If you have been involved in an accident and sustained losses, it is important to comply with the insurer you are claiming from to assure the smooth processing of your claim.

You will greatly increase your chances of successfully claiming if you take the following steps immediately following the accident:

• Ensure you contact the police in the event you or any other person involved in the accident has sustained an injury. If you are unable to make the call, get someone else to do it.

• If you are the driver or insurer of the vehicle, report any injury resulting from the road traffic accident to your insurance company.

• If you are a passenger in a vehicle and are injured in a road traffic accident, get confirmation in writing from the insured driver that the insurer of the vehicle has been informed.

• If you were driving a company vehicle, ensure notify your employer.

• Make every effort to record all expenses incurred as a result of the accident.

• If you are self-employed, keep evidence of any income that is lost as a result.

• Ensure you report any injury (even if it seems trivial to your doctor because the full extent of the injury may not be immediately apparent.

• If you subsequently go to court to get compensation for the injury, the initial medical report will provide evidence to support your claim.

• Gather evidence about both the accident and your injuries. Take photos if possible.

• If the driver is not insured, or you are a victim of a hit-and-run accident you still may be able to obtain compensation from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau.

Even with the police agreeing with your version, if there were injuries involved, establishing the extent of the injuries can take time. The insurer will need to understand the long term affects of any injuries you sustained and it is in your interests to let them do so.

This is not to say, they can drag it out for ever and a day. Stay persistent but remain calm. You will achieve nothing by antagonising those very people that decide on the amount of any settlement.

Where injuries are involved, it is prudent to seek legal advice.

Many insurers now include the option of including such cover at renewal but for others, you may need to sign some kind of declaration with the legal advisor that agrees to take your case on whereupon, you agree to reimburse their costs if they do not succeed or cannot recover all of their fees from the other person’s insurance company on winning the case for you.

There are also an abundance of solicitors that will take on cases on a no win, no fee basis, but again, make sure you understand the arrangement before signing up to it.

Hopefully, if you are unfortunate enough to be involved in a non-fault accident, it is resolved before your insurance policy is next due for renewal otherwise your no claims bonus could be affected until the matter is resolved.

Don’t lose heart however as your insurer will reimburse your NCB and any surplus premium you paid at renewal when/if the claim is resolved in your favour. 

Drivers who break the laws of the road can expect to be fined and have penalty points added to their driving licence (if they have one yet).

It is also fairly certain that any potential or existing insurance provider is going to look closely at the conviction on the licence before offering any insurance premium. Remember, fail to disclose a conviction on your licence and you could invalidate your insurance policy, whereupon you could find yourself driving around without insurance thereby committing a further offence. 

In the event of being caught speeding at say 39 mph in a 30 mph area, one would attract 3-6 points penalty on a licence together with a fine of around £40 - £60 usually, depending whether it is the first offence.

Get caught speeding and not being licensed to drive, failing to have either the minimum insurance requirements or a valid MOT at the same time, and it can be treated differently.

In situations where a person committed more than one offence at the same time, such as speeding and not having a valid licence to drive, courts usually convict on the most serious offence. In the case of our speeding driver who did not possess a driving licence, it is also likely they therefore did not have any insurance either.

Driving without insurance usually attracts 6-8 points penalty and by far the most serious offence in this instance. The person should also expect a fine of a few hundred pounds.

In Devon for example, a man has just been jailed for 6 months for driving at over 120mph on his motorcycle with his son as a pillion passenger. He has also received a 6 month driving ban so the conviction and additional penalties can vary in exceptional circumstances.

For individuals convicted of driving without a licence, the penalty will be stored by DVLA and added to their licence when they apply for one, so there is no escape once convicted.

Insurance companies levy a surcharge on policies where insured drivers have specific medical conditions.

Almost every health professional will, at some time in their career, find themselves having to advise an insurer or individual on their fitness to drive and this article is intended to offer a small insight into the considerations these experts take into account before making a recommendation.

It is firstly important to appreciate that assessment surrounds understanding and examining the capabilities a driver requires to drive safely and the effects of health-related impairments have on these.

Factors which must be considered are:-

• The effects of different forms of impairment has on an individual’s capability to drive
• How any risks can be reduced?
• Ways in which the personal mobility of a driver can be maintained, without compromising road safety
• Identifying the sensory inputs needed for safe driving, particularly an individual’s eyesight
• The capabilities of both the mental functions and that of the nervous system which are required for driving
• The effects that certain medication, alcohol and non-therapeutic drugs can have on driving.
• The consequences for the control of a vehicle where the driver’s movement from injury, surgery and musculoskeletal disease is restricted.
• The main forms of sudden incapacitation that can threaten a driver’s ability to retain control of a vehicle.

It is inevitable that for some individuals, more than one of these factors could affect their present state of impairment and irrespective of diagnosis, will determine any inherent risks whilst driving.

Health professionals advice on fitness to drive is derived from an assessment of a driver’s risk of having an accident which could be attributed to any health-related impairments that are likely to impair their ability to drive safely now and in the future and is just one of the factors that insurance underwriters will consider when assessing an individual for suitability for insurance cover and of course, an appropriate premium.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has told all police forces that thousands of motorists caught speeding should be sent on Speed Awareness Schemes rather than having penalty points put on their licence and hefty fines imposed from next month.

The national Driver Offender Retraining Scheme database, which will be used to identify drivers eligible for the retraining scheme, will be run by Road Safety Support (RSS), a subsidiary company of ACPO, earning the association an estimated £5million a year charging police forces around £5 for each driver checked.

