I got rear ended, what happens now?

Help & Advice
1

Hi all!
I’ve been a bit of a lurker here for the last couple of years and leeching off everyone’s collective experience since the pandemic got me commuting on L plates, now I find myself in very unfamiliar territory and I’m hoping some kind soul can reassure/warn/advise me.

On my way to work this sunday just gone I stopped for a red light and a few seconds after I’d stopped a car ploughed straight in to me from behind at a pretty good speed.
My bike and myself were thrown around 20-25ft forward from where I was sat. I got checked out fully at A&E (who did an absolutely top job) and thankfully I’m not hurt too badly (I was fully kitted up) just muscular pain in my neck and stomach from the unceremonious takeoff.

My insurance is with Lexham and they passed me on to a company called Plantec assist who immediately arranged for a hire bike to be delivered, but when I read the paperwork before I signed it I was a little worried that it was a credit agreement in my name.
I signed it anyway as I’ve never dealt with insurance companies before and I figured they’ll know better than me what’s going on, and it must be how these things work.
They also arranged for my bike to be taken away and assessed but other things like replacement helmets weren’t discussed.

I guess what I’m really asking is if the car drivers insurance company denies it was his fault (which it most definitely was) what are the chances of Plantec simply rolling over and pursuing me for the hire bike charges instead? And if the claim is found to be in my favour exactly what will I be able to claim for? Will it cover things like replacing my helmet too?
Sorry for the long post, just hoping someone can take pity on a poor noob and furnish me with their wisdom!

2

I’d never accept a hire bike, I’ve heard too many folk tell of how they fell foul of the hire agreement small print, also if for whatever reason you are unable to claim back 100% of the hire costs the balance will come out of your pocket. if you have an own fault accident on the hire bike you’ll be liable for the excess, the last time I was offered a hire bike the excess was set at £1,500! If the hire agreement looks like a credit agreement in your name that will be because it is. Injury claims can take two years or more to settle. If its a clear case that the other party is 100% at fault I’d expect their insurance company to be in touch with offers to facilitate an early settlement, but don’t let that hold you back. You need to claim for everything that is not in the same condition as it was prior to the collision. One of the most important things right now is to have an independent witness to the collision.

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I’m glad you’re OK after your over exciting commute at the weekend. Did you manage to get the driver’s details? And are they legit? Were you in any kind of state to get witness details? It’s so easy to overlook these things when you’re in shock and pain. Has the driver admitted liability? It sounds obvious its their fault, but I’ve been accused of reversing into a car at a junction when they rear ended me!

As the lovely NT has said, say no to the hire bike and return it - it’s just a money making scam and the prices are usually inflated. If you need another bike, then arrange your own and add it to your claim.

What level of cover do you have? That can help you decide the best way for you to proceed. You have a lot of options now: you can leave it all to your insurer to deal with, but unless they’re a specialist bike firm, you’re likely to get shafted. You can appoint your own bike specialist claims company (eg, White Dalton) to handle everything on your behalf. Or if you’re up to it, you can deal with the driver’s insurance company directly and just keep your own updated with your actions and outcome. If there are definitely no injuries and the third party admits full liability, this could be the easiest and quickest option for getting your claim settled.

Keep a note of ALL expenses and pass them on. Where’s your bike atm? You have the right to have it stored / repaired wherever you want, so don’t necessarily accept the garage that your insurance company chooses for you. Unless you want to.

It’s a lot to take in and learn the first time you have to claim, but it gets easier the more you do it. Ahhhh, the joys of London riding.

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4

Hi mate, thanks for taking the time to reply.
The lady on the phone said something along the lines of “We’ll seek to recover the hire charges from the other sides insurer, we won’t seek to recover them from you, that’s not how we operate”
Does that verbal assurance count for anything?

I think it’s a clear cut case. The driver failed to stop for either the stationary traffic (myself) or the red light that I was waiting at and hit me at what seemed like full speed. I also got the details of 2 passing pedestrians who saw what happened.
The driver didn’t take any details from me at all (unlikely actions if he’d deemed the accident to be my fault) and was keen to leave as soon as possible after I’d taken his details (while I was still taking pictures of the scene) so I don’t know if his insurers would be able to contact me? Even if they did I wouldn’t have the first clue what a fair settlement would be. I luckily wasn’t badly injured, just in pain for a few days but feeling much better today, I’m not sure if “that bloody hurt” would be sufficient for an injury claim :joy:

I know the bike will be a standard insurance claim, would things like my helmet be the same or would the cost need to be recovered through a legal claim?

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge, much appreciated :+1:

5

Hi Janey, thanks for your help.
I didn’t get the drivers insurance details ( I was in shock, pain, etc) but I asked him for his drivers licence and took a picture of it, then a picture of his face to match them up. I did also get details of 2 independent witnesses.
The driver did admit liability at the scene, but that probably doesn’t count for much but I think it’d be pretty hard for him to argue that me reversing into him caused me to be thrown forwards 20ft and push his car forward over the stop line :joy:

I’ve got 3PFT with Lexham who have appointed a company called Plantec to take care of the bike stuff. The bike is being collected today to be assessed/stored. My guess is it’ll be written off due to the cost of parts/value of bike. To be fair I’ve no particular attachment to it, it’s a 10 year old undesirable to thieves beater that I use to commute into London so as long as I can get a reasonable replacement I’m not too bothered about what happens to it.

