I am so sorry you are having all these problems. You did the right thing in calling in the insurance. Let them sort it out. After all, he did rear-end you.

 

I am so sorry.... I am glad you got the information you need (phone number and plate #) I think it will work out in the end with either the other guy paying or his insurance.

As a sidenote: thank you for the help last night, James did not tell me - I just saw it when i went to the car.

 

I seem to remember having a similar conversation not too long ago....report it to his insurance company as well as your own making it clear that you are the victim. He rear ended you and technically lost control of his vehicle. Don't try and settle this because you may wind up under estimating the cost of repairs...unless you work for a body shop and know exactly what the cost will be.

...oh I almost forgot: OUCH-OH! MY NECK......MY BACK....MY BUTT! HIS WALLET!!! Mick

 

Sorry about the batmini !!!
Will, you did the right thing even if you have topay for the deductable it's still better this way USAA (I had for over 10 years) is quick in taking care of repairs - I hope you hav a rental with your insurance. As far as the Marine goes... sorry but when it boils down to .. "don't mess with me, don't mess with my money and don't mess with my MINI."

If you can get him to pay under his insurance you don't have to pay for deductable and for the rental car while the batmini is being repaired. So you might talk to the Marine reminding him that you could file "hit and run" report and DC requires to have insurance. I got rear ended twice buy someone who never stopped to see what they done to me and one car was totaled.

Filing under your own policy, however, you cannot claim any pain and suffering !!!

Tell batmini to get well soon

MD STREGA2

 

Hah, what do you call a lawyer at the bottom of the river.....Oh wait.....Did I say that out loud?

If you involve your ins. co. you do have to pay your deductable, but as long as the other driver is insured, your ins. co. will collect their money & your money back as well. It may take then a while but they do the collecting not you.

 

Sorry about the BatMINI, Wagn, but relieved that you contacted USAA. The other guy's attitude was a bit suspect from the get-go...and he sounds very sketchy from what you've said in your subsequent post. Best wishes for a speedy and perfectly complete recovery for the BatMINI!

I agree that you may want to get yourself checked out. Sometimes whiplash has a delayed onset, so better to have that covered, just in case....

 

Maryland insurance is a little different and does provide medical/pain and suffering - but then you have to go orthopedist/chiropractor route - which just adds to the pain. Maryland tag = Maryland insurance unless there are special exceptions for active military

 

Sad to hear that you got into one, lots of luck.

 

Indeed.

He called me as I was leaving work, en route to my tutor's house, and asked me why I contacted the insurance company. I gave a short simple list of reasons, and he got a bit hostile again... He explained that I could take the car to the dealer, and he would send the money for the repairs. I explained then I'd be out of a car, and having to wait and deal with the stress of trying to track him down if things we're getting paid for etc.. etc...

Long story short. He doesn't have insurance, and asked more than 3 times to do this without the insurance companies, although it's already been done. After multiple failed attempts of trying to get me to back out of the insurance path, he tried denial saying that it was pointless to go that way if he was willing to help me, because I'll have to pay the uninsured motorist deductible, and there's nothing the insurance company can do to him. I called that bluff with a simple 'Well then you've got nothing to worry about, eh?'.

He hung up on me.

I'm very happy I contacted USAA when I did. Reminds me of a saying I heard a couple weeks ago. Maybe it was in someone's sig here...

'Trust people, just not the devils inside of them...'

 

I'm sorry to hear that he doesnt have insurance... If you use the uninsured motorist part of your insurance will your premium go up?

 

Ha...a brilliant quote from The Italian Job! Someday soon your MINI will all be patched up and this will be a distant memory!! Good luck on repairs!

I too had a bad experience like that in my MINI.........I said, "I had...a bad...experience" (sorry, had to sneak in another TIJ quote). Anyway .......my MINI took it up on the front passenger side....got fixed up better than ever (really, not kidding).

 

So if he is operating his vehicle without insurance, do the police get involved by citing him for not carrying any?

 

Yeah....I was wondering the same thing. In California, it is illegal to operate an uninsured motor vehicle...is that also true in DC?

 

Im sorry to hear this Wagnbat. It was very smart of you to do what you did. You protected yourself by going to the insurance company. If you had worked solely with that clown, you would have been highly at risk. Seeing as he is completely at fault and uninsured, your insurance company will deal with him.

And if you have to pay the deductible, you can always sue him in small claims court to cover your expenses.

 

Doesn't sound like proper behavior for a Marine - wonder what his CO would say. Could pull a string - where would you like him to be deployed?

 

I'm sure we can find a MINI owner with that power

 

Hahaha, nice. Bahrain maybe? 130 degree summers.

And like I mentioned, DC police refused to come out and take a report because we left the scene. I doubt telling them 'but what if he doesn't have insurance' would convince them to come out either. Tho, if we had called the police, he would have got a $300 fine for not having his insurance paperwork in his car, in DC.

EDIT: Both of us were driving 'from' Maryland, and I was just informed by a co-worker in Maryland, not having your insurance information on you or in your car is a $500 fine + possible jail time.

 

I just raised my uninsured motorist coverage and asked my State Farm agent the same question (hypothetically, of course). She said "No, your premiums only go up when you have proven to be a risk." In this case it's the other guy who is the risk.

