Minor Accident What Would You Do?

Virtual

15 Year Member
Dec 19, 2013
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Northern Virginia
Aargh. I just had a minor fender bender in the Mustang today. An idiot pulled out in front of me suddenly (Korean guy from the name.. not implying that all Koreans are idiots.. and despite how tempting it is I shouldn't stereotype oriental drivers) and I couldn't avoid hitting him. Fortunately I wasn't going too fast, not enough to hurt anyone, but I scratched up the bumper and cracked the side marker light and headlight on the passenger side.

The guy admitted it was his fault, and said he wanted to just pay for fixing it, rather than getting the insurance companies involved. I got his information, but haven't yet reported it to the insurance company. The nice guy in me doesn't care if he pays to fix the damage, so long as it gets fixed, but the cynic in me is worried that this time tomorrow he's going to change his story and I'm going to get into a hassle with all this. That might happen whether I involve the insurance companies anyway, but I'm wondering if I should give him the benefit of the doubt, or not? What would you do?
 
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he really is stupid, he pulled out and you hit him in the rear of his car???? that should really be your fault right…

That's such a bull:poo: cop-out. You're doing 40 mph next to a guy doing 40 mph, somebody turns out in front of you...guess what? You're gonna hit somebody. Honestly? :leghump: you for implying otherwise.
 
he really is stupid, he pulled out and you hit him in the rear of his car???? that should really be your fault right…
Agreed. You hit him, regardless of how or why. Should be your fault unfortunately. Take the money and run if hes offering.

i also call bravo sierra on you two. you are assuming that there was time to avoid hitting the guy. but if he pulled into your lane and left you no room, and then hit the brakes, the accident, even if you hit him in the rear, is the other persons fault. but since you two were not there, you really dont know what happened, so you cant make a judgement.

to the OP, i would get a few estimates, take them to the guy and have him give you the average of the estimates you gathered, that seems fair to me. give him a week to make it right, then contact his insurance company with all the details.
 
he really is stupid, he pulled out and you hit him in the rear of his car???? that should really be your fault right…

Not sure where you got the impression I hit him in the rear from? I certainly didn't say that above. I hit the side of his car towards the back end, but not the rear.

But that just about sums it up doesn't it. There's lots of ways people can spin something like this, and if you were not there and/or as in the case of the insurance companies you have something to lose if you don't explain it in some certain way, then there's lots of motivation to twist it all around!

I actually had my worst accident ever a few years ago, when another idiot suddenly realized he was about to miss his exit and stopped on the highway so he could try and sneak in and take it. Yup.. stopped! Unfortunately there was a van between me and him so I didn't even see him until the van in front of me took the exit that he wanted to take. Because the van took the exit, it was then in his way and that was probably why he stopped, rather than just swerved over. And by the time I saw him it was too late. BOOM!

Guess what.. that WAS considered my fault, since you shouldn't rear end the car in front of you no matter what stupid thing he does. By the laws of logic I'm not sure what I might have done there to avoid it, and then to add insult to injury the jerk tried to sue me. I think my insurance company paid him some nominal amount to make him go away :ack: But it still made me sick, that that's how they dealt with it!

I certainly understand how circumstances lead to some presumption of fault, but seriously, the people who do stupid things that cause accidents are the ones to blame and stopping or even slowing suddenly on a highway is almost always going to end up badly, as it did in my case. I think people have the right to expect a level of reasonable (and predictable) behavior from the drivers around them, and coming to halt in a lane on a major highway doesn't pass that test. People are supposed to merge on and off roads safely, and if their merging causes accidents or forces other cars to have to take drastic measures to try and avoid an accident then I'd say that they're the problem!

In today's case the guy went from being at the side of the road to pulling in front of me at a point where it was too late for me to avoid him. If you were there, there'd be no doubt about fault. But since the only witness was my 8 year old son, I guess we'll have to see what happens. Like I said fortunately I wasn't going that fast, and unlike most of the people I see on the road these days I was actually paying attention, so it could have been worse.

Not that the youngn's will know the quote but in the spirit of hill street blues: "Let's be careful out there".
 
if you hit him in the side, then its not your fault. I never said haha its your fault moron. I said the other guy was stupid because here in the WI or IL, MN if someone pulls out in front of you, or someone stops for no reason and you hit them, its technically your fault.

