Accident & Insurance
 

Ok so the story goes:

Hopping off the highway, exit lane starts as one lane, splits into two lanes that turn right, and then at the end a third lane that turns left at the very end. I'm following this yellow jeep off the highway, I already notice they are weaving a little but don't think too much of it (probably a mistake). The exit splits into the two 'right turn' lanes, the jeep stays in the far right lane and slows down, I move into the left 'right turn lane' to pass slowly. As I'm mostly past the jeep I hear a thunk - the jeep crosses the lane and lightly hits the side of my car. We keep going, both take a right, and immediately pull into a parking lot. She's on the phone with the cops as soon as I get out of the car, and doesn't act too friendly when I walk up to her - ok fine. Cop comes, I tell my story, and her story goes that she was in front at the time of contact, and I somehow clipped her going around her. Cop says, it's her word vs mine, and doesn't determine anyone to be at fault in the report.

So I'm thinking, I'll contact my insurance, they'll send out an adjuster, adjuster will see that the contact just in front of my right rear wheel, and will determine there's no way for me to 'clip' her rear bumper (btw an old jeep with banged up bumpers, no evidence of contact on her jeep).

Time goes by, police report is published after 2 weeks of waiting, insurance company calls me to check in. I tell them I'm going to file with the lady's insurance (Chubb) - my insurance (Geico) basically then tells me that they will likely refuse, and they (Geico) wouldn't be able to go after them either because it's her word vs mine and the adjuster looking at the car would not make any difference. Despite the fact that according to her story, the damage would have been on the front fender not the rear.

Not much experience with accidents and insurance (thankfully) - can anyone provide advice on how to pursue?

I plan to file a claim with the lady's insurance anyways, but is the agent from Geico right that I'm out of luck and just have to pay my $500 deductible because some lady driving a jeep was texting on her phone and drifted into me? Seems horribly unfair.

quite likely out of luck since fault was not directed in police report, unfortunately.

Welcome to life... sometimes its easier to pay the way and move on.

Also get a dash cam....

These^

Doesn't matter what the logic of her story and the damage is the insurance companies work on facts. The fact is that the police didn't assign blame and with no witness or clear evidence as to who was in who's lane you can't prove anything.
Hard to tell in the picture but you may very well be able to get that fixed by a good PDR guy for well under the $500 deductible.

Lol that's what the Geico insurance woman told me. Do they sell 360 degree cameras like google uses? I could mount one to my roof.

http://www.cycledrag.com/wp-content/...10/07/D254.jpg

Lol. A regular front mounted camera still would validate your story

Also I would get a PDR quote as well...

if you're really paranoid, buy 4 cheap ($50-$100) dashcams for each direction. as close to 360 as you will get.

you know what the real kicker is, a little research shows she lives in the same town i do AAAND works in the same building i do, 2 floors above me. maybe i will see that liar wench in the elevator :)

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Wouldn't that mean she parks said yellow jeep in your parking lot?

I'd be getting some vigilante justice, not that I'm suggesting anything.

hah nah, though would like to run into her so she knows she is not a anonymous as she thinks. she probably had kids in the schools too. my wife is pretty well connected, could probably shame her a bit :) end of the day, just have to suck it up- not the worst thing. definitely investing in a dash cam, any recommendations on something unobtrusive but not to expensive? maybe something that attaches to the mirror?

thanks for the replies guys

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+1

Way too many lifted trucks and other assholes tried (or perhaps inadvertently) tried running me off the road during the first month or two of ownership. Dashcams are well worth the expense.


Also watched way too many Russian dash cam videos :D

https://dashcamtalk.com/

I bought the street guardian but kinda regret not getting a blackvue with 2 channel. That forum is very good in helping you decide on what you want.

A little pricey, however front & rear are included. Blackvue DR650S 2 channel...Subiespeed's got em for $400. Sure if someone were really good they could source out for maybe $250'ish

Police do not actually determine fault inside adjusters and field adjusters will if there is a question of liability, a police report isn't required in an accident. But with this it is basically a case of no fault and both would probably have to go through their own insurance, cause honestly he could have crossed and hit her.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X528FNE...I3NIXHAWOSSDBJ

I'm going to pick up this dashcam pretty soon. Seems very subtly which i like.