I think the charge was something like £75 a day, I’m not sure if I’d be able to find someone willing to rent me one to commute in London on L plates for less than that?

As for dealing with his company directly, I’ve no idea who they are, I just gave his reg and licence details to Plantec.

Thanks again for the reply, it is a lot to take in but I’m hoping this isn’t a process I’ll NEED to get used to :joy:

6

It might be worth going to the police about this and see if the 3rd part has reported the accident. In cases where contact details have not been exchanged, failure to report an accident is a criminal offence .

They sound like a right wrong’n.

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7

I didn’t realise that, I didn’t give him any of my details whatsoever as he didn’t ask for them and we were both in agreement that it was his fault. Would it be a good idea to report it now, better late than never or does reporting it to my insurance company count as reporting it? Or is it his responsibility as the party at fault?

8

We’re all supposed to swap details at the scene or report it to the police within 24 hours. Given how cagey and evasive your rear ender sounds, I’d report them in case they’re not insured.

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9

Yes definitely an oversight on my part. I thought the police only needed to be involved if he either failed to stop or refused to give his details if asked.
To be fair when I asked for his licence he happily handed it straight over, and even removed his face covering for me to take a picture of him. I think I’ll report it anyway just to err on the side of caution.

Thank you for pointing this out to me :+1:

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If you have the car registration number, you can check the insurance status using askMID - it’s £4.50 to check someone else’s vehicle but if you accidentally enter their registration as if it was your own, it is free :slight_smile:
https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

As for bike hire costs, it’s been a while but I hired a 125cc bike on L-plates in london for a week for not much more than the daily cost you are being charged.

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11

I hate being rear ended. Happened to me twice on the bike and once in the car. Not as bad as yours but still annoying and all times I’m pretty sure the clown was on their phone driving while distracted. If the 3rd party was very keen to leave the scene they may have been drinking or under the influence of something else. The last one I had on the bike the cab driver was nice as pie until I started taking photos where he became agitated and started arguing with me. He was more concerned about losing his fare than the fact he’d just crashed into someone.

Definitely get your witness statements in order as amnesia is very common from 3rd parties when they’ve had some time to cool off. The motorcycle reversing stories are more common than you think. One clown tried to claim £1K for a Mercedes headlight after he rear ended a London biker. Almost a year later it got to court and he changed his mind.

It might be worth having a session to run over some scenarios and roleplay some accidents and the reactions from drivers so we have a plan in place. I’ll have a think and see what I can put together.

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12

Hi Mark
Thanks for the link, very useful! However despite your best efforts to warn me of the ease at which a mistake could be made, I still clumsily managed to enter his registration number on the wrong page. I guess we live and learn :slightly_smiling_face:

I’ve just had a quick look at hiring a bike independently. With one (raceways) the cost is lower but my liability would be higher. The excess is exactly the same but the insurers hire bike includes theft/loss within that excess (my main worry as it gets left for 9 hours a day on a London street) but it seems if stolen the independent one would hold me liable for the full cost. Another (superbikehire) is cheaper, has a lower excess but the insurance doesn’t seem to cover commuting.
I think I’ll likely end up keeping this hire bike and hoping the other side don’t argue too much. I’m fairly confident the pictures I took (which the insurer hasn’t actually asked for yet) show what happened.

13

Hi Joby
Thanks for the advice and yes it wasn’t much fun, in fact a very uncomfortable experience. 1/10, would not recommend :joy:
I haven’t contacted either of the witnesses since the accident, other than texting them the same evening to thank them for stopping to help and making sure I was ok. I don’t want to inconvenience them too much in case they get tired of it and decide not to help after all.
Your point is very true though, I may send them a grateful message and ask if they can email me and tell me what they saw.
It was a fairly simple accident so hopefully they’ll remember the important bits, and I did get pictures of the scene and how the vehicles came to rest (definitely not a reversing accident!)

I’m pretty sure this guy was an Uber driver - Driving a Prius, face covering, single passenger sitting in the back rather than the front who stayed quietly in the car the whole time etc. he may have been worried about losing the fare, or he may not have been insured to use his car commercially

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14

My last one was an Uber driver in a bloody Prius. They are always driving while distracted as they are looking at their phone for their next job. I was stopped at a red traffic light and he just ploughed into me. Made terrible excuses about the rain obscuring his vision.

I was in the Volvo which already has some dings so I just let it go. He was a right arrogant clown when I called him to tell him. Should have asked for some cash. Oh well.

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15

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate incident and I hope you don’t suffer too much from the injury perspective.

