Backed into another car, they're claiming whiplash

[petemc]

I was looking for Knowsley Community College as I had a photo shoot to do there that day. I was driving down the road and I saw a sign for what looked like the place. I stopped the car just after the sign. I was looking at the sign and the building to see if it was the place and I saw a car go past mine in the corner of my eye. I decided to reverse a bit to properly read the sign. I checked my rear view mirror and it was empty. I then put the car into reverse and checked my right hand mirror which was also empty so I reversed slowly. I then heard a bump sound and checked my rear view mirror to see the woman's car behind me. My airbags didn't go off either as I wasn't moving fast enough. Hers didn't either. I only reversed about a meter or so at a very slow speed. Based on her angle the right hand side of my bumper would have touched the area close to the door handle or near her tire. There is no damage to my car but there is what looks like tire marks and a small scratch around the right hand side of my bumper.

I moved my car forward and while I could see some damage to her drivers door, based on the angle that she entered the drive way I couldn't have caused that as it was too far forward on the car. The right hand side of my car would have hit hers, not the left hand side. She got out and explained to me that she only had 3rd party insurance. Another woman was also with her but she didn't identify herself so I do not know if she was a passenger or the driver of another car. They took my name, number, and insurance company and left without giving me any information on who either of them were.

From the design of the road there would not have been enough space for me to pickup any speed. There was a speed bump on the road just by the college. If my car was ahead of that ramp then I would have had to slow down to go over it and I would have been so far away from her car that I would have been looking in my rear view mirror. If my car was on the bump then I would have done the same. If either of these scenarios were where I was parked then she would have had enough time to have moved out my way. However, I was before the speed bump and there wasn't sufficient distance for me to have built up any real speed to cause any real damage or even whiplash.

So it looks like I might loose my no-claims over a golf ball sized dent that I may or may not have caused. I was too stressed to deal with the accident properly. I was trying to get to the shoot, which I was worried about. I should have gotten out my car, taken shots there and then.

http://petemc.net/photos/d/1023-2/sm_carincident1-CRW_4396-+191.jpg

http://petemc.net/photos/d/1025-2/sm_carincident1-CRW_4401-+190.jpg

The road. You can see how close to the drive the speed bumps are. Theres no space for me to build up any real speed.

http://petemc.net/photos/d/1027-2/sm_carincident1-CRW_4424-+192.jpg

My car, undamaged.

[petemc]

http://petemc.net/photos/d/1016-1/accident1.jpg

http://petemc.net/photos/d/1019-1/accident2.jpg

http://petemc.net/photos/d/1021-1/accident3.jpg

How it happened, from my point of view.

[Stan_Lite]

Your diagram looks pretty comprehensive. If the leech tries to claim compensation for whiplash, your diagram should prove that there was insufficient distance to pick up enough speed to cause such an injury.

Sounds like she's trying it on.

Stan :)

[petemc]

Aye. I'm hoping the photos of the road will prove how little speed I could have gained.

[Matblack]

Damn shame you couldn't get her details so you could do it privately

However you may never hear from her again, I've had this happen and never heard from the chap I suspect that he wasn't actually insured and was keen that I or the police didn't find this out.

MB

[petemc]

I forgot to mention that she's already contacted my insurance company about it. She's only got 3rd party. 3hrs after calling my insurance company her solicitor then called them about whiplash.

[Matblack]

I'd hope she didn't have a hope in hell of getting a whiplash claim what a bloody bitch people like her are the reason insurance is so ****ing expensive in this country.

Did you protect your NCB? How many years do you have?

MB

[petemc]

I stupidly didn't. I've got 2. Its not a huge ammount to loose, but still annoying.

[rich99]

I don't see any way she could have sustained any kind of injury from that - it's much akin to clipping a kerb on a corner and you don't get whiplash from that

I clipped a concrete-filled oildrum one morning in my old car when I was in a hurry to get into work, damaged the door and wheel arch badly and made the car kick out quit a bit but certainly not with the force you'd expect in a whiplash situation

If all she's got is a slight scuff and scratch then she has to be trying it on for sure

[petemc]

Yeah thats what I've been saying to my insurance company and parents. Its really stupid and I'm going to call my insurance peeps tomorrow for any news.

[Rich_L]

Now then, this will depend on how good her solicitors, and your insurance company are. The problem being that a soft tissue whiplash-style injury is very difficult to contest as essentially it doesn't show up on any scans and the medical practitioners are working on what boils down to a 'poke and OW' test. Unfortunately for you there are a few specialist consultants who will provide evidence to the extent that even very low speed claims can cause a shunt causing whiplash which is difficult to argue against in respect of causation, the problem being that once primary liability is admitted in respect of causing the accident the extent of injury caused is simply a contest of medical opinion, which always tends to favour the Claimant. It may be the case that if you strongly contested causation and got various engineers reports involved then you may be able to succeed in making the claimant discontinue, however bear in mind that the solicitor will undoubtably be working under a CFA (no-win,no-fee) so can pursue it to the death without suffering any major loss whilst the insurance company will in all likelihood take the decision to settle on an economic basis.

To summarise - contest it strongly at the start, but also bear in mind that it may well be easier to simply admit liability, the insurers take the hit and you have a legitimate grumble against the compensation culture :D

[petemc]

Its funny that she could only afford 3rd party and now she's got a solicitor. It'll be those bloody adverts. "Where you just in a small car accident? Need some extra money? Hire us and we'll milk it for all its worth. Call now and get a free ball point pen!"

[kaiowas]

You could get shafted here.

A few years ago a had an accident where i bumped into someone from behind on the entrance to a roundabout (It was the common mistake of anticipating her joining the roundabout then she changed her mind and i ran into her)

Had a look at the cars and could see no damage to either so thought I'd got away with it. Next day she contacted me saying she had a stiff neck and had been advised to claim for whiplash. Which was ridiculous as there was no way whiplash could be caused by sucha slow accident. At this point I contacted my insurance company and went through a claim form expecting her claim to get thrown out pretty quickly.

From here onwards my insurance company were utterly useless. Every time I contacted them they were unuable to tell me anything about how the claim was progressing. Meanwhile I had lost my NCB so when my renewal came around I had to renew with no NCB on the promise that I'd get both that and the extra premium back should her claim be rejected.

After 2 years of being told nothing I eventually chalked it down to experience and gave up chasing it, only to learn some time after that that the woman hadn't even submitted a claim. I'd basically been given all that hassle and lost my NCB on the strength of a 'possible' whiplash claim.

[petemc]

Damn thats not good. :(

[Fayshun]

Get down the CAB or even see a solicitor yourself (I'm sure you can get 1/2 hour free).

I'm 99.99% sure she's trying it on as it's a front to back whip of the neck that causes whiplash not side to side.