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Hi I was involved in a real difficult situation where I was the third car. the car in front of me hit the first car and then I crashed into it and another car crashed into me. however the first car didn't stop. i had reached a settlement with the car behind me, the problem now is the car in front.

They have sent me a quote to fix the car which seems like the frontal damage and the rear damage are around the same and the frontal damage alone would probably write the car off. my question would be do i need to cover the whole write off value of the car or just the difference between the fontal and rear damage if the rear costs more?

Thanks

These situations are not always as clear cut as they seem but depending on the various factors, evidence and sequence of events you could argue the following.

You should be paying for the damage to the rear of the car you crashed into. But, if the damage to the front of car number two was significant enough to have already written the car off before you hit into the back of it then you actually crashed into a car that was potentially only worth around say $500.00 as a wreck. So you should offer to pay the value of the vehicle before you hit into it which at a guess could have been around $500.00 as it was already written off. It will be hard to prove or argue but you could take the case to the Disputes Tribunal and argue the point and hope for a good outcome – it could go either way.

If your car is fully/third party insured then you should leave it in the hands of your insurance company to deal with.

Hi another question: the quote they provided me indicated that the car was totaled by the frontal damage alone but then the driver said that he could fix the car himself and it would only cost him 240 dollars for second hand parts. in this case is the car still a write off?

also from the police report it stated that the car behind me pushed me further into the car in front and the insurance company of the car behind did cover partial of my frontal damage are they responsible for the damage of the car in front as well?

i know this is a messy case thanks for answering again!

You can only work on a professional panelbeater quote and not what the owner of the second car thinks he can repair the vehicle for – it wouldn’t hold up in court. The fourth car's insurance company has done their fair part already and I don’t believe it will extend to the car you have hit. You need to take some responsibility for the damage to the car you’ve hit but as I said previously you need to negotiate a fair amount as the car was potentially only worth a few hundred dollars when you hit it. This is a messy case and you will mostly likely need to go to the Disputes Tribunal if it cannot be resolved amicably.