car accident help???

[gopher]

Hmm, no insurance, as someone else said good luck if he fronts up with a sore neck.

My sis had someone ram into the back of her car. Both of them were insured, but she did suffer a recurring neck injury, which she happily goes to physio and the other guys insurance company gets the bill. Over the years, the bills are huge.

Just recently, the other insurer has been pestering her to accept a pay out figure to end the claim. The figure they were offering would have covered a year or two of physio visits, which she has rejected due to the recurring nature of it. At one stage she had to take leave from work as she couldn't even turn her head to look sideways.

I would hate to have been the other person if they had no insurance.

how hard is it for people to understand that CTP insurance that is paid with your rego covers injuries
car insurance has absolutely nothing to do with injuries

[Krisp]

had an incident years ago no damage to his car , lots to mine. ended up that the price of his car was 3 times mine, the wanker even claimed on interior bits in the car

[304runner]

Because god help the #### who hits me and tells me they dont have insurance. In this town, half the "lovely people from Orient", dont have insurance and you have to dodge the ####ers like theyre guided missiles.

What the hell does it matter if your fully insured and someone like myself salms into you with my truck? Bugger all.. You get a new car and I get hit with the bill.. Simple...

[vsowner94]

thanks to everyone who is actually being nice about it, yes i ####ed up
but cmon is it all really necessary? im gunna be the one who forks out
the money in the end so the whole deal with insurance is stupid, it affects me
not him as to whether i have it, his insurance will fix whatever i apparently
did and i will wear the costs, simple, again, thanks to everyone who is being
nice and not having a mass B$#@& at me about the important of insurance

[gem05]

Thats correct gopher,car insurance is for theft,fire and damage to other property,CTP green slips is for injury to people.

[Jebadayah]

thanks to everyone who is actually being nice about it, yes i ####ed up
but cmon is it all really necessary? im gunna be the one who forks out
the money in the end so the whole deal with insurance is stupid, it affects me
not him as to whether i have it, his insurance will fix whatever i apparently
did and i will wear the costs, simple, again, thanks to everyone who is being
nice and not having a mass B$#@& at me about the important of insurance

It does affect him because he has to make a claim on his insurance and pay an excess. His insurance company WILL refund that to him, but generally don't do that until they have recovered monies from the at fault driver and/or their insurance company. If you have no insurance, and no means to pay the insurance company, the other driver is out of pocket until such time as you come up with the money for the insurance company. I know this from experience, I was hit by an uninsured driver when I was younger (with an $800 excess) and through no fault of my own, was out of pocket $800 to get my car fixed, which took me over 2 years to get back from my insurance company. I completely agree with earlier comments, if you can't afford, or refuse to have insurance, you should not be on the road.

[Krisp]

careful jeb i dont have insurance

[MasterOfReality]

how hard is it for people to understand that CTP insurance that is paid with your rego covers injuries
car insurance has absolutely nothing to do with injuries

How hard is it to read post #42?

[Grennan]

What the hell does it matter if your fully insured and someone like myself salms into you with my truck? Bugger all.. You get a new car and I get hit with the bill.. Simple...

It does affect him because he has to make a claim on his insurance and pay an excess. His insurance company WILL refund that to him, but generally don't do that until they have recovered monies from the at fault driver and/or their insurance company. If you have no insurance, and no means to pay the insurance company, the other driver is out of pocket until such time as you come up with the money for the insurance company. I know this from experience, I was hit by an uninsured driver when I was younger (with an $800 excess) and through no fault of my own, was out of pocket $800 to get my car fixed, which took me over 2 years to get back from my insurance company. I completely agree with earlier comments, if you can't afford, or refuse to have insurance, you should not be on the road.

Care to read those 2 posts again? Of course it effects me.

[Darren_L]

it all depends where it goes from here
if the other vehicle is insured, chances are they will go through their insurance company. In which case a letter of demand for the assessed cost of damage claimed will be sent to you. I don't know how it works in other states, but in Qld you have the right to demand at least 3 quotes from different repairers. If they aren't going through insurance, they will probably send you their own letter of demand.

