Hire Car After Hit in Rear? Never Fear – Fast Facts

Busy Monday morning and now your looking for a hire car after hit in rear accident because you were just driving along the freeway heading towards the city when all of a sudden someone else hits your car from behind, you were not at fault and even after the hassle of having to pull over, put on your hazard lights, get out of the car and exchange details with the at fault drive.

There still remains the lingering thought in your mind that while your vehicle is driveable, you still do need to get the vehicle repaired and will require a not at fault hire car for the duration of time that your own is off the road being repaired.

There Is Usually No Dispute in Liability for Hit In Rear Accidents.

Fortunately hit in rear motor vehicle accidents, or “tail enders” as some people call them are fairly straight forward for all parties concerned, so there is usually not much argument in the post-accident exchanging details discussions as to who was at fault, the road rules stipulate that when one vehicle hits another from behind, the trailing party is generally considered the liable party for failing to provide adequate breaking distance.

I’m not going to say, absolutely always, because on rare occasions I have seen hit in rear accidents determined as otherwise so far as liability is concerned due to other mitigating factors and causation, however, they are isolated matters, generally speaking, hit in rear accidents are fairly straight forward, you are the not at fault person when someone hits you from behind.

Believe it or not, the most common way that a third party will dispute a hit in rear claim, particularly when you are in highway heavy traffic type situations is to say that you have merged in front of them, yes, as crazy as it can sound, believe you me people come up with the most absurd almost laughable counter disputes sometimes, that is why I strongly advise at the scene of a motor vehicle accident you…

Keep Calm & Get Your Phone Out

• Take photos of both vehicles, as they are, prior to them being moved for towing.

• Take photographs of licence plates & registration plates of all vehicles involved, writing things down is good, but I have seen hand writing mis-interpreted so many times, trust me, take a photo it will save you a lot of heart ache in the future trying to figure out things like if the S is a 5 … or is a Z ?

• When not taking photographs, or if your smartphone or device allows simultaneous recording, or you have multiple to hand, smartwatch etc, I would strongly recommend from the moment of the encounter, until the moment you leave, you record the entire encounter,
  • (You are well within your rights to given the emergency nature of the situation whether you disclose to or not)
    • While recordings of conversations are still not considered confirmation of liability as statements made can be considered hearsay, or under duress.

All the more, in the burden of probabilities with other evidence, it can be useful in supporting your case and any supplemental material you may later provide to the at fault drivers insurance company, or, to the credit hire company when trying to organize hire car after hit in rear.

Center of Mind, Is Peace of Mind – Remain as Composed as Possible

Ultimately, above all else, as cliche as it may sound, remain calm, when you are put into these kind of situations it can become overwhelming with a whole variety of emotions, and you can be forgiven if you feel angry, sad, or otherwise, sometimes these emotions can be overwhelming.

Do your best to take a moment to compose yourself, you will find it a lot easier to navigate the challenges of obtaining all the relevant information required for your vehicles repairs and not at fault hire car if you can center your mind in this

If the damage was particularly minor to the rear of your vehicle, its important to not get to casual about the whole thing, so many times I have discussed it with my clients over the years that while having every single piece of information is not always necessary you don’t want to be in a situation where you need a hire car after hit in rear for a week or so when your car eventually goes in for the minor repairs, and you don’t have some essential bare basic piece of information the insurance company is going to want from the credit hire company in order to review their demands and proof of loss, and because of that complication you don’t end up getting a hire car, for want of, recording a few details.

Every Detail Counts, So Don’t Discard Every Detail

Don’t think “Its minor, this wont be a problem” you don’t know that, how do you know what your going to be doing whenever you need to get that car in for repairs? Maybe your spare car will no longer be available, maybe your mate with that ute will actually be working with it that week, and do you really want to ask your family? Then you would have to explain why you didn’t just take the at fault drivers details to begin with, its embarrassing, aint nobody got time for that, so…

Always make sure if you are involved in a hit in rear motor vehicle accident, no matter how big or small the damage you always take photographs on your IOS or Android device of:

• At Fault Drivers Licence Front & Rear
• Photo of Insurance PDS & Certificate of Currency (If they Have it with them)
• Write down the name of the at fault drivers insurance company
• Write down the address of the at fault driver
• Take photos of the vehicles location at the scene.
• Take close up photos of the damages to the vehicle to give to insurance.

Now fear not, if you go to make your claim with your insurance company, and you do not have all of this information all is not lost, not at fault car hire companies and insurance companies alike have access to a wide range of mercantile tools at their disposal that can help take those little pieces you do have, and try and fill in the puzzle for you so don’t be afraid to reach out with what you have and as for some assistance, you never know, you could find yourself driving away in a beautiful hire car on the day you take your own in for repairs.