infiniteq

I'm driving home from work this evening like I always do. I'm going about 35 in traffic (it's a 45 speed limit) and all of a sudden there is a broken down car halfway in my lane, which I didn't see because of the big-ass SUV infront of me. I can't swerve because there's traffic right next to me. I stomp on the brakes and barely miss the car, but, I rear end a poor women in a honda civic. Her car goes flying up the curb into a tree. This causes two more cars to hit each other as well. First thing I do after I get the airbag dust out of my eyes is run up to the civic. She's stunned, but otherwise unharmed. The other two people are OK as well. The paramedics come as well as the cops and fire truck. Everyone seems fine and there are lots of witnesses. Since it was my fault I get a ticket for "failure to reduce speed to avoid crash". Everyone seemed fine but the paramedics took the woman that I hit into the hospital just to check her out. I didn't go even though they said that if my airbags deployed I have to. It's been several hours since and I'm absolutely fine.

At this point, what do I do? The cops on the scene said that it's basically a $100 fine and traffic school for the ticket I was given. The kicker is that all four cars involved have Allstate insurance. How does something like this work when every party has the same insurance company? My whole front end looks like an accordian. The funny thing is that when I ran out of my car to check on the women I instinctively grabbed my keys. The cops asked me if my car was still running and I said no way I've got the keys in my hand. Sure enough we walk up to my car to get my insurance card and it's still running, no keys or anything. The tow guy just hopped in and drove it up onto the flatbed.

Anyway, does anyone have any advice for me? My main concern was that the woman that I hit was OK, and it seemed like she was. Obviously Allstate ain't gonna sue Allstate for any injuries she finds later. Anything I need to know or do at this point?

98AcuraCLpimp

i work for an insurance company and in this situation when all are insured by the same company the at fault friver gets fucked as if they were all from seperate companies. i guarantee there will be "injuries" from this accident as there always are. so in so many words...i hope you had high coverages to cover all the damages...or they will come after you...ill put money on the fact that at least 3 of these people are "injured" and will have attornys by the end of the day...people are shitty...

infiniteq

yeah i don't doubt that. i made an honest mistake, i wasn't drunk or driving stupidly or anything. with my luck i'll be totally fucked from here on out

98AcuraCLpimp

what are your coverages all about???

infiniteq

Bodily injury: $50k each person, $100k each occurence; property damage: $50k
Auto collision & comprehensive say Actual Cash Value. not sure what that means....

97Acura3.0CL

good luck


jbpray helped me out, i think he is the one that works for mercury

i think you will be fucked man, sorry to hear about your incident

hope everything is ok, take pics of the car, i mean how bad is it? did you buy a camera or have one to take pics at the scene

this is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself from being scammed, then you have at scene proof of the accident in pictures

hope everything goes well

18anatak

sucks to hear man. so what about the car that was halfway in the lane? shouldnt there be something done about that?

infiniteq

I don't know. I drew it in on my accident report but I don't think anyone will give a fuck. The guy in the broken-down car was one of the witnesses so hopefully he'll tell it like he saw it. Again, I think this is totally my fault because I didn't stop in time. It was a dangerous situation to begin with, but I'm still at fault. I'm just concerned that they're gonna give me a huge legal fine or something worse that I could never pay.

98AcuraCLpimp

nothing can be done about it..ive had this situation before..you cant fault someone for there car breaking down...as much as it sucks...your cool for injury..as far as veh damages yer probably ok because its iner-company...lucked out there..at least where i work (mercury) we wont go after someone in your situation under these circumstances, but ask yer adjuster...sorry about the cl man...

97Acura3.0CL

always good advice, thanks to jacob

infiniteq

thanks for the advice guys. i talked my claims adjuster today and she made me feel a little better about everything. since it's all the same company i don't have to pay my deductible for some reason which at least helps. she also anticipates that all of my coverages and everything should be more than adaquate. hopefully it will turn out ok.

Sacramento CL

Never admit you're at fault...ever.