They way you described this accident, its defiantly his fault. But i have no clue why you didn't call the cops. They would have not given him a ticket or made him pay with insurance. This same scenario happened to my wife, I made her call the cops, and that way we had backup if the party involved decided not to pay.

You do have 24 hours to file the report

@MFE92 no reason to attack me for stating the law ??? F0ck you too
 
if you hit him in the side, then its not your fault. I never said haha its your fault moron. I said the other guy was stupid because here in the WI or IL, MN if someone pulls out in front of you, or someone stops for no reason and you hit them, its technically your fault.

They way you described this accident, its defiantly his fault. But i have no clue why you didn't call the cops. They would have not given him a ticket or made him pay with insurance. This same scenario happened to my wife, I made her call the cops, and that way we had backup if the party involved decided not to pay.

You do have 24 hours to file the report

@MFE92 no reason to attack me for stating the law ??? F0ck you too


I don't think that this is true of ANY state. If someone pulls out in front of you, REGARDLESS of where you hit them then they FAILED TO YIELD to the right of way of oncoming traffic. What's the scenario when you're going down the highway and someone makes a bone headed lane change causing you to hit the rear bumper? It's STILL failure to yield.

Perhaps it is this mentality that is causing people coming from a freeway on-ramp, to think that they have the right to just merge while it's everyone else' responsibility to make way for them. It's just not true.


To the OP: File the police report. That way if the dude recants, you have the report to take with you the insurance co.
 
I'd go on and file w insurance if you have his info. I'm a nice fella and don't like screwing people but this has the potential of getting out of hand.("people's court") Theres a time to be nice n a time to do the right and mature thing. If you want your car fixed go through the proper channels. Being a "d!ck" now will save heartache later. Insurance, use it.
 
I'd go through insurance.

My experience, when you try to settle it outside of insurance, the other guy wants a say in what body shop to go to, what estimate to use, goes for the cheaper parts, etc etc.

Nowadays....i wouldn't even listen to someone asking to avoid going through insurance.....unless she was hot and single
 
NJ is a "no fault" state. Your personal car insurance pays for your respective damage since no one is technically at fault. Boloney if you ask me... I get rear ended when I'm stopped behind a school bus and the guy behind me isn't liable for repairs, my insurance is... I wasn't a happy camper, lol.
 
I love it when people try to give at fault advice to an accident they didn't see. Police report is irrelevant. The insurance companies do their own investigations and have no interest in what the police say. I say let him try and pay, and if he doesn't, file a claim with his insurance.

If he doesn't want to pay, at least let him pay you in trade by resouling all your shoes. Boom, I said it.

Kurt
 
This is why you always get a police report. They often will assign fault for an accident and objectively memorialize what transpired, and to cover your ass in case the other party two days later claims injuries. Additionally, if you are not at fault, your insurance premiums are not impacted. Finally, once the other party drives off, it is now he said/ he said and I am sure the other party will deny liability which will drag the claim out and possibly result in each of you paying your own damages.

Case in point- my wife's 13 mustag was parked legally on the street. She came out and someone hit her passenger side. I noticed silver paint on her car and she knew the person across the street drives a silver kia. Had the police come out, do a report, and they approached the other party. Of course they denied it. Police asked to see their vehicle. Upon inpsection, the police report now documents the damage to their car in the right rear bumper matches the height off the ground and approximate length of the damage on my wife's car, as well as fresh paint on her car.

Guess what- the other party still denies hitting our car to their insurance company. I sent them the police report where it states the other party is at fault. Without that report, I would be SOL as their insurance company is there to defend them, not pay out claims to me. They are now going to inspect both cars and then determine liability, which hopefully is a no brainer.

Sorry for the hijack but I wanted to make clear how important a police report is in any accident. IMO is it foolish not to have one done.
 
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This ALL happened to me last year and was the reason I got the WHOLE car repainted! My driver admitted fault and agreed to pay for everything. I chose to call the insurance company who denied ALL fault. I was screwed. Get an estimate and take HIS money. I would not call the insurance company
 
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