NRMA insurance dispute: Shocking dashcam footage of NSW car crash involving off-duty policeman’s car
- An off-duty police officer was involved in a pile-up on a highway
- His insurer, NRMA, refused to process the claim
- At first they claimed she was responsible, then they delayed the repairs.
An off-duty police officer has been through hell after her insurer initially blamed her for a multi-car pile-up – then refused to pay part of the repairs.
Jenny called at Sydney 2 GB Radio Tuesday to speak to Ben Fordham about his daughter’s NRMA insurance claim after a July 9 accident on the Hume Highway in New South Wales.
Jenny originally filed the claim on July 10 with an overseas call center whose operator wrongly identified her daughter as the offending driver.
Despite footage provided by the dash cam, the ordeal continues to plague the family two months after booking the car at a repair shop, with the NRMA now refusing to pay for two new panels to be painted.
A huge accident on the Hume Highway in New South Wales on July 9 caused a nightmarish insurance claim for an off-duty policeman whose car was involved.
Jenny had assumed it would be an easy case since footage showed her daughter stationary before a car hit another behind her, sending her rolling multiple times.
“When we initially made the complaint over the phone through one of their overseas call centers she kept talking about ‘our car hitting another car,'” Jenny told Fordham.
“I kept telling them ‘no, that’s not okay’, but they kept referring to it.
“When they contacted us a few days later, they still hadn’t confirmed we weren’t at fault, although dashcam footage proves we weren’t at fault.”
The issue was finally resolved when Jenny took matters into her own hands, personally driving to the nearest NRMA office to speak to a representative in person.
The brand new car, which Jenny’s daughter had purchased in May for $61,000, was approved for repair in late July, but on August 1 another problem surfaced.
After booking the car for repairs, the NRMA called Jenny to discuss discrepancies between what the repair shop wanted and what the insurer was willing to pay.
The repairman had told Jenny that their shop guidelines stated that if a panel needed to be replaced, the paint should be mixed into the surrounding areas.
Damage to the car from the accident necessitated the replacement of a front panel and a door.
“Well, as of today, the NRMA will not allow that to happen,” Jenny said.
“What happened to the famous NRMA motto, ‘Help (this is who we are)’?” »
After weeks of trying to resolve the issue, Jenny and her daughter filed a separate claim with the offending car’s insurer.
The officer’s mother, Jenny, told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that despite dashcam footage clearly showing her daughter was not at fault, the NRMA would not agree to cover part of the claim.
Jenny told Mr Fordham that the NRMA told her not to file the second claim, but with the help of the repairman she did so within a day.
“The responsible insurance company called me and confirmed all the details and they approved it within days – the same claim we submitted to NRMA,” Jenny revealed.
After a long and arduous insurance battle, Jenny is now hoping her daughter will get the car back before the end of the week.
She said that although she herself was involved in the accident, her daughter had assumed the responsibility of coordinating the scene of the accident, even though she was not working at the time.
“She had to control the scene, make all the phone calls, bring the ambulances, the firefighters, the other police, and she had to control this scene until they arrived.
“She also had to check if the five people in that car who rolled over were okay and not dead.”
Fordham assured Jenny he was now on the case and would personally contact the insurance company after the radio host uploaded dashcam footage to his website.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the NRMA for comment.
