Car accident

SnoopRob said:
Out of curiosity, what is his lack of cooperation causing?

My understanding is that lack of cooperation can slow down the process, but that if someone is at fault eventually them/their insurance will have to pay up (although that might be after a lawsuit by your insurance).
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Yes, that's what they told me. He's not answering or returning calls. So they don't yet have him admitting to be at fault.

My insurance has already said if I file the claim with them the will sue him for the cost. It will cost him more in the long run.

There wasn't a lot of damage, it would be simpler to just let insurance deal with it.
 
UNCatTech said:
On the way home today I guy hit my truck with his truck.
Very similar to what happened last year. He was changing lanes and caught the front left corner of my truck. Last year it was the front right.
Today it was a younger guy, from his license he's 30, who was working.
It isn't horrible, the truck is drivable, and he was apologetic and provided his license and insurance information. Another guy also stopped and gave me his number said he was behind me and witnessed it, if I end up needing a witness. But I didn't call the police.

Everything seemed ok, I took pictures and got all of his information, but now after thinking about it, I hope I didn't make a mistake by not calling the police.

I guess we will see.
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You should have called the police, now he has every opportunity to tell his carrier that you merged into him. Without a police report that witness is pretty much useless. I say this as a former claims adjuster. Best thing to do is file with your carrier and let them battle it out with the other carrier.
 
UNCatTech said:
Yes, that's what they told me. He's not answering or returning calls. So they don't yet have him admitting to be at fault.

My insurance has already said if I file the claim with them the will sue him for the cost. It will cost him more in the long run.

There wasn't a lot of damage, it would be simpler to just let insurance deal with it.
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Thanks. I appreciate those details.
 
UNCatTech said:
Well, finally got an update today.

Seems that the guy that hit me and the owner of his truck (mom), are not cooperating.

I'm such a dumbass for felling sorry for him and not calling the police.


Motivating Wake Up GIF by FIA World Rally Championship
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Unfortunately I saw this many many times handling claims. Get into an accident with a younger person, they admit fault at the scene etc. No police report and now the parents have told them to not say anything/they have no proof. Just let your carrier handle it.
 
Macksbrownies said:
You should have called the police, now he has every opportunity to tell his carrier that you merged into him. Without a police report that witness is pretty much useless. I say this as a former claims adjuster. Best thing to do is file with your carrier and let them battle it out with the other carrier.
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Yes, I see that now.

Had i suspected he would be dishonest i would have.
 
Macksbrownies said:
Unfortunately I saw this many many times handling claims. Get into an accident with a younger person, they admit fault at the scene etc. No police report and now the parents have told them to not say anything/they have no proof. Just let your carrier handle it.
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I agree. I once got rear-ended at a stoplight by a teenager. We pulled over to a parking lot out of traffic and I called the cops, reporting that no one was hurt. While we were waiting, the young woman was very apologetic and said that it was all her fault. I told her not to say that when the police arrived. She replied something like, "But it's obvious it's my fault." I replied, "If it's obvious, then you don't have to tell the police." And then noticing she had the same proof of insurance card that I had, I said, "Turn that card over and read me the first line on the back." She turned it over, looked at it and said, "Never admit you are at fault." She actually laughed.
 
Yeah I got fucked over once during a bad ice storm in Atlanta. There were hundreds of wrecks, and this van transporting workers slid on bald ass tires into my lane.

The supervisor (who happened to be a local politician) came out and said yeah it's our fault. The driver and all the passengers agreed it was the van's fault.

After waiting 3+ hours in the cold, the police dispatch told us it would be another 12+ hours before an officer could get out there. She advised we file a report later.

I filled in person 2 days later, and you'll be shocked to learn the company and driver denied any culpability.
 
Macksbrownies said:
Unfortunately I saw this many many times handling claims. Get into an accident with a younger person, they admit fault at the scene etc. No police report and now the parents have told them to not say anything/they have no proof. Just let your carrier handle it.
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I've been hit several times before and didn't call the police. This is the first time it didn't work out.
 
heelfan108 said:
Vehicle didn't collide, but one changed lanes, causing the other to swerve and hit an embankment.
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I had this happen once. I stood in front of the guy and made him pull over. He was an older guy, probably in his 50's, I was in early 20's. This was before cell phones. He was in a truck and pulled off the road then over the curve like he was going to park in the parking lot. He then just took off.

He didn't hit me, but he had caused me to swerve into the curve and both of my front tires were flat.

A few minutes later a police officer stopped. I told him what had happened, and he was absolutely no help.

I ended up just buying two new tires.
 
Hizer said:
Yeah I got fucked over once during a bad ice storm in Atlanta. There were hundreds of wrecks, and this van transporting workers slid on bald ass tires into my lane.

The supervisor (who happened to be a local politician) came out and said yeah it's our fault. The driver and all the passengers agreed it was the van's fault.

After waiting 3+ hours in the cold, the police dispatch told us it would be another 12+ hours before an officer could get out there. She advised we file a report later.

I filled in person 2 days later, and you'll be shocked to learn the company and driver denied any culpability.
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Was this snow snowmageddon back in 2011?

I remember it took me 2.5 hours to get home from work that day. I knew several people who were stranded or in accidents.
 
