Got my morning coffee at 7-11 this morning, backed out of my parking spot, put it in Drive to go forward and a big Ford F-250 driver put his in reverse and backed right smack dab in the middle of my passenger side. Claims he didn't see my car behind his truck. Crunched up both doors. Damage to his was nothing, he had one of those big trailer hitchs that I refer to as "a knee knocker".

First thing I asked was are you hurt, then do you have insurance? Both his answers were NO.

NO INSURANCE?!?! Are you kidding me?

And he had an expired license tag.

I was calling 911 to get the police out to do a report when he asked me if he could "make it right"? Yeah right, NO! You have no insurance and a bad tag, and no money, and work as a laborer, and you want me to blow this off? NO! This is a Camry, not a turnip truck that I'm driving.

I have full coverage, but since he has no insurance I'm on the hook for my $1,0000 deductible. I have to miss work getting estimates, running the car back and forth from body shop, etc. This will cost me even more money!

Officer says it was clearly his fault for not looking and unsafe backing.

According to the officer, since it happened on private property he can't impound his truck or write him a ticket, if it were a city street it would be impounded and tickets written. Of course he can't move his truck until he gets a tag and insurance.

I have no idea yet if my insurance will go after him for my deductible, or damage to mine. Hopefully I'll hear from the adjuster tomorrow.

I don't know if small claims court will help.

I'm in Oklahoma City where I'm told 25% of drivers have no insurance, it's quite an epidemic.

Darn it!

That sucks. Sorry to hear that.

Had a similar situation last year. Woman in a Suburban backed into my Fit and actually started to drive away, pretending nothing happened. I got to chase her in sub freezing weather with a bag of groceries in one arm and an 18 month old in the other. Thought she didn't have insurance at first, as she had let several policies lapse from different companies, so I was pissed.

Good news is, since I got a police report and her Driver's License info, that state can put a hold on it and not allow renewals or registrations until she would have paid me back. Maybe your state is different, but there may still be hope.

Oh, and turns out she had paid her insurance on time, just forgot she had recently gotten GEICO.

If they don't go after him for the deductible you could. Now collecting that is a whole nutha story

Boy, that stinks, Gene. Sorry for your troubles.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
According to the officer, since it happened on private property he can't impound his truck or write him a ticket, if it were a city street it would be impounded and tickets written.

Apologizing for the thread drift here, but:
How come if someone runs into my car in the Walmart lot, an officer will say it's private property and there's nothing that can be done, but if he sees me doing donuts in that same lot on a nice snowy day, he's there to whip out the ticket book?
(My question is not intended to be an officer-bashing. It's simply a question.)

Glad you weren't hurt, Gene. It really stinks when someone else's carelessness costs us time and money!

If there is a stop sign at the exit from the parking lot or a handicap parking spot with a fine sign on it, then the cops do have the authority to write tickets, they have to in order to enforce those signs.

Been there, done that. Here's what will happen:

1. Your insurance gets it fixed, you're out your deductible.
2. Your insurance subrogation (or their contractor) will send him some letters and phone calls.
3. Subrogation MIGHT get his license suspended if their was a police report.
4a. Subrogation will get some money and you get your deductible back first.
4b. Subrogation will give up and let you know, sorry, have at it if you want.
5. You get his license suspended either through filing the police report to your licensing authority or obtain a small claims judgment against him and file that.
6a. He may decide to have a license and make payment arrangements with you.
6b. He adds no license to no insurance, no tags and you never get paid.

I can assure you your insurance company will not sue him for subrogation on a no-injury accident unless possibly you have 5 digit damages to your car.

Use this opportunity to examine your own insurance coverage. Do you have adequate uninsured and underinsured coverage? It will usually match your liability coverage. If that guy seriously maimed or killed you, that's how much money you would have to cover your injuries from the situation Mr. Judgmentproof caused.

quote:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:
Been there, done that. Here's what will happen:

1. Your insurance gets it fixed, you're out your deductible.
2. Your insurance subrogation (or their contractor) will send him some letters and phone calls.
3. Subrogation MIGHT get his license suspended if their was a police report.
4a. Subrogation will get some money and you get your deductible back first.
4b. Subrogation will give up and let you know, sorry, have at it if you want.
5. You get his license suspended either through filing the police report to your licensing authority or obtain a small claims judgment against him and file that.
6a. He may decide to have a license and make payment arrangements with you.
6b. He adds no license to no insurance, no tags and you never get paid.

I can assure you your insurance company will not sue him for subrogation on a no-injury accident unless possibly you have 5 digit damages to your car.

7. If they were driving a State of New York vehicle when they hit you. They State of New York will sue you personally to recoup the damage that their employee did to the vehicle. This won't come quickly. OH NO. This will come about a year from now. FUCKING COMMIE ASSHOLES!

sorry Gene.

