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Car accident woes
Jonis
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Recently a group of me and others went to a city, where we rented an automobile.
We consisted of:
Myself
My friend girl
My Friends sister
Sisters Friend Boy
Sisters Friend Girl
This was for a festival some hours away but we wanted to see the sites of the city. Most of us had our responsibilities, such as find hotel, find car rental, get camping, etc.
Friend girl's responsibilities was to rent the car, being that she is 21 and all others are under said age.
She has been in quite a few accidents in the past and so the responsibility of driving was directed towards the two males, myself and the other guy.
Blah Blah......the last day (monday) we woke up in our car, in Seattle, instead of camping the night prior at the festival because we were due to leave later that day. I was driving, had driven from the campsite, and was obviously tired. The girls had to do their lady business and so asked to be driven to a gas station.
I got out of the car, stretched some, got into the car, and backed into a pole. I remember being as safe as possible, but due to mass amounts of luggage and a blind spot I completely missed the pole in my view, and thus caused what would have been slight into a 3 part damage consisting of the bumper, the light, and the quarter panel.
We did some stuff at the University district and proceeded to Enterprise, where we would do the necessary paperwork. Being that it was illegal for me to be driving, the blame was temporarily placed on her but I was to be the payer. I paid the deductible of $200 (all the money I had. Was $500 but the nice people at Enterprise let it slide). All of the passengers were pretty much saying that I was to pay it because it was my fault, I backed into the pole, etc.
A week passed and my friend calls to tell me the damage cost, $1200. I paid the $200 deductible so it comes to $1000 left to pay. I have no money, and have been very stressed about the situation. I've talked to various people and they said that the cost should be split between all 5 of us.
Such reasons given were that though I was the driver, I had no idea the car was not insured and would not have driven it under the circumstances, or that nobody bothered to help me back up, it's a group responsibility, etc.
Today we talked and I discussed this with her, and it did not go well. She claims the people she has talked to believe I should take complete responsibility and pay all of the damages. She said it was not their fault and that it was enough that they were even offering to pay anything.
I am wondering what I should do. Should I pay a certain amount........ should I pay all of it?
Twist:
We consisted of:
Myself
My friend girl
My Friends sister
Sisters Friend Boy
Sisters Friend Girl
This was for a festival some hours away but we wanted to see the sites of the city. Most of us had our responsibilities, such as find hotel, find car rental, get camping, etc.
Friend girl's responsibilities was to rent the car, being that she is 21 and all others are under said age.
She has been in quite a few accidents in the past and so the responsibility of driving was directed towards the two males, myself and the other guy.
Blah Blah......the last day (monday) we woke up in our car, in Seattle, instead of camping the night prior at the festival because we were due to leave later that day. I was driving, had driven from the campsite, and was obviously tired. The girls had to do their lady business and so asked to be driven to a gas station.
I got out of the car, stretched some, got into the car, and backed into a pole. I remember being as safe as possible, but due to mass amounts of luggage and a blind spot I completely missed the pole in my view, and thus caused what would have been slight into a 3 part damage consisting of the bumper, the light, and the quarter panel.
We did some stuff at the University district and proceeded to Enterprise, where we would do the necessary paperwork. Being that it was illegal for me to be driving, the blame was temporarily placed on her but I was to be the payer. I paid the deductible of $200 (all the money I had. Was $500 but the nice people at Enterprise let it slide). All of the passengers were pretty much saying that I was to pay it because it was my fault, I backed into the pole, etc.
A week passed and my friend calls to tell me the damage cost, $1200. I paid the $200 deductible so it comes to $1000 left to pay. I have no money, and have been very stressed about the situation. I've talked to various people and they said that the cost should be split between all 5 of us.
Such reasons given were that though I was the driver, I had no idea the car was not insured and would not have driven it under the circumstances, or that nobody bothered to help me back up, it's a group responsibility, etc.
Today we talked and I discussed this with her, and it did not go well. She claims the people she has talked to believe I should take complete responsibility and pay all of the damages. She said it was not their fault and that it was enough that they were even offering to pay anything.
I am wondering what I should do. Should I pay a certain amount........ should I pay all of it?
Twist:
I really like this girl a lot, as more than a friend. I was hoping that the trip would bring us closer, but it had the opposite reaction, maybe because of her sister(what a cockblock), maybe she's not interested. I feel that this could completely ruin any chance of me being with her, especially after the discussion today.
Jonis on
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Posts
You should man up and pay it. In the end, you were driving, it's your responsibility to make sure that you don't drive into polls.
This is Thantos.
In his spare time he likes to be right.
As much you don't want to cop all the money by saying people should help you back up, you didn't tell anyone that you had a big arse blind spot and you needed some help did you?
Everyone was stupid on all counts but you made the mistake, you're going to have to deal with it.
Satans..... hints.....
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Yeah, it's an all around shitty situation, but it's basically your fault. The other people in the car should offer to help, but it's really your fault.
Still, like everyone else already pointed out, you should man up, and pay. I think the other people should at least offer to help, but if they don't, it's understandable.
EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, I think that it's unfair to try to make you pay for it entirely, based simply because you mentioned the responsibility of driving given to you. Yeah, you accepted, but as a group you all decided that you would drive. Hence I think that as a group they should face the consequences of that.
Anyway, I think you should pay, but like everyone said she's the one they'll go after if you can't.
That's a good point. You should check with your insurance, because you might be covered, even if you weren't driving your own car.
"Hi, insurance company? I was driving a rental car I wasn't an authorized driver of, and I got in an accident. Will you cover that? What's that? Not only will you not cover that, you're also raising my rates a shitload? Oh, peachy keen!"
To check with them, you don't have to actually call them. You could, I don't know, read your policy, for example.
Also, what you said is not literally the stupidest thing you could do.
My insurance wouldn't cover it either, I did some research, it has to be the signer.
I've thought about it and I really just need to pay it, and accept any money they offer. I'm not sure what I would do in their situation, especially being that 3 of them aren't my friends and therefore feel no obligation to help, would I do the same? Who knows.
I am going to ask the woman in charge of the case if I could pay it in parts, rather than all out. Hopefully she'll be cool with that.
Thanks all
Personally, I'd go the opposite way. I'd never let anyone drive my car who wasn't insured to do so. You take that risk with your car, you pay the consequences. Same goes for if I rented a car. Basically this is just a bunch of selfish people trying to skip out on their social responsibility, so fuck them and do likewise.
LIMED FOR GREAT JUSTICE
If it was paid for via credit card there's about a 90% chance that the additional insurance (that you didn't buy anyway) from Enterprise was unnecessary and you were insured through the credit card. You need to have a pow-wow with whoever holds that card and have them get in touch with the card company, stat.
Odds are you won't have to pay that full amount, but you may have to finagle a bit (make it look like the cardholder was driving or something, I dunno it hasn't happened to me but I've rented via card before simply to ensure I was getting free insurance on the vehicle)
It's worth checking with the issuing bank, but I doubt you'll have gotten any additional rental car insurance.
Did everyone split the cost of renting the car? If they did, to me, that means that everyone should split the remainder. I mean, yes you were driving, but the situation was because everyone was piled in one car.
Think of it this way. You offer to help a friend move. You use your car, you drive it, he loads his stuff into it. On the way over, you run into a pole. Does the friend offer to help cover some of the cost? YES! You are not a charity and while you were driving, you were also performing a service.
I mean, did the people who arrange tickets buy them all for everyone else? Did the people who rent the hotels simply pay the entire cost without splitting it? When you split things, you split them. I would pony up extra since you were driving, but that leaves $200 each. That's entirely fair.
And yes, I would not really put much hope with hooking up with the girl this weekend.
I completely agree. You're being screwed. Like I posted earlier, if they gave you, a driver who was not in the contract, the assigment to drive, then everyone should suffer the consequences.
I rarely think you should act like a dick..but if people aren't willing to work something out, I say you screw it. You're not going to be held liable in any court of law.
You can, but the rates are high. Which is why it's likely she didn't opt for the extra insurance.
What? If I volunteer to use my car to haul my friends crap and I hit something, it is my fucking fault, not my friends. If I was forced into driving his crap it would be a different story, but then he wouldn't be a friend anymore.
You as the driver hit the pole, you have the responsibility to pay the damages. Yes you could probably get out of it legally if it ever went to small claims court as she would have to admit to committing a crime to get you to pay the money, but if she was willing to admit to that crime I think you would still be found at fault and have to pay. I'm unemployed at the moment with absolutely no spare cash and I wouldn't try to weasel my way out of this.
And if she took the OP to small claims court, she'd probably win.
I didn't say fault, I said the friend offers to help cover some of the cost. Maybe it's money, maybe it's driving you around for a bit while your car gets fixed. Perhaps a better way to think about it, in terms of this particular situation, is a friend asks you to help him move and specifically requests that you drive your car to help. He was asked to drive, or the group agreed that he would be better than the person who actually rented the car.
Literally, the OP ran into a pole. The passengers didn't. But also, he was not legally supposed to drive the car. Is that the girl's fault or his? Or is it the most fair that the group, who agreed to all pitch in on renting said car, as well as splitting other expenses dealing explicitly with the trip, also pitch in to pay for the damages?
I mean, if they all stayed in the same hotel room and trashed it, but then didn't offer to pay the damages they accrued to the one person whose card it was on, even if it was that person's idea, that'd be pretty low.
Of course, the OP could be a jerk and the people on this trip really don't like him, which is why they're all bailing on him. Or they're all jerks and he's a nice guy. We don't really know. What I do think is weird is that the car company charged him a $200 deductible and is now charging him the full cost of repairs. What was the deductible for? If it's for the insurance, then the "deductible" is literally the amount you have to pay, and the insurance covers the rest.
But no, I don't think it's unfair for him to ask everyone else on the trip to split the bill. It could have been *any* of them driving because it was purely an accident. You stick someone in a car they've never driven and load it up with people and things so they can't see, and they're not going to be as safe a driver as they would be under regular driving conditions. it's unfair for the rest of the group to peg this solely on him.