Who knows auto insurance? Ins outs loopholes

[Ricko1966]

My son was involved in a 3 or 4 car accident on the highway this morning. The police didn't write a ticket because whoever caused the accident ran away on foot. There was no one to write a ticket to. Vince only has liability. Should he report this to his insurance, in case the police find the driver. If the police find the driver will we get reimbursed. Anyone know what we should do?. Pics in a couple minutes

 

[nvrenuf]

Was the other car stolen? If not, they should immediately know who the other driver is and if he had insurance.

 

[Finkaire]

Cars can be replaced, is he okay?

 

[Smtty58]

I don't know how things work where you live, but in Mass. you report to the insurance company of the car that hit you. I would talk to your insurance co. just to CYA.

 

[xm20k]

Liability only covers damage you cause to others and at a minimum at that. Also, without a sighted party to go after your screwed because even if you have info for the person who hit you, their insurance will most likely deny it as they were not sited. This maybe one where the owner is going to eat the cost of repair/replacement.

 

[mxer147]

Get a copy of the police report to confirm the accident accuracy, and see if the car owner can be determined. If so, and it’s not your fault, ask your insurance company the best path forward. They may even help get what you deserve assuming the car was insured. If that driver didn’t have insurance your only recourse is to take that driver to civil court. The police report may only be your source of credible accident evidence so that’s a very important document. You will need to get an estimate of your cars damage. You may also be able to get no use of your car, car rental fees, and any medical bills which resulted from injuries.

 

[1STLS1]

If the car that hit him is not reported stolen, I would think he could claim against the owner and he would have to acknowledge if he allowed somebody to drive it and be liable for the damages.

I would also ask your insurance company if your son has any recourse under uninsured motorist portion of his policy

Several years ago, a guy backed into my wife's car at a QT, they exchanged information and we both had Geico Insurance. We turn it in, the car gets fixed, we have to pay the deductible to get the car back. It was like $8K in damages. The other party refused to acknowledge the accident or reply to Geico's calls, emails and certified letters.

I contact QT, verify they can obtain the video footage of the accident but I am not allowed to view or have possession of it, only Geico can see it. Go back and forth with them for several months until they finally obtain the tape. Another 2 months pass, they state they do not have the technology to view the tape.

We then filed a complaint with the AZ Insurance commission and the very next day the contacted us asking to settle. It was later explained to us that the person who did this is now uninsurable, I forget what law it fell under but it was essentially insurance fraud.

I wish you luck, our situation took 14 months to get our $1k deductible back and expenses for obtaining tapes and evidence.

 

[75gmck25]

I think there is a misconception that someone has to be cited by the police to establish fault. This is not true. A ticket might make it a little simpler, but the insurance companies still do their own investigation.

I was rear-ended in my 2021 BMW about 3 years ago and the other driver just drove away. But I recorded her license plate. From there it went to the police and the insurance company, and they figured it out. My car was driveable, but really smashed up on one rear corner. I don’t remember the exact bill, but I think it was at least $15k because they had to remove the bumper and fender, and pull everything back into alignment underneath. I paid nothing.

 

[Sad Sack]

Hope you son is okay! As for the idiot that ran away, I hope they are not ok.

 

[Ricko1966]

Hope you son is okay! As for the idiot that ran away, I hope they are not ok.

I hope they are okay too. Not happy with them but I try not to wish bad things on people.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

If the car that caused the crash, doesn't have full coverage or have the name of all the drivers on the registration, the owner/person listed on the registration will be held liable, especially if the driver of said car fled on foot.

Now if it was reported stolen prior to the crash obviously the owner of the car wouldn't be held liable.

I'm no expert, have been rear ended once and a very close light contact tbone once(also not my fault lol).

 

[Ricko1966]

Okay Vince is home I've talked to him. The police report is not finished as of today. He knows which car hit him. They went to the hospital he didn't get any names or info on anyone, which pee'd me off but he's like dad I couldn't see (glasses very necessary for him)I was confused and dizzy and the police were handling it. Multi lane highway, car stalled in one of the middle lanes, the car coming up behind in that lane, didn't see it in time so panic changed lanes right and hot Vince and bounced him off a guard rail, and one more car behind Vince hit them. If they had gone left this wouldn't have happened. If there had been a car stopped in the highway it wouldn't have happened. The police told Vince today they haven't decided who was more at fault. The stalled car or the swerving car. My thought is no matter what was going on in the stalled car the car that hit Vince is the car that caused tge accident with Vince. Also Vince isn't sure who ran off, the owner of the stalled car or a passenger in the car that hit Vince.

 

[75gmck25]

When your car is hit from behind by another car, almost 100% of the time they consider the car behind to be at fault. That driver’s vehicle is moving forward and he/she is expected to drive at a speed and in a manner that keeps the vehicle under control and safely away from other vehicles. If weather or traffic is bad, the vehicle behind is expected to adjust speed and distance accordingly, and allow time to stop or avoid other vehicles.

 

[Grit dog]

When your car is hit from behind by another car, almost 100% of the time they consider the car behind to be at fault. That driver’s vehicle is moving forward and he/she is expected to drive at a speed and in a manner that keeps the vehicle under control and safely away from other vehicles. If weather or traffic is bad, the vehicle behind is expected to adjust speed and distance accordingly, and allow time to stop or avoid other vehicles.

Can confirm. And some insurance companies are more prone to liability mitigation at the expense of their customers than than representing their customers and doing on the right thing.
You can find a couple recent stories I posted about that.

 

[Grit dog]

@Ricko1966 I hope your son did not provide his insurance info for the police report. Big mistake if he did. NEVER let your info get on the police report. Regardless of the situation. Take the no proof ticket if they issue one. It’ll get dropped 100% of the time if you actually had ins on the date of the citation.
Unsure if your state is no fault partial fault etc but it is possible that the other parties insurance (assuming one or both have ins) will try to negotiate partial fault , even if it seems totally not plausible.
And he don’t have collision coverage so he’s either finding the at fault parties ins (from police report hopefully) or out of pocket 100%. (That’s the risk of no collision coverage)
No upside to providing his info or reporting it to his insurance. His ins doesn’t give a f and won’t work on his behalf to collect becuase they don’t have a dog ($) in the fight.
Best bet is to get the police report and pray one of the 2 that hit him has ins info on it. Then start there.
Yes have dealt with this more times than I care to over the years. Learned not to divulge ins info at an accident scene when I was 18 years old after seeing my parents car ins get jacked following an accident that I was 100% not at fault on paper and in reality. Somehow they negotiated with the other parties insurance and found me 13% at fault or some ridiculous number. As the accident costs probably topped $100k in 1990 dollars (2 totaled cars and very serious injuries to both occupants in the car that piled out in front of me) even the small % of “negotiated” fault was significant. But not as significant is the IL ins laws at the time where partial fault was “at fault”, period.
your son couldn’t file a claim with his co as there is no coverage to file against. But his ins could get involved in the settlement for the other parties in ways that we don’t understand and result in claim(s) against his liability.
Now if he somehow has UIM PD coverage without having collision coverage there might be an avenue of the OPs are un/under insured.
But UIM is mostly just a money maker and I always refuse it. Only gambling your deductible against the cost of UIM.
Same with UIM BI, fwiw.