Katana Owners Club U.K.

After 29 years of biking and 14 years of driving, it's finally happened...I've had my 1st accident.

Basically I rolled into the back of the car in front of me at a roundabout & looking at the pics I damaged his rear bumper. We exchanged name, phone numbers & reg plate details. Luckily my phone is modern enough to have a camera so I took pics to prove damage.

Question is what happens now?
I've never had to claim or had a claim made against me so don't know the proceedure.
Should we have excahnged address's? Is it worth contacting him to ask what he wants to do, insurance claim or settle it without going thru' the insurance?

Any help/advice would be helpful

It depends on a few things.

Was the car a new/expensive posing pouch or a more humdrum everyday car?
Is the other driver an understanding person or a bit of a tw@t?
What's your excess?
How much would it cost if it was sprayed for cash somewhere decent?

If you have an understanding driver and the cost of a respray is less than your excess (or even a few quid more). it would be cheaper in the long run to do a deal out of insurance, but make sure you get a signed agreement to cover your arse.
They could also be chancers and possibly claim a bit of whiplash, as it's difficult to prove, let your insurance do the work if this is the case.

Yup,totally agree with Paul,if there's any doubt whatsoever then hand it over to the people you pay loads of money to.

However if you can do a deal then go for it.

On a seperate note,couple of weeks back Jane and I went to France for the day on 'Le Shuttle'. When the guy said 'first gear,handbrake on,engine off' for some reason I did it in that order EXCEPT I let the clutch out BEFORE turning the engine off......CRUNCH. Oh bollox. 2011 plate BMW 5 series.......F**K!!! F**K!!! F**K!!!.....astonishingly only my number plate connected (and cracked,that was the crunch noise) and the plastic screws 'pinged' off with not a mark on the beemer. Oh my god......my heart still races when I think of the potential respray bill.

Car was an X plate Vauxhall Tigra driven by a young asian guy who said he'd only had the car a couple of days. Poss his 1st car. I got the impression he was a poser so probs wants his new toy to be perfect..
Not sure what he's like seemed a bit of a tw*t at 1st wanting to take pics of me & the damage before clearing the road, calmed down tho' fairly quick.
Weird cos less then 2 mins after pulling off road a 2nd car containing what appeared to be his parents pulled up behind us< I wonder if he'd actually only just picked the car up as he did seem very hesitant in his driving??

Looking at pics damage is def just the bumper which these can be had on ebay for for approx £50-70 inc p&p, might be worth me contacting him to suggest this??





Think my excess is about £270.

Thing that worries me, do I have to declare to my other insurance companies that I've had an accident/claim (if it gos that far) and will this affect my NCD on bike & car policies??

looking at the damage Jez, i would say to him to take it to a repair shop and get it fixed and you pay for it. It doesnt look like it will cost a lot. Make sure he doesnt get anything done that doesnt really need it. i might even suggest that he gets a mobile repair type guy round to fix it(prob cheaper).

Cheers

Pete

ps - if i was him i would whack some filler in it and whack a sticker on the top

jez,

depends on whether you have protected no claims bonus,
but in theory they will apply any accident in/on any vehicle to all policies (ba****ds)

H

It shows up as taxed and insured on the relevant web sites, if he just picked it up ask him for the date of his insurance policy for that car as your insurance company have "asked you for it" IF the date and time were after the accident, he can go whistle for it as it shouldnt have been on the road.

The mid insurance may still show up as insured if the previous owner has not cancelled their policy so insist that you have the date and time for his insurance.

An update,

I have just had a phone call from the lads sister (not sure why he didn't call himself?? Always thought the men did all the action in asian families??) to ask if I'd be happy to settle the damage without going thru' insurance as the excess will cost more then the repair.

She says, wait for it, that she has a friend who has a repair shop and who will probaly do the repair at a discount for her brother!!!

I told her that I can get a bumper supplied for £50 and seeing as my excess is only £100 because I'm an old git, I wouldn't be prepared to pay much more then £50 or so...


ok I lied my excess is £250 but she doesn't know this

I have drawn up a statement for us both to sign saying that no further action or claims will be made once signed, hopefully that'll be ok...

If you get away with £50 i reckon thats a result. Its only a small crease and if it was mine i would do like i said before and stick a bit of filler in it and cover it with a GB sticker

Pete

fingers crossed for you jez