victim of hit and run, cant claim on insurance

[bartonski]

hi, i was recentley knocked off my motorbike by a hit and run driver. unfortunately no one caught the reg number and police are unable to trace the car. I lost my motorcycle and broke my elbow so inturn have incurred lots of costs. The motor insurance bureau cant compensate for my bike and niether will my insurance as i only have third party...is there anything i can do? my bike was my only form of transport and now im struggling getting to work

[sailor sam]

If the MIB cannot help (and I don't understand why if the police were involved), then I think you are stuffed to be honest. Did it happen in an area likely to be covered by CCTV?

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

 

[bartonski]

hi, yep nothing on cctv even though it was on the m25. all they had was the rear lights and me sliding along the road. i had legal cover from my insurance who told me the MIB dont compensate for loss of property which i guess means motorbike. is this always the case?

[crem]

i had legal cover from my insurance who told me the MIB dont compensate for loss of property which i guess means motorbike. is this always the case?

 

well if the MOTOR insurance bureau don't cover your (motor) vehicle, what the hell do they cover?!!

[T.C.]

You have not been given the correct information.

 

There are two tracks with the MIB, the untraced route and the uninsured route.

 

The MIB will cover you for the loss of your bike but there is an excess of £250 on the first part of the claim, but there is no excess on the injury part of the claim.

 

The MIB in affect become the second defendants, and so providing the protocols are followed the claim will proceed as if it was against the drivers insurance.

 

Speak to a specialist solicitor who deals with MIB claims, or if you have no joy, feel free to PM me as a fellow motorcyclist who deals with motorcycle claims and I will be happy to advise and help where possible

[bartonski]

hey, thanks alot for your help. i gave them a call and thats what they said so hopefully if they believe that the accisent wasnt my fault, i will be compensated.

But unfortunately it wont be so easy. The incident happened around 11pm on the m25. Only myself and a couple of cars far behind me as i wss riding home in the central lane around 75 to 80mph. I was overtaken by an audi, must have been going over 120mph when about 50 metres down the road it crossed lanes and slowed down into the slow lane as if to take the next junction. The next thing i knew he had circled me and overtaken me again and then very quickly pulled infront of me not leaving me much distance. At that point i was thinking this guy is going to be trouble and the sensible thing to do would have been to slow right down and let him do his thing. But i was almost home so though sod it ill stay where i am.

Then suddenly and without reason he slammed on his breaks and kept them down for atleast 4 seconds, unable to brake as hard on a motorcycle i smashed into the back and fell off noticing that as soon as i had hit the car the brakes lights turned off and he accelerated away. Luckily i wasnt hit by another car but unfortunately the witnesses who had reported the car as speeding were too far away to see what had happened.

I know the guy did it deliberately as there was no reason to brake so hard and for so long at 80mph with nothing infront of him. But the thing is the fact that i hit him might be considered my fault. The police are unable to find the guy so i'm left with my description of the incident. Bikers usually get the rough end of the stick, shown as risk takers..could the MIB refuse to compensate for this reason if they dont believe it actually happened?

[T.C.]

Once they (the MIB) receive the paperwork, they will immidiately require 3 months to carry out their own investigation before a response is sent out.

 

During this time, they will contact the Police, make their own enquiries to trace the vehicle and/or driver, possibly speak to the witnesses, and then come to their own conclusion.

 

However, the MIB still won't be rushed and they tend to take a lot longer to settle claims than when dealing with regular third party insurers.

 

Usually when a vehicle runs into the rea of another, it is strict liability and the vehicle that runs into the rear of another is held 100% liable. However, if it can be proved or established that the vehicle that was hit was behaving in an untoward manner (which is where the witnesses can be so important) then things will not look so bleak, on top of which the driver also failed to stop after the collision, so this will work in your favour.

 

I would strongly recommend that you ditch the solicitors provided by your legal expenses insurance (which is usually a waste of time and money anyway). They may well have told you that the MIB will not do anything simply because they are not interested, because in untraced cases they cannot claim the same level of costs as they would had it been an uninsured vehicle. They may also not have anyone qualified to deal with MIB cases.

 

The MIB have quite strict protocols, which is why it is recommended to get someone who is a specialist, and will fight your corner, and importantly gather the evidence on your behalf.

 

Have a look for a specialist MIB solicitor in your area, or phone a few and see what they say.

 

If you have no joy, then get back to me and I will put you in touch with someone.

[MrShed]

I dont mean this in a derogatory fashion, but perceived as your fault - legally, IMHO, it WAS your fault. You had a responsibility to ensure you left enough space between yourself and the vehicle in front to stop without making contact, if they were to do an emergency stop. Whether he braked for a specific reason, or not, is IMHO immaterial.

