This afternoon I was rear ended in my almost 2 week old MCSa . I'm not a happy camper right now, as there is a "coverage situation