Had A Car Crash

[benny205mi16 19 1 Cars]

Hello,

Can any of you help me out?

Today my wife was involved in a car crash, with 9ish other cars and a lorry.

What happened was, the lorry is driving along (dual carageway) and some cover of some kind comes off his gearbox spilling oil on the road, this cover and oil hit the car behind so they both come to a sudden halt. The other cars behind now brake slide and hit each other, my wife and 1 other car are at the back and do not play pin ball with the others, they stop 10meters short of the pile up, but my wife does slid and clips the back of one car. The police arrived took details etc and have told my wife and the other lady who she hit to sort it out with our insurance. But my question is should we not be able to claim from the lorrys insurance because if that had not put oil on the road, my wife would not have slid on it and would of not hit the other car. It seams at the moment she is going to loose her no claims for someone else putting oil on the road.

Any ideas where we stand?

Everyone was ok which is the main thing, but I am just unsure as to fault.

Thank you

[m_attt 31 1 Cars]

doubt it mate, as they would just say she should have left the correct distance that she would have left her self time to stop if such incident happened. If she slid on the oil then the lorry would be liable.

[benny205mi16 19 1 Cars]

Yes she slid on the oil from the lorry, the police said there was diesel and oil on the road surface.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Ooooooooo, now this is a tough one (for the layman, anyway)!

 

Personally, I would say it's unlikely.

 

First off, does she even have the details of the lorry so that your insurers can contact their insurers?

 

I would expect that you would have to get all 3 insurers talking to each other, with yours and that of the car your wife hit trying to claim from the lorry's insurer. It'll be a bloody mess, they'll not be able to agree on blame, and it'll probably end up that each party claims from their own insurance. That's how I see it going anyway.

 

The only broad comparisson that I can draw is this - if it had been black ice on the road, and your wife had slid in to another car even having left enough stopping distance and taking due care, who would you be trying to blame? God?

 

I could be totally wrong but I just see this being massively awkward to claim for, so unless it's leaving you hugely out of pocket, I wouldn't devote a huge amount of timing fightng for a result. How bad a scrape is it? Could you just right off a few hundred quid to get the other driver repaired without going through insurance? And would it be cheaper than losing the NCD? Also check if your NCD is protected, or if the claim would result in full loss of the NCD or just part of it.

[m_attt 31 1 Cars]

then you should be able to claim, if you have the police report, as iirc whoever spills diesel etc on the road is liable for any accidents if proven it was them

[jason7579 5]

Similar happened to me a few years back, there had been a spillage from a lorry and I slid into the back of a BMW. Little damage to the front of my Vectra but BMW parking sensors were damaged. Didn't see the lorry but my insurance company said it wouldn't have mattered, I was liable for the damage to the BMW. £1000 they had to fork out, luckily I had protected no clams but the insurance still went up a bit.

[harryskid 193]

Sound trickey but you could try citizens advice or ask your own insurance for advice !

[Anthony 1,003]

The car that your wife hit will claim off your insurance - that is straight forward enough, as your wife hit the back of them.

 

In theory your insurance have a case against the lorry drivers insurance, but whether it will go fully against them or your wife is partly to blame I don't know.

 

For what it's worth, a colleague of mine at work hit a spare wheel(!) that fell from a lorry and wrote off his 3 year old car, and he did successfully claim from them and keep his no-claims discount. Your case isn't quite so straight forwards in my eyes though, other than there being no question of the person your wife hit being able to claim from your insurance.

[Pugleyrich 37 1 Cars]

If you would like me to check with one of our motor lawyers at work pm me your phone or email and I will have a chat with them on Monday. Can't help much myself though as I haven't ever specialised in that area

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

The insurance companies handle the chain - you just sort it out with 'each other', so to speak. If you put all the facts to your insurer, they can then decide whether to chase the claim all the way down the line to the truck that dumped the oil. If it's just minor bumper damage, though, they'll probably not bother - the legal costs of counter-claiming all the way down the chain are probably not worth it, and they'll just pay out and be done with it... besides, from what I can make out, your wife and the car she hit had no impact with anyone else right? If so it's just between them. While I'm sure you'll argue that there was oil on the road from the truck, at the end of the day it'll be a close call between "it was the trucks fault your wife skidded and hit the car" and "it was your wifes fault for not leaving enough braking distance/judging the conditions/etc". If there was serious injury at hand it's probably worth pushing, but if it's just a knock of bumpers between two cars they probably won't perceive any benefit of going after the truck insurers.

[benny205mi16 19 1 Cars]

An update,

Because of loosing NCD and then insurance cost going up, we offered to pay to have the other ladys car fixed,

on inspection it seamed a respray of her bumper would be needed as there were some scratches on it from where the cars conected, she said she would speak with her husband later that day and call us.

She rang us up and said its only a few scratches and does not want to do anything, she is just glad everyone was ok. We said we would happly pay for a respray as our car hit her, but she said no really its just a couple of scratches.

So I have been fixing our car today (bent track rod end) and we are going to send her some flowers as a thank you.

I was very suprised as it seams everyone today is quick to claim for anything, but when she rightly deserves her bumper painting she sees it as an accident and is not.

I saw her after the crash had happened, because I do not work far from where it happened and when I arrived it was her looking after my wife because she was shook up and upset, She was very understanding and calming.

[harryskid 193]

Glad to hear it all worked out well !