i was driving home from work a couple nights ago minding my own business when some douchebag driver in a corvette decides to cut across 2 lanes of traffic and in the process scraped the left corner of my rear bumper. I felt a slight push in my car as he cutting into the lane left of me at a high speed. At first, I sort of dismissed as maybe I drove over some piece of cardboard on the road that made me lose some traction. But I decided to jot down his license plate anyway. Luckily, I was able to note down the numbers before he sped away. Unfortunately, his license plate looks to be an out of state plate and I didn't get a chance to figure out what state it came from. The only thing I can sort of make out was there seems to be an image of a tree on the left side of the plate. Does anyone here know what state that might be from?

Sure enough when i got home and looked at my car, I saw some scrap marks on the rear bumper. I guess I'm really lucky that I didn't spin out on the freeway because our TL's rear bumper has a 45 degree chamfer on it. The scrap marks were found on the 45 degree area of the bumper.

I filed a police report the following morning at my local CHP office and reported the incident to my insurance company.

• What do you guys think the chances that the CHP will be able to track down this driver based on the plate number I gave them?
• If anyone else here has been through a similar hit & run situation, what kind of advice can you give me?
• Were you able to track down the driver?
• What reprocusion can I take with the other party to settle this incident?
• Even if you were able to track down the driver, who ended up paying for your repairs?

What do you guys think the chances that the CHP will be able to track down this guy/girl based on the plate number I gave them?

Obviously, I don't want to go through my own insurance company and pay the deductible for the repairs since this was the other party's fault.

thanks

 

There is a 100% chance they will catch him. The same thing happened to me. About 3 months later they found him. What they do is they send them a letter stating he was in a hit and ran and has to describe what happened within 15 days or he has to go to court. Then either you go to court over it, or negotiate it out. good luck with it, I hope everything works out!!

 

msala524: so should I hold off getting my bumper replaced by going through my insurance company until they find this guy?

 

Oragon has a tree in the middle of the plate and Idaho has on one on the right. check out this link, maybe it can help you out!! If it wasn't any of these, it might be a custom license plate.

http://c2.com/~ward/plates/table.cgi...=100,columns=6

 

How bad it is?? Does your insurance company know it was a hit and run??

Maybe they can replace it, on the terms, that when the guy who hit you gets the letter and responds, his insurance will reinburse your insurance.

I don't know much about insurance policies, but that might be an option you can take. Double check with them. It hurts to have our cars wrecked!!

 

^wow, those plates are over 10 years old!

maybe it was AZ, there is a cactus on the left side of their plates

 

That sucks.
There are a lot of special interest plates that may have a tree etc..
What color was the plate?

 

Based on those plates photos, it might be something similar to Arizona. I wished I would've went behind him and took a closer look. The plate was mostly white w/o a lot of background colors.

the damage is not terrible. The bumper is still in tact. But I don't think I can live with them on my car if I don't get the bumper replaced. I wished I had the pics of the damage with me right now.

My insurance company already knows it's a hit & run. I'm just afraid that if I go through my insurance to get this fixed, they'll raise my premium the following year.

 

they can't raise your premium for something that isn't your fault and you've got a police report to prove it, now the thing is will the damage surpass your deductible? I doubt it, that bumper can probably just be repainted, and a new cover + paint is still under $500 which is the usual deductible most have

 

Very unlikely they will raise your premium for a hit and run. Not your fault, probably no consequence for you. I'd get the insurance company to fix your car right away and let them subrogate the claim when the police find this knucklehead.

The way you described the license plate, and the fact that you are in LA, wouldn't surprise me if it was an AZ plate. We have about 15 different kinds, but the "standard" plat has a very light background with purple mountains across the bottom and a Cactus off to one side.

Best of luck.

 

It will not raise your premiums. You'll have to pay your deductible up front in all likelihood but the other guy will have to compensate you when they find him. He's also going to get a huge pile of tickets, leaving the scene, fail to report, blah blah blah. It must suck being stupid (him, not you).

Given that you got his full plate number and know the make of the car it should be pretty easy to find the guy.

 

from seeing all the replies so far, I'm feeling a little better about my situation. I guess I should now take my car to a bodyshop and get a quick estimate for the repairs first before committing to having my insurance company take care of the bill.

 

Take lots of pictures, and not with a digital camera.
The digitals can be inhanced/altered, and therefore can be thrown out in court.

 

oh, never thought about that scenario.

