Car Crash Advice – Rear ended in 3 car shunt

Yesterday while waiting to turn off an A road someone went into the back of the car that was waiting behind us, then in turn shunted that into us.

Everyone was ok in the end. My daughter was checked out at the hospital. Paramedics checked me on the scene. Today I’ve got a stiff back, neck and shoulders. All 3 services attended the scene and traffic officers investigated, probably looking to see if they could charge the driver who did the shunting.

The car initially looked not too bad. But this morning I’ve seen that the boot floor wheel well is quite badly creased (did its job). The back wheels don’t look quite right. The impact was on the rear left and there’s definitely a difference (although small) between the how the wheels sit in the arches side to side. Could be just the wing bulging out a bit. It didn’t feel quite right driving it back home, like the tracking was out. Car is a 69 plate VW Touran.

I have reg numbers and the name of the driver in the rear most car. Took some pictures of the scene too. At the time though I was more concerned about seeing if everyone was ok. Then went to the hospital with my daughter in an ambulance (standard procedure to attend A&E as she’s under 2). The car is now back at our house.

At this point I’ve informed my insurer for information only. I have a concern the car may be written off now seeing the floor damage. The car recently had a towbar fitted at the cost of £600, ideally I don’t want to lose out on that. Also both kids car seats (even the unoccupied one) should be replaced. I thought my neck and back would be ok yesterday, but different story this morning. Then there’s incidental losses. I’d appreciate some hive mind advice on what to do next:

1. Should I claim through my insurer or use an accident management service (ideally a Scottish one for law expertise reasons)?
2. Should I see a doctor tomorrow and get assessed?

2. Absolutely.

1. I would approach your insurance company and let them deal with it. That may mean they use and accidental management company, they did in my recent single vehicle accident.

1. This is what you pay your insurance company for. Get them moving asap.

2. Yes

I think I’ve understood this correctly. If I claim with my insurance I’m bound to the terms on that. I think these will be ok generally, e.g. they will cover the full value of the car seats and sort us out with a hire car. But I’m not sure how they deal with my injury and things like the towbar. I don’t have motor legal cover (stupidly).

Your insurance first off. Car insurance costs a fortune, get your money out of them and make them do the donkey work.

If it’s obviously not your fault they might well handle the personal injury side of things too. I seem to recall when when I was involved in a similar thing on the M25 my insurers asked if I wanted to claim for personal injury.

Minor whiplash takes on average 36 days to heal so it might get worse before it gets better.

Been a few threads on claims management companies recently. Be wary

Car insurance claim question

You have a choice for your vehicle damage claim, against your own insurer, or against the fault parties insurer. Your own insurance MAY cover you for courtesey cars or low cost hire, and perhaps personal effects such as car seats, but in the main thats where it stops.

With uninsured losses (ie everything thats not covered with your insurer, your claim is against the third party only. This will cover generally, hire, loss of earnings, injury, possibly vehicle dimunition (on a 69 plate semi prestige vehicle this may be between 5-10% of vehicle value, roughly, as thats the “value” of the vehicle, next to say one parked on the forecourt next to it. – Insurers don’t like those, you might have to fight on this. –

In England and Wales, claims are made through a specific web portal, (look it up on the Motor Insurance Bureaux website). Not sure about Scotland, that might still be old “Letter of Claim”.

Your motor insurance may have Motor Legal Cover, or if not, your insurer might be able to introduce you to a solicitor. If not, be aware that some solicitors/AMC referral companies might charge a % of your recovered damages as part of their charges, and these are NOT standard, so you might need to negotiate. For for straight forward rear end, likely to be limited to 25%.

It might be worth contacting the TP insurer about hire and repairs, as AMC “Hire cars” on a credit basis can be a nightmare, leading to Court hearings to determine the reasonableness of charges and length of hire. Oh, and many AMC’s are fraudulent scum. Particularly the closer you get to West London or the North West.

1. This is what you pay your insurance company for. Get them moving asap.

2. Yes

This.

Insurance ASAP. They will also agree a hire car with the third party if needed. I’ve not ‘needed’ hire cars when any of ours have been damaged as we had another to use, and commuted on a bike – fairly straight forward these days though.

There is a chance it could be written off with a bent boot floor, but it’s a new car, so may be repaired if cost within reason.

