Car Insurance - Letter of Demand

[Pitbull]

Would like to find out can a 3rd party insurance company hold you liable for a motor vehicle accident that you were not involved in? If I for example borrowed my cousin a vehicle for a month and he was involved in a bumper bashing, now 10 months later get an email with a letter of Demand from an insurance for something close to R20k.

I have no knowledge of the accident and my car was probably repaired properly or had very little damages.

Hand the letter of demand to your insurer.

That being said, the vehicle is registered in your name so you bare onus of what that vehicle does and doesn't do. The insurer will be able to supply you with the details of the driver so at least you will know who it was. But end of the day, vehicle is registered in your name.

 

[AchmatK]

While we on the topic of insurance, will the insurance go after someone who caused an accident even though they were not involved in the accident?

Going up hospital bend on Friday, there was a vehicle with a flat in the right hand lane on the bend. With everyone trying to avoid this stationary car, I knocked into the car on front of me. There were another two separate accidents caused by this knock on effect. 6 cars involved and the person causing the obstruction changed their tire and was off without any consequence.

My car will probably be a write off due to the value of the claim, and being a Citroen, parts will need to be imported.

Anyone who had driven up hospital bend will know how dangerous it can be. There was no way I could avoid the accident. It was either going into the car on front or the one next to me. Following distance and speed was not the issue.

I have insurance and so does the other party I knocked into. Not sure if the other cars involved has insurance as it was treated as 3 different accidents.

 

[supersunbird]

While we on the topic of insurance, will the insurance go after someone who caused an accident even though they were not involved in the accident?

Going up hospital bend on Friday, there was a vehicle with a flat in the right hand lane on the bend. With everyone trying to avoid this stationary car, I knocked into the car on front of me. There were another two separate accidents caused by this knock on effect. 6 cars involved and the person causing the obstruction changed their tire and was off without any consequence.

My car will probably be a write off due to the value of the claim, and being a Citroen, parts will need to be imported.

Anyone who had driven up hospital bend will know how dangerous it can be. There was no way I could avoid the accident. It was either going into the car on front or the one next to me. Following distance and speed was not the issue.

I have insurance and so does the other party I knocked into. Not sure if the other cars involved has insurance as it was treated as 3 different accidents.

Maybe they should take on the owner of the highway for not making enough of an emergency lane then?

Anyway, can only go after someone if they did something illegal or caused damage due to intent.

 

[AchmatK]

Maybe they should take on the owner of the highway for not making enough of an emergency lane then?

Anyway, can only go after someone if they did something illegal or caused damage due to intent.

There is space to pull off safely and not obstruct traffic about 100m further up the bend.

 

[Craig_]

While we on the topic of insurance, will the insurance go after someone who caused an accident even though they were not involved in the accident?

Going up hospital bend on Friday, there was a vehicle with a flat in the right hand lane on the bend. With everyone trying to avoid this stationary car, I knocked into the car on front of me. There were another two separate accidents caused by this knock on effect. 6 cars involved and the person causing the obstruction changed their tire and was off without any consequence.

My car will probably be a write off due to the value of the claim, and being a Citroen, parts will need to be imported.

Anyone who had driven up hospital bend will know how dangerous it can be. There was no way I could avoid the accident. It was either going into the car on front or the one next to me. Following distance and speed was not the issue.

I have insurance and so does the other party I knocked into. Not sure if the other cars involved has insurance as it was treated as 3 different accidents.

Sorry but I will have to disagree there. If you were driving with due care (safe speed with sufficient following distance) you would have had more than enough space to stop. Knowing how crap people drive on our roads you should know to anyway always leave enough space to stop in case of emergency.

 

[AchmatK]

Sorry but I will have to disagree there. If you were driving with due care (safe speed with sufficient following distance) you would have had more than enough space to stop. Knowing how crap people drive on our roads you should know to anyway always leave enough space to stop in case of emergency.

So all accidents are avoidable?

The speed limit going up hospital bend is 80km/h. I was driving 49km/h at the point of impact. There was also no room to maneuver in order to avoid making an accident. Everyone was trying to avoid a car standing still in the right lane.

From my tracker:




The view coming up the bend. I was in the right lane.



The car was standing where the Vito is in the second pic. There was no triangle in the road. I asked the driver about it and they did not have one in the car.