 

With a UM claim, your rates should NOT go up if someone else is definitely at fault. I was hit in a parking lot, no one left a note, made a UM claim for 900$, and my rates went up. I didn't call the cops because i figured who would believe me?

If you tell the cops the guy hit you with no insurance, maybe they WILL do something. Otherwise, this guy is going to keep driving uninsured, and who knows, maybe he'll do someting stupid again? Everyone else has to pay for insurance, it's not fair someone selfish can get off scott free. Of course, it was pure karma he hit you. I bet his policy was just cut off. I got into an at-fault accident only 3 days after i dropped to liability only. The insurance company said it happens all the time.

 

I'm sure Wagnbat knows all he has to do is contact the other guys first sergeant and he will be dealt with. Things work a lot different when you're in the military.

 

Good luck with everything Will. Just be glad noone was hurt in the accident. My parents and sis were hit by an uninsured motorist several years back and the accident totaled 3 vehicles. We were lucky and had full coverage to the hill but it wasn't an easy process getting compensated for a car and 3 medical bills.

Also whats interesting is in MD you have to have insurance to even register a car in state of MD.

 

Wagn - sorry to be the harbinger of doom, but this guy sounds like enough of a dink that you may want to prepare for him possibly denying the whole thing happened what with no cops and no witnesses. Get the NSA to tap his phone and get his confession on tape Sorry dude but never let tragedy get in the way of a good (or not so good) joke.

 

Wag'n, let me add to the many posts in this thread. I would advise some of the rest of you to listen to this as well.

Most insurance carriers can cancel your policy on the spot if you fail to report an accident to them. Always, always, always inform your insurance company immediately. You don't have to file a claim if you don't want to. And if you can convince the other driver (if you're at fault) to let you settle it outside of a claim it's perfectly legal, as long as both insurance companies know about the accident. You think they'll care if they don't have to pay?

Some municipalities require all accidents to be reported to the police. So failure to call the cops to the scene can land you in big trouble. Hell, what if you and the guy agree on the spot to settle it without the cops. You drive off, he calls the cops and says it was a hit and run and he has your plate???

You need the police to document what happened. They're not always going to get it right but having them show up covers all the bases. Always report an accident to the cops.

Uninsured drivers...I've actually had experience with this. I was rear ended in 2003 by an uninsured punk in Texas. Cop told me there was nothing he could do about the guy not having insurance except to write him a ticket. Cop did get all his info from his license and it was all in the police report. State Farm covered all but my deductible because I had uninsured motorist coverage. When I asked about my rates they said they wouldn't know if they would go up until my next renewal. Meanwhile State Farm's subrogation Team went after this guy. Getting a hold of him was easy since the police had the info. This is why you call the police. They ended up scaring him into a 4 year agreement, a monthly payment plan to pay back all the money State Farm shelled out. The first $500 of his payments came back to me to cover the deductible I paid and then State Farm took the rest for what they paid. And for me it's as if I was never in an accident.

Wag'n, if your insurance company is willing to give you the dough to fix your car then take it. Ask them if they are willing to go after the guy via subrogation. If they do then you can get your deductible back if he pays up. I know in Texas that if an insurance company takes an uninsured motorist to court and wins and then that person fails to make restitution they can lose their license for 10 years. My guess is that's how they got the guy to agree to monthly payments.

Ok let me get off the soapbox. Accident are a pain in the *** no matter what. Why make them more so by failing to follow the steps that are there for your protection?

Matt

 

sounds like everything is working out. Just wanted to add something. Make use of technology! My wife was rear ended in a minor way a couple of years back. She pulled to the side of the road and so did the other driver. Just as she was getting out of the car (it was dusk), the driver took off. Insurance wise, everything worked out, but we could have been screwed.

I got rear ended in the fall (with only 1200 miles on the Mini). The first thing I grabbed was my picture phone. I snapped a pic of the front plate of the car that hit me and the damage. Like you, the driver wanted to settle this without insurance companies involved. I told him that I was going to contact my insurer and tell them he wanted to pay out of pocket, but that I still needed his insurance info. When they called him, he indeed said he was going to pay out of pocket. (BTW, by saying this, the insurance company immediately took that to mean he was entirely at fault as well, which immediately waived all deductibles). The Mini was in the shop for 2 weeks. New bumper, backup sensors, boot hinges (I have a conv.). The damage totalled about $1500, but the car rental for 2 weeks pushed the total to about $2000. Lo-and-behold, he decided to contact his insurer. When they called and asked me to make a statement on what happened, I told them to call my insurer as the driver had already admitted full responsibility.

 

USAA has gotten the guy again, and confirmed with him that he is uninsured. They called me back and said "He's willing to pay out of pocket. Would you like to wait for that, or go with the 'uninsured motorist' route and pay your deductible, and if/when we get it back, it will be refunded?". I discussed the options, and it was pretty much get it done now and pay $250, or wait for him to cough up the dough, and get repairs later.

They're going after him anyway... And since we know he's military, know where he works, and it's USAA... They're going to get the money. So I opted to pay the $250 and start the process now.