Car accident; No information about other driver.
November 12, 2009 7:49 AM Subscribe
My mother got into an auto accident in Pennsylvania earlier today. She did not take down the other driver's information other than the license plate. What are her options?
She was stopped behind a pickup truck at a traffic light. The pickup truck went out too far into the intersection, and then backed into her trying to clear the way for a tractor trailer.
She looked at the car and thought there was no damage, so she let him go without taking down any information. My grandmother, who was also in the car, wrote down the pickup truck's license plate (probably Pennsylvania, but not noted.)
Upon getting home, it was discovered that there is actually some damage to the front of the car -- scratches, a bent grill, and some missing parts of the grill.
My parents are going to contact their insurance company for advice on what to do and hopefully file a police report. I also told her to write down anything she can remember about it at this point, like the color of the truck, time, intersection where it happened, etc. Is there anything else they should be doing?
She was stopped behind a pickup truck at a traffic light. The pickup truck went out too far into the intersection, and then backed into her trying to clear the way for a tractor trailer.
She looked at the car and thought there was no damage, so she let him go without taking down any information. My grandmother, who was also in the car, wrote down the pickup truck's license plate (probably Pennsylvania, but not noted.)
Upon getting home, it was discovered that there is actually some damage to the front of the car -- scratches, a bent grill, and some missing parts of the grill.
My parents are going to contact their insurance company for advice on what to do and hopefully file a police report. I also told her to write down anything she can remember about it at this point, like the color of the truck, time, intersection where it happened, etc. Is there anything else they should be doing?
They probably shouldn't contact their insurance company. With something little this, it's almost a sure thing that the bump in premiums will be bigger than the cost of the work.
I mean, what you've described is minor, minor body damage. Conventional wisdom is that you do not go to the insurance company for minor body damage. The rule of thumb I'm familiar with is that one accident leads to a 10-15% increase in premiums, dropping back to the original premiums over six years. Their premiums would have to be awfully low right now to make this worth reporting. There's a good change that the cost of repairs would mostly be swallowed up by the deductible, anyway.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:06 AM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
I mean, what you've described is minor, minor body damage. Conventional wisdom is that you do not go to the insurance company for minor body damage. The rule of thumb I'm familiar with is that one accident leads to a 10-15% increase in premiums, dropping back to the original premiums over six years. Their premiums would have to be awfully low right now to make this worth reporting. There's a good change that the cost of repairs would mostly be swallowed up by the deductible, anyway.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:06 AM on November 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
mr_roboto is right that this level of damage generally doesn't warrant contacting the insurance company. What would have been nice is to have gotten the guy's information so that he could have reimbursed your mom for the repairs -- which would have been to his advantage, too, relative to contacting his insurer.
I don't think there's any way to contact him, though, short of involving the insurance company, which, as mr_roboto says, is probably not financially worth your while -- in addition to the fact that when the front of one car collides with the back of another car, it's usually the first car that's presumed to be at fault.
So if I were your mom, I'd probably swallow the few hundred dollars and call it a lesson learned.
posted by palliser at 9:15 AM on November 12, 2009
I don't think there's any way to contact him, though, short of involving the insurance company, which, as mr_roboto says, is probably not financially worth your while -- in addition to the fact that when the front of one car collides with the back of another car, it's usually the first car that's presumed to be at fault.
So if I were your mom, I'd probably swallow the few hundred dollars and call it a lesson learned.
posted by palliser at 9:15 AM on November 12, 2009
Call the police, explain the situation, ask their advice.
posted by theora55 at 9:39 AM on November 12, 2009
posted by theora55 at 9:39 AM on November 12, 2009
I mean, what you've described is minor, minor body damage.
Not necessarily if it's a newer car. In most newer cars, external body parts are meant to be replaced not repaired, which can be more expensive than you would think.
I don't know PA law, but where I am in Texas, police will not file a report for this situation because it's a purely civil matter. They'll come out, but they make it clear that they are not filing a report if there are no witnesses/nobody is hurt/nobody is being cited. I can honestly see the police telling her that if she chose to let him go without collecting info, there is nothing they can do.
If you contact your insurance, they might have a way to pursue a claim against the other party, because they always want to avoid paying out.
posted by ishotjr at 12:44 PM on November 12, 2009
Not necessarily if it's a newer car. In most newer cars, external body parts are meant to be replaced not repaired, which can be more expensive than you would think.
I don't know PA law, but where I am in Texas, police will not file a report for this situation because it's a purely civil matter. They'll come out, but they make it clear that they are not filing a report if there are no witnesses/nobody is hurt/nobody is being cited. I can honestly see the police telling her that if she chose to let him go without collecting info, there is nothing they can do.
If you contact your insurance, they might have a way to pursue a claim against the other party, because they always want to avoid paying out.
posted by ishotjr at 12:44 PM on November 12, 2009
Oh yeah, and what theora said about fault being assumed as a rear-ending collision. If your mom decided to pursue a claim, the unknown guy could decide to turn around and lie about how the accident happened and try to go after her. As someone who has had someone lie about the facts of an accident to try to escape liability (and their own insurance determined was at fault regardless of their lies, thankfully), I'd be really careful about this.
posted by ishotjr at 12:47 PM on November 12, 2009
posted by ishotjr at 12:47 PM on November 12, 2009
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posted by urbanlenny at 7:56 AM on November 12, 2009