What to do if you have an accident.

There's not actually as much relation between how good your driving is and your chances of having an accident as you might hope there is. There are, remember, still an unhealthy amount of Talbot Sunbeams still on the road!

Only your passengers are covered if you have third party insurance, not your car, so what you are left to worry about is whatever dents and scrapes affecting your car, and maybe to yourself. The only way you'll get your repairs paid for under a third party policy is if you can prove that you were blameless in a crash, and that is harder than you might think.

But don't think that all possible ills are taken care of by comprehensive motor insurance. Yes, your car and your passengers will both receive adequate repairs, but as for you, it's not actually possible to get personal injury cover for more than around £5000. Since that is unlikely to cover a broken toe-nail with the cost of medical treatment these days, you should think about whether it would be worth adding to your premiums by adding personal injury cover. The additional sum will not be that much, but you should at least try and bump your personal injury cover up to an amount that'll enable you to have that foot sewn back, along with that toenail being fixed.

Make sure that you don't panic when an accident happens. You need to make sure you stop after an accident, and the police need to know about it within 4 hours, in particular if there has been an injury. The incident number that you get should be very useful if your claim gets tricky.

Whilst you're not panicking, you need to also make sure you keep calm and do not lose your temper. The other party to the accident may try to draw you into an argument. Even if you are figuratively standing over your victim brandishing a smoking gun in terms of your guilt for the crash - you must NOT admit liability at the scene of an accident. In addition to not driving off, you should get an independent witness to note the position of the Motors before you move them, unless you are causing a 10 mile tailback on the M1 by not moving the cars. Finally, and obviously, do not worsen the situation by smacking the other party to the accident in the nose, however much they wind you up.

You must exchange details with the other party to the accident, you should also get details of witnesses. You should make sure you note down the details of all the vehicles involved as well. Then, give it all to your insurance company. They'll take it from there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© AskFinancially.com 2008

Motor Insurance

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