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2 weeks ago Mrs driving home about 9pm, van tailgating flashing lights trying to get past (she isn't a granny driver), eventually gets to a dual carriageway it overtakes and takes out her wing mirror in the process. She's pretty shaken up by van drivers actions. Van stops and they exchange details, was 2 young lads in a works van, they were quite apologetic and helped pop the mirror back on. All agree not worth claiming for and went on. She got the impression one lad was giving his mate a lift (should they have been out in the van then, just conjecture I guess).
Get a phone call today from our insurers saying the passenger has put in a personal claim for whiplash injuries. Insurers say because no witnesses they might have to agree to 50:50 as the claimant is saying mrs pulled to right and hit them. Their word against hers etc. Insurers say they could go to court to contest but unlikely as no witnesses, would probably settle (and our premiums then go up....).
Just doesn't seem right people can get away with this and we all suffer from hiked premiums. Tempted to ring the company who own the van and speak to MD to see if they are aware what's happened. Got to speak to our insurance claims department again tomorrow to decide course of action. Anyone with similar experience? cheers
call police and report it as insurance fraud? A visit from them to the registered address of the van might make them decide their neck has cleared up.
Fight, to the death if necessary - c**ts 😡
(and I'll take the swear filter warning....gggrrrr)
There was a thread about this a while ago, might be worth doing a search, see if there was any outcome.
(will see if I can provide a link..)
Gloves off- Ring the company and speak to the boss. I wouldnt roll over. In 5yrs time youd be pissed off thinking back plus their driving before.
Check you t&cs but say you dont agree to settlement either.
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/accident-whiplash-claim-farce
it's rife!
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/false-car-crash-claim-has-this-happened-to-anyone
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/challenging-a-fraudulent-whiplash-claim-experiences
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/set-up-insurance-job-fake-claim
3 sides to every story, her side,their side and what actually happened, and everyones insurance goes up if it was fraud or poor driving.
Either way both vehicle where insured,so one plus there.
Surely there would be a not unnoticeable amount of damage to the car and van?
We had our car written off in january by someone not paying attention. Full airbag deployment, 180 deg spin and our car is now 5" narrower on the driver side and the OH and dog escaped without any whiplash (OH had seatbelt pain for a week or so). Only reason i am injured is my arm was occupying the space that is no longer due to the chassis being bent so I got a hell of a whack into my shoulder and wrist.
PS my advice to anyone is ALWAYS call the Police in this situation unless you have a good number of witnesses or CCTV to back you up. Even if you just call 101 (only call 999 for something very serious or if you are being intimidated etc) and ask them for advice and describe what has happened etc as it will be recorded and you will have some backup. Even better if you pass the phone onto the other party to confirm.
call police and report it as insurance fraud? A visit from them to the registered address of the van might make them decide their neck has cleared up.
that,
Coppers won't be interested.
some really good info here, make sure you have a biro and pad with you though.
I read the title as 'Doggy Whiplash Claim' and had images of either a dawg in a neck brace or your Mrs being injured after a hard.......
thanks for the other links, very common it seems. Weird they they were going in the same direction and saying he got whiplash, a big van vs a little polo. Just been looking at Honest John, loads of similar stories and insurance companies just agreeing to settle to save the hassle, saying that it's their decision, so why bother ringing asking if she wants to go to court. HJ says you should insist on court and remind the other party that lying in court is perjury and someone recently got 9 months inside for a dodgy whiplash claim.
Today our insurance company told us that the van driver who reversed into my wifes car as she was stopped in traffic is claiming that she drove in to him. Thankfully no whiplash claim but why can't people just be honest when they've f'ed up 👿
My wife said that done of the work men in the van could speak English well and were scared about what there boss would say so I think that they lied to their boss to cover their backs.
The sooner dash cames become mandatory along with black box data recorders, as fitted voluntarily to the majority of trucks and coaches/buses the better for all road users.
Even if it was her fault, how the chuff does one get "whiplash" from a side impact? That alone should scream "fraud."
They should give whiplash claimants free physiotherapy instead of money.
Insurers say because no witnesses they might have to agree to 50:50 as the claimant is saying mrs pulled to right and hit them.
Don't need a witness. Someone needs to have diagnosed the injury as whiplash. Photograph the damage from the incident (the wing mirror) send it to your insurer. Ask them to forward it to the claimant requesting that it be shown to the doctor who has diagnosed the injury and verify that their diagnosis correlates with the severity of the impact that damage suggests
The claimant will of course not do this, either because they haven't been examined and don't have a diagnosis or they've lied about the nature of the incident and their symptoms to the doctor.... so you won't hear from them again.
Then give your insurers a verbal kick in the fork for not dealing with this themselves
Tempted to ring the company who own the van and speak to MD to see if they are aware what's happened.
Surely an injury in a works vehicle, on work time would be in their Accident Book (but of course its not) and there would be a record of any absence relating to injury and treatment - again - get the insurers to ask for this. Just asking will shit the claimant up because they'd have to reveal to their employer that they are making a dodgy claim to request the information.
I'm on the other side, rear ended, feel like it ran me over and not arsed about claiming with everyone telling me to do them (whoever them may turn out to be - police investigating hit and run)
Don't need a witness. Someone needs to have diagnosed the injury as whiplash. Photograph the damage from the incident (the wing mirror) send it to your insurer. Ask them to forward it to the claimant requesting that it be shown to the doctor who has diagnosed the injury and verify that their diagnosis correlates with the severity of the impact that damage suggestsThe claimant will of course not do this, either because they haven't been examined and don't have a diagnosis or they've lied about the nature of the incident and their symptoms to the doctor.... so you won't hear from them again.
