I was in a car crash in October with my husband and our children, the car was written off and we ended up having to pay the entire years premiums within 7 days. We weren't in the wrong, but the knock on effect of an open claim has left us having to pay higher insurance premiums and we were unable to replace our car for months. I've wrote this in depth, but I can't paste it from here, unless somebody else can. I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and if so, how long did it take until it came to an end?
My husband, our children and I were in a car crash in October 2017 after a man decided it would be a good idea to turn his head 90 degrees to the left whilst driving at the national speed limit, going around a corner! We were travelling in the opposite direction to this man, when my husband noticed him. My husband drove us completely off the (county) road, to the left and stopped the car.
The man then decided to look at the road he was driving on and noticed us, then his instincts told him to swerve his car, head on into us! We were off the road, there was no other traffic in either direction. The road was clear for him, but he ran his car into us on his right!! He started up his car and tried to drive away, but his car made a crunching sound and stopped him.
The police just happened to drive by and it was (we thought) clear who was at fault, but his insurance company is big and ours are small, and someone on the drivers side is denying liability, even though the driver had previously accepted it. Our car was written off, car seats were rendered unsafe and we were faced with an insurance bill of almost £1k, to be paid in 7 days, because apparently, when your car is written off, you need to pay the remaining balance to your insurer and we were 2 weeks into our new insurance cycle.
We live in an isolated rural area, a 2-hour drive away from our nearest family and my husband had a 2 hours drive to get to work and back each day. 'Luckily' this happened on my husband's first day of our holiday week, so we had a bit of time to try and sort something out. We eventually got a courtesy car, but it wouldn't accommodate all our family and the cost of replacing the car seats was too high for us to cover. Just the cost of getting a courtesy car cost us a small fortune, having to go back and forth (40+ miles) to the hire company and garage by bus, over 4-5 days. We were foolish to think that this would be resolved easily. We were on the right side of the road, the other driver wasn't, simple right?
We were faced with the reality that the £1k we'd just paid the insurers, to pay off our annual car insurance bill, was not going to be finding it's way back to us anytime soon and now Christmas and 2 of our kids' birthdays were here! Credit cards and overdrafts were now needed to do the shopping and we were unable to spend Christmas with our family, which had never happened before. It devastated my parents and the kids' missed spending the day surrounded by all their family, like they'd grown up with. I can't drive and buses don't run here very often, and the cost of getting to the nearest town with the kids is over £20 to get there. I wasn't able to leave the house until January, when we were able to buy another car.
We have continued back and forth with the insurance company, but it's now June 2018 and all our money went into paying the insurance company and replacing our car. I can't believe that this is our reality! Our insurance company has told us it's now our word against theirs, and we've been advised to back down, but we weren't in the wrong, so we told them no and that we wanted to fight the decision, but that now means that there's no end in sight and that money we paid, will not be returned until the case is closed.
We are unable to have a holiday this year, we haven't had one for years, but we'd saved for the previous few years and all that saving paid the insurers and replaced a previously decent car. The kids don't feel as safe as they did and I don't feel like I can keep them safe anymore. This man is still on the road, driving around our area and that's the worst thing. He's a danger to himself and everyone else.
I would really appreciate any help anyone could offer and if anyone knows how long this is likely to go on, that would help greatly.
I know there are so many more needy cause on here, we have a house and we have staple foods like pasta, so we're not in as much need as those with ill children, so I don't expect or want funds that could otherwise help those causes. I just wanted to share our story and perhaps make a change to the way these things are dealt with, because our problems are very real.
Thank you for reading.