Before or after supplying the perp with a second estimate? This should be ready on Friday, after the BicycleWorks system of not accepting pre-bookings meant that "possibly by Wednesday" turned into "probably not until Friday" when I dragged the bike over to them yesterday evening.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help
post-collision paperwork
(99 posts)- Started 9 years ago by wingpig
- Latest reply from le_soigneur
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resolved
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Posted 9 years ago #
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This particular armchair viewer would probably pony up the £4 for the askmid insurance details, then submit the higher of the two quotes directly to his insurers after Friday. I'd include the £4 in the bill, along with a comment that the driver refused to share insurance details. It would be posted by recorded delivery.
Further contact with the future convict would solely be limited to getting their insurance details. The bridge of cooperation is burnt.
I might also ring the CTC accident line for a bit of guidance, possibly glossing over the fact that I only paid up membership after the crash.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Wingpig, after reading your account of this saga, should I ever be in a similar position unless said perpetrator takes me straight to the bank for a wad of readies, I would be enlisting a lawyer.
Lifes too short to spend it on the blower to police call centres - thats why you employ someone and they - presumably (?) - retrieve their costs from the other side.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yeah +1 for the ask MID solution.
Apparently there's a free roadside version available which although being designed for roadside use doesn't require you to confirm that you are at the roadside. It does however require that you have an insured vehicle and enter it's details so the £4 option may be better.
http://stayinsured.askmid.com/roadside.html
A lesson to the rest of us might be to give the cost to the police in a less than cost of total replacement of bike format so that the eejit know right away how much it could cost. It may also be worth requesting insurance details up front even if you agree that you will provide a quote to the eejit to settle in cash if they desire.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Not much use to you now wingpig ;) but for anyone else:
I've heard it said before that a sure way to get the authorities to treat these kind of collisions more seriously is to stay on the ground until the ambulance arrives.
Posted 9 years ago # -
From my experience of my accident last year
Summary - driver made dangerous overtake at pedestrian crossing and hit me with rear of vehicle as he cut back in to avoid central island. I was going close to road speed limit and caught him on camera winding down his passenger window and looking out during overtake to shout abuse at me. Bike a write off and injured requiring hospital treatment
Police and ambulance attended at scene and police visited in A+E that evening after taking a short statement in the ambulance. Driver had apparently entered into an argument with them (bad idea!). Police advised they would be charging the driver and wanted the video and a statement
Attended Fettes station where I showed the video to officer along with some screenshots and provided copies. Officer explained they would like to charge with dangerous driving but it would likely be reduced to careless driving when it went to court and there could be a 2 year wait to do so. During this time, insurance will not pay out as court case determines liability. We agreed on this basis the best thing was for him to offer a careless driving charge which if accepted out of court would allow me to proceed with a claim. This was accepted by the driver which I think is £100 and 3 points plus a criminal record that will affect his insurance
Whilst neither of us were totally happy with this course of action it appeared to be the best option and I was advised that the financial punishment really comes through the insurance policy rather than a fine the police/court can issue. I was advised that it would be preferable to follow up with a solicitor rather than deal with the insurer directly as they are in a better position to negotiate and I should be entitled to new kit as the bike etc was in excellent condition. Apparently negotiating directly with insurers often results in them claiming old values, joint liability etc. The police gave me all the drivers details including the insurance details as he had refused to provide them to me at the scene.
Used the cover from British Cycling which has been excellent and they put me in touch with a firm specialising in bike claims in Edinburgh. They have been very efficient in processing all aspects of the claim and whilst I chose to wait for physio etc to complete before finalising, would have obtained interim payments from insurers if I had needed the money up front to replace the bike. I'd also note that a claim direct to the insurer may result in them providing an equivalent bike - in this case it will be a cash settlement to the original value allowing me the flexibility to obtain what I want. Total process has taken about 3 months but thats mainly been down to physio treatment and could conclude within around 6 weeks otherwise
Posted 9 years ago # -
Cycle Law Scotland has a free app you can download to your smartphone. Gives you handy advice on what you should do in the event of an "accident"
Handy as long as you have the wherewithal to look at your phone and it isn't broken too.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Bicycle Works' quote is £37 higher even without including gloves, though they additionally noticed that the big chainring was bent. A steel chainring, too. Lucky my feet were in the about-to-turn-right position.
Posted 9 years ago # -
If nothing else, at least his insurer are now aware. ESure were very helpful on the phone, after an initial scare when supplying the registration number using the phonetic alphabet didn't work, resulting in the transposition of a letter and a temporary "Sorry, that wasn't insured with us at the time of the incident". They will supposedly be ringing the
[epithet]this afternoon, thereafter contacting the policers or the Independent Witness™ if the driver offers a contradiction. They were very keen to check that I wasn't driving at the time I was calling them, too.Unfortunately they weren't able to satisfactorily specify the refund/replace procedure as that's dealt with by a third party company when it's a bicycle, so I'll hear from someone else on Monday, so I can't start buying the replacement components just yet.
Posted 9 years ago # -
wingpig - the third party is probably "wheelies" as they deal with most major insurance companies. They were pretty good when my bike was stolen ages ago. Their website is at:
Posted 9 years ago # -
"We give you details of one or more suitable replacement bikes on a like-for-like basis. If need be you can check all available options on this site."
