I worked at a car insurance company ( Royal Sun Alliance) for a few years. Any accident where there are no 'Legal' rights of way, ie public highway, is very hard to prove blame one way or the others, so both drivers are generally deemed to be 'At Fault' and the insurers take a 'Knock for Knock' deal and pay ou their own clienst where appropriate, The Constat has a section where you drwa a picture of what happened.... A picture paints a thousand words etc .... -- On the other hand, I thought that it was a criminal offence to refuse to complete a constat after an accident, and any witnesses were also obliged to give their details. Not 100% on that last part.
Mike having a windscreen camera has proved invaluable in so many cases in the UK, unfortunately we now have to be idiot proof. Reversing without looking can prove fatal if he didn't see you then he would not have seen a child, would he then blame the child or mother
Paul,
In my book, that's keeping everyone unhappy!
Except for the insurers who benefit from being able to increase the renewal cost for both parties.
In business-speak it's called maximizing profitability - translates as downright immorality and perhaps even culpable fraud.
The insurers have now accepted that I am not to blame and the car is booked in for repair.
It pays to persist!
Seams to be a common approach by many insurers... in my case both parties were with the same insurance company (MAAF) so perhaps trying to keep eveyone happy!
As someone else suggested, stick at it and refuse responsibility. Ensure all communications sent with lettres en recommandé avec AR....
Good luck
Thanks Lisa,
Sent them photos and a simple written re-statement of my case, emphasizing the points that they had failed to take into account and they have just written back agreeing that I am not to blame.
Beginning to think that a windscreen camera would be a worthwhile investment. Has anyone found that useful?
I should have seen the warning signs when the other driver blamed me and seemed to think it was unimportant that he had just reduced the resale price of my car by several hundred euros. He actually said "People are bumping into me all the time and I never make a fuss." This from the owner of a 25 year old Citroen AX!
But, on reflection, I realize that that my insurers will benefit from the 50/50 split. So I may have to make it clear that they will lose my business if I don't get the outcome I expect.
Thanks Lisa. I have written to my insurers, suggesting that they should put a bit more effort into pursuing my claim. I will report back when I get a response.
You should have stopped, stayed in position and called the gendarmes out. OK, other people would have been put out and angry, but the willingness to get the law involved puts the wind up people. My OH has done similar twice. It came to that because after being hit by somebody pulling into a parking space when she was properly positioned, a gendarme saw what had happened, that the driver then pulled out went to another space, so booked the driver for simply walking away leaving the incident as if it had never happened and taking evasive action. She had to go to the gendarmerie to sign something or other for the sakes of her insurance. Marcial, the father of our daughter's 'boyfriend' was on duty, so the usual chit-chat but during that he told her to report all of the incidents in car parks because people try to get away with them but a surprisingly large number of them have form and deserve to lose points, even get a ban.
Unless there is an impartial or police statement to go on it seems that the insurers do not want to know. Once forced by contributing factors that could cause legal process they will cough up. As I was told many years ago, insurance companies are far better at taking evasive action than drivers.