Hi guys, debris from a truck fell and took my side mirror off.
I have dashcam footage to prove it, but since me and the truck were travelling at 100kmph in opposite directions, the video does not show the rego. I was too flustered to stop at the moment and follow him. Do I need to pay the excess if I make an insurance claim?
AAMI says I will have to, but I want to know what anyone's experience has been in such situations.
Thanks.
Correct.
The insurance company needs to be able to make a claim on the other person or their insurer to recover losses.
If they cannot do this then the person making the claim must pay the excess
its not just the offending vehicle its the driver that needs to be identified too i got hit by someone on a stolen motorbike once and although they had the motorbike the driver ran away and i was due to pay the excess but the driver was eventually caught since he dropped and left his mobile phone behind at the scene so in the end i didnt have to pay it
Excess.
Can't access the insurance payout without an excess .
debris from a truck fell and took my side mirror off.
truck were travelling at 100kmph in opposite directions
That’s sounds dangerous that it didn’t take out more… good to know you are ok.
Cheers mate. The rock hit the side mirror and got deflected. Would have been much worse if the side window was down, which it was 20 minutes ago
Yes
If you don't have the other car/driver details then yes.
If somehow you then manage to get the details, then you will likely get the excess back.
Can you ID the company from the footage? If you can you could try approaching them. If not and you go through insurance then yes, you'll need to pay your excess as you can't ID the party responsible. May be cheaper just to pay it out of pocket given you premium will likely go up at renewal.
The truck had no logos on it. But you’re right, cheaper to get new mirror($5xx) vs excess($700)
see if you can find a second hand one
If you don’t have the other party’s details then it is a “at fault claim”. What you should do is go and get a quote for a new mirror and then compare it to your excess. It might be cheaper to not claim
Go and read your pds, it clearly explains what defines a "not at fault" claim.
I know because i've read it.
Username checks out.
Why?
A little tenuous but……..'HarryExcess'?
How?
You weren't travelling the Melbourne-Geelong route on Monday? I passed a semi and there were huge rocks falling off it and one nearly took out my side mirror!
Side mirror cost vs excess?
Had to do a quote to replace one on a customers car during the week and it was almost $2000. Powered, heated and with 360 camera in it. They had it ripped off in a car park and the person who knocked it off took it with them.
Probably needed one of their own and didn’t want to pay $2000…
When I had a Patrol the mirror got smashed when 4x4ing, it cost about $30 for a new piece of mirror and took about 15mins to fit.
Instead of "at-fault" or "not at-fault", the excess works on whether the claim is "non-recoverable" or "recoverable". That is, whether the insurer can chase someone else for the cost of your claim. If they can't either because of fault or you don't have the other party's details, then you pay the excess amount.
Can you post the dash cam footage?
Yes
Yes.
This happen to me once with Coles insurance a car hit me we pulled over I got all of his details even his license number but because I did not have his "address" I was going to have to pay the excess. I was lucky enough to be able to call his mobile number and tell him this and he gave me his address I then passed that on and did not have to pay the excess.
Needless to say I left Coles insurance after that year.
Wtf, can't Coles get the address from Rego?
yeah thats why I left them with everything I gave them even his mobile number, who he worked for the business contact details licence rego full name everything I had to call him to get his address. If he wanted to be a dick about it and refuse to give it to me then I would have had to pay the excess.
Blew my mind!
You need the rego, and the driver’s details. If the owner of the offending vehicle denies they were driving, and cannot (or will not) name who the driver was, you end up responsible for the excess. I’ve had this happen twice, once while I was parked, the other rear-ended by a car pulling out of pub while I was stopped at a red light then pissing off. I had to pay for both.
If they can't recover the money from the At Fault driver then you are At Fault
Read your policy!
It is probably quite prescriptive about the information you have to provide
Name, Address, Rego and vehicle details are usually a minimum
Copy of their licence is recommended as it confirms they were there on that day
(some buggers try to deny after the fact)
As you will have to pay an excess, and may lose your no-claim bonus, almost certainly worth paying without a claim.
Find the company and/or driver of the truck is you can capture stills and clean up the image. Note, the crap they do on CSI is utter fiction, but images can be sharpened.
Work mate just had this issue, he had to pay 3k as "police are still investigating".
Pretty sure he will have to wait for insurance companies to agree, which can be up to 6months.
Replace the mirror yourself!
Why?
Depends on the mirror. People have said above it could be several K.
Also, when I had an at fault accident. The smash repairer wanted $600. When their insurer contacted me, they wanted $200? $250?
Try submitting the footage to dash cam owners Australia, thousands of people watch their videos and maybe someone else has footage of driving near the truck which can identify it.
Might be much cheaper to buy the component yourself.
Should have done a 180 hand brake turn and chased after the truck….
Unless you can identify the offending vehicle most insurance companies will require you to pay any applicable excess.