AAMI tried to pin me at fault for a crash with an unmarked police car.

Had a pretty frustrating experience over the last 6 months dealing with AAMI after a crash with an unmarked police vehicle. Thought I’d share in case anyone ends up in a similar situation.

Back in October last year I was driving through an intersection on a green light. There were cars ahead of me and I was moving with traffic. Out of nowhere an unmarked police car came into my lane from my right, running a red light under lights and sirens. I only saw it about 5 metres in front of me and had no time to react. We collided.

I contacted AAMI straight after and was told I couldn’t lodge a claim if I wasn’t at fault and that I would need to deal directly with the other insurer. That didn’t sit right but I went along with it and contacted icare / Gallagher Bassett.

A few months later I went back to AAMI and got a claim opened. As soon as they took it on they told me I was at fault. Their reasoning was simply that the emergency vehicle had lights and sirens so I must give way. No statement taken from me. No diagram. No dashcam. No police report. It felt like a default position rather than an actual investigation.

I pushed back and referenced the requirement for emergency vehicles to still exercise reasonable care. I explained I had a green light, traffic was still moving and I could not identify where the siren was coming from until it was too late. I provided a diagram and a detailed account.

After that AAMI obtained the police report. Despite having it they still handed down the same liability decision against me. I pushed back again and escalated it to their complaints department.

Only then was it acknowledged that the police report had actually assigned liability to the police driver.

Throughout the process I felt continually dismissed and at times gaslit. There was no genuine attempt to collect primary evidence from police or properly test the reasonable care requirement. It felt like the outcome was driven more by convenience than investigation.

From there things shifted quickly. Gallagher Bassett accepted liability and AAMI flipped their position to not at fault, waived my excess and confirmed it would not affect my claims history.

The whole thing took about 6 months to resolve and I’ve been without a car the entire time.

The police insurer has now taken over and is arranging inspection and settlement directly.

Takeaways:

Lights and sirens do not automatically make you at fault

Emergency vehicles still have to drive with reasonable care

Insurers may take simplified positions unless challenged

Even when evidence exists it may not be properly considered until escalation

Persistence makes a difference

Overall the outcome is where it should have been from the start but it took a lot of pushing to get there.

Keen to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences with insurers in situations like this.