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RTA in 2007

#1 2010-10-03 15:58:32
Ben1987

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RTA in 2007

I was in a RTA in 2007 when I was 19. I was on my motorbike and I had no insurance, though unaware. I have matured a lot now and because of this accident, it is costing me a hell of a lot of money! I will start from the beginning:

At 2:15 PM on 20th April 2007, I was riding back from work going home on my chituma motorbike. There was a long queue of traffic waiting for traffic lights to turn green, so the left side of the road was full and the oncoming lane was empty due to the lights. So I rode in the middle of the road, close to the cars with a clear view of the waiting oncoming traffic at the lights. It was a main road with side roads off to it, and I noticed a big white van to my left. It turns out that he had flashed for a car in a side street to enter the road and turn right, the oncoming traffic lane.

Due to me being in the middle of the road going at normal speed, and him coming out of the side street we collided, sending me over his bonnet and about 15 meters from the impact site. I may have been in a daze, but I never mentioned it was my or his fault (contrary to his police report).

I was very shy and avoided confrontation at all costs, quite a secluded person if you like. I ended up having 6 weeks off work due to a broken tendon in my foot, and my motorbike was a write off. Due to my nature I never pursued any form of legal action apart from a free bit of legal advice. This other driver went through as much as he could to claim for a broken bumper, headlight and radiator(!). He also claimed for his wife to have whiplash, although in his statement he said he slowly entered the main road, doing no more than 5 miles per hour.

He went through MIB, who then give him compensation and proceded to claim it back off me. I was oblivious to it all so I never read the letters thoroughly, just hoping they would go away. It was due to these court procedings I could not join the RAF at the time, which turns out to be the only reason. MIB then went through DWF and court procedings to force me to pay the compensation. I eventually got a letter that i read last year demanding over Â?9000.

I have since got married, had a son and got a full time career. But this is driving me insane as I feel it to be totally unfair and untrue. Especially since I fully lost my motorbike, I lost out on nearly 4 weeks of pay and my toe cannot be bent for too long due to the injury. Having read the letters now, I have a slight incling that AXA may provide insurance during the time I was on my motorbike.

Is there anything I can do? Or will I just have to pay this weasel off.

Oh, he also paid a visit to my house because he was worried about me prior to claiming against me.

Please help!

#2 2010-10-05 09:46:36
TC

Member

Registered:

2010-08-17

Posts: 61

Reading your post, it sounds like you were flltering which is perfectly legal and therefore (depending on knowing the full facts) strict liability lies with the other driver.

The fact that you were uninsured does not affect your right to make a personal injury claim as under a no win no fee it does not go through your insurers, so in respect of the actual crash, you may still have a perfectly ligitimate claim.

The real issue is what is called the statute of limitation.

The crash occured in 2007, and you only have 3 years from date of injury or date of knowledge to make a cllaim otherwise any claim becomes time barred.

So, if the crash occured for example in June 2007, then you would have had until June 2010 to make a claim.

Given that we are in any case coming to the end of the year, time will be tight if it occurred after October 2007, as to protect your rights proceedings would need to be issued against the third party before the statute of limitation expires.

Whether you can still claim very much depends on the time issue.  In principal you would have a good claim against the van driver as he has a statutory duty of care to ensure it is safe to merge into the major carriageway and be prepared for filtering motorcyclists, and he also took the flashing headlight of the car as his signal to pull out rather than checking for himself and he may have failed to comply with a Give way or Stop sign.

The whole key as to whether you can go any further is the time.

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