I will use this opportunity to express my opinion that insurance is nothing more than a scam. A huge scam. Whether is be home, car, life or otherwise.

quote:

Originally posted by Nuclear:
If there is a stop sign at the exit from the parking lot or a handicap parking spot with a fine sign on it, then the cops do have the authority to write tickets, they have to in order to enforce those signs.

Many of these signs are put there by the business. That is, they are private and don't have any official status.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
sorry Gene.

I will use this opportunity to express my opinion that insurance is nothing more than a scam. A huge scam. Whether is be home, car, life or otherwise.

Curious. Explain?

Obviously, insurance companies exist to make a profit, so the premiums they collect are calculated to exceed what they pay out in claims. But the benefit for the purchaser is protection against catastrophic loss (or at least financially uncomfortable loss, depending on your perspective). The chance that you'll never use it, or at least not recover your premiums is significant, but estimated to be worth the expense, which is why you buy it.

As for being compelled to buy auto insurance, you're only required to carry liability insurance for the protection of other motorists in the event that you cause them loss. Liability insurance is the least expensive portion of your auto insurance bill (except for optional add-ons like rental coverage, etc.). Surely, you don't object to that.

Also, you realize that most states will allow you to self-insure for liability, right? You just have to post a bond to cover state minimum liability limits. No third-party insurance required.

So I'm curious about the generalization or how you define "scam".

-Rob

We actually pay extra for uninsured drivers.
Never had to use it, but talk about wrong...

OKC, be prepared for your insurance company to give you much less than you'll need to replace your car with like kind and quality if it's totaled. I don't know where they come up with values. I think they have a pig that pulls 'em out of his ass.

Not sure about your state, but on private property we only enforce:
fire lane and handicap parking violations.
for driving violations, we only enforce drunk driving and reckless op.
so we only cite for ovi, reckless and if we're there for a crash and it's not related to ovi or reckless, we only cite for those that don't have a license or it's suspended. so in your crash, there wouldn't have been a cite at all

i'd find the truck driver at fault in the report and that would be it.

Also lots of places don't even make reports for private property crashes unless there's an injury.

I'm sorry but you are probably SOL on the deductable. I had a POS teenage girl back straight into me at the gym. They gave me bogus insurance information and I didn't bother getting a police report. USAA failed to get any money from them.

quote:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:
Been there, done that. Here's what will happen:

1. Your insurance gets it fixed, you're out your deductible.
2. Your insurance subrogation (or their contractor) will send him some letters and phone calls.
3. Subrogation MIGHT get his license suspended if their was a police report.
4a. Subrogation will get some money and you get your deductible back first.
4b. Subrogation will give up and let you know, sorry, have at it if you want.
5. You get his license suspended either through filing the police report to your licensing authority or obtain a small claims judgment against him and file that.
6a. He may decide to have a license and make payment arrangements with you.
6b. He adds no license to no insurance, no tags and you never get paid.

I can assure you your insurance company will not sue him for subrogation on a no-injury accident unless possibly you have 5 digit damages to your car.

Use this opportunity to examine your own insurance coverage. Do you have adequate uninsured and underinsured coverage? It will usually match your liability coverage. If that guy seriously maimed or killed you, that's how much money you would have to cover your injuries from the situation Mr. Judgmentproof caused.

This, and although it might take awhile, they can/will collect.

One time when I was hit, the person was driving his girlfriends car, no insurance, one of the tires on the car was a "well worn donut", the back window was duct taped plastic, and 10 years later I got my deductible back.

quote:

Originally posted by TBH:
We actually pay extra for uninsured drivers.
Never had to use it, but talk about wrong...

UM only covers medical payment up to limit which is usually starts at $2500.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:

quote:

Originally posted by TBH:
We actually pay extra for uninsured drivers.
Never had to use it, but talk about wrong...

UM only covers medical payment up to limit which is usually starts at $2500.

Incorrect.
You may be thinking of Medical Payments Coverage.

UMPD and UMBI take the place of the non-existent insurance, up to the limits of coverage.

Sorry for your troubles.

My wife was hit on a public street by a non-English speaking clown with no insurance and no tags. She got a bi-lingual police officer to respond. They wrote a report, issued tickets for the no tags and left. Insurance paid to have the car towed and fixed it while we paid the deductible. They did get his license. He showed up at my house about 3 months later trying through his friend he brought along that he needed me to sign a release so he could get his license back. After I told him to take a hike, I called the insurance company and told them what happened. Apparently their lawyers had him over a barrel trying to get in his pocket for the damages. I never gait anything back, but my agent said the company got some of their money back. I guess my reward was they didn't jack my rates up.

Good luck.

The deductible is a synonym for "self-insured." You pay your money (a lot less for collision coverage, depending on the deductible) and take your chances.

The insurance company wants to collect from the at fault driver the entire cost. As we know, more than a few drivers are judgment proof, and the insurance co. cannot collect. Neither will you.