Police hit our car / admitted liability then changed their mind, Threads merged Options

[Mr Blue Sky]

I was looking for some advice on this.

In February my son was clipped by a police dog branch van with just one officer in it.

He was on one of those big roundabouts that is over a dual carriageway with a couple of on / off ramps.

He was aware of a police van coming up the on ramp with its blue lights on. He was on the roundabout in the inside lane and stopped to let it pass. The police van misjudged its angles and hit the front passenger wing / bumper of our car.
They both stopped and my son attempted to take the details of the driver of the van but he refused to give any information. Apparently its customary practice that if a police car is involved in an accident the transport police have to attend and take details. (Scotland anyway)
So this eventually happened and again my son was denied any information about the driver.

The police refused to return any letters or telephone calls for 4 months so my insurance company had started what they call a "3 strike". Which is 3 stages before they take them to court. Just as the 3 strikes was about to end they had a verbal response from the police insurance services that they had accepted liability. My sons excess was paid back to him and things were looking rosy.

4 weeks later I phoned the insurance company to renew our insurance and was told the police have changed their mind. New evidence has come to light and they are debating liability!!!

This brings us up to today. I've since been told the police insurance advisor was looking at a different case and holds her hands up as it was a clerical error.
And now after 5 months there just happens to be an off duty police officer who was driving past at the moment of impact who saw everything and they have only just come forward!!

I appreciate clerical errors can happen but I don't think for a minute my insurance company phoned theirs and said "Is Joe Bloggs insurance been dealt with yet?" They would have been quoting reference numbers / registration numbers and names of folk involved I'd imagine so really hard to get that wrong.

Lastly my son is adamant there was no cars in the vicinity when the accident took place. This fictitious off duty police officer has just suddenly come on to the scene 5 months later!!

Is there anything I should be doing or looking at?

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[southpaw82]

You should let your son's insurance company handle it.

[DancingDad]

You should let your son's insurance company handle it.

Yup
But why would this information come to light when OP was insuring their motor?

4 weeks later I phoned the insurance company to renew our insurance and was told the police have changed their mind. New evidence has come to light and they are debating liability!!!

Are the insurances linked?

[Mr Blue Sky]

Sorry its the way I've wrote it.
Its his car, his insurance and was his insurance I was renewing.
He's a typical teenager and not assertive enough to deal with it so I've been doing all the running about.

I will let his insurance company deal with it but they have been shocking. For 6 weeks they were trying to contact the wrong insurance company as they had the wrong details of Police Scotland's insurance on their database. It took me 5 minutes on twitter to contact Gallagher Basset (the company who normally insure the police) for them to tell me Police Scotland insure themselves. There has been other cock ups like not starting the 3 strikes when they said and other stuff. So I don't hold out much hope for them.

[StuartBu]

Sorry its the way I've wrote it.
Its his car, his insurance and was his insurance I was renewing.
He's a typical teenager and not assertive enough to deal with it so I've been doing all the running about.

I will let his insurance company deal with it but they have been shocking. For 6 weeks they were trying to contact the wrong insurance company as they had the wrong details of Police Scotland's insurance on their database. It took me 5 minutes on twitter to contact Gallagher Basset (the company who normally insure the police) for them to tell me Police Scotland insure themselves. There has been other cock ups like not starting the 3 strikes when they said and other stuff. So I don't hold out much hope for them.

Remember that at the end of the day if you have a grievance with the insurers the policy holder ( that'll be your son) can use their complants process and if not satisfied with the outcome once the process is exhausted then he can complain to the Ombudsman ( FCA)

[Mr Blue Sky]

Remember that at the end of the day if you have a grievance with the insurers the policy holder ( that'll be your son) can use their complants process and if not satisfied with the outcome once the process is exhausted then he can complain to the Ombudsman ( FCA)

Thanks.
Yes its been escalated to the complaints department. They have given my son £50 on 2 occasions because they have messed him about as much so they are aware on how bad the service they have provided.

[DancingDad]

What are the insurance actually doing re the renewal?
Loss of no claims?
Increased premiums?

[southpaw82]

Has anyone considered a complaint against the officer for careless driving? Competent careful drivers don't hit stationary objects.

[The Rookie]

Depends how long the car has been stationary.....but agreed in the normal course of events.

As for a witness turning up 5 months later, I doubt an officer would risk his career and pension over a minor RTC, besides as the Police didn't know of the claim for some time they had no need to crosscheck if their was a witness or not.

[kezzy]

Rookie, Please explain ( depends how long the car was stationary ), The car was stationary, whether it be 10 seconds, or 10 days, it was stationary. what is your angle on how long?.

[Atomic Tomato]

Rookie, Please explain ( depends how long the car was stationary ), The car was stationary, whether it be 10 seconds, or 10 days, it was stationary. what is your angle on how long?.

If one car stops in the path of another moving car it may be impossible for the other car to be able to avoid hitting it. On the other hand if it has been stationary for a reasonable length of time then the moving car should be able to avoid it.

This post has been edited by Atomic Tomato: Sun, 24 Jul 2016 - 07:44

[DastardlyDick]

They obviously do it differently in Scotland.