05C40 said:
I agree. I once got rear-ended at a stoplight by a teenager. We pulled over to a parking lot out of traffic and I called the cops, reporting that no one was hurt. While we were waiting, the young woman was very apologetic and said that it was all her fault. I told her not to say that when the police arrived. She replied something like, "But it's obvious it's my fault." I replied, "If it's obvious, then you don't have to tell the police." And then noticing she had the same proof of insurance card that I had, I said, "Turn that card over and read me the first line on the back." She turned it over, looked at it and said, "Never admit you are at fault." She actually laughed.
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About 10 years ago I bumped a lady in front of me. I literally let off my brakes and rolled into her. Only a few minor scratches on the car.

We pulled into the parking lot and called the police. She told the police that everything was ok, no one was hurt. Her daughter was in the back seat playing on an IPad the whole time, didn't even seem to realize anything was going on.

I spoke with the officer and asked if he had to write a ticket, since I had insurance and knew it was my fault. He said probably not.

He then comes over to my car. Hands me the ticket. I looked a little puzzled. He said that he wasn't going to write a ticket, but he pointed to a box on the ticket and said read this. The box was checked, beside it was wording that stated someone was hurt in the accident. He then said she told him to check that box and that I should expect to hear from a lawyer.

We looked over at the other car and the lady and her daughter waved as they backed out and drove off.

She was in probably a $70K car.

Yes, they sued. She got $20K for injuries plus the money for fixing the car.

I read the letter to the insurance from the lawyer. He stated that the daughter was whiplashed and thrown about the car because of the violent impact.

Glad I had good insurance.
 
As a current claim adjuster, who admittedly does not handle minor traffic accidents, an independent witness should be very useful, but a dashcam would be ideal. While police reports can sometimes be inadmissible (hearsay), many auto liability adjusters treat them as a determinative factor so it is best to try to get the police to respond, but not getting them to the scene is not necessarily fatal to your claim. My personal experience is that the more significant the accident, the more useful the police report.

I wouldn't worry so much about the questions asked. Sometimes they are trying to see if your version remains consistent. Back in the day, when I was handling this sort of stuff, the other guy sometimes would say something along the lines of 'you blame me because you don't believe me'. My reply was usually, I believe every word you've told me and this accident was your fault. The volume of poor drivers who don't know what they are doing on the roadway is astonishing, but it's paid my mortgage for decades so...

The failure to cooperate by the adverse driver puts everyone in a box. It would be a rare circumstance for a carrier to go against their insured driver in this type of accident without having a conversation with the insured driver so the driver avoiding giving a statement is going to handcuff the insurer without clear evidence against the adverse driver. In that circumstance, and assuming you don't have time for the carrier to investigate, the path of least resistance is to hand it over to your insurer and let them fight with the other driver's carrier.

There are plenty of claim adjusters who won't act in good faith and will try to nick you for a share of liability inappropriately just to shave something off the claim. However, keep in mind that claim adjusters get a steady diet of people trying to game the system, lie about what happened and/or their injuries. Humans are poor witnesses and even if you are trying to be honest does not mean that your recollection is a fair accounting of the situation, so there is a going to be a healthy dose of doubt that you are giving an accurate picture of events.
 
UNCatTech said:
Was this snow snowmageddon back in 2011?

I remember it took me 2.5 hours to get home from work that day. I knew several people who were stranded or in accidents.
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No, this was before - a random ice storm in maybe 2008.

I got lucky on Snowmageddon. I left work around 4:00 (to my boss's eye roll) and was maybe the last vehicle to get down the southbound ramp at spaghetti junction. Made it to Decatur in :45 from Norcross.

My boss at the time, who I actually like, spent 12 hours trying to get home, spent half of them in a waffle house, had to wrap her feet in grocery bags trying to stay warm, and her engine block cracked. After that she did NOT fuck around with weather.
 
SnoopRob said:
Wow. That's a new one I've never heard before.

That's actually kinda impressive.
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I don't fully understand why. I know she ran her car for hours trying to stay warm. Also, it was a BMW so who knows. I guess it could have overheated if her radiator fan wasn't working but I'm not a mechanic just mech-curious.

Maybe the car in front of her was blasting exhaust straight into the intake for hours, she didn't notice the engine temp climbing? No idea.
 
SnoopRob said:
Wow. That's a new one I've never heard before.

That's actually kinda impressive.
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UNCatTech said:
I've been hit several times before and didn't call the police. This is the first time it didn't work out.
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In larger metro areas calling the police for a report isn't always an option. In Atlanta, the police will often to decline to prepare a report for a minor accident - advising both parties to contact their insurance companies. Several years ago I love tapped a driver on the Grady curve and he gets out holding his neck saying he was going to the emergency room. He called the police demanding they prepare a report. They laughed and drove off.
 
I got in an accident a little over a year ago, pulled up to make a left turn at an intersection, car ahead of me pulls fully into the intersection, freezes at multiple opportunities to turn, then throws it into reverse when the light turns yellow and rams the front of my car (I never entered the intersection). The town I live in is full of immigrants/new drivers.

No big deal, it happens...BUT the lady proceeds to tell the cop that she didn't back into me and that I ran into her. I absolutely could not believe it, this was a 75 year old lady straight lying to an officer. I had my two kids in the car watching this all unfold...it was wild. After a few back and forths with the cop he handed me the write up and told me he wasn't going to assign fault...but I realized the woman was driving a TESLA and they record all activity. I asked him to go watch her video as it would have evidence she was lying. He did, he busted her lying ass, she was at fault.

Came to find out she lives 1/4 mile from me and my kids get on the school bus each morning in front of her house. I definitely flip them the double bird every time I drive by, people are horrible.
 
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