True. But if the police do deem somebody at fault in the report then the insurance company would just run with that.

Don't appreciate the insinuation that I'm the lying party, trust me it stings enough as it is getting screwed.

Not saying you're lying just saying you may be remembering it how you think it happened and that may not be how it went down, the human brain and memory is a tricky thing.

Ah sorry :) Yeah I know how that is - thing is, her story was that she was in front of me and I accelerated and clipped her. I clearly remember her being completely out of my field of vision (behind me) and then hearing the bang. But I see your point - from the insurer's/cop's point of view they have to deal with selective memory all the time. For all I know the woman may not be willingly lying, more likely she was texting on her phone hit me and looked up and somehow thought I hit her. In the end, I do remember wondering if she was on her phone as I noticed her wandering (on th freeway no less), so I probably should have just stayed away from her. Life lesson learned I guess. I'm 44, you'd think I'd learned by now lol

I'm so used to getting hosed by incorrect police reports at this point. It's happened three times out of four in the last 6 years. Twice my cars were totaled by people running stop signs at high speed and that wasn't even mentioned. In fact the first time I was being hauled off to the hospital and the unlicensed Russian driving the other car told the cop that I was speeding. It was an active construction zone in heavy traffic in NYC and I was doing 8mph! He went through the stop sign at fkn 30 and t-boned me on the drivers side b pillar and caved in the side of my Volvo and got no penalty :( SMH. The next one was a beautiful autumn Sunday afternoon, I had the family in my nearly new Challenger heading to go apple picking. I was doing a little under 30, my wife screamed and I got punched in the face by an airbag. When it deflated I looked in front of me and there was nothing there but steam and blue sky. It was so surreal... Fuggin bimbo rolled the stop sign doing somewhere north of 50, according to someone who saw it going the other way, and her CRV bounced off the front of my tank and rolled over and into the woods. Again I had to leave in the ambulance because my wife and one daughter were a bit achy and the accident report got written up with no mention of speed or running the stop sign but it said that I didn't even try to avoid the collision based on no skid marks. When I tried to complain when I picked up the report the cop looked me straight in the face and said "Doesn't it suck when you don't live in the town and pay taxes here?" I almost exploded but got escorted out before I got myself in trouble. That one hurt because it was the front of my car and with no apparent move to avoid it I got penalized 10% on the payout and the car was 9 months old so took a 20% hit on the value. The payout came up $1200 short of what I owed on the damned car! She got full replacement value and got a brand new CRV. A week later it had two flats. Two weeks after that it had two more...

holy crap man, really sorry to hear those stories - also really glad you and your family werent severely injured or killed.

i guess it's time i stop whining and be thankful it wasn't something worse :)

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I learned one of the best lessons one time I was rear ended. If I see a bad driver (any one of the many signs), keep that car in FRONT of me, and far away, too, if possible. That few seconds gained by passing it is not worth the trouble. Now, if it's a long highway, and that bad driver is moving slowly, sure, you'll need to pass it at some point, but it's much easier to avoid trouble on a straight highways with no exits.

And I'm always puzzled that people still drive around without dashcams. It boggles my mind. I have 3 in each of my cars.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a08124dbea.jpg
Am I too late to join the club?
Last night I had a pretty similar story to yours. I got a wreck less driving ticket that I'm Guna fight off. Other than that, my car is at a good body shop getting repaired. Won't see her for another 2 weeks. It happens bro


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I hope you meant a reckless ticket since that pic clearly shows a "wreck"!

Auto correct sorry. And yea.


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LOL AC get's me a lot!


What happened?

Haha
Well mine was more of a left turn. I was getting out of a timmies, and some lady was far away and I'm not making this up, I heard her car's little Honda engine push hard and had I not downshifted to 1st, I would've been done


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😂


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The damage looks like it can be fixed with PDR and buffing the paint.