crash for cash

It isn't really that unusual for a learner to do that. A good driver should certainly have taken extra care knowing that the driver in front was a learner. I don't mean to criticise your daughter and I'm not saying I wouldn't have made the same mistake in the same situation, but the L plates are there to warn other drivers to take extra care.

I agree that this looks suspicious but it's quite possible that a nervous 17 year old shaken by the incident would phone a friend or relative who works nearby.

Do you have the details of the instructor? If they are a genuine instructor then they probably advertise somewhere - have you tried searching on Google or looking in the local paper? Of course it's quite possible that the are a genuine instructor who is also involved in a scam.

They tend to jump into your path unexpectedly. I think they got the idea from the Scandinavian moose ...

They lurk around every corner in Yorkshire...

You can try to claim anything, but will the insurance companies also pay out £1000 with no questions asked? My experience is that they are not very keen to pay out even smaller amounts without evidence.

But the learner was injured, at least her solicitor claims so.

She is not another person from the person who left the scene. Highway code rule 287 only actually seems to require production of an insurance certificate, at the scene, or reporting to the police and subsequent production to the police.

I haven't checked RTA 1988 s 170, but I assume the code summarises it correctly.

I don't see how this scam would work. The person to have whiplash in these circumstances would not be the criminals.

Rob Graham

It appears to be a localised crime (to the North and Midlands)

tim

You are already stopped, with your brakes on. They claim to have been stopped suddenly, by hitting you.

That's hardly "localised"! Anyway, recent news reports said "the scam has spread to the south".

Yes, but you don't get whiplash by hitting someone. You get it by being hit in the rear by someone.

Rob

Exactly - my wife has twice been hit while her car is stationary. Both times it`s a claim against the driver who was driving without due care and attention - how else do you drive into a stationary object that is displaying lights to show it`s not moving? :-)

In message , Simon Finnigan writes

I'm not disagreeing with either of you, but within about 12 months of passing her test my younger daughter had three accidents in which someone had run into the back of her, and I think two of them were at roundabouts. I felt uneasy about this, and had a chat with her about "progressive" braking, purely as a defensive technique, but I'm pretty sure that roundabout shunts are often caused by drivers instinctively glancing right instead of ahead as they move off.

CORRECT and we ALL do it. As in my daughters case the L driver had departed the junction. She watched her go and then looked right, all clear accelerate only the find the L driver stopped well over the line. SF is just one of those clever dickies who has never done this.

In message , Gordon H wrote

They are caused by a driver approaching the roundabout, seeing it empty to the right and carrying on at the same speed - and then wondering (too late) why the fool in front has come to a stop. Whilst it is the person who hits someone up the rear who is at fault it is usually initiated by someone in front who cannot "read the road".

yet again correct.

In message , Mark Opolo writes

Indeed, we ALL do it - but, hopefully, using that well-worn, increasingly popular phrase, "lessons will be learnt", and we do it only once.

In message , Ian Jackson writes

A large roundabout two miles from here produced a regular crop of accidents, partly because it links two motorways and an A road. The funding or enthusiasm of the Transport Ministry left it short of a proper flyover arrangement, and lorries regularly overturned as they encountered adverse camber on leaving the motorway(s).

The cure was to install traffic lights on all entry points and at 2 or 3 points around the roundabout lanes.

It defeated the idea of roundabouts, but made it much safer and less nerve-wracking. The roundabout from the M60 in Stockport was given the same treatment, a big improvement.

In message , Gordon H writes

I'm sure that, in the absence of a more imaginative approach to the problem, the installation of traffic lights at every road junction will reduce accidents!

However, with traffic lights or roundabouts, the important thing to remember, just as you are moving off, is literally to "look where you're going" - ie ahead, rather than to either side. That way, you don't risk running into the car in front of you, which, often for no apparent reason, has chosen to stop.

Yeah, damn those clever dickies who look where they`re driving eh, and avoid driving into stationary object. Them and their evil super-powers.