Had a small collision last Friday...
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?
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