Minor Accident

[sl33ek]

Hi guys,

this afternoon two minutes from home I had an accident. I was going straight on a two lane road when a ford transit pulled into my lane. I braked and skidded into him at around 30ks/hour and hit his rear left damaging my front right.

Obviously he's at fault but he wasn't happy and trying to deny it but I called bullsh!t, he was too big and slow and trying to pull out from his lane into mine and didnt see me coming, and I wasn't speeding. In the end he accepted it because he said to get some quotes and send it to him.

He's got third party through NRMA, I'm with Just cars. I called NRMA and confirmed that he was covered.

Anway I call Just Cars and tell them my story, I only have third party fire and theft so they wont chase up his insurance company and told me I have to do it. The best they can do is send me an info pack on what to do, but basically get two quotes, send it to him and its up to him to claim through his insurance.

The damage is minor but I'm really unhappy with it. He escaped with barely a scratch. There is scratches on my headlight but it can be polished out and the frontbar needs repair. I'm guessing $350-400.

Tomorrow I will get a quote.

I can either settle this privately or through insurance, but what would you guys do? I am going to go tomorrow to get two quotes and call him up with it and see if he wants to settle privately, or mail him the quote and wait for a response in case he wants to go through his insurance company. I'm worried that he will ignore me and leave me with the repair bill. I have all his details though so thats a comfort but no guarantee.

This is my first accident, am I missing anything or need to do aything else? Kind of stressed right now!

Just hoping I dont get screwed somehow

[mr moo]

go get the quotes asap,

ring him asap

let him know the cost

if he doesn't want any off this tell him that you will be immediatly reporting it to the police,and his insurance mob. i think(not to sure) you have 48 hrs to report an accident to police. may want to find this out.

at least you have his details

good luck with it

[sl33ek]

Thanks mate, thats a good idea. I was too depressed to think about doing police report, I will do that tomorrow morning. the police station was just around the corner too farken hell. In case he decides to use his insurance and needs a report number

[julion]

hes only got third party? I doubt his third party will cover that.. settle it privately if you can. If he refuses, draw up a letter of demand, then send that and if he still refuses seek legal advice. Should be right though.

[sl33ek]

Yeah. Why dont you think his third party will cover it? I'm hoping for a private settlement too because i'm pretty sure excess will cost more than the repair.

But if worse comes to worse a letter of demand will be on my to do list too.

Just took a couple of deep breaths, its not the end of the world and could have been worse looking back.

[Sinful]

Yeah get some quotes keep on him and hopefully he will do the right thing.... Tell the police and see what they can do but I have always had trouble with people and accidents so stay firm and dont let him get away with it

Hope it all goes well and hassle free

[sl33ek]

Thanks N1, I hope so too. Will post back on the outcome

[Richmond98]

i would call the police with any accident. And have the person in the wrong charged. Just makes it alot easyer down the road when it comes to insurance and who was in the wrong or right.

[SECURITY]

they'll tell you that if it was under 3k or 5k damage that you dont need a police report (i think).

you should've gotten him to sign off on him being at fault and a small list of what the damage looks like.

make sure you tell your insurance company that you were established in your lane, and he wasnt. if you report it to insurance, the damage will support your story anyway.

hope it works out dude. goodluck.

[clakka]

Mate always good to tell the police what happened ASAP because I rang them a couple of days later and they said oh well too bad...

Get the quotes, contact him and if he refuses to pay you are best off writing a letter of demand. Or just bypass him and send the quotes to his insurer as you won't have to pay a thing...(best option)

If you wanna go private you could file an application with the Small Claims Tribunal as they will listen to claims upto $7k without any legal representation. Filing in the small claims is like $200 but if you are awarded damages he will have to pay your filing fee also.

Good luck bro.

Edited August 4, 2006 by clakka

[Beer Baron]

ring him up with your quote and ask for the money. if he gives it to you good. if not my advice is just forget about it and get it fixed yourself and move on with your life. in reality any investigation will find you at fault. you lost control of your car and ran into the back of him so chances are unless you can prove he admitted fault at the scence you will be found liable. plus it's not very much money. not worth your time trying to fight his insurance company. Once they know you are not insured they will try and not pay which will bring on one big problem.

definately ring the police assistance line and make a report. they wont take one from you at the police station so dont even bother going down there.

sad thing that happend, but just move on, in the scheme of things it's not so bad.

[sl33ek]

Thanks guys, yeah I hear you.

I guess its not worth having a vendetta against this guy. I'll see if he keeps his word tomorrow, if he does then great, if not I'll grin and bear it. I'll still file the report, send quotes to both him and his insurance company though and follow it up but I wont lose any sleep over it.

Damn thing is I just got the bar repaired and resprayed a couple months ago from driveway damage

Thanks for the support guys, hope none of you go through this or worse

[br3tt]

Ouch man. Not the best situation to be in

Lets just hope he keeps his word. A semi-positive is the bar is repairable, atleast he didn't smash your lights (blinkers) and headlight and stuff. Then it gets messy (price wise).

All the best mate.

[sl33ek]

Thanks Br3tt yeah I'm glad theres no panel damage just the front bar.

Just an update, the quotes ranged from $300 to $500.

I forwarded him the quotes and he sat on it for a week. I called him up to see what he wanted to do and he tried to turn it around and blame the accident on my since he was hit on the rear quarter its my fault regardless. I argued saying he merged into me and it wasnt a square hit and he didnt even straighten his car up before i hit him.

Anyway I sent the letter of demand saying I'll take him to a tribunal and write formal complaints to his employer (he was a courier) if he doesnt resolve within two weeks. he got it on Friday, so I call him today to see where he stood. He claims he didnt get the letter, but i said i sent it via registered post so I said I found it hard to believe. He suddenly finds it and offers a settlement which I took.

Anyway I'm glad its over, this guy was a real pain in the ass to deal with, I wouldnt be surprised if I get the "cheques in the mail" line from him though

[br3tt]

Atleast it's over man and you got something off him.

Better then nothing =]

[minger]

mould have gone to the cops and let them know as well man

i had a woman that side swiped me about a year ago from the drivers door to the rear drivers pannel (about $1000 damage)

she said shed pay ...

got all her details and she ended up paying $80 3 months later and not returning any phone calls after that. went to the cops and they basically said stiff shit...

good old boys in blue

they said shold have gone to them first

Edited August 15, 2006 by minger

[evil_weevil]

let police know.

formal report.

you both have 3rd party only....his 3rd party covers someone he hits, but not him as with your 3rd party cover.

now call nrma again and tell them you have the report and want the car repaired asap!

and then save for full comp - if you can afford a skyline - full comp insurance is the way to go and peace of mind.

[sl33ek]

Yeah evil, I got the police report done the next day and included it in the letter of demand. Just want to say thanks for the advice guys, it came in handy. But yeah if i had comprehensive i wouldnt have had to do all this crap, i'm lucky it wasnt a bigger accident.

Its been settled privately and I'm dying to drop off my front bar to get repaired this weekend.

[R33-Lovr]

take $600 - $650 off him and go do it your self, you might even want to go for a different style,

[sl33ek]

hehe no that would be slack, i doubt I can get more out of him anyway. If he decided to go through insurance I would do it though