Flying debris!

[smartezippo]

Driving down duel carriageway this morning and a bit of bumper came flying off the car in front!
Can I make an insurance claim and who is at fault?
The bumper needs a respray as the marks are deep and go down to the plastic,

[dan@biali]

Did you get the details of the car and or owner? Make sure you write down every detail before you forget - time, date, location, description of car, number plate, owner details if known. That's definitely the cars fault though as it's an offence to drive a vehicle with improperly secured bodywork.

[tonyhill]

Not wanting to sound negative, but unless you have a witness it's only going to be your word against theirs, and if they don't admit liability then you could struggle trying to make claim off him/her.

[smartezippo]

Cheers guys. The problem is I'm not sure if it came off the car in front or if they drove over it and caused it to fly in the air.

What's the score with insurance if say you drove in to a flying terradacdor or something?

[Reggie]

Trying ringing your insurance and telling them you want to claim against a prehistoric bird...

Any claim you make will be against your own insurance. So you'll either loose your no claims bonus, or loose a 'life' if you have protected NCB. Without someone to claim against, it'll cost you more in the long term than if you just have the bumper painted yourself.

I've recently had something similar happen whilst driving my 5 series Beemer, an exhaust silencer had escaped from someone and was bouncing down the road. A Toyota in front of me ran it over which fired it into the air, I thought it was going to come through my screen. Thankfully it dropped just in front of my car (I was doing 50mph), and didn't have time to bounce before I hit it. It's cracked the bottom lip of the bumper, the engine under tray, and when it got ejected out the back of my car, went on to smash the grill, headlight and bumper of the Ford Focus behind. The Focus driver tried launching a claim against my insurance, thankfully both the police and my insurance company told her to jog on in no uncertain circumstances. I got away with it very lightly, and will get the bumper repaired and painted in the spring.

[stevolution]

Magic sponge and a wee bit of polish. Job done

[wiggi28]

feel sorry for you and to the letter of the law drivers are responsible for their vehicles roadworthiness inc item detaching but i feel it would be a can of worms

t-cut and move on im afraid

[wai]

Insurance companies try and discourage you from making a claim. If you do make a claim, you can lose your no claim bonus and this can make the end result extremely expensive. If you can identify the other vehicle, then you might get them to meet the claim, however this would mean they have to get the money off the other party. If they can't, it will come off you.

Basically, you have to look at how much it would cost YOU to get it fixed, and balance this against the additional cost of your insurance (remember to factor in your basic excess). You might find that it is not worth it to make a claim.

Unfortunately for you, insurance companies do not get where they are by paying out on claims. The days where insurance companies were there for the benefit of policy holders are long gone. They are now there for the benefit of shareholders.

[DING-DONG]

I had exactly the same thing happen, metal bar left on the carriageway probably fell off a lorry, the car in front went over it and wipped it up. Hit my van as i was doing 70 mph took the grill out the bonnet was damaged and smashed headlight and puncture the tyre thro the sidewall. Called my insurance i went into detail how it would effect me to make this claim they did advise under £1k you need to think if its worth claiming, so i put it right myself ! Mates rates and so on for about £450 .

[Padrat]

I think it will be cheaper for you to get the bumper painted
And then you won't have a claim to your name