Rear-End Accident - Fault Attribution

Transportation, Travel and Trips
21
Oh, shades of my OH's horror as he sat in his just-finished, loving self-restored e-type behind another car at a stop sign, only to have the old lady in front of him suddenly put her car in reverse and stomp on the accelerator! As the nose of the car is essentially hollow, there was incredible damage, and her insurance inspector was horrified. No question who was at fault. That was just before I was driving the RS6 and stopped at a sign. The guy behind me rear-ended me at speed. That car shares only one part (boot lid) with all the other Audi models, so everything had to be ordered from DE. $10,000 later...

22
What if the light is green and the brake lights don't work?

23
No, that's a UK thing.

I'm one of the few people I know that shift bikes/cars to neutral when stopped, but never handbrake or Park!

A lot of bikers I know insist on keeping it in gear and the clutch pulled!

Tom

24
Then the person behind is tailgating.

Tom

25
Is there a red light camera at the traffic signal? If there is, wouldn't it have flashed if your wife had not come to a complete stop?

26
Any chance the offender was a diplomat or a foreign VIP? The police handle the same with kid gloves.

27
Our insurer is non-EU, and we have the basic green card policy for Europe and CH. Am I supposed to contact the other’s persons insurer directly, or go through my insurer? How’s best to manage the appraisal and residual value theme?

I have a solid maintenance record, should I pull that from the dealership abroad?

The spare wheel well is crumpled, which I am pretty sure it will make it a total.

28
If you are resident in CH, you do know you have to change to Swiss plates within a year, after car checked by Swiss Automobile Service. If you are resident here, your foreign insurance is probably invalid, as you have to have insurance linked to your residential address- normally. Certainly is the case for people from UK.

My Italian teacher kept his Motorhome on Italian plates and insurance for many years in the UK. When it was written off by some idiot- he got into real trouble in all sorts of ways. Our UK car insurance stated clearly it was not valid if resident abroad.

29
My understanding is that they have brought the car as part of their relocation and are planning on importing it (or they were until it got mangled).

In this case you just need to make sure that the foreign insurance is valid for this period. I drove my Belgian insured car for almost the full year allowed before finalising the import process with full authorisation from both my Belgian insurer and the SCAN in Neuchâtel.

30
Yes, just depends how long the car has been here.

31
Funnily the B-permit came in just last week, and we were planning to rock-up to the Zollamt to do the 18.44 declaration for personal import. I will still do that on Monday, to make sure all is firmly placed into the Swiss jurisdiction. My insurance from abroad is valid, for as long as the car registration abroad is valid (no dependency on the owner residency).

The police said it will take months before they decide who and to which measure is guilty ... I need to figure out how the insurance algorithm works. The car has been towed to the garage which the police has called, and as far as I understood the other insurer will come in on Monday to do the appraisal.

- am I expected to keep the car in that garage until the decision is issued?

- will the insurer eventually pay a residual and take ownership of the wreck?

Given the spare wheel well and boot have been crumpled, I am pretty sure it will be a total.

32
You ALWAYS go through YOUR insurer!

Tom

33
If you just have 3rd party cover, your insure will likely not help as they have no insurable interest.

I made 2 3rd party claims in CH, both settled easily & quickly.

34
- you advise your insurance company. This can be by phone. They will tell you what you need to give them.

- if you have the coverage (like Zurich Relax) you can have a replacement vehicle during repairs or until replacement.

- you insurance policy may entitle you to full market value in the case of a write-off (Totalschaden)

- you should advise your insurance company in writing, when you have the reference number they will supply. In this letter you should state that your wife suffered a potential whiplash injury. If you leave this and her neck become painful in some months, the insurance co will likely reject any claim if only informed at that stage.

- most modern cars - automatics anyway - apply the electric handbrake automatically when the vehicle stops

- if you had a Tesla, you‘d have the lot on video - front, back and both sides...

35

I was involved in chain rear-end accident while waiting for a bus in a front of me to move from bus station. I had a non-EU plates and just 3rd party insurance and also within the 1st year of household import.

The guy behind me, in a Honda Jazz, bumped me because he was hit (and run) by a Mini with french plates. Luckily, no injuries. Some people who were close at the moment have wrote down Mini's plates and gave us.

We moved of the street and police came a bit after, took photos of the cars, interviewed us for about 30 minutes and we exchanged insurance data.

Police told us it might take one or two months to finish the investigation and generate the report.

Next day I just called Zurich insurance where Honda was insured, they had already all info since the owner reported accident first, so they booked me car inspection at their closest Help Point tomorrow.

Went there, the guy inspected my car thoroughly, oferred sum of money which I accepted, got it after two days in my bank account.

Easy-peasy

36
With rare exceptions, just proving the rule.

I was once hit in the front side by a guy in NJ. Technically I was behind, but not responsible. The guy decided to park in the slot, which he passed by 4 full car lengths and stopped at the traffic light. I stopped behind him in 1.5 car lengths, when he just went in reverse and hit me at ~10mph. Probably didn't see me thru the tinted rear door of his Tahoe. He later was trying to tell the officer, that it was me who was moving, but I had a tape to proof him wrong. End of story.

37
After rear enders have driven my rig down to the garage to be repaired and the other party's insurance has paid for it. In both cases just got the info needed and gave it to the garage. No police. Luckily it was both times just the bumper.

However, if OPs wheel well is visually deformed, then clearly, car is totaled

38
There was a case in Winterthur a few years back where a poor young guy was the meat in the sandwich in a 3-car rear ender. The last car driver was related to the front car driver, and they both gave statements that the young guy hit the front car before the last car hit him (guessing in an attempt to reduce liability for the rear car).

Luckily he had opted for an insurance policy where his car was fitted with a driving monitor device (with G-force sensors). The evidence from this showed he only hit the car in front as a result of the rear hit.

Shame it didn't go as far as a charge of false evidence for the other two involved.

39
I am quite surprised a hit in a 60 zone ended up with such damage, however there were no braking skid marks, and the cars ended up almost 20m into the junction after impact ... very odd.

40
Forget the car -- that can be easily replaced by a new one.

Your OH should be the first and foremost focus on this issue - as someone wrote earlier on, spinal (cervical, dorsal, etc) damage has to be corrected (or worked on) earlier on, so the actions (and invoices) of the first year might be actually higher than the value of the car.

Spinal damage can appear on the coming months as ' unrelated' sensations -- back pain, tingling on your fingers, loss of equilibrium, head spinning, and what not.... so watch out.

If not holistically considered early on, the health issues ( and related invoices) in the coming years might pile up to a much more important personal extend -and financial toll.