Man, what a shitty last couple of weeks I've had.

I was on my way this morning to go workout, and I'm stopped at a traffic light. Next thing I know, I get hit from behind. I didn't see it coming. First thing I do is reach for my cellphone. But of course I forgot it at home!

So I get out and inspect the damage. Visibly, I didn't see anything. But upon running my fingers over the back bumper, I felt a small but noticable crease to the left of where the license plate sits, just before it bumper curves out from the plate area.

Then this old guy, easily 70+ years old, gets out and says "No damage. Bye." WTF!!! So I tell him about the crease I see/feel, and he said he didn't do it!!! Then he points to his front license plate holder and says "You cracked it"!!!

I told him he's crazy and that I want to call the police to file a report. I told him to follow me down to a gas station (about one block away) to file the report. We were on a pretty busy four-lane road and it was raining out. I wanted to get myself out of danger to resolve this. The guy REFUSED to follow me and said the he was NOT going to pay for damage that is MINOR! I told him again to follow me. He refused.

So I went to the gas station and called the local police. The officer showed up, and took a report. Fortunately, the focker did give me his name and I got his license plate number. I gave the info. to the cop...

He told me he was going to have to track this guy down and it may take a week.




I probably would have let it go, because the damage really isn't visible, but the guy was so insubordinate, I couldn't just let it go.

I'm just waiting for the next shitty thing to happen to me.

 

Man he gave you attitude when HE hit YOU?!

You shoulda pulled him out of his car and beat him with his walker. :p

 

Damn.. I've been there man.. when I was rolled into by an SUV driving by this bitchy lader, she was actually trying to say that I rolled back into her at stop light in an automatic with no hill.. Some people are just so stuipd..

Make him pay, even when my was just minor scratchs, it still cost around $400 to repaint the entire bumper.. don't accept anything less then that.. Don't let them tell you that you should just touch it up.. it'll back your car look bad.

 

Just by reading how uncooperative the guy was, I say you get everything fixed completely and have his insurance pay for it. The guy should have just given you his information and that would have been the end of it. But no, he's basically turned it into a hit and run. The cops will find him in a day or 2. I got hit once while I was stopped at a red light and the guy just took off. I got home and called the cops and gave them his tag number and vehicle description. They called me back a few hours later saying they had found the guy. And this was all at like 10pm.

 

Hit and Run = Felony
Sucks for that guy

You should start complaining about how your neck is starting to hurt. Remember whiplash in most cases isn't felt until a couple days later.

 

Funny you should say that... My neck actually does hurt. Feels like a pulled muscle in the back left part...

 

Talk to your insurance company. A rear end collision is a 'no-brainer' for fault to the guy in back (except in some extreme circumstances). Leaving the scene doesn't help things out either.

The insurance company will obtain the police report and do the work for you. The negative is that you'll have to pay your deductable to get you work fixed and then wait six months (or more!) to get it back once they track the guy down.

If you do have any medical issues I would mention them to the agent. Get it checked out. It may be minor and ultimately a non-issue, but there may indeed may be something to fix as well and you definitely want that documented in case you're headed to some long term therapy or surgery where costs can be significant.

 

You need to get familiar with your local small claims or conciliation court. It's easy to win there, especially when you are in the right. Also depending on your state, lawyers may not be involved. And the dollar amount is high enough to handle most of our needs. People who don't show automatically lose; the bad part is it's hard to collect unless you are persistant or diligent but you have at least 10 years.

If the damage is minor like you said, there is no hit and run. Plus he did stop and give you info; he never tried to elude identification, and you can keep him. This isn't a felony; nobody was hurt and there has to be a minimum dollar amount. Forget that route. And forget the neck unless you really are starting to feel something, then by all means mention it to protect yourself in the future; you might even make one visit to the doc. You never know about whiplash. But he's old, if he dies, you might be SOL.

You can always sue him for your deductible. Sounds like you have a good case, except the damage was so so minor, you might have a hard time convincing anyone of a huge dollar amt, any judge might split the cost if you thinks you went too far.

Anyway, insurance company is the best bet. They usually pay and they have plenty of money. Sounds like you day was pretty lousy. Oh, he's 70? How can he be "insubordinate" to you over a fender bender?

 

Excellent advice...

A buddy of mine decided to pass on any “hassles” and was pretty sorry later…

Ironically, just when the statue of limitations was kicking in, he found himself in pretty bad shape and it was a good thing he had good insurance from his work...

At least get some X-rays...

 

hit and runs are no joke...i got one when i was 16...i got like 4 tickets for the one incident...
1. Leaving the scene of an accident
2. Reckless driving (or careless, i don't even remember, it was last summer....)
3. Failure to report a accident
4. Unlicensed driving (like i said i was 16 in jersey with no permit or license)

i got a pretty good P.D. and got off with a 6 month suspension (max 2 1/2 yr.) , and they combined 4 tickets into 2...plus a little lecture from the judge...

 

Wow, you're only 17 and driving a CLS?

 

yea i'm 17 and driving a CL-S...i think there are even 1-2 more youngsters like me on the boards...i think even a 16 year old...

 

Pops didn't leave the scene. He just refused to follow me so I could contact the police. He briefly showed me his license and then got in his car and started it up. He did not follow me to the gas station which was a couple blocks down the street. I got his first/last name and his plate number.

The police officer told me he didn't want to go the "hit and run" route, and I really don't want that either. If the guy is insured, which he better focking be, I'll just let the insurance companies duke it out. The last thing I want is for my insurance premium to be affected by this. Is there any chance this could happen?

It's really amazing the way things have gone for me that last few weeks. Getting let go from my job, massive waves of emotions because of it, and now I get plowed into by someone who looked like he could be my Grandpa's Grandpa.

Something that I really didn't think about until later in the day is how the car handled the impact. I didn't see him coming, but it was a pretty good jolt. It's hard to estimate how fast he was going, but I'd wager somewhere in the 10mph range. After the impact, the first thing that went though my head was, "Oh shit, the bumper is off". Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and to be honest, the damage really is minor. Does the CL have a good crash test report for bumper impacts???

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Oh and the neck is feelin' better. Maybe it was due to the massive levels of stress???

 

That was the amazing part... When I showed him the creases in the bumper, he would NOT acknowledge that he caused the damage. Even though there was black smudge from his Buick license plate holder on the front bumper.

"What?? Me, do what? No!!!"

Not once did I even get a complete sentence out of this guy. And when I asked him to follow me down the street to call the police and he said...

"What?? Me, do what? No!!!"


...and refused to come.

Grandpa is gonna pay damn it!!!

 

I just went through this and both the police officer and the insurance company (mine=State Farm, a by-the-book company) said that the fault is assigned to the person that rear-ended the other. It's essentially impossible for the rear-ender to get out of it. The law states that you have to maintain a 'safe' distance from the car in front of you. If you rear end someone then you have violated this law/rule, regardless of circumstances.

I was rear-ended in stop & go traffic on the freeway. I would estimate the Civic hit me at between 15 - 25 MPH and I was surprised that only my rear bumper was hurt (well it popped off essentially). The left tail pipe was slightly out of align (they ended up replacing the B pipe because the Y pipe was bent). No body damage, no header damage. I was impressed with the suprisingly small amount of damage.

 

Never let your guard down and never get too cocky or confident, other people are smart too and the law is more interpretative than absolute. I know a few people (actually two) who fault it was and they were rear-ended. One guy quickly changed lanes in between two cars, the guy behind couldn't slow down fast enough. Another friend was stopped on the road and got hit, he shouldn't have been stopped (illegally). Indiana is not a "no-fault" state, that too bad I guess, Kansas is. This is a good article.

 

There are exceptions to every 'rule'. I agree that one shouldn't assume anything, however in a straight forward rear end collision where someone plows into the rear of a car that is slowing or stopped without other mitigating issues, the fault will go the rear-ender, not the rear-endee.

Scrib did say that he was stopped at a light. It IS a no-brainer and I AM confident about that.

If he chooses to have his insurance company settle the issue, his company will seek out damages from the rear-ender's company and if the other company limits the payment to less then what the damages were, his company will seek payment from the rear-ender.

Been there; done that.

(BTW in reference to your link: even though PA has no-fault policies, I chose not to participate and I have retained full legal rights to sue whoever crashes into me)

 

Sorry to hear that Eric.. I hope things turn around for you

 

Well, fortunately grandpa fessed up to everything. It's documented in the police report that he hit me while I was waiting at a traffice light.

BUT....

I went to get an estimate for the damages, and I still can't believe it. The bumper has a couple of creases, and it a slightly warped. There is a kickass body shop by me, whom has gotten best in the region countless years in a row. They do great work.

The owner, who I know, takes a look at it and says "Take a guess on how much it'll cost". 500 bucks I say...

He writes up the estimate....

$1098.29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy freakin' crap!!! The bumper has to be replaced, but it's the paint and the paint matching along with the labor that makes it so damn expensive.

I guess the bright side of it... It'll get it paid for 100%, and it'll look perfect.

What a pain in the ass this has all been. Accidents suck!!!