They say everyone has at least one car accident...

...and I guess today was mine.

SWMBO is taking a night class to pick up a second Bachelor's degree, and her car's wiper mechanism is shot (we have an appointment to get it fixed). This means that, on rainy Thursdays, I must drive her to a place called Camp Hill (near Harrisburg - lots of HBT users there). We were going to go out to dinner before her class tonight, and as I was pulling into the plaza, some schmuck started pulling out. He had a stop sign; I did not. I therefore had right of way. Well, he started to pull out, and I wasn't sure if he was gonna get me, and *WHAM* - he hit my rear quarter panel (is that the right term?). He then kept going down the road about a block and stopped at a BP. Some other guy saw him hit me and followed him to the BP, got his license plate, and drove back and gave it to me and SWMBO as we walked toward the BP.

We entered the store, and the guy, a 70-year-old man, is standing there buying a lotto ticket and talking to the cashier. I don't think he was even going to come back to the scene! The conversation:

"Is that your blue Caddy?"
"Yes."
"You just hit me."
"I stopped! You didn't stop."
"That's because I have no stop sign. I have right of way. I was on the main thoroughfare, and you were at a stop sign, waiting to pull out."
<insert more attempts to toss the blame onto me>
"NO. YOU ARE AT FAULT. I DID NOT HAVE A STOP SIGN, AND YOU DID. GIVE ME YOUR INSURANCE INFO."

At this point, I called the cops. They came and filed a report, and I think the guy started to really understand how he was wrong. What a schmuck! The damage isn't that bad, but WTF? Don't blame my ass because you were wrong! ARGH. I hate people.

Anyway, the police report doesn't have a section for mentioning who was at fault, and the officer didn't write it anywhere. Am I supposed to point that out to his insurance agent when I get a call? I called my insurance company, but they were closed then.

Sorry about that. I have no idea what the laws are for PA, but I would imagine the police report does describe what happened and the insurance CO should be able to get the right information. They can probably also call the investigating officer as well.

McKBrew said:

Sorry about that. I have no idea what the laws are for PA, but I would imagine the police report does describe what happened and the insurance CO should be able to get the right information. They can probably also call the investigating officer as well.

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So wait, he has a different report than I do? I have a copy of all the stuff he wrote down with the information regarding the vehicles and persons involved.

You may be out of luck if the officer didn't write it down. My wife's sister wrecked her car and it was a similar situation where the other driver was at fault. Well, the officer didn't acknowledge the fault, so it was left to the insurance companies to battle it out, if I remember correctly (she's not here to confirm).

I don't know why officers don't question the participants more to get a proper picture. It seems like they are just in a hurry to get the hell out of there and back to the Dunkin' Donuts or something. Maybe some do, I'm not stereotyping. I kid the cops

Best of luck. I'd certainly fight it. And you're right, I hate people like that too! Whatever happened to accountability?

I was an automobile claims adjuster for 3 years. Are there are bunch of boxed with 1 number each down one of the sides of the police report? Sometimes those #'s will say which driver is at fault but you need a key to decipher what the #'s mean. I'm not sure what PA police reports look like but most of them have the same stuff on them. Call his insurance company, don't call yours, and file a property damage claim. They'll send someone out to look at your car and write up an estimate. It's a good idea to get an estimate from your own mechanic and the insurance company will reach an agreed price with your mechanic.

PM me if you have any more questions.

Cops don't make a judgement anyway. He'll write down the facts. You were on such-and-such a road and the other guy was on such-and-such. Traffic control devices will be noted on each approach to the scene along with any other pertinent factual information. Even if he doesn't write down who had the right of way, it's pretty clear who did simply from the location of the vehicles. You'll be fine. RDWHAHB

First, let me say that totally sucks. I have been in a few accidents in my driving lifetime, none of which were my fault and it is always a PITA. The commonwealth of PA uses what they call a "choice no fault" system. Laws, like most of the ones here, that are nearly impossible to decipher. What may very well happen is that your insurance will pay and then they will recover the money fromthe other guys insurance company.

You said someone saw what happened. Did you get their info as well because having an eye witness is a clear cut win for you. Just the facts of what happened puts the other driver at fault. Hopefully you got a name and number from the witness, that would help a lot. Sorry for your luck but at least it sounds like eveybody was alright, that's the most important thing.