Last year 2.1 million motorists were caught speeding and it is very possible that a lot of those caught speeding will opt to attend such a scheme rather than have their licence endorsed, which could affect their insurance premiums at next renewal and pay a fine.

There will not be unlimited opportunities to attend such schemes however. Repeat offenders will still find themselves disqualified from attending the scheme again within a specified period of time.

An ACPO spokesman however has stated:

“The database administration charge is £1.50 but it is proposed this will increase to £5. RSS does not make profits and any surplus will be returned to road safety initiatives.”

It doesn’t happen very often but when a person’s car is hit by a vehicle being pursued by Police, where do you stand with regards to claiming for damages and personal injuries?

In all likelihood, you will be able to claim against the insurer of the vehicle, irrespective of whether it was in fact a stolen vehicle, or being driven by a legitimate permitted driver. The fact that it was being pursued by Police at the time is irrelevant.

There are however, some complex legal issues involved and you would be well advised to seek legal advice.

If you are unable to identify the vehicle involved or there was in fact no insurance at all in place, you can submit a claim through the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) who will in essence, act as the third party insurer to compensate you but, if the incident occurred after 1 October 1999, this will be subject to you having to pay the first £300.

You should note that responsibility for the accident has to be agreed, or decided by a Court and on the evidence, your claim could possibly be reduced by a proportion, or possibly rejected if there is evidence that you, or the person driving your car at the time, is considered partly or wholly responsible.

The introduction/promotion of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) is claimed to be able to help reduce the number of accidents involving injury by up to 29%.

Or so the Government says!

This apparent relentless over-regulation of drivers and road users ignores the fact that driving continues to be safe as long as drivers behave sensibly and responsibly by sticking to the applicable speed limits and of course, making an allowance for the prevailing driving and road conditions.

Most drivers do indeed adhere to road regulations, the Highway code and the Road Traffic Act so is it really necessary for the Government and car manufacturers to be considering fitting ISA as standard to new vehicles.

There is some question surrounding the data used to support the 29% potential reduction suggested. It is suggested that 17% of those fatal accidents reported indicated the vehicle involved was driving at excessive speed considering the road conditions at the time – they were not however breaking the speed limit.

An ISA would not have made any difference in those circumstances.

Perhaps, an alternative would be for courts to insist that certain drivers prosecuted for speeding should only be allowed to drive vehicles fitted with an ISA unit for the period the conviction remains on their licence.

As new car sales plummet and money gets tighter, there is always a temptation to put off minor maintenance repairs to not only one’s home, but to our cars as well.

And the consequences can be expensive, if not fatal.

Nobody wants to spend their hard earned money at the moment but if you do not invest a little in keeping your car roadworthy, you risk not only yourselves and any passengers, but the wrath of the police and your insurers.

It is a condition of your insurance policy that your vehicle is kept in a roadworthy condition when used on public highways. The police will not hesitate to prosecute anyone driving on our roads without a valid MOT, insurance along with a variety of other reasons.

Motor engineers and servicing specialists are equally looking to generate business in this tough economic climate just like every other business, so whilst you may not want to fork out for a service and get that car checked over, you may in fact find yourself being able to negotiate a far better deal than you think.

With the adverse weather making driving conditions treacherous in places, it must be worth having a chat with your local garage or mechanic.

Research by a major price comparison website has shown that redundancy can prove particularly expensive for motorists suggesting that losing a job can also lead to a dramatic rise in the cost of your car insurance.

Occupations and the usage of the car have always been major underwriting factors considered by insurance underwriters but according to uSwitch.com premiums can increase by around 20% on average for jobless people.

It isn’t all bad news however as the older, more experienced drivers who have earned no claims bonus will probably find their premium to remain the same or possbily reducing.

If you are young however, say 20 years old, with only 1 years no claims bonus, uSwitch reported the insurance premium increasing by 45%.

Even a 40 year old male without any NCB could find their premium increasing by up to 22%.

Underwriters assess premiums and risk on the assumption that in the event of an individual become unemployed, then their car usage will increase, either because of the need to drive to interviews or because the insured has more free time.

If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself jobless at any time, please do not forget to inform your insurers.

Fail to do so and you could be risking your insurer refusing any claim on the grounds of non-disclosure of a material fact which could have affected your insurance policy and premium. 

The Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) was established in 1946 as a private company limited by guarantee for the purpose of entering into Agreements with the Government to compensate the victims of negligent uninsured and untraced motorists.

Every insurance company underwriting compulsory motor insurance is obliged, by virtue of the Road Traffic Act 1988, to be a member of MIB and to contribute to its funding.

In short therefore, a percentage of your insurance premium is used to fund the MIB, and due to the number and monetary value of claims, this contribution is generally increasing, year in, year out.

A fundamental component for MIB is to ensure that claims which result from the negligent actions of uninsured or untraced motorists are dealt with fairly, efficiently and promptly.

The good news is that the total number of new claims reported to the Bureau in 2007 fell for the second consecutive year realising an almost 10% reduction in the last two years displaying progress by the insurance industry, the Government and the Police in delivering positive results in the fight against uninsured driving.

The MIB, ABI (Association of British Insurers) and BIBA (British Insurance Brokers Association) have worked closely with the Government, the Police and DVLA to co-ordinate activity in order to address this socially unacceptable menace of uninsured motoring.

It is therefore essential that enforcement action is maintained against offenders. The Motor Insurance Database (MID) is now proving to be a key tool in the fight against uninsured motoring.

The Police have access to the MID, as do the DVLA when you tax your vehicle on line. It is therefore essential that your insurance record is correctly on the MID.

The penalties for failure to comply are getting more and more severe so if you want to keep driving on our roads, make sure you are insured.

You have been warned.