was necessary then the nature of any claims against each others insurance has become complicated. I'm just speculating.

 

Thanks again.