With my force/service any polcoll has to have a "garage sgt" called out to investigate the incident and decide who's fault it was and if it's a traffic car it has to one from a different "garage".

It was also news to me that Police Scotland have only just gone "self insured".

Best of luck with your claim.

[The Slithy Tove]

They both stopped and my son attempted to take the details of the driver of the van but he refused to give any information. Apparently its customary practice that if a police car is involved in an accident the transport police have to attend and take details. (Scotland anyway)
So this eventually happened and again my son was denied any information about the driver.

As an aside, surely the police aren't exempt from the legal requirement to exchange names/insurance details following an accident. Has the officer committed an offence?

[southpaw82]

They both stopped and my son attempted to take the details of the driver of the van but he refused to give any information. Apparently its customary practice that if a police car is involved in an accident the transport police have to attend and take details. (Scotland anyway)
So this eventually happened and again my son was denied any information about the driver.

As an aside, surely the police aren't exempt from the legal requirement to exchange names/insurance details following an accident. Has the officer committed an offence?

Only if he didn't make a report to another constable, which seems inconceivable.

[Southamptonadi]

They both stopped and my son attempted to take the details of the driver of the van but he refused to give any information. Apparently its customary practice that if a police car is involved in an accident the transport police have to attend and take details. (Scotland anyway)
So this eventually happened and again my son was denied any information about the driver.

As an aside, surely the police aren't exempt from the legal requirement to exchange names/insurance details following an accident. Has the officer committed an offence?

when my parked car was written off, unfortunately for the two occupants of the police car they were rushed to hospital but I was only given an incident number, I then had to ring up for details. In fact I was never given the drivers name. I'm sure my insurance company knew though.

[DancingDad]

........when my parked car was written off, unfortunately for the two occupants of the police car they were rushed to hospital but I was only given an incident number, I then had to ring up for details. In fact I was never given the drivers name. I'm sure my insurance company knew though.

A group policy, such as police, often does not have named drivers, the policy insures any authorised driver.
If the force in question simply accepted liability, the driver's name doesn't come into it.

[StuartBu]

........when my parked car was written off, unfortunately for the two occupants of the police car they were rushed to hospital but I was only given an incident number, I then had to ring up for details. In fact I was never given the drivers name. I'm sure my insurance company knew though.

A group policy, such as police, often does not have named drivers, the policy insures any authorised driver.
If the force in question simply accepted liability, the driver's name doesn't come into it.

Just ask politely what his name is and if he declines no need to make an issue of it but note his number ..

[666]

........when my parked car was written off, unfortunately for the two occupants of the police car they were rushed to hospital but I was only given an incident number, I then had to ring up for details. In fact I was never given the drivers name. I'm sure my insurance company knew though.

A group policy, such as police, often does not have named drivers, the policy insures any authorised driver.
If the force in question simply accepted liability, the driver's name doesn't come into it.

Possibly, but that doesn't alter the driver's obligation to provide his name and address at the scene, or to report it ASAP.

[DancingDad]

........when my parked car was written off, unfortunately for the two occupants of the police car they were rushed to hospital but I was only given an incident number, I then had to ring up for details. In fact I was never given the drivers name. I'm sure my insurance company knew though.

A group policy, such as police, often does not have named drivers, the policy insures any authorised driver.
If the force in question simply accepted liability, the driver's name doesn't come into it.

Possibly, but that doesn't alter the driver's obligation to provide his name and address at the scene, or to report it ASAP.

Post 14

[Mr Blue Sky]

Long story short.
My son was on one of those large roundabout junctions that are the on / off ramps of the dual carriageway below.
As he was passing an off ramp he was aware of blue lights flashing. It was a police dog branch apparently responding.
So my son stopped as soon as he could on the inside of this 2 lane roundabout just after the off ramp to allow the police car to pass him.
The police car took the side of my sons car off.

Fast forward 6 months later and despite me at my sons insurance company every week for an update, the police were refusing to answer any questions from his insurance company.

Eventually I got someone decent on the phone who followed it up and persevered with the police insurance and tells us they have admitted all responsibility.

They paid him his excess of £400 back. We thought great until his insurance was due for renewal and we asked for a quote to which we were told the case against the police was still live.
It turns out the police insurance services handler was looking at the wrong case and has now claimed they have a witness for my sons case which happens to be an off duty police officer.

This is now 8 months since the incident and this miraculous off duty police officer just happened to see the whole thing and claims the police driver was innocent, it was my son that drove in to him!! he said he didn't stop at the time of impact as it seemed a very simple bump.

My daughter usually comes home that way round about the time my son was involved in the accident so my son was keeping his eye out for her and is adamant there was no other car in the vicinity at the time of impact. Certainly not at a distance where they could witness what has happened.

I have a neighbour who is a retired police sergeant and when I told him the story he said it happens all the time. They get their mate to say they witnessed it.

My sons insurance company have asked us how we want to proceed. They say because there is a so called witness a court will award in their favour so the legal team would be reluctant to take it to court.

I asked them to request this officers work rota in the off chance he was working and was traceable elsewhere but they have refused to do this.

Is there any other questions I should be asking? It just feels so corrupt.

Thanks.