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Snow business

On Sunday February 1st 2009 my third-party insured Suzuki Baleno was written off by a Mercedes taxi sliding down a snow-covered hill out of control. The driver told me he was late to pick up his fare due to road conditions, and that he had "been slipping and sliding all the way there." He went on to apologize for the accident saying that he thought the hill would have been gritted and told me that in a further effort to stop he’d pulled up the handbrake half way down the hill. Shortly after the collision at least two other cars were able to descend the hill without crashing. The taxi was travelling at about 20 miles an hour (too fast for the conditions) when he hit me and smashed my car sideways across the road into a line of parked cars causing extensive damage to the drivers side of my car. I believe that the taxi would have had difficulty in stopping even if the road were only wet and not snow covered. The Taxi's insurer is refusing to pay citing Custins v Nottingham Corporation where a bus that had stopped in snowy conditions then slid, due to the camber and slope of the road into another vehicle. This was not what happened in my case where the taxi made no attempt to stop at the brow of the hill. My broker appointed an accident management agency and, as it was considered a "no fault accident", I was supplied with a hire car, initially a Vauxhall Astra. After three weeks they told me they were going to send me a Mercedes. I queried this with my broker, as a replacement for a Suzuki Baleno. Then, instead of a Mercedes, I was supplied with an Audi A4 Cabriolet. As the taxi insurer will not pay, it appears that I will be liable to pay accident management fees and car hire charges totalling over £4,000, and I will not get anything for my written off car. According to a solicitor I have spoken to I appear to have no redress in this matter, which I find incredible. Do I now have to take this matter to court and will I win in the light of the insurer’s stance What can I do now?

Asked on 4 July 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
You seem to have no choice other then to take the case to court, and you need a better solicitor. Assuming your total losses are less than £7,000 you can use the Small Claims Track of the County Court and you claim that the case precedent cited by the insurer was based on different facts and therefore not valid. Stupid of you to take a credit hire car after all my warnings, but your case does provide another illustration of how they stitch people up. It’s a pity your written-off car was only insured’s third party, otherwise your own insurer might have offered you some protection against these sharks
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