Car Crash Liability?

D

donod25

Guest
Hi, first post on this forum and I could do with some advice. My girlfriend was involved in a car accident yesterday. Here's what happened.

She was driving along and saw that the truck in front of her had stopped. She broke hard and the car slid on the wet road until she bumped into the truck. Not a very hard bump as she had broke reasonably early. The truck moved off a few feet and came to a stop, my girlfriends car was at a full stop on the road also. ( No damage was done to the truck )

Another car then ploughed into the back of my girlfriends car at almost full speed, pushing it forward into the truck. The other car is written off. The back of my girlfriends car is damaged and the front of the car is damaged also.

The other girls insurance company is only admitting liability done to the back of the car and recommends that we write it off. They have valued it at 1500 and so will pay us 750. The Garda on the scene had said that the other car was the cause of the damage, and was liable.

Are we responsible for all the damage done to the front of the car, even though the second crash was much more powerful?

We are considering getting the back and front repairs evaluated as we would rather keep the car. Can the other insurance company force us to write off our car? Or can they turn around and only give us 750 towards the repairs of the back of the car if we decide to get it fixed?

PS: My girlfriend had to go to the doctors that evening with neck pains (nothing serious hopefully ) and my 2 year old boy was also in the car at the time and was slightly injured when his dvd player was knocked from its mounting after the force of the second crash.

Apologies for the length of this thread and i hope its explained clearly enough to be understood. Thanks in advance
 
She was rear ended and the 2nd car should cover all costs associated with that collision. Any damage caused by your GF car hittin g the truck in the 1st instance is at your loss and as the truck incurred no damage there is no claim against your GF from the truck.
Also your GF is entitled if she has suffered whiplash some medivcal expenses.
This is the way I read it and I think the 2nd car insurance co has just shown their opening gambit in the game.
 
agree with earlier poster, she is responsible for first impact. If there are injuries, then insurer will blame first impact for some of the injury. If your son was injured, I would guess that his claim, if there is one, will be shared on an equal basis between insurers of your gf and insurer of car that rear ended her. There will also be a discount sought in respect of her own injury arising out of the first impact.

Likewise if truck driver is injured, then his claim will also be dealt with equally between your insurers and insurers of teh car that rear ended gf.

There is no point in saying that all injury was caused by second impact. it will not be possible to prove that and in my view, a judge will not accept it either.

With regard to damage, you could get your own assessor to examine and report on the car. He could perhaps comment on the extent of damage to front and back. however, the rear ender must pay for all rear damage and mught make a contribution towards the front damage. Again, I suppose best you could hope for is a 50% contribution towards front damage. That being the case, you should get about €1000 for car.
 
Not sure I agree with other posters. The standard in a three or more car pile up is that the last car pays for everything. Now this is slightly different in that I understand there is a time lag between the first and second hit. Still though I think your girlfriend should take legal advice before filling in the accident report form or making a garda statement. Sometimes it's as much what we do or don't say that might corrupt the liability.
 
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