Due to an unfortunate coming together this morning my brompton is now dead as a Land Rover drove over it, fortunately after making sure that I'd gone over the bonnet and rolled 10 metres down the road.
I've got the drivers details, do I just phone him up and ask for his insurance details and then claim or get a quote for the damge and then send him a letter?
Give details to police - illegal to leave the scene of an accident IIRC. You need police input.
Yep, inportant to report it to police as insurance companies sometimes refuse to pay if you've not got a 'log' number from plod.
get a quote for the damge and then send him a letter
Yes. He might decide to settle with you direct.
He must in law give you the details at the scene - so he has broken the law.
Report to police, have you got witnesses?
Take photos of the scene - draw a diagramme with where all vehicles were - d it now while its fresh in your mind
I woudlnt have let him leave without calling the fuzz and getting his insurance details beforehand. Silly question but can you be certain he'll accept full liability now that it's only your word against his?
aP - hope you're ok???!
obviously you can still write fluently enough..so things look ok..
Similar thing happened to me. Police were around for some reason. Gotta get a police number. I'm sure you know the price of the bike.contact him see if he wants to settle without insurance. He (like most motorist) might think your bike is only worth £10. Then it's off to his insurance company. Failing that its the small claim court. Where I am atm. This is why the police input is important. The insurers won't cough up without one and may mess you around so you have to take legal action.
Don't forget that legally it's nothing to do with his insurance company (as with any accident). Your claim is against him and while he may choose to limit his cost by using an insurance company that's entirely his look out and not yours.
If necessary you can take him to small claims court and sue him for the damages.
If it's simple though I'd ring the guy up and tell him what you think it'll cost to sort out and see what he says. If he wants to use the insurance fine if he'd rather pay himself and save the no claims etc let him. As long as you get paid it's all much the same.
illegal to leave the scene of an accident IIRC
what? ever?
insurance companies sometimes refuse to pay if you've not got a 'log' number from plod.
Maybe with something like a burglary where it's your insurance. In this case the insurance is insuring the driver not you, and a police crime number is fairly irrelevant - you can certainly get a payout without it ever being reported to the police.
Silly question but can you be certain he'll accept full liability now that it's only your word against his?
It's not exactly your word against his - there's the other evidence of what happened. He's got to come up with some plausible scenario so that it's not his fault, which would involve more inventive lying than most are capable of.
As always with these sort of things, my advice is to get professionals involved [url] http://www.bikeline.co.uk [/url]
If you aren't injured you don't need to report it, give him a call and tell him to pay up, if he says no ask him for his insurance details at which point he'll likely either pay up or refuse to give u details. If he refuses call the bill coz afaik he must give you insurance details. I got hit, minor damage, the guy took a while to pay up, needed a few reminders but did eventually cough up.
On the other hand if you are covered by your own insurance and think he is unlikely to pay you'll need to report it and get a ref number for your insurance co. Trouble is then he's likely to be as difficult as possible and try to deny liability. Tricky one. I got hit by someone who didn't stop and my insurance paid up pronto (thankyou CIS) but the police haven't managed to collar the guy (he wasn't the registered keeper) so likely I wont get my excess back and my premium may go up next year
You can leave the scene of an accident without stopping but you must report it to the police within 24 hours IIRC.
www.bikeline.co.uk
Lots of really good information, and its FREE, run by a cyclist for cyclists.