I’ve heard of people being stung for hire car costs before. My insurer is Direct Line and they seem to offer a “guaranteed” hire car in these circumstances.

Just called Direct Line, seems they use Auxilis, who are the AMC causing the issue in the thread theotherjonv posted. I will be wary, especially as this could potentially be a write off and hire car costs could be high. Sounds like the hire car would be a 3 door hatchback anyway, pretty useless for us as the car is used move the kids about, we both WFH.

If that is the case and you can justify the need for a larger car, then recommendation would be to challenge the price and document that you really do need it.

It’s your responsibility to minimise losses to other parties so anything you can do to demonstrate you’ve tried *might* be useful in future.

Am I being daft, but won’t your insurer claim all costs off the insurance of the car that bumped you therefore you can get a courtesy car

What @mashr said. And don’t get me started on AMCs/CMCs 😡

Almost exactly what happened to me last year – minus having my daughter in the car.

Unfortunately the driver who hit the car behind me turned out to be uninsured 🙁

Avoid accident management company at all costs – they **** me over royally. Insist that your insurance co. deal with directly.

Other losses like towbars, etc. are very difficult to claim on.
Mine was destroyed, and the car written off.
I ended up looking for and buying a car with a towbar already fitted.

Am I being daft, but won’t your insurer claim all costs off the insurance of the car that bumped you therefore you can get a courtesy car

You might think, but some of the AMC/CMC’s are scammers – read the other linked thread

eg:

– put you in a car that costs £30 a day to hire if you pay in advance and fix for a longer period

– do it under an open ended agreement and charge hundreds for it

– in the T&C’s of the agreement (the bit you didn’t read) you agree that if they can’t recover the costs you’ll firstly assist them by going to court, and if that fails you’ll pick them up instead.

As said – even though you’re massively inconvenienced by the incident you are still obliged to minimise the losses to other parties.

You did tell your insurer you had a towbar fitted I assume ?
I don’t know how much of it is an urban myth but you always hear that insurers are looking for reasons not to pay out, and not declaring a modification being one of those reasons

Tow bar. Is this something that the insurance company could kick up about? Did they ned to be told about it? No idea as my cars have had them as standard. Could you whip it off anyway if you think that they wn’t cover this, in the same way that you would take out the air freshners before sending it to the scrappy. You know hat I mean.
Just thoughts as I distrust the insuurance business despiet only having good experiences.

No idea as my cars have had them as standard.

If it is fitted as standard on the vehicle, then the car is unmodified. Theoretically you should declare any after-market fitments like the OP’s though.

I have always asked insurance about towbars. They always wanted to know. On some cars it actually reduced my premium…

Even if it’s a factory fit “option” then I have been led to believe you need to tell them. Last few times I have done online quotes it has asked this. Same with folding roof rack I have on my transit. Factory “option” .

Could they argue that said tow bar has caused the damage to the OP’s car ?

When I had my front wing pushed in by a driver changing her mind on a roundabout, my insurance company, Saga, dealt with it all, including a hire care which was dropped off with a full tank. After it was decided my car wasn’t a viable repair, I had the option of keeping it with a reduced payout, which I accepted. I did nearly 900 miles in the hire car, on one tank of fuel and only incurred the cost of filling it up for collection, which was £72.

It was an Insignia diesel, with a huge tank! My insurers, and their claims company were still chasing the other party two or three years after the incident! There was no comeback on me.

Towbar is a removable type (and was removed) and while not factory fitted, it is the one they would use (Westfalia). It was fitted by a manufacturer approved installer.

I had the dawning realisation that it wasn’t declared. I asked about it with my insurer and they said it wasn’t a problem. I would just have to declare it at the next renewal.

I suppose if the accident was my fault then it may have been an issue, e.g. getting the cost of a replacement covered.

That’s good they said the towbar wasn’t a problem. I always them as your policy covers accidents involving your trailer (3rd party) and as I tow quite a heavy one I wouldn’t want to get caught out.

Towbars themselves are a double edged sword, they can protect against minor impacts but in a heavier crash it bypasses all the crumple zone and deformable bumpers (even if the ball is removed) and transfers the impact into the structure of the car, hence things like bent boot floor and possibility of a twisted axle.