Firstly, you got rear ended. The third party (the guy that hit you) will be held liable 100% as in law that is deemed as what is called strict liability. In other words, unless it can be shown that you brake tested the guy behind such as in a crash for cash scam (which you have already demonstrated was not the case) then the other party will be held 100% liable. This will speed the claims process up, but…If you are claiming for injuries, this will take longer to settle for all sorts of reasons and you will be looking at a minimum of 12 months for that aspect to be sorted, although the damage side can be settled quite quickly.

Your claim should include all out of pocket expenses. So, public transport to get to work or any doctors appointments in the event that you are unable to ride or drive. Any car park fees, prescription costs, loss of earnings, overtime etc along with any other cost that has been incurred because of the crash. Even if for example you pay someone a fiver to walk the dog because you can’t, that can be claimed as a legitimate expense.

I always used to tell clients to keep a diary and put the receipt inside the diary with a note against the date, or, if no receipt, just make a note of what the expense was and value. Expenses soon mount up and the other side will often try and contest these, but if you have a record and where possible a receipt, it is hard to dispute them.

If your kit is damaged, it can be claimed for. It is safety kit and is designed to protect you once, so you are entitled to be returned back to the position you were in prior to the crash. Your replacement is on the grounds of safety and the insurers know that they cannot dispute this. However, get an estimate done as soon as possible but make sure the costings are like for like. For example you cannot claim for a £500 Arai if you were wearing a £50 AGV.

With the hire bike, be careful. Plantec are one of the better crash management firms (99% are cowboys) but many courts have been throwing out hire cost charges as being unreasonable. Your signed agreement will also confirm that you accept that you are liable for any hire costs they are unable to recover. I had one rider who was awarded £10K for his injuries, £8K went to pay off the hire bike costs because he did not read the small print and the costs were thrown out by the courts. Just be careful and don’t hang onto the hire bike any longer than required.

Your insurers have palmed off the case to a crash management firm, but you are entitled to use any law firm you wish and there is nothing your insurers can do about it. Just remember that the crash management firm are not legally qualified, they will make most of their money from the bike hire and crash repairs, but in any case, any legal representative is entitled to deduct up to a maximum of 25% or any injury award as part of what is called a success fee, but this percentage is negotiable.

The last part regarding the actions at the scene, the law is quite specific.

It states that

In the event of an accident, all parties must
Stop.
Exchange names and addresses of the drivers/riders of the vehicles involved
Exchange names and addresses of the owners of the vehicles (allows for company vehicles)
Exchange details of registration marks of the vehicles involved.
And…In the event of injury, produce insurance details with reasonable grounds to so require those details.
Failure to comply with any of that, then it must be reported in person as soon as practicable but in any case within 24 hours to the Police

Failure to comply is an offence of failing to stop and report and carries heavy penalties.

If there is no injury, no requirement to produce insurance, claim details are dealt with by letter. But I would certainly pop in to your local nick and explain that you need to report it as you did not comply. The Police are unlikely to prosecute, but from a claim point of you, you have covered your cases.

Hope that is of some help to you?

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16

Plantec will fuck you every which way they can regardless of who was at fault, as evidenced that they made you sign a credit agreement, not a hire agreement. Send the hire bike back ASAP.

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17

Just how damaged is your bike?

Is it just cosmetic, or minor damage such as a broken indicator/lever/pedal etc that means it could be easily made rideable whilst your claim is sorted? If so, I’d say bin off the rental & do that.

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Hi T.C
Thank you so much for your very clear explanation.
I wouldn’t consider myself as really being injured, just sore for a few days so I won’t be claiming injuries, and I haven’t really incurred any expenses as I only really use the bike to commute.
I think my claim would be really quite small - my bike (£1800ish), my helmet (£150 Caberg) and my loss of earnings are only be in the ball park of £300 (all of which would go back to my employer as sick pay save £75 so not overly concerned about that).
I’m hopeful after your explanation of liability in a rear ender that due to the type of crash and size of the claim it can be resolved quickly.

And with regards to the reporting to police bit, I think I’ll get myself down to the plod station this evening and hope that they’re in a good mood :worried:

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My mistake, it is a hire agreement. It still has my name on it though.
I’m thinking it might be wise to just start shopping for a new bike and hope they write the old one off.

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Be aware @Phil.McHock that even though your injuries may seem minor, even they can sometimes develop into something more serious (as I have seen many, many times) so just keep the injury aspect under review for a few weeks.

There is what is called a statute of liability that applies. What the law states is that in the case of injury claims, proceedings must be issued within 3 years of date of injury or date of knowledge, whatever is the sooner. So if in a few weeks time you are still suffering pain or discomfort, the option is still open to you.
Ironically, the statute of limitation for damage claims is 6 years…

With a claim of around £2500, you are right in that it is a relatively small claim, but I bet the hire costs are up around a similar value which puts it into the range of the county court claim rather than small claims court. Legal costs will be capped at around £800 providing liability is not disputed. If in hindsight the other side decided to dispute liability, quadruple the legal costs as a minimum.

Short of it is, keep your options open as regards to your injuries…

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