Runaway horse... whose insurance??

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showaddy1

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A friend contacted me today after a bit of advice... about 6:30pm last week he was inbetween calls with work, so pulled into a lane not far off a main road to eat some sarnies. He was parked in a layby with his lights on dim. This was not a private road.
Anyway, a horse came from no-where running full pelt towards his car, horse seen the car, swerved at knocked off his wing mirror and dented driver door. He got out of the car to some woman, obv. owner, saying' you've injured my horse' (he was parked up) and 'I always run my horses up here this time of the night'... they were obv. going in to stables.
After getting fobbed off by owner, he wants the damage to his car repaired, he contacted the police who have informed him that it is not a police matter..
Advice anyone?? I am so angry... just because ppl work so hard to keep relationships between riders and drivers amicable and the woman, in my opinion, acted in a completely irresponsible way!
 
Horses owner is TOTALLY responsible for the damage.

ETA.......How is it not a police matter if someone is allowing their horse to run uncontrolled on a public highway?
 
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It's her who's responsible, but not a criminal matter, its civil. But he can ring the non emergency police number & get a ref no same as you do with a fender bender between two cars.
 
Exactly what I said... he would need a crime number to claim! The horse had no headcollar on either. The woman obv. must open the gate and allow them to run up to her stables. Her excuse was that 'the road is always quiet'.
He has double checked with the highways to make sure it is a public road. What if the owner has no insurance??
 
What insanity to run a horse up the lane into their stable 0- bet there wasn't a gate at the end of the lane to prevent it going onto a more busy road!

O agree she is to blame.
 
Letting horses out on a lane with access to main roads is absolutely bonkers! She should be grovelling he doesn't take her to court. I am so annoyed she dared suggest he injured her horse! Man attacks horse... sitting in a car on a public road eating a sandwich...
 
Police can be very unhelpful I'm afraid - I was asleep in bed with car parked outside at night when stolen car came round corner, hit kerb and lampost and somersaulted onto top of my poor (newish) car - written off obviously. Lowlifes climbed out and ran off (they always do dont they).

Police came and first thing they wanted to do was to demand MY documents - insurance (which was a group policy as it was company car so didnt have that at 3am!), driving licence et al, threatening me with a production order. Despite me having no criminal record, not even points on licence EVER and car clearly parked!

It was only by OH making a formal complaint that they police actually started taking any interest in the fact that a car had been stolen and squashed a perfectly stationary vehicle in the middle of the night....grrrrrrrr

So I would get your contact to go back to the police and politely but firmly demand a crime number from them, or get the insurance company to deal with it.
 
Animals act 1971 Section 2 (2) as now interpreted by the highest court in the land says that horse owners are liable for any accident caused by their horse. This is as a result of the Mirvahedy v Henley case. Horse owners need to have third party public liability insurance of no less than £10,000,000 (Ten Million Pounds).
Get an incident number from the police, ask horse owner to pay for damages, if she fails to do so then make a claim through the small claims court (this can be done online).
 
Even if the horse owner has insurance, surely they won't pay out as she is clearly negligent?
My horse escaped from his field a few months ago and damaged a garden, the owner of the garden is sueing me for the damage but my public liaibility insurance with BHS won't pay as they say it was my fault for not having a high enough fence (it is 4ft high).
I wouldn't have thought that an insurance would cover someone letting their horses run free along a road!?
 
I'm afraid your friend has been given the wrong advice by the police. This is not a civil matter, it is a road traffic collision as defined by the Road traffic Act and the police should investigate. The Officer advising is lazy & should have recorded the incident & submitted a report. Your friend would then have had an collision report number that could submit to their insurance company. The insurance company then could then repair the damage to the vehicle & pursue the horse owner for the damages.

Definition of a road traffic collision:-
The law defines a reportable road traffic collision as an accident involving a mechanically-propelled vehicle on a road or other public area which causes:
Injury or damage to anybody - other than the driver of that vehicle,
Injury or damage to an animal- other than one being carried on that vehicle (an animal is classes as a horse, cattle, ass, mule, sheep, pig, goat or dog).
Damage to a vehicle - other than the vehicle which caused the accident.
Damage to property constructed on, affixed to, growing in, or otherwise forming part of the land where the road is.

The vehicle involved a collision between motor vehicle & a horse, the vehicle does not need to be moving, & injury has to be caused to the horse. The owner of the horse is alleging that her horse is injured so the offence is complete, falls into the remit for a Road Traffic Collision & therefore the police should show an interest. There may be additional offences for the horse owner regarding allowing her horse to stray etc etc.

The owner of the horse is clearly responsible for the incident & would therefore be liable for the damage to your friends vehicle.

I would advise your friend to return to the police station where they initially went to & speak to the supervisory officer of the officer/civilian who gave the questionable advice in the first instance. Hopefully then the matter will then be dealt with satisfactorily.

Good Luck
 
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as above post - normal procedure would be to ask you to attend your local station with your documents and an accident report card will be completed and passed to an officer to investigate (well in Kent anyway, would imagine its similar all over)
 
Some brilliant advice, as always... I'm rather concerned about the BHS not paying out... my fences are only 4ft!! I've sent non horsey friend a link to this post. Thankyou again x
 
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