In the Touran it’s a swap of the rear impact beam for one with a flange that accepts the detachable towbar. Almost like for like, although the beam must be uprated for towing loads.

Anyone any idea where I can get the market value for our car from? Maybe just searching Autotrader is best

Had a van drive into the back of my Passat estate which creased boot floor and had a tow bar fitted. Other party’s insurer admitted fault same day I reported it. Was given an Insignia hatch from Enterprise for the 2 weeks while they fixed my car. Towbar replaced no problem. They refused to replace the bumper boot sill protector as that wasn’t a VW part so was an uninsured loss so has to be added onto the injury claim through Scottish solicitor which my insurer referred me to.

Apart from the whiplash and insurance co referring me to English solicitor initially it was a painless process.

For value try putting it into we buy any car….will give you an idea

From my experience, if you claim for whiplash, don’t go for a payout that absolves them from further claims – insist on being covered for as long as it might be an issue.

My wife had this some 20 years ago, we took the money but we have spent that and then some and she’s still not right – we’ve avoided surgery but it’s inevitable that it will be needed at some point and we’ll have to do it via NHS.

Keep a note of the name of everyone that you spoke/speak to, including police, and what everyone said. Police should have full details for you including incident number, insurers, and maybe some bodycam footage. Police can be interviewed by solicitors in certain circs in E&W, dunno about Scotland.
Take more photos at the scene ASAP if practicable, signs on approach, road markings, sunlight at the time, etc

If the car can be repaired, how do I guarantee that it gets done properly?

I know I have the choice on who would do the repair but I’ve no idea on how to select a bodyshop. There is a VW Approved Bodyshop nearby…. seems the logical choice?

dmorts
Full Member

If the car can be repaired, how do I guarantee that it gets done properly?

The repairing garage should/will be a BSi certified repairer. Alternatively, let your insurer choose for you

Letting your insurer choose the body shop isn’t always a good idea. I did when I had someone hit my boot lid and drive off and the garage didn’t paint the inside of the patch-repaired panel so it started to rust within 6 months. Repaired under guarantee but still annoying when you have a rusty bootlid on a 3 year old car!

Letting your insurer choose the body shop isn’t always a good idea.

Conversely, if you do go down that route and you have problems, they will be sorted by the insurance company under their warranty. Choose your own repair shop and you would have to deal with them yourself in the event of a claim.

I had it myself a few years ago – I wasn’t happy with a repair (the spray wasn’t good quality and the replacement panel didn’t line up properly) so the insurance company sent an inspector out to my workplace to assess the repair, agreed it was sub-standard and had it booked back in.

I started the claim and requested the local VW Approved Accident Repairer. Turns out this is where the insurer would be sending the car anyway.

In the Touran it’s a swap of the rear impact beam for one with a flange that accepts the detachable towbar. Almost like for like, although the beam must be uprated for towing loads

Both towbars I’ve had have meant removing what looks like a pressed steel crash bar (about the thickness of a baking tray) and replacing it with a significantly heavier tubular thing.

I started the claim and requested the local VW Approved Accident Repairer. Turns out this is where the insurer would be sending the car anyway.

Then they called back and said actually they were wrong. I will be taking it to the VW approved place myself.

I wonder if anyone understands the irony of a claimant not allowing to profit when recouping losses, yet multiple actors in the process can do just that by reverting to preferred partners etc.

Today’s saga, car seat replacements. Gave them the invoices and shop we got them from etc. First response, “how about these completely different spec ones from our supplier John Lewis?” I know it’s all a negotiation dance, but it’s wasted a day. They could have been ordered by now had they just arranged the cash in their first response. We will still likely be £50 down due to the same seats now costing more.

I’d be interested in recommendations for insurers who would deal with you in a straight up fashion. I’d be happy to pay a higher premium.

I’d be interested in recommendations for insurers who would deal with you in a straight up fashion. I’d be happy to pay a higher premium.

Not to worry about that pal, you’ll be paying a higher premium next year, regardless of who you use.

I’d be interested in recommendations for insurers who would deal with you in a straight up fashion. I’d be happy to pay a higher premium.

Yeah one reason I don’t always choose the cheapest insurance….

Not to worry about that pal, you’ll be paying a higher premium next year, regardless of who you use.

Oh yeah I know that might happen if I switch