Who's at fault with this incident?

[jimothyc]

Take a look at this dashcam footage of an accident my wife was in a couple of years ago.



Who would you say is at fault for this accident?

The insurance company have now decided this was my wife's fault and we're liable for the other party's costs and it will be registered as a fault accident on her history file, which won't be good come renewals time.

I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions on this. It seems black and white to us. Does anyone else have any experience of this happening to you? What did you do to resolve this with the insurer?

[bad company]

That’s outrageous, can you appeal the decision?

[E31Shrew]

Weird. Seems pretty obvious to me that the oncoming car was on the wrong side of the road!

[jimothyc]

bad company said:

That’s outrageous, can you appeal the decision?

The letter from the insurance company seems to suggest that it's made its decision and that's it. Short of taking to the Twitters and tagging them in the video, I'm not sure what we can do.

[Bill]

Is your wife in the oncoming car??!? Cos that's who is to blame.

If not (and assuming you haven't mirrored the dash cam/it's not abroad) you need to push back!

[mark-3bw80]

You need to fight that decision, clearly the car came around the bend on the wrong side of the road, go to court if necessary

[jimothyc]

mark-3bw80 said:

You need to fight that decision, clearly the car came around the bend on the wrong side of the road, go to court if necessary

Yep I agree, but I'm not sure how you'd even go about making that happen without spending a load of money. Are there any specialists firms that do this on a no win no fee basis?

[Robertb]

Bill said:

Is your wife in the oncoming car??!? Cos that's who is to blame.

If not (and assuming you haven't mirrored the dash cam/it's not abroad) you need to push back!

This. Complain, and take to the insurance ombudsman if you don't get the right result.
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/c...

Failing that, go social media, Mail on Sunday consumer money section etc.

I'm assuming they've not viewed the video as no rational person could assume the camera driver is at fault.

Edited by Robertb on Thursday 17th October 14:21

[Chrisgr31]

Isn’t there an insurance ombudsman you can complain to?

[Greza]

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/insuran...

Edited by Greza on Thursday 17th October 14:52

[Richard-D]

Unless this video was from the other car and your wife is in the silver car seen at the end of the video I have no idea how anyone could blame your wife.

[TO73074E]

Absolutely barmy decision. The insurance company isn't fit for purpose if that is their honest decision.

Did the other driver stop and explain why they were driving like an utter moron? Clearly driving without due care and attention.

[bad company]

Can you upload the letter from the insurance company please op, with your details redacted of course.

I’d pm Twigthewonderkid, he seems to work in the insurance industry and may be able to point you in the right direction.

[jimothyc]

Think I'm going to write a letter of complaint and copy in the ombudsman. Can't believe they think this is the right decision.

We're still waiting on another insurance company to decide the fault on an accident in the same car 2 months earlier when an old boy drove into us when we were parked! Again that was all on dashcam, makes you wonder what the point of having them is.

Moderator edit: no naming & shaming

[C5_Steve]

Mental, assuming your wife is in the camera car she even swerves away before the impact. Not sure what else she could have done or how they feel she's liable.

[geeks]

Have they seen this video?
Are you sure they havent mixed you and the other party up? (i.e if they insure both parties?)
Have you tried calling them?
For me this would be straight to the ombudsman

[jimothyc]

TO73074E said:

Absolutely barmy decision. The insurance company isn't fit for purpose if that is their honest decision.

Did the other driver stop and explain why they were driving like an utter moron? Clearly driving without due care and attention.

Other driver didn't stop, so we reported it to the police, but they were too busy to spend 30 seconds on their computer to look up the licence plate and investigate.

[Jimjimhim]

I would imagine that it's confusion on the insurers side. I would certainly fight it.

[ScoobyChris]

geeks said:

For me this would be straight to the ombudsman

As I understand it, you need to go through the insurer's complaints procedure first and then involve the Ombudsman if it's not resolved to your satisfaction. I think you have a good chance!

Remember though that fault doesn't mean fault, it means your insurers were not able to recover their costs.

Chris

Edited by ScoobyChris on Thursday 17th October 14:36

Edited by ScoobyChris on Thursday 17th October 14:37

[Dingu]

Not really enough info in the OP. As another poster noted fault doesn’t mean she caused it, it means they can’t recover all the costs.

E.g. if that car is uninsured then it could be fault if costs can’t be recovered. Some insurers then have guarantees to protect against uninsured drivers but that is a separate point really.

We really need more detail on what the letter said rather than an interpretation of it.