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View Full Version : Had a small collision last Friday...



Dallas4u
01/28/2004, 01:56 PM
I didn't have time to post anything when it happened as the situation was a little weird and made me feel sick to my stomach.

Here's what happened...

On my way to a dental appointment, me on a two way street, trying to cross a one way street. I had trouble seeing past parked cars on the side of the one way street to see if anyone was coming. I didn't see any coming before the parked cars, so I headed on out... here comes a late '90's Buick out of nowhere! I brake and turn left, he brakes and turns right, but nothing could keep his left front corner from hitting my right front corner.

We pulled over to check out the damage. I'll be damned if he didn't just hit my left front tire and a small (about 1.5 inches) area of my wheel well (cladding). There is a small "shaved" area in the cladding and that is IT! I couldn't believe it! another half a foot here or there, or even up or down, and it could have been worse. I walked over to his car and his left front turn signal had a square-shaped piece broken out of it, and there was a 12" - 18" white rub mark on his right front fender... probably something that could be rubbed out with rubbing compound.

The guy in the other car is probably late 30's, maybe 40. There is another guy in the passenger seat that gets out, and a girl (driver's daughter) in the rear, maybe 11 or 12. They all get out and (of course) look dissappointed. I tell them not to worry and that insurance will take care of it. He then smiles a little and looks around... I say, "Don't tell me you don't have insurance". He replies that it is his "dad's car", and he would rather take care of it outside of insurance. I say that I don't know and don't feel very comfirtable doing it that way. He asks how much I think it would be to repair his car... I say maybe $200. He agrees that $200 should take care of it. I ask him if he wants a check or money order, and he says he has to go to a doctor's appointment, but wants to pick it up later. We exchange some info, and I guve him my cell number to call me after lunch.

I get back to the office and ponder what has happened. I don't know this guy from any of ya'lls first cousin's mother's aunt's son, and I don't know if he would just take the money and try and get me on some sort of failure to do anything about the accident, so I decide to tell him to let insurance take care of it. He calls me that afternoon and I tell him I'm sorry, but I'd feel better if we just let our insurance take care of the problem. He says, "Aww man, you should have told me that earlier". I tell him yeah, sorry, but I don't know him, and he doesn't know me, and I could try and scam him as easily as him me, so it's better this way. I give him my insurance agent's phone number, and his next question... "So, your insurance will pay for my car?" I say "yeah", and hang up on him.

I let my insurance know about it before I talked to him, then called them back and let them know that he may be calling. They said they would only file the claim if he called. I called back a few hours after I talked to the guy, and he hadn't called yet. I'm just assuming it was the guys car and he didn't have insurance. His daddy's car... the guy was around 40 and with his daughter. Jacka$$.

Anyway, what does the law say about people who don't have insurance, and aren't at fault in an accident? Are they allowed to have their car fixed by the person's insurance who is at fault? It would seem to me that they are driving illegally anyway, and once my insurance agent found that he didn't have insurance (just assuming), they wouldn't do anything about it. I can't see why he would have any rights to having anything fixed if he wasn't carrying insurance on the car. Is this true? Bueller?

coachreed
01/28/2004, 02:15 PM
Yeah, I can imagine how wierd a feeling you get from that... not sure if you did the right thing or not... It might work out for the best for you, but I'm no lawyer... and I don't know the funny little in's and out's of the law. Good luck. Hopefully it slips by.

TTYL!

johnnyapollo
01/28/2004, 02:38 PM
I had a guy slide into me a few weeks ago. His neon went under my cladding and busted the light I have in my hitch receiver (Tone's hitch). I looked at my VX and he didn't even touch the cladding or skid plate. Sure put a big square gash in his bumper, though - shaved through the plastic.

He was young and apologized, said his foot slipped off the brake pedal (it was pretty wet outside). He offered to pay for the damage - I told him $20 would cover the light. We both went on our merry way.

I think in some situations settling it outside of the insurance scammers is a lot easier.

-- John

Dallas4u
01/28/2004, 02:49 PM
Yeah. I wouldn't have felt so bad about settling outside of insurance had I not felt such weird vibes coming off the guy. I'm not saying he would have tried to rip me off, but can you really trust a complete stranger? Why would you?

We (legal drivers) all pay for insurance on our vehicles in case something happens. I was willing to take the hit of my insurance possibly going up 10% for three years than get in to any sort of legal trouble with this guy.

Hotsauce
01/28/2004, 03:42 PM
In NY, no insurance is a felony, a year in jail.

John C.

VehiX
01/28/2004, 04:24 PM
Sorry to hear about this Dallas4u :(

I hope it all works out in the end!

Ya know what's funny? In N.H Insurance is optional!!!:p

Live Free or Die!

Even though it is optional, MY VX is insured head to toe just in case ;)

AlaskaVX
01/28/2004, 04:32 PM
Originally posted by VehiX
Ya know what's funny? In N.H Insurance is optional!!!:p


What about if you have an auto loan? Do you still need full coverage to cover the bank?

WyrreJ
01/28/2004, 05:24 PM
In California my wife had an accident with a car that didn't stop. Not being on the scene I can't say for sure, but the way she described it was clearly not her fault. She followed the car about 30 minutes to grocery store where the other (female) driver proceeds to get out of the passenger door. The other driver says that it is her third accident in a year or so and since the damage wasn't major either way would rather just forget about it rather than file a claim and probably lose her insurance. My wife agreed.