 

[supersunbird]

So all accidents are avoidable?

The speed limit going up hospital bend is 80km/h. I was driving 49km/h at the point of impact. There was also no room to maneuver in order to avoid making an accident. Everyone was trying to avoid a car standing still in the right lane.

Many are. That's why it's called a Road Traffic Collision by the UK police. Someone does something wrong. so thus avoidable by people not doing wrong things . With a correct following distances and all attention applied by all drivers no one should have impacted with anyone, you would have been able to stop dead as would whomever was behind you.

Anyway, if you feel that wheel changer was at fault you should give the vehicle info and circumstances and blah blah to your insurer.

 

[AchmatK]

Many are. That's why it's called a Road Traffic Collision by the UK police. Someone does something wrong. so thus avoidable by people not doing wrong things . With a correct following distances and all attention applied by all drivers no one should have impacted with anyone, you would have been able to stop dead as would whomever was behind you.

Anyway, if you feel that wheel changer was at fault you should give the vehicle info and circumstances and blah blah to your insurer.

Many might be but not all of them are.

That was my initial question.

I have insurance as does the other party I knocked into. Will they even be bothered with trying to claim from them?

 

[supersunbird]

I have insurance as does the other party I knocked into. Will they even be bothered with trying to claim from them?

Only they can answer that.

 

[Craig_]

Most accidents are avoidable. I've seen how people drive on that road, I'm surprised that there isn't daily accidents there.

 

[hellfire]

Many might be but not all of them are.

That was my initial question.

I have insurance as does the other party I knocked into. Will they even be bothered with trying to claim from them?

They will assess the chance of success by pursuing the 3rd party.
Don't get your hopes up though.

 

[Big Rat]

Well, you hit the guy in front of you. Did he in turn connect with the car in front of him?
If the chap was changing tyre then that means quite a few people did miss him already.
End result is you did not manage the situation.

 

[AchmatK]

Well, you hit the guy in front of you. Did he in turn connect with the car in front of him?
If the chap was changing tyre then that means quite a few people did miss him already.
End result is you did not manage the situation.

Sometimes something's are unavoidable and no amount of trying to "manage" the situation would result in a different outcome.

There were six cars involved. He did not hit the car in front of him. The driver was sitting in her car oblivious to what was happening behind her. She eventually got out of her car to wave cars to slow down.

I've had breakdowns before and the first thing on my mind is to get the car as far out of the way and not to obstruct traffic coming up behind me at 80km/h with only 50m before they see me.

 

[cavedog]

I'm surprised you got a letter of demand. A taxi took my mother out while overtaking on a yellow painted island causing R140k damage to her car. He did not have insurance and my mums insurance told her they would not be pursuing the taxi driver for losses....

I also have comprehensive insurance but I will fight if they lodge a 3rd party claim against them unless it's really my fault. People drive crazy. Brake testing me on a busy peak hour packed highway. Come on really. I respect all drivers on the road even taxis I give them a chance to switch lanes if they indicate but some people on the road think it's their road and anyone else need to f*** out of their way.

 

[Polymathic]

I was told by somebody that Insurance would have to claim from the RAF fund if the owner was uninsured..... You can trust that people won't BS you

 

[MrGray]

Sometimes something's are unavoidable and no amount of trying to "manage" the situation would result in a different outcome.

There were six cars involved. He did not hit the car in front of him. The driver was sitting in her car oblivious to what was happening behind her. She eventually got out of her car to wave cars to slow down.

I've had breakdowns before and the first thing on my mind is to get the car as far out of the way and not to obstruct traffic coming up behind me at 80km/h with only 50m before they see me.

One of the most basic rules of the road is that you maintain sufficient following distance to avoid hitting the car in front of you if it stops suddenly for whatever reason. So you will almost always be held responsible for the damages to a vehicle that you hit from behind. You may, however, have a claim against the stationary vehicle if it can be shown that they were careless or negligent or didn’t do their utmost to avoid obstructing traffic but unfortunately the fact that the car ahead of you avoided hitting the stationary car works heavily against that since it will be argued that if they could slow down fast enough to avoid hitting the stationary vehicle there should have been no reason why you couldn’t avoid hitting the car ahead of you if you were observing following distance.

 

[Voicy]

Use all that money that you saved up from not having insurance and cough up the 20k.