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I caused a minor auto accident....with no insurance...
petarpenev
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi there! I'm writing you here in order to get some advice on what to do in my slightly difficult situation, so Thank you in advance!
I rear-ended someone else on the highway in stop-and-go traffic jam. I guess that I'm at fault here. There was no police involved at all.
On that date, my vehicle was on my Insurance policy, but with a status of "in storage" so it wasn't covered! I had no insurance!
There are no injuries and the other party and I have been communicating without fighting about this.
I was planning on "handling this out of pocket", but the repair bill for his vehicle will cost more than $5,000 which I don't have.
Also, the other party already has a claim with his insurance and but they are waiting on me to pay the bill and be done there.
These guys have already contacted my insurance company and I haven't.
Should I still try to find the money ($5,000+) to handle the charges for his vehicle's repairs and hope to close the claim?
Or should I just let the insurance companies talk to each other?
I really cannot bear to think what's coming for me if this thing gets to my insurance company and my license get's suspended.
Thank you for any advice!
I rear-ended someone else on the highway in stop-and-go traffic jam. I guess that I'm at fault here. There was no police involved at all.
On that date, my vehicle was on my Insurance policy, but with a status of "in storage" so it wasn't covered! I had no insurance!
There are no injuries and the other party and I have been communicating without fighting about this.
I was planning on "handling this out of pocket", but the repair bill for his vehicle will cost more than $5,000 which I don't have.
Also, the other party already has a claim with his insurance and but they are waiting on me to pay the bill and be done there.
These guys have already contacted my insurance company and I haven't.
Should I still try to find the money ($5,000+) to handle the charges for his vehicle's repairs and hope to close the claim?
Or should I just let the insurance companies talk to each other?
I really cannot bear to think what's coming for me if this thing gets to my insurance company and my license get's suspended.
Thank you for any advice!
0
Posts
Don't ignore it because that's how shit like this gets worse.
If the insurance company tells you tough titties, you will probably have to pay out of pocket to fix it. Maybe work out a payment plan with their insurance to cover it. Whatever you do don't ignore it and get taken to court because it'll end up being more expensive than that $5,000 is right now.
2) Contact your insurance company immediately and explain the situation and see what they can do to support you. It may be nothing, but the insurance companies and the other driver have no reason to advocate for that on your behalf.
3) Request an itemized breakdown from two different mechanics before paying the bill, make sure the second breakdown is from a mechanic you choose to evaluate the damage. Because of how late this is, you may have no leverage to do anything here but with a bill that high I'm wondering what exactly the damage here is. $5,000.00 is more than the body rebuilding when I crumpled my Civic and broke the engine. For a tail-end "fender bender" in low-speed traffic the cost seems very high.
4) Don't drive a car that you don't have insurance on because your license could be suspended.
5) Pay more attention to the road!
Edit:
6) Hopefully you took extensive pictures of the damage to both vehicles at the time of the crash so that you have some sort of documentation of what was damaged and how.
7) If the person is acting in bad faith (or was actually hurt) and claims medical issues, your license and money may be a very small amount of how much this will cost you.
A report is to cover them claiming a ton of damage that you didn't cause which sounds like what they did here.
Since your company is already involved, just call them and see what they can do. Maybe your car can be covered for driving that day if you retro pay the difference.
Do you know if this will result in the suspension of my driving privileges? I'm really trying to avoid that at all costs. I have had a near-perfect driving record for the last 15 years.
If I contact my insurance wouldn't it be worse? Don't I want to hide this from them and repair both cars somehow in the quiet?
Will this definitely result in court appearances and suing?
Thank you!
Sorry!
Depends on too many factors for us to tell you. This likely will depend upon state/local ordinances.
First off, they apparently already know if the other insurance company has contacted them (based off of what you have told us). Reporting it will raise your rate. But if you want them to cover the costs at all you have to contact them eventually.
With what money? Your decision to not follow the law with your insurance, with following too close and causing the accident, and now not reporting the accident to the police has not really earned you any favors here. If this does go to court, it won't look well for you. There is a right way to do these things for a reason, and playing fast and loose hasn't helped you so far. Doubling down likely won't help more.
If you don't pay? Probably. If you hit my car, didn't report insurance, and didn't make good for 5k+ worth of damages I'd haul you into court, certainly.
Don't hide anything from your insurance, they're there to protect you.
Who knows, if you fess up and are trying to make amends, maybe your insurance agent will find a loophole to the storage situation to get you coverage for the accident.
Thank you all for your input! I truly appreciate it!
I was recently in an incident as well. The moment I confirmed the other person was alright I called the police and waited. That person was at fault and they left the scene, I did not. I spoke with the CHP, talked to my insurance the next day, explained everything when asked, and got it all documented. The end result is my insurance did not go up, I'm not at fault, I'm not liable if the person comes back and claims an injury, and I have peace of mind because I don't have to worry about when it's going to strike back with a vengeance in my life.
Do not ignore this. Adapt, change, and accept what's done is done. You are now doing damage control because you are long past the point you could have tried prevention.
When I got rear ended at the end of May the repairs and repainting ended up coming to about $5,000. Pretty much everything in the vicinity of the trunk needed to be replaced. It wasn't anywhere near being scrap the car and buy new levels of damage. It was a 5-year old Sonata, so not anything super fancy where repairs would be inordinately expensive either.
I definitely wouldn't have called it minor damage though.
I rear-ended someone once because I was tired and watching for a speed trap. It was 100% my fault. The police came (THE IRONY, good thing this was 200 yards from a police station) and her car looked fine, but mine wasn't going anywhere. She said she felt okay and I was fine so no ambulance, and everyone went their separate ways.
A week or two later, I got a call from my insurance company saying that while she never bothered to make a claim on her car because the damage was negligible, she DID end up with a back injury that required attention, and they paid her medical. They said my rates would be unaffected by this, but you know, don't do it again.
tl;dr Even though she never made a claim on her car, it hadn't even occurred to me that she might make a medical claim when she hadn't needed an ambulance at the scene. That kind of injury can go unnoticed for a couple days, and I was covered for medical independent of the car I was driving; I sure didn't have the money to pay that bill. Always call your insurance company in case a claim comes up that you hadn't even considered. If you are covered for it it's in their best interests to advocate for you, and they can't do that effectively if they aren't clued in to exactly what happened from your perspective ASAP. Do everything you can to make sure they hear it from you first.
I'd also note that this is just his car repair. If the doctors find something, you might really be up a creek money-wise. He says he has no injuries, but I'd take that with the Great Salt Lake. Just because he told you he wasn't filing doesn't mean he won't in the future if the doctor tells him he's really got a concussion or whiplash and needs it for his doctor bills.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
always call the police, no matter whose fault it is. Otherwise it's your word vs theirs months down the line (or more likely your lawyer vs theirs). Always.