Long story short, other woman does file and fault is determined by the adjuster(!?!?!!) since no cops were called at the scene (never mind the other woman fled the scene). Adjuster decides my wife is at fault. Our insurance (state farm) which she has had for at least 15 years cancels us because she had a one-car accident 2.5 years prior (which they did a piss-poor, jerk-us-around job of never really repairing). So, moral of the story is get a cop on site to determine fault, even if it is tiny and don't be suckered by any sob-stories.

Dallas4u
01/28/2004, 06:45 PM
Yeah, my wife kinda got on me about not calling the police. I should have, and I hope that doesn't create more problems down the line.

MrCrowley
01/28/2004, 06:48 PM
It was only about a year ago that Alabama made insurance mandatory. What a waste. Before, you could get decent rates and the companies had to be courteous and do their job to earn your business the way it should be earned. NOW you have to get it, the prices are higher, and they plain suck for service.I've been driving 15 years, no accidents, some tickets, and saved A LOT of money before this. Probably insured for maybe 2 years of that, and Ive saved enough over the years to pay for the damn thing if something were to happen. They call this some sort of intelligence of our species? I guess they cant fool me. No wonder I want to move to the south pacificand make an amphibious VX. If we are not careful, the intelligent Americans will leave and what will be left then? only corruption and complacent people...

VehiX
01/28/2004, 08:59 PM
Originally posted by AlaskaVX
What about if you have an auto loan? Do you still need full coverage to cover the bank?

Not to get off topic here or anything but to answer this question, with my previous car (Probe GT) I got the insurance up front so the bank saw my binder and what was covered. then about 2 years later I dropped the insurance for a year and they never even knew about it or at least said anything about it. It was great, a good running vehicle with no insurance and no monthly car bill for about a year :D

Don't get me wrong though, not having insurance is just flat out STUPID in my eyes but it was fun while it lasted and nothing bad ever happened to me so it was all good :)

carlymac
01/29/2004, 08:05 AM
Anyway, what does the law say about people who don't have insurance, and aren't at fault in an accident? Are they allowed to have their car fixed by the person's insurance who is at fault? It would seem to me that they are driving illegally anyway, and once my insurance agent found that he didn't have insurance (just assuming), they wouldn't do anything about it. I can't see why he would have any rights to having anything fixed if he wasn't carrying insurance on the car. Is this true? Bueller?

Bueller...Bueller...?
First off...dang Jon I'm sorry about the booboo. But glad your OK. Tennessee Law was a little behind in the insurance arena...In fact until last year the police couldn't write a ticket for lack of insurance. However the laws are catching up. In Tennessee
The police don't detirmine fault, they only detirmine contributing factors (weather, road hazards, vehicle defects...etc., improper lane use, failure to yield right of way, speeding...etc.). And even though not having insurance is illegal it has no bearing on the contributing factors. If a drunk is sitting at a red light and he gets rearended it's not his fault even though he is DUI. Now, we would charge him with DUI, but the other insurance co. would most likley have to fix the drunks car . I say most likley because DUI is a criminal offense whereas a property damage accident is civil. This means the officer issues a report with the drivers, passengers, vehicles, dates/times, contributing factors AND charges any drivers with violations he can prove were commited with evidence and statements. Remember most accident violations are misdemeanors committed outside the officers presence. So if the officer didn't see the offense he has to support the violation with evidence and/or witness testimony. Now to the civil part, The police can't tell the insurance co. they have to pay for damages caused by their client. If the insurance co. determines their client is at fault they usually pay the claim but if both the drivers were at fault or if its an act of God (no fault). The insurance companies either pay for their clients damages or have a civil hearing where a judge or jury determines fault. Now if one of the drivers is uninsured the insurance co. will pay the damages to thier clients car and sue the other driver, providing he/she was at fault. If the insured driver was at fault the insurance co will most likly pay to have both vehicles repaired. The police should charge the uninsured driver for failure to maintain insurance, but that's a criminal offense. And has nothing to do with the accident itself. Again this is the way I've seen courts and insurance companies in Tennessee handle this matter it may be different in your area...
carlymac:supercool

Dallas4u
01/29/2004, 08:55 AM
Yeah, I can see it both ways now. Laws help and many times hinder at the same time... but laws are laws, and if I had a choice, I'd rather have them the way they are then give them up altogether (my opinion).

I don't think the guy is going to call my insurance company. I'm assuming that it was his car and he has no insurance. Whether State Farm would fix his car or not I think is moot... I don't know if the guy has enough sense to test those waters as he was a little flustered about what to do at the scene, and I think it had to do with lack of insurance on the vehicle (even though he didn't come right out and say it, he looked around at the ground and smiled for a second when I asked him about it).

There really isn't any damage to my VX anyway. I mean, it was THE least damaging place to hit it, and I feel SOOOO lucky. The small scrape on the inner edge of the wheel well cladding is so insignificant that I could probably just scrape the small plastic flap it made off with my fingernail. No big deal. AT least we were only going like 7 or 8 miles an hour, slamming on the brakes... no lives in danger.

AREA 51
01/29/2004, 10:01 AM
A little off-topic. 1 or 2 years ago overseas, a thief stole a car and wrecked it and himself. The court ruled that the car owners insurance had to pay the thiefs medical bills. How wacked is that?

Jolly Roger VX'er
02/01/2004, 04:58 AM
Hey dallas...Maybe you should have the alignment checked on the VX to insure nothing "wheel-suspension wise" got bent? Just a thought.

visconte
05/10/2004, 04:41 PM
...simple as that in California, other states vary. Also in California cops won't file a report unless personal injury or damage over a certain amount. Personally I think you did the right thing, sometimes people will go to the police and make all sorts of weird claims after the fact so good idea to carry a camera and get a witness if possible. It's a hard world and getting harder! :(
vis