Ok,
So I got up this morning and headed straight down to the police station as advised by the police when I was talking to them last night.
I recalled the events of yesterday and the guy behind the counter documented everything, took witness details and gave me an accident ref number.
He confirmed what some of you have mentioned, in that an incident where a dog is involved in an accident is indeed classed as a RTA.
I informed him that the owners of the dog - the lady with the dog and scooter man (turns out that it was actually a small-built lady with the dog and not a young girl) had both left the scene without exchanging any words or information.
The policeman behind the counter told me that the case would be sent to a processing department who will then look at retreiving the details of the dog's owner - which can take a day or 2
He said that the report wouldn't be sent to the processing department until tonight and will address it when they receive it.
So I headed back home to make more calls...
I rang the vet where the dog was taken and informed them that the police will be contacting them in due course to obtain the details of the owner and that it may be a day or so.
The lady at the vet told me that this may not be a bad thing as the dog did not survive
and passed away about 30mins after being brought in to them.
This was not at all nice to hear and mentioned again that there really was nothing at all I could do to avoid the dog as it bolted for my car. As I mentioned, the distance between freeing itself from its lead and hitting my car was no more than 1.5 metres.
The lady at the vet concurred and said that the lady who brought the dog in was very upset and confirmed that the dog had indeed got out of its harness/ lead and headed straight for the road.
So on the topic of confession/ admission, I'm hoping that the vet will relay this information onto the police when they contact them. This should also strengthen any claim that my insurance company put forward.
I then called my insurance company.
I explained the whole thing to them. Explained that it was an unavoidable incident and that the car will need fixing.
Now,
The first guy at Admiral I spoke to was pretty unhelpful to be honest.
I explained that this was not at all my fault and that I am looking to have a claim made against the dog owner if at all possible.
He told me that They would not at all look to recover costs from a dog owner and that they do not involve themselves with this sort of thing.
So I went on to mention what some of you have said - in that some pet insurances can cover for 3rd party liability incidents and that home insurances may also provide cover for this situation.
The guy then turned round and said "I don't know anything about pet insurance and home insurance wouldn't cover it either" he then went on .."why would home insurance cover this?... why do you think that?"
Bloody marvellous, I thought! Way be a helpful!
So he basically told me that it would be a claim against my own policy and I would need to pay the excess.
I mentioned to him that the dog's owner had left the scene and that the police were retreiving information on the dog's owner, so it may be possible for admiral to approach the owner to recover costs.
Again, this moron was being completely unhelpful and said that the owner fleeing the scene was a police issue and that they don't pursue individuals in these situation.
I said "so you're not interested in a possibility of recovering your costs??"
He then said I need to contact the police and tackle the owner leaving the scene with them. Bloody marvellous.
So I was getting pretty pi$$ed off by now.
I rang the police and gave them my accident ref number.
I then focused on the owner leaving the scene of a RTA.
I explained that I am now angry that I will probably be the one to pay for all this even though it was not my fault AND the owner had fled the scene.
I asked what they were going to do about the owner fleeing the scene. The young phone operative merely said "I'm sure someone will look into it".
So there's a RTA, one party scarpers and they're in no hurry to find that person???
What the hell?
I told him that I am now feel completely screwed with no support whatsoever. I told him that I shouldn't have to pay for this.
He then kept repeating "you need to discuss this with your insurance company...you need to discuss this with your insurance company"
What a waste of time that was!
So I rang the insurance company again.
Got through to someone else.
Now this guy was abit more helpful.
He was a dog owner and said that pet insurances do cover these things and providing the dog owner has pet insurance, they will pursue a claim.
The same applied to the dog owners home insurance, if possible.
Annoyingly he said that if the owner doesn't have pet insurance, they wouldn't pursue recovery of costs from the individual themselves??
What??
I said "so what if they don't have pet insurance but have the means to pay the costs themselves.. wouldn't you push them to pay it?"
He said no, it would be down to whether the person could pay it or agreed to pay it.
What??
So everyone can bowl around with no insurance and simply say "I'm not paying that...I'm not paying that..." ?!?!?
We then touched on proving negligence.
I mentioned that the vet confirmed that the owner said the dog escaped the lead/ harness.
He said "well, they may say that they didn't set the dog free and that were using a lead, thus not their fault"
I said " that may be, but it suggests they didn't fasten it properly, thus their negligence"!
He said "well, it's possible for a dog to get free"
I said "leads are designed to restrain a dog.. it won't get free unless you haven't fastened it properly!"
You can see where this was going
So in the end, he said get the dog owner's details and we'll write to them and go from there. If the owner has pet insurance, there may be a chance if they can prove negligence.
The way I see it, the dog got free, which means the lead/ harness wasn't done up properly. Negligence. End of.
Both the police and the insurance company agreed that dog owners have the responsibility to make sure dogs are under control and on a lead.
Just going to have to see where this goes.
But I am getting ready to have to pay the excess and claim on my own insurance.
My no claims is protected so that's one thing, but they'll still sting me when I next renew!!
The car is going into Mercedes tomorrow where they will inspect the car and compile an estimate.
insurance company tried to get me to use one of their repairers... hell no!!
I told them the only place my car was going was an AMG workshop!
Insurance company said I can get on with getting the car sorted and they will see how they get on with the owner.
I gave them the police ref number so that they can contact the police and request the dog owner's details.
I await a call......
Had a headache from about 9am today
I've probably missed bits in my account of today, but will fill them in when I notice.... feel drained after repeating everything again and again and again on the phone today!
