What happens (to insurance) when kids crash cars?

Had a nice chat to the two nice paramedics. Don’t know how you do it, but glad you do. They were a bit annoyed that nobody had told them that he was basically OK, so they had no idea what they were going to find when they arrived on the scene.

Cheers. It’s a great job and yes it’s a bit nerving now knowing what you going to. However, I no longer do it I’ll save it for a thread though.

One of my son’s friends is training to be a paramedic and he did comment after the crash that it looked like an interesting job. I just assumed he’d banged his head harder than he was letting on as I can’t think of anything worse 🙂 Grateful to you and all your former colleagues though.

Just curious, what was the car?

A ten year old 1.2L suzuki swift. It was a surprisingly nice car to drive before he parked it on its side. Not much power. Took an age to get up to speed (which we liked of course) but really smooth and relaxing to drive. It also had 7 air bags, which we are grateful for now.

Of course, I’m now worried that we are about to get a letter saying he’s been charged and will have to re-take his test, which would be far worse than my original concerns. One weird thing with the police. The paramedic was convinced they would have to breathalyse him. So I asked if they needed to do that before I took him away and the officer just laughed and said “only if you think he’s been drinking”. Maybe they had done it already (but why not say that). My son is very vague about what happened straight after the accident. He didn’t even know what side of the car he got out of or which side was on the road, so no point asking him.

Were they traffic cops or local beet officers?  I’d have expected traffic cops to breathalyse and drugswipe him but perhaps not an ordinary cop.  My guess is at worst he’ll get a fixed penalty (3pts £200), but potentially discretion that he’s had a proper scare and a very expensive mistake. Anything more serious will require him to be summonsed to court (could be months from now).

Thanks @poly Would they not have told him at the time if they intended to charge him? It was all very friendly at the scene (at least by the time I arrived). The officer helped me to fish his jacket out of the car with his baton (apparently he uses it for that much more often than for whacking people). No idea if they were traffic or local, but they had marked cars with blue lights on top. I asked a few times if he needed anything else from me, but he just wanted to let me know which company would recover the car and said I should pass that on to my insurance company who would take care of it. They were both pretty young but that’s just a sign that I’m getting old 🙂

This all happened in Scotland by the way. Not sure if procedures differ up here.

Thanks @poly Would they not have told him at the time if they intended to charge him?

They might, but don’t technically have to.  My guess is they weren’t traffic cops (white tops on hats, fancier cars, probably have the scene coned off) and so are less likely to regard every mistake as careless driving, but that force might have a policy of traffic sergeant reviewing every incident, they have 6 months to start court proceedings if they really wanted to.  Assuming it was in England then I think their options are: no action; whats driving us course; fixed penalty; court.   So court is quite unlikely.  Even if it did go to court magistrates can impose 3-9 points so probably not 6 or more so New Driver rules not invoked.

Oh just read it was in Scotland!  In that case the course is not an option.

Thanks @poly I guess we’ve got a few months of nervously checking the post then 🙂  Sounds as though something that would result in him losing his licence is pretty unlikely though.

They had closed the road when I got there (nice big blue Police sign and some cones) but the mood was very much “no harm done, lesson learnt”.

Insurance prices have gone through the roof in the past year.

Both my home and driving policies increased by 50%.

Tried shopping around but could not find anything much cheaper so did not switch.

Even without this accident his renewal premium may have been painful. I can also see why there are so many uninsured drivers – do they ever get caught/fined/banned?

His lifestyle may have to change. Maybe rent a room local to work and stay there during the week?

A moped may be insurable but commuting all year round in Scotland wouldn’t be fun.

After my first prang I cycled from Raeding to Basingstoke and back every day for about four months – got very fit but had zero energy left for anything else.