[T.C.]

In most cases, the driver or rider who runs into the back of another vehicle is held 100% liable. It is called strict liability.

 

However, sometimes there are circumstances which reduces the degree of liability from anything between 1 & 99%, and this may well be one of them.

 

Thre appears to be evidence of poor driving behaviour on the part of the driver. Why did he/she not stop after the collision? There are indpenedent witnesses who can hopefully provide evidence of the drivers behaviour prior to the collision. The Police have attended and confirmed the crash as a fail to stop, and maybe one of the other drivers was brake tested themselves further back down the road.

 

Either way, the driver who failed to stop is guilty of a serious offence, why? well until traced we won't know. The OP has no driver or vehicle details, so it is difficult to put forward an argument to the other side when no one knows who the other driver is and therefore that person is not going to give his recollection of events. and I also forget to mention, that because at the moment the other party is untraced, although the MIB will make their own investigations, it will be largely uncontested on liability because there is no defendant at the moment, as the evidence that will be put forward cannot be disputed.

 

That having been said, only the OP knows the full story, and so to make an assumption withouut all the facts is wrong, and so advice can only be given based on what he has told us.

 

But until the ball is rolling, nothing gets looked at, and based on what he has said and on the basis that he appears to have corroborative evidence and the MIB cannot contest liability, then he should have no issue with making the claim except the length of time it will take.

[bartonski]

hi TC, thanks alot for the lengthy reply. The solicitors supplied by my insurance seem pretty good. theyre keen to take down all the costs involved and have explained the situation. Yep the witnesses who actually stopped to help me were very understanding and i heard them giving statements saying that the driver of the car was speeding over 100, driving irraticly. Just filling in the MIB claim form now and hopefully i will be able to get some of the money back i have lost.

 

Regarding the incident, the guy pulled infront of me and imediately hit the brakes so even if i decided to break to put some space between us it wouldnt have made any difference. An emergency stop at 80mph on an empty motorway after ust pulling infront of another veichle doesnt sound right mr shed. If that was the case i could buy a car and kill motorcyclists and cause accidents all day without being at fault.

[MrShed]

I'll quote your own comments: "At that point i was thinking this guy is going to be trouble and the sensible thing to do would have been to slow right down and let him do his thing. But i was almost home so though sod it ill stay where i am." Nuff said. That indicates that you not only had the time to drop back and give the space, you conciously thought about it, and CONCIOUSLY decided against doing so.

[crem]

Only myself and a couple of cars far behind me as i wss riding home in the central lane around 75 to 80mph

 

Please don't start off on the wrong foot with your claim by admitting you were speeding!!

[sailor sam]

Dosn't the M25 have dozens of CCTV cameras... particularly near to and at junctions? Surley this mystery car should be easy to find?

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

 

[bartonski]

speeding wouldnt come into it. you might aswell say because you didnt have road tax or your left indicator wasnt working then the incident was my fault.

 

is there a legal distance for travelling behind a car on the motorway?

mr shed - thinking about something would take a second. droping back and leaving a bigger space between myself and the car infront would take a few seconds. in those few seconds if the car braked hard and continously i would need time to react, and i would still have gone into the back of him.

so if the accident was unavoidable but intentional on his part...what does that say to you?

[daisy4]

Extremely sorry to interrupt this thread but I am new, just joined, in urgent help but cant figure out how to ask my own question/start my own thread!?? Can someone tell me quickly please? Thanks.

[sailor sam]

Extremely sorry to interrupt this thread but I am new, just joined, in urgent help but cant figure out how to ask my own question/start my own thread!?? Can someone tell me quickly please? Thanks.

 

Go to the sub menu forum (this one being 'Motoring') which closely relates to your probem, click on 'forum tools' at the top and then 'Post New Thread'

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

 

[daisy4]

Thanks so much, but I cant see 'forum tools' anywhere!?

[daisy4]

Ok thanks, found it.

Edited August 5, 2011 by daisy4

[bartonski]

no worries....you would have thought so but they only caught the rear lights as it was driving aways followed by me sliding along the road. they actually ran a reg check for audis in the area but nnothing came up close. nearest audi to pass a nearby camera was around 4 hours earlier. all the witnesses said it was an audi so i can only imagine the car had false plates

[crem]

speeding wouldnt come into it. you might aswell say because you didnt have road tax or your left indicator wasnt working then the incident was my fault.

 

Fair enough if you think so. But as you no doubt have the involvement of the police on this, stating anywhere in your reports "I was doing 80mph" seems a pretty dumb thing to let the police know. You might end up with your own speeding NIP from this if your lucky!