Have a look at the quotes and what is being claimed. If you disagree the damage they are quoting on is directly a result of the collision, then contact their insurance company and explain. They may ask you to bring your vehicle to their assessment centre for inspection. If the insurance company is fair, the assessor will identify what damage he/she believes is a result of the accident (keep in mind even what seems like the smallest of impacts can cause unseen damage to bumper bar re-enforcements, panel behind the car etc. If you don't agree with the assessors decision, then it does become difficult for an individual to dispute without going through expensive legal processes. You'd have to get both vehicles inspected by an independant smash repairer/assessor, reports done, and then the legal eagles would have to take it from there.

If they aren't insured and send you their own letter of demand, then you probably have more room to negotiate. I would try to arrange both vehicles to be inspected at a repairer that is mutually agreed on. A repairer should be able to offer an unbaised, professional opinion as to what damage was actually caused by the collision.

But all you can do at the moment is take some photos of the damage to your own car (if your camera has a date stamp option, then turn it on) and then wait for the person you collided with or their insurance company to make contact with you. If the claim is only minor, then you might be better off paying it and put it down to learning. However if they are claiming what you feel is an unreasonable amount, then next thing to do would be to contact their insurance company to discuss.

I realise everyone else has said it, but get yourself some 3rd party property insurance. Usually it doesn't cost more than a few hundred dollars a year. But can save you a lot of money & hassle in problems like this. Just imagine the damage bill if you slammed up the back of an BMW or Mercedes..... And if you can't afford third party property insurance, then you really can't afford to own a car.

Also for future reference (and you probably already realise this now), always try to photograph (if possible) damage to both vehicles at the time of an accident. And always collect contact & insurance information from the other party, even if you believe you are at fault. If there are witnesses at the scene (who weren't in your car), also try and get their details. Note the time, exact location etc of the accident.

[Banicks]

I guess no-one reads correspondence from insurance companies. Everyone is getting a premium increase across the board due to the increase of claims recently. In laymans terms, because of people who can't drive, for example - don't put enough stopping distance between them and the car in-front - good/safe drivers now suffer.

OP - now do you understand why you're being flamed.

[Darren_L]

I don't think the OP should be flamed. He's a new driver, hasn't the experience that some of us have had and is still learning.
We weren't at the scene, so we don't know what exactly happened. It's very likely that he didn't leave enough distance, maybe wasn't paying enough attention. We've probably all been guilty of that at one stage. I figure the OP has learnt a harsh lesson already, so I don't see the point of lecturing him.

I havent read the entire thread, but from what I have read, the OP has accepted fault, isn't making excuses. And yes he should have 3rd party insurance, that was a bad call, that's an important issue that we have made very clear. But there's not much he can do about it now. He's just asking for advice on how to deal with the other partys damage claim, given that he doesn't agree with the extent of damage they are claiming was a result of the accident.

[A.C.COOKIE]

Another way you may be able to save yourself a bit of strife is if you have a professional panel beater spraypainter on side and he may be able to stand witness as to what demage if any could have been done with your car. But as it was said before if you run up somebodys ass end you are pretty much looked at as being guilty before trial.
I hope it works well for you.

[A.C.COOKIE]

but that will only work if you can get visuals of the other car

[AirStrike]

had an incident years ago no damage to his car , lots to mine. ended up that the price of his car was 3 times mine, the wanker even claimed on interior bits in the car

How does that make him a wanker? The joys of having insurance!

[vsowner94]

thanks darren, i do admit fault and am taking resposibility and have learnt a huge lesson

The other guy doesnt have insurance either, he brought the car 2 hours before. he came
with his first quote for $1125! for a whole new bumper, new stickers (the old ones werent even there)
and a $421 paint job! I looked at it closer tonight in better conditions and its a few minor scratches,
my dad and brother in law backed it up and it can simply be polished out, the scratches are nothing
the apparent dent wasnt there. and he had a story which made no sense apparently he was stopped at a red light
and all the others in front of him went through (the red light) and then he didnt go and was stopped at the red light
when i ran into him, although he was halfway through the dang intersection with nobody in front of him, he even told
a family friend who im friends with that he could see it coming, he therefore braked on purpose >.< anyway sent him
too get the 2nd quote from another place who we know and dad is gunna go in tomorrow and let em know what happened
and stuff so they wont bullshit up the quote up to 1125 aswell