Hit in Rear but driver claiming not his fault!

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Mon 17 May 2010 22:40
Hit in Rear but driver claiming not his fault! - vince480

Hi there,

A few months back travelling on a motorway I had to slow down fairly sharply as traffic ahead was breaking for a broken down vehicle.

The vehicle behind me didn't stop in time and hit the rear of me.

My rear bumper and enforcer bar needed completely replacing and a fair amount of work had to be carried out to the front of the car which hit me.

Now what has annoyed me and muddied the water with the insurance company is the driver who hit me claimed someone hit him and shunted him into me.

This annoymous 3rd driver was no where to be seen at the time of the accident, thus apparently just drove off!!

My insurance company are now saying they are going to settle knock for knock as they can not trace the 3rd vehicle that was alledgely involved.

Is this right? can this happen?

For what it's worth I did see some scuff marks to the rear of the 2nd vehicle, however I have managed to get hold of a copy of the engineers report for the repairs done to the 2nd vehicle which hit me. Whats odd is, it only has one item listed to the rear of the vechicle which needed repairing, a dent to the rear right body panel. There were 15 items which needed replacing to the front of the vehicle, from headlights, to radiator, to front wishbones!!

Could there be so little damage to the vehicle in the rear if he was apparently shunted into me?

Any help and advice on this one would be really really helpful.

Cheers

Vince

Edited by vince480 on 17/05/2010 at 22:46

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Wed 19 May 2010 15:49
Hit in Rear but driver claiming not his fault! - Cris_on_the_gas

Have got any witnesses to this ?

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Tue 25 May 2010 10:49
Hit in Rear but driver claiming not his fault! - LucyBC

Rear end shunts with no frontal damage are (almost) always the fault of the car behind.

It gets more complicated when there is more than one car involved but "knock-for-knock" (which doesn't really exist any more - the insurance industry talks about split liability) would be totally inappopriate in this case as you were not responsible for the accident in any event - assuming that there was no damage to the front of your car.

In this circumstance you should be able to make a successful claim against the (known) driver who caused your damage by hitting you. That driver in turn would potentially have a claim from the (unknown) driver who hit him for both his damage and to recover the costs of the damage he caused to you.

The problem he has is that the other driver cannot be identified and - unless driver number 2 was injured - the Motor Insurers Bureau untraced drivers scheme will not kick in.

There being no responsible insurer for the unidentified car (number three) and you being not liable, the insurer for number 2 is entirely liable for the accident and you should recover your damage and losses in full.

It will help if you have a witness to the accident but if the rear driver has made a statement as you indicate you should not need a third party witness as while liability is not clear cut - what is clear is you were not liable in any way.

Honest John has an accident investigator / loss adjuster available to assist in cases like this who should be able to deal with your insurer on your behalf and secure the repairs to your vehicle and recover any uninsured losses you might incur.

Contact the website for more information.

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