A couple of years ago, I had a very similar incident. It was about 9:30 am and I was on my way to work. The direction I was heading in, there are two lanes, side by side. From the left lane, you can continue straight OR make a right. From the right lane, you can ONLY make a RIGHT. Well, I was in the left lane and proceded to make a right, when all of a sudden, some idiot in the right lane decides he's gonna continue straight ahead and plows directly into the side of my truck. He then decides he's not going to stick around and starts to casually drive off in the direction he originally intended to go. Well, I was quick to get on his ass as he started to make a turn. In the meantime, he's got a buddy in the passenger seat who is now tossing the remains of a case of beer out the window. A short distance later, he pulls into a convenience store parking lot and I confront the little, drunk sh*t. Of course he immediately starts insisting that I "cut him off". Of course, I don't take sh*t and told it to him straight. I didn't have my cell phone that day, so I told him I was going into the store to call the police and I then read his license plate number out loud so that he knew I had it. I walked into the store and called the police. In the meantime, someone else comes in and tells me that he just drove away. As it turns out, he was obviously drunk, and he was driving on a revoked license. He's just lucky I didn't have my three year old daughter in the truck that day; because he hit the area where she sits. Although the damage was minimal, my adrenalin level would have been jacked up a few more notches. I don't know if they did ever catch up with him; but to this day, I still remember that plate number; and if I ever see it...well, let's just end the story here.

Ok, I called my insurance company today, and they said since the damage was only to my car and not all that bad, and that the other guy would probably accept being 100% at fault, I should just call his insurance company and report it directly to them. If I get any guff, I can then report it to my company and they'll give me the cash and then go after his company.

I hate having to deal with this junk.

What insurance company do you have? That's THEIR job to follow through with this - not yours. That's why you pay them.

Also, I've also been told that the first car on the report is the striking vehicle and is at fault. I'm not 100% sure that's true. Hopefully you got a picture of the intersection and the # of the guy that saw it happen.

rdwj said:

What insurance company do you have? That's THEIR job to follow through with this - not yours. That's why you pay them.

Also, I've also been told that the first car on the report is the striking vehicle and is at fault. I'm not 100% sure that's true. Hopefully you got a picture of the intersection and the # of the guy that saw it happen.

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I've had 12 accidents. My last one I got totally hosed on because Progressive didn't give me collission insurance (even though I requested it) and the other guy (who was totally at fault) had some ass-hat insurance company that refused to pay. I ended up losing my car as a result.

Cheesefood said:

I've had 12 accidents. My last one I got totally hosed on because Progressive didn't give me collission insurance (even though I requested it) and the other guy (who was totally at fault) had some ass-hat insurance company that refused to pay. I ended up losing my car as a result.

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D'oh! That would piss me off to no end. What a bunch of crooks.

1) I didn't get the witness dude's name/number. He was stopped on a major street and gave me a piece of paper with the guy's license plate on it. I was really afraid the guy that hit me was gonna drive off, so I went after him. The paper that the license plate number was written on, though, had the name of a lumber company on it. Perhaps the guy works for that lumber company and I could track him down that way if I had to.

2) My insurance company did offer to make the call for me. I left that bit out. What she meant was that I wasn't going to have to file anything with my company. I have to kinda' wait around for them to call back.

3) Apparently, the form I was given isn't meant to contain any information regarding who was at fault. I'm not going to worry about it. The absolute worst thing that could happen to me would be that he contests it, miraculously wins in some way, and they don't pay for the scuff/dent in my panel (his car had only a small scratch on the bumper). My car is still 100% functioning. It would just hurt the resale value.

rdwj said:

What insurance company do you have? That's THEIR job to follow through with this - not yours. That's why you pay them.

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That is absolutely true! I have never heard of a car insurance company making their client go and do their job. In fact, if you have collision coverage on your car, the next thing your insurance company should be doing is sending out a claims adjuster to inspect the damage on you vehicle and estimate the cost of repair. Then they should be mailing you a check for that amount less you collision deductible. They then go after the other guy's insurance to claim their loss. This entire affair should be no more than that. I would definitely get back on the phone with them and have them explain just what is it you're paying money for. Essentially, they just said to you, "You had an accident? Oh, that's nice. Thanks for telling us. Now we have an excuse to raise the premium on your insurance. Have a nice day."

ErbiumYAG said:

That is absolutely true! I have never heard of a car insurance company making their client go and do their job. In fact, if you have collision coverage on your car, the next thing your insurance company should be doing is sending out a claims adjuster to inspect the damage on you vehicle and estimate the cost of repair. Then they should be mailing you a check for that amount less you collision deductible. They then go after the other guy's insurance to claim their loss. This entire affair should be no more than that. I would definitely get back on the phone with them and have them explain just what is it you're paying money for.

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They called for me, sorry. I was a little misleading. They also want to avoid making me pay my deductible, which I would have to do if I used my company, and then I would wait until they got the money from the other company to get reimbursed. In this case, it makes more sense to just get a check directly from his company and bypass all of the deductible business.

rdwj said:

What insurance company do you have? That's THEIR job to follow through with this - not yours. That's why you pay them.

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It's not their job unless he is using his collision coverage to fix his own damage, then they will subrogate against the other guy's insurance company. If he's making a property damage claim against the other guy's company then his own company doesn't have to do crap.