Dont know about anyone else but when I had a real whiplash claim (someone head-on'd me at a closing speed of about 35 in an old car) I had to visit a private doc for the claim to be registered as valid even with MY insurer?! That said, as my symptoms were stereotypical of a whiplash claim, the doctor asked the questions I expected and I gave the (truthful) answers that were textbook whiplash and he signed it off. You don't have to be a genius to see you could easily fake it.
A friend of mine recently accidentally ran into the rear of a car (foot slipped off clutch, impact at less than walking pace). Details given, apologies given, accepted blame. Claimant claimed whiplash, dash cam footage showed actual accident from mates van. Fraudulent claim rejected in it's entirety, mate off scott free.
Dont know about anyone else but when I had a real whiplash claim (someone head-on'd me at a closing speed of about 35 in an old car) I had to visit a private doc for the claim to be registered as valid even with MY insurer?!
The guy making the claim here won't be acting through an insurer - the insurer of the vehicle he was in (and his employer) won't even be aware theres a case - , he'll have just gone to his nearest no-win-no-fee outfit. They'll submit the claim on the off chance that your insurer will just roll over because writing a cheque is less bother than making a few phone calls, they'll not have asked their client to prove or validate anything they'll just take the punt. As soon as the NWNF lawyer is asked to do some actual work, and doing that work would make it less likely the case will succeed, then the choice between getting a fee for no effort and likelihood of getting nothing for some effort means they'll just back off.
Just to give some colour and flavour to this - would the OP like to name the Insurance Company? If they're lazy enough to want to pay this claim without challenge then we can all strike them off the list of insurers we want to do business with.
Direct Line, will update later once spoken to them. Thanks for some useful advice here
Whatever you do, do not admit liability. Keep to your story.
My wife ran in to a van in a queue, slow enough to do no damage to her car but with enough force (automatic) to slightly push in the rear doors.
We reported it and admitted liability, it was her fault. The passenger put in for whiplash; we only found out when her premium was due and the Ins Co told me the claim hadn't been settled.
Over £10k was paid, nothing we could do about it - even though the Ins Co investigated, he'd medical 'evidence'.
Direct Line, will update later once spoken to them. Thanks for some useful advice here
I found them very good when you do push them to action. I got the feeling that there is some poor pleb in a darkened room with 100,000 cases to decide wether to fight or cave each day - so they just make snap choices.
When you actually speak to someone, they do act. (Unlike Churchill the [s]scam [/s] insurers that they are)
My wife said that done of the work men in the van could speak English
Oh the ironing 😉
Matt - Direct Line & Churchill are the same co, they even got fined for sharing practices/data etc!
OP, as I've said on here before (and been flamed), there is a flood of unwarranted 'whiplash' claims in this country at present which arose from some legal reforms years back making it easier for the "victim" to access the legal system. As with many well intended schemes, this has been abused to the point of saturation and the fight back is a slow & long process. To give you an idea, the ABI caught out over 45,000 fraudulent injury claimants in 2011/12 but it was estimated that this was less than 10%.
The big problem is that a soft tissue injury such as whiplash is almost impossible to prove or disprove leaving it down to very sketchy medical examinations & possible 'coaching' as to the right thins to say/do to make it seem real.
My advice is to fight it. Stick to your story & insist they prove their loss - as has been mentioned before, it should be in their employer's accident book. If not then it would reinforce your case. It would be interesting to see whether they have had any time off work/stopped playing sport/kept away from the gym etc etc.
I would also suggest that you make a claim against the third party for a replacement mirror - if their insurers get involved & actually look at the evidence it may help your cause too.
Reporting them to the Police won't help now but if you'd done it at the time (in view of their pre-crash actions) you'd be in a much stronger position. I know this doesn't help now but the more people that do bother to report such incidents the less chance these t*****s have of getting owt.
Over £10k was paid, nothing we could do about it - even though the Ins Co investigated, he'd medical 'evidence'.
£10k for whiplash from that?
It's ridiculous what people get away with. Six weeks after getting hit by a car I still feel like I have been hit by a truck. Pain killers just make my head spin and me want to throw up and am sat here in the lab babysitting experiments as I can't handle anything nasty in case I drop it and am sat next to the sink in case I throw up.
I don't give a crap about any compensation, I just want some proper medical care so I don't have any lasting problems.
Presumably since you exchanged details you have the address of the van owner. Go round with a big hammer and don't leave until the damage to the van is commensurate with the injuries. 🙂
Mrs spoke to claims bloke today who said they will pursue it and ask for full details of medical examination, damage to van, the companies details, the driver & their records of incident etc etc plus take photo evidence of van and our wing mirror and ask for an explanation on how the young lad sustained whiplash traveling in same direction and a light side impact knocking off a wing mirror. It will certainly drop his mate the driver in it at his work. The only thing he said was that the lad was using some NWNF firm up in Liverpool who are notorious for these type of claims and have a high success rate (wouldn't say who). Will leave it to our insurers for now and see what happens I guess, the lad may or may not drop it but ultimately they'll make the call
[i]£10k for whiplash from that? [/i]
Aye, plus about £1k to repair the van (couldn't open the rear doors) and £3k for hiring another one while it was been done...
And not a scratch on her car (older Freelander, so the bumper was above the vans, which is why the doors were damaged).
It will certainly drop his mate the driver in it at his work
Oh dear. Perhaps he should have a word with his fraudulent little friend.
Matt - Direct Line & Churchill are the same co, they even got fined for sharing practices/data etc!
TBF, my issues with Churchill were 10 years ago, but I still have the letter asking not to take them to court, and would sir find a refund of premium and £100 M&S voucher a suitable incentive?
If the Op put in a counter claim for the same would that not stir up the hornets nest... 😕