Legal advice - who is at fault - bike vs car accident?

i have no idea what the technicalites are and who's at fault, i'm afraid. but if he calls says you'll wait to hear from his insurance company. it's they who decide who's at fault not him. sounds like he's trying it on tbh.

how come he's going to be phoning you? how has he got your number?

Plus...exactly how much damage did your boy cause, where the excess is £350?

surely it can only have been a few scratches?

I'd contact your house or car insurance company, assuming both have legal cover and ask their advice. If he wants to go after you for compensation, then get it to do it though his insurance - I doubt he's gone to them so far, because his insurance company probably wouldnt give him the advice to persue a child for money!

That was what I was wondering. Just how much damage can one pushbike plus child cause? Sounds to me like the driver is trying it on a bit. The term 'swerved round' tells me the manoeuvre was not a particularly considered one and I'd be tempted to tell them that I was going to contact these people and see how long before they back down. I reckon the law would probably find in favour of a 12 year old child than a car driver who doesn't sound like they were driving with a great deal of attention to the road ahead.

me too. as far as i am aware you'd have to pay the excess in any event, even if you're not at fault? i could be wrong there...

i'd tell him to take it to court if he insists you pay. bet he doesn't though. if it happened as your son described (and only you can answer truthfully whether there could have been more to than he said) then it sounds like the driver wasn't paying a lot of attention anyway

I wouldnt do anything at all until it is in writing from his insurance company and the whole thing is investigated. All sounds very dodgy to me.

If £350 worth of damage was caused then surely he should have contacted the police - surely he should have checked he was ok?

When he calls back, I'd tell him to piss off, quite frankly, and if he's paying an excess, that means he must be putting it through his insurance, and that you'll only speak to them from now on.

IME it's quite uncommon for an insurer to pursue a cyclist/pedestrian for their outlay (presumably due to likelihood of them getting their money back as they don't have to be insured) far less one who's a child, and therefore even less likely to have any money! Which can be rough of course, in cases where accidents are clearly not the fault of the motorist (not saying that's what's happened here)

Poor Jordan, I hope he's ok. My husband has ridden bikes for a long time and something similar happened to him. He rode into the back of someones car as they swerved round him and then braked quickly. He went over the handle bars and hit to roof putting a dent in the car and cracking the bumper.

He gave his name and address to the driver and they presumably passed his information on to their insurance company. My husband never heard anything further though, probably because there is no requirement for cyclists to have insurance (in the same way that car drivers have to) and the insurance company knew that they'd have to take him to small claims court to get any money from him. (Obviously, because my husband never heard anything further, the above is presumption, pure and simple).

Its interesting that the Zafira driver who swerved around Jordan is trying to get you to pay £350. That is a massive excess, its usually somewhat lower than that (mine for example is £150) and this suggests that he chose to have a higher excess in order that the policy cost less. In this case, its his own look out that his excess is so high. That's life.

If it were me in this situation, I'd refuse to speak to them further and tell them to put the claim through their insurance company or take me to small claims. I really don't think they have a leg to stand on even if that seems unfair.

H works for an insurance company and says listen to this ^^

An insurance company will only pursue a claim like this when they think they have a good chance of recovering the money. In this case, with it being a 12yo child, H thinks the chances of that are unlikely. Especially as the amount is small, in context of what insurance companies regularly pay out. Very unlikely they would take you to court.

But anyway, for now, refuse to talk to him. Only talk to the insurance company. Good luck!

WEES re insurance. Tell him you'll only deal with his insurers direct. Don't enter into any other discussion with hi, keep it polite but firm.

In all of the claims I've dealt with involving pushbikes, I'd say the success rate against a bicyclist was around 20%. All of those cases IIRC were very clear cut with lots of witnesses and were pursued most vigorously because the bicyclists (all but one) were trying to claim PI against the driver.

It's not outwith the realms of possibility that the damage comes to more than £350 but my guess is his insurers have told him it's not worth claiming with the potential of losing his excess.

Hope Jordan's ok.

x

The job of paying the excess is his,and his alone. Any monies recovered will be by the insurance company, who will contact you direct.

The fact that he is a 12 year old with no money will mean that they probably wont pursue it.

Thank you all, I feel a lot better now.

Yes, jordan is fine, the driver checked on him and took his name offered to call an ambulance but Jordan refused. The fact that the driver swerved round him and breaked quickly would indicate to me that they weren't driving with enough attention. Driving lessons teach you to scan the road quite far ahead to pick up potential problems. That said, Jordan often doesn't tell the truth (he is a 12yo boy) and didn't tell us that this had happened. He actually told us a yr 10 pupil at the same school kicked him.

The driver apprently rang the police to report a RTA but I don't know anything more than that. Should I call them and say I don't think it was Jordan's fault - if the driver was driving without due care and attention the police should know. The damage was a huge dent, scratches, dent in the colour coded bumber and the back windscreen wiper broke. As I said though, half that damage could have been there is the first place or they could be hyping it up for all we know! They could also be lying about the excess - even mine isn't that high!

My husband called the driver and gave him our number, I woudn't have given it but it's done now. I'll wait to hear from them and tell them to get the insurers to contact us.

Thank you again, I don't know what I'd do without Hitched!

chances are if he said it was damage only they probably didn't even log it. if they did then the insurance company will let you know the log number if you need it.

tbh i don't really see the value of reporting him for driving without due car and attention now...not meaning this is a nasty way but i can't really see them taking the opinion of a 12 year old as being particularly valid. plus it may have been a one off lapse of concentration to be fair, not his usual mode of driving.

or if it is, hopefully this has given him a wake up call ?

Don't know about the rest of it, but my excess is £350 - comes of driving a cabriolet i think.

It's a fair point so I see where you are coming from. Yes, it wold certainly be a wakeup call for me if it happened to me.