Hmm. I hope they have a bit more flexibility than that implies.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Wingpig- see above. That's why I went through a lawyer as it becomes a cash sellement instead. I don't think wheelies are too bad as a colleague used them but the range can be a bit limited. I'd suggest you try and push for cash on the basis that a delay will require you to charge for alternative transport
Posted 9 years ago # -
Yip. I'm trying the insurer first on the grounds that they might be happier about paying out the mere
[cost of broken bits] + [labour to dissassemble and reassemble]rather than[cost of broken bits] + [labour to dissassemble and reassemble] + [lawyer-fees and legal costs dwarfing the damage costs], but I'm not going to accept what I'm not happy with (as advised on the bicycle lawyer-people's website); also, bicycle lawyer-people appear to only deal with personal injury cases, rather than mere bicycle-damage.The custom-built nature of the bicycle was emphasized to eSure's tele-operative and will be further clarified when they ask for the specification.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I think it was esure I dealt with in 2007 when I was the victim of theft. They had their preferred supplier (I forget if it was Wheelies or Halford or another national company) but when I explained that I had customised by bike and was keen for a like for like replacement they were fine, although only used the lower of said national's quote and insured value/my estimated value.
I had to provide receipts for the customisations and they said I could either use a shop of my choice who they would pay directly or I could provide receipts for the replacement and they would then pay me.
It wasn't a quick process but Macdonalds were happy to receive an insurance check for me to spend in store. It's a shame they are no longer in business.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I like eSure. They managed to get the driver to respond to a telephonic communication in an acceptably entire-fault-accepting way. He's still an
[epithet], though. No problem getting them to accept that reconstruction would be far more sensible/preferable than/to entire-bike replacement via a third party bike-replacement service. I must now email them a quote of my choice (accompanied by receipts for both estimates, the receipt for askMID and a couple of sample glove-replacement pricings), they'll send me a form (which they stressed would not be legally-binding if I fancy coming back to them at a later date armed with a solicitor) and when they get it back they'll give me another call to discuss the precise form the transfer of claimed monies should take, which sounds like it will have no problem being a personal cheque to me, though I shall see if they've heard of modern electronic money-transferral techniques and are able to bypass their automated cheque-issuing procedure, for the sake of speed at my end.In the meantime, watch out for a sort of off-grey five-door Vectra.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Thank goodness things are moving in the right direction at last.
Posted 9 years ago # -
yay.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Excellent, at least the insurance is taking responsibility.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Excellent, at least the insurance is taking responsibility."
Indeed - especially as ins cos have a 'reputation'.
Highlights, that it might not always be 'best' to try to be helpful about other people's NCBonus.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Indeed - especially as ins cos have a 'reputation'."
Claim-handling transferred from Glasgow to Manchester, who called a few seconds before I was going to chase them up. The quote has been passed to their bicycle-engineers, who also want a picture of the bicycle, though not necessarily one which clearly illustrates the bentness of the frame. Maybe they just need proof that the items being claimed for are real and that I haven't fabricated two quotes (and two inspection receipts, both on realistic-looking till-paper) in a spurious claim for an imaginary bicycle.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Maybe they just like looking at pictures of bicycles?
Posted 9 years ago # -
...aaaaand they seem to be preparing to enter try-to-fob-off-with-component-value mode. Naughty eSure. "And how much did you pay for the bike?" sadly won't work when it's a custom mishmash. I'll have to remember to use the line about not having been walking across Albion Road carrying just a rim, chainring, rack and frame in isolation. Fortunately they've chosen to adopt this approach on what would have been the first anniversary of the day the frame first made it outside the house as an assembled bike.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Just ramp up your component value till you get to the cost of your previous repair quotes.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Don't forget all the things you are entitled to add
- alternative transport
- your time for effecting repairs
- costs of making the claim such as phone calls and time it took you to get quotes etc
- stress / nervousness riding, even if it's only on the same but of roadIf they start getting awkward suggest you are considering a lawyer and claiming for all the above
Posted 9 years ago # -
Hoopy.
A detailed breakdown of the cost of all the individual components of the custom mishmash was sent in on Friday. It ended up totalling slightly greater than £1,000, excluding the cost of assembling wheels and bicycle, even when the frame price used was the current sale price of the disc-only-therefore-incompatible Kaffenback 2014, rather than the nearest-equivalent-replacement-without-having-to-replace-lots-of-existing-components Surly LHT.
The mysterious Engineers, to whom I had hitherto not spoken directly, have just agreed to settle the bike part of the claim (excluding clothing) for the full value of the Bicycle Works' printed quote, comprising the frame, rim, chainring, rack and dismemberment/re-integration charges, though with the cost paid directly to me instead of the Bicycle Works; apparently (though I shall check this before officially accepting anything) the outstanding bit of the claim for glubs and Cycle Service inspection-fee can remain open, for resolution outwith the purview of the Engineers.
Posted 9 years ago # -
\o/
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Hello, blah blah blah in reference to call yesterday blah PAYMENTS WILL BE RAISED TODAY blah issued by printed cheque on authentic old-fashioned paper and delivered by steam-mail within five working days blah."
Can't decide whether to go for the greyish/silver or the black frame. Probably greyish-silver, for muck-visibility (as in to help it look shabbier by leaving lots of muck in place) and to help the brown mudguards make it look hodgepodgey.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Hurray!
Posted 9 years ago # -
BUUUT
Even if, after all that, you get a 'new bike', you'd really rather not have had the hassle and initial trauma.
So well done and extra commiserations.
Wonder if you'll get a bit of paper saying 'this cheque is no admission of guilt/liability/etc'.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I could certainly have done without having to commute on the drainpipe-mobile every day for over a month, Likewise unwelcome will be the hassle of probably having to do something with the bike shed doors to try and prevent the extra 4cm of wheelbase resulting in damage to the rear light and/or mudguard when storing/retrieving.
The (only) text from eSure before they switched to voice-only comms stated "our customer confirms you WEREN'T at fault", which was almost certainly deliberately phrased like that to avoid explicitly positively stating that the customer was at fault.
Posted 9 years ago #
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