 

I took some additional pics of the damage to my bumper

 

Hard to tell from the pictures - any grooves down into the plastic, or is it all surface paint stuff? May make a difference on whether they have to replace the entire bumper cover.

 

hmm my left side bumper is kinda like that too... someone hit it from the parking lot couple days ago and just left.

i was able to remove the white like scratches with the compound (white rubbing thing to remove scratches from autozone)

but the paint chip is still there... do you guys have any idea if i can go to the insurance to get this fixed? and will my insurance go up by doing so?

if not any other way to cover this up? =(

HIT AND RUN SUCKS i feel ya man... i got like 2 more minor scratches too but this is the worst one cuz i cant take it off with the compond thingy and paint is gone


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does aspec rear lip go up to where the spots are or enough to cover them?

 

Sup man?....i understand your frustration but i think if you get some scuff removal or brake fluid on a lil towel, it will rub right out. it doesnt seem to be any grooves in the plastic or anything. i say do that to avoid all the headaches youmay encounter. i know its not your fault but just something to think about. and YES i did say and mean brake fluid as it DOES remove paint scuffs on paint. try it and trust me it works. rub it out the buff it with a buffer or clean soft rag!.....

 

brake fluid to remove paint scuffs from your paint.................wow
you cannot be serious, that has disaster written all over it.

 

yo usee my post #17? i had same scratches like hes but i used the compound (can buy em anywhere autozone, pep boys, etc) and u just rub it and it will remove minor scratches to certain degree, like my pic above, i couldn't do anything to the paint comming off so hM... anyone have idea to my question on post #17?

 

This is as false a statement as I have EVER seen. In fact, the insurance companies CAN raise your rates if your in ANY accident. Fault does not matter. Of course, the "better" agencies often have accident forgiveness.

 

i will try to take most of the cosmetic scuffs off with a claybar and go from there. There is a little vertical area above the exhaust to the left that might be an actual crack to the paint of the bumper (2nd pic).

 

Check around your city. Someone must do a plastic bumper repair. I'm in Spokane, WA and there's a local guy that fixed my bumper for $200. I had almost the exact same damage as you and now it looks like new. Check with local car dealers. They probably can steer you to a similar guy.
Good luck!!

 

Earlier this year. Rear end hit and run on our '02 TL-S. ~$3k damage.

Reported to insurance along with Police Report, vehicle description (partial), subject description (partial) and partial plate.

Our insurance fixed it, no problem. Deductible paid. No change in rates.

About 3 weeks later at 9PM, policeman that made the report shows up on our doorstep. He kept his eyes open and found the guy. HS kid, probably paniced. Cop said he gave him a good scare and took him home to dad to get square. We chose not pursue further charges, etc.

Our insurance went after his insurance to their $$ and my deductible back. I got a check from his insurance in about 10 days.

Changed my thoughts about the local PD.

 

wow, i hope my case will get settle as quickly and smoothly as yours did.

 

aspec it like enigmaos said, the rear lip covers 100%

 

First, if they can't find the guy, if you have an "uninsured motorist property damage coverage", usually they have a waiver for the deductible

Paying deductible on collission repair ONLY APPLICABLE if it is your fault, otherwise the person at fault will pay everything through their insurance

So, either way, your out of pocket repair should be 0.

 

"Hit & Run" is usually a comprehensive claim - hence the deductible.

 

i've never heard of the collision deductible waiver before. I'll give my insurance adjuster a call today and ask her about this.

I have a little bit of good news today. Over the weekend when I was out and about, I was driving behind a car with an Arizona plate and it reminded me almost 100% of the other driver's plate. In addition, I just realized that Arizona plates has only 6 digits. The plate numbers on the other driver's car was in a 6 digit configuration also "XXX XXX" (not sure if I can post his plate number here or not). I am now pretty confident that it was in fact an Arizona plate. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the CHP and/or my insurance company will track down this guy quickly.

 

i got hit and run.. my friend was sitting in the car and got the plate number..only took the cops about a day and the girl coughed up cash in my hand

 

i work in claims at an insurance company. real cheap-skates. you better not do anything to that bumper, they will chip away at whatever they can. keep good photos, if you can wait, give it time to see what the p.d. come up with. in texas, you have 2 years to file a claim against someone else, 4 years against your own policy. i would suggest you stay on the p.d. to try to find this guy, and if your patience wears thin, file it against your own insurance. that is what you pay for. better believe it, if your insurance company can get their money back or have an opportunity to get it back, they will try.

 

lilnate: i'm sitting tight on the repairs for now waiting until i hear something back from my insurance company or the CHP first.