97BlackMaxSE

Oh man, what a bad day for me today. I think I might have set a new record for shortest time between 2 accidents. I live in Philly and it was a storm today. OK, the first one wasnt so bad, I was stopping at a stop sign and the person behind me hit a patch of ice, slipped and bumped me. It was a hardass hit but my bumper is ok. She cracked the paint on the bumper, really minor. Now the 2nd one, about 15 minutes later, I was parking at the corner of a street just waiting for someone. So I have nothing to do so I just look around. I turn my head and I see a car backing out of a small street( which should be illegal right?), which is the opposite side of the corner that I was at. In my head I'm thinking "he's an idiot, he can't back out of there" but he keeps backing out anyway. He wasn't even looking if there were cars. But cars were coming anyway, so he hits a black car which was going straight. Ok now I'm thinking "what a total idiot!" and then in the corner of my eye i saw that the black car swerve to the right and BOOM!!! the black car hits me in the rear left fender. Called the police, took them 2 hrs to get there, typical of philly cops(joke). So we get each others info.

I really need some help now. Who's insurance should I call? The idiot's or the black car's? And should I call my own insurance? I'm planning on calling the idiot's insurance since I think that he is at fault.

And the little accident, should I pursue it? I mean its really minor but my bumper was perfect before she hit me. I dont know what I should do about that. Please any help is deeply appreciated. Thanks

MAX99SE

You should call the black car's insurance since he hit you. the black car's owner will call the idiot's insurance company because he was responsible for his hitting you. BTW, what insurance company do you have? Call your insurance company and they should be dealing with the other parties involved. Hope this helps ....

vbxmaxima

I don't know who your insurance company is, but if I were you, I'd call them first. I believe this is the fastest way to get your car fixed. Let your insurance company cover your damages (which is their job) and let Them worry about trying to recover the money from that idiot (or his insurance company) who was truly at fault. Your insurance company should respond to your needs much faster than the other guy's.

Since its not your fault, you should also get your deductible back (courtesy of that other guys insurance company).

At least, this is how it all worked out when I was hit
a while back (pre-maxima days). - Hit and run too, no less.


Good luck!

NYCe MaXiMa

iTrader: (9)

Picked up a couple of friends on Neptune ave. in Brooklyn, going down the block, snow falling everywhere, traffic etc... I'm in the left lane and I am going like 10 mph, so I started to drop speed gradually, then all the sudden my brakes LOCK!.. I'm like 4 feet from a Lexus GS300 in front of me, I pulled the E-brake and put the car in park out of panic then BOOM!..... The Lex rolled up a little bit, I hop out and this young dude like 22 runs around going "aww, ****...." checking his bumper ... I hop out and run to his car, and I'm like "does it look bad..?" he's like ".... right now.. looks about 100-200$..." I'm like "....bro, i'll give u my phone #..." he's like ".... nah, give me cash right now..." I'm like " I have no $ on me...." He's like "go to the bank and get it..." ....
So he steps away from his car and i look at it, and there is not a ****ing thing there!! So I tell the dude, WTF man, its spotless...... He looks at it, and starts checking his bumper and fenders.... everything is clean! my friend jumps out too and starts flamming at the dude, like, WTF man its nothing, blah blah blah.... So the guy finally says, "...your cool bro, its no big deal..." .. I get in and leave.
It turns out he was standing in the left lane on NEUTRAL, without his brake lights on, without his hazards on, I probably ossumed he was moving thats why I didn't brake way earlier....

In about 20 minutes, I was merging on the highway, and some ******** from behind me tried to be slick and jump in, he skidded a little bit and smacked into my left rear. I came out and this dude is sitting in his Accord Stationwagon not wanting to get out. He was still sitting in my *** so he decided to move back and give me room, it was dark, didn't look bad so I got in the car and left....

I just got home and I tried to look at any damage, looks like I f-cked up the front bumper a bit, the license plate is folded in half...

What do we learn from this? Be extra careful, drive like a 90 year old woman if you have to... especially in this kind of weather, snow and fog + its dark.. everyone skidding all over the place, I saw at least 4 accidents just on my way back. bunch of people getting stuck too, and its not even that much snow out.

kratz74

Always present a claim to all parties and.or insurers involved in an automobile accident. This puts all parties on notice and will provide you with the fastest result. Each state's statutes have an "unfair claims practices act" that requires the insurer to respond to your claim with an offer or denial of coverage in a specified period of time (usually 14 days or so, depending on the state).

You could present the claim to your own insurer and pay your collision coverage deductible. However, you will then have to wait until your insurer subrogates against the third party tortfeasor (the guy who caused the accident). This could be a quick or long process dependant on numerous variable factors.

My legal advice:
(1) Call all insurers and report accident and give recorded statements if asked. Only answer questions yes/no and do not embelish or answer anything but exactly what was asked in as few words as possible.
(2) Obtain at least one estimate from a reputable shop (agreeable to your own insurer).
(3) Determine if you have any injuries and if so go to the Dr ASAP to document that you sustained a bodily injury. If you wait to go to the Dr., they will assume your injuries are unrelated and deny your injury claims.
(4) Determine if you will have lost wages (missed work).
(5) Last, determine if you will need a suitable rental vehicle while your own car is in the shop. If your car is driveable, your rental will only be approved for the time your car is actualy being repaired, if its not driveable, you should get a rental from day 1.

GOOD LUCK!


[Edited by kratz74 on 02-23-2001 at 09:58 PM]

Eric L.

If you have the insurance info from the other two drivers, you should be set. File the claim and tell them exactly what happened. It would help if you took pictures at the scene of the accident. The insurance company (the other ones not yours) may call you back and ask you to confirm the story. This is a total setup...they will try to get you to confirm all sorts of false information concerning the event so it won't match up with the story you told your insurance agent when you filed your claim. That happened to me, and I was glad I was on my toes to "correct" any "discrepancies" they had in their story (a car backing up hit my rear passenger side fender). The other agent was like "thanks for clearing things up" but she was probably really thinking "dammit I couldn't trick this guy."

Anyways, let the insurance companies handle the problem...your agent will try to get the other company to pay the entire cost of repair, since your company certainly doesn't want to write any repair checks.