Car Crash Help

[shorty2010uk]

Hi There just wandered if someone could help me, i borrowed my fiancee dads van on monday and he borrowed my car to get it serviced for me, i was driving his van for the day and in the morning i had a crash, it was on a traffic light system, the car in front of me went over on the green light and i followed and behind me the 4 cars followed so the lights was definately on green, anyway the car in front of me slammed on his braked because he said the lights was red, it was about 100 yrs after he passed the green lights, well i tried to brake but went skidding into the back of him, i hit his towbar and theres hardly any damage to his car, we exchanged car insurance details and that was that, but i phoned him up and asked if he wanted to put it through the insurance or not and he said if i gave him £250 he wouldnt, so i drove from dudley to leciester last night to give him the money and i was going to get him to sign a recipt to prove i gave him the money to repair his car, well when i got there he said he had changed his mind, so i wasted 4 hrs driving and £35 fuel driving over there, hes polish and he cant really understand much english, so i just wandering whats the best thing to do, if i phone my insurance up to tell me i will have to pay £450 excess and the damage to my fiancees dads van in about £100, ive asked her dad and he said im only insured to drive his van as 3rd party because its going through my insurance as im fully comp on my car, do i leave phoning my insurance and see if he makes a claim or just forget about the whole thing, i know the insurance will say its my fault even tho i left plenty of room behind him and he slammed on his brakes, please help, cant stop thinking about it, it happened on monday morning and the bloke hasnt claimed on the insurance or anything yet please Help !!!!!!

[bednobs]

then i don't get why you are disagreeing with me - that's exactly what i said - it all depends on the car, tyres, speed, weather, road conditions etc etc

[flip_flop]

"if he claims, i'd say the best chance you have in defense is that he performed a dangerous maneuver by slamming on his brakes, which is dangerous driving, which would void the claim, but it would be hard proving that you have left regulatory distance between you and the car in front, sometimes cars in front have a better braking system, which would make it difficult"

I don't think I've ever read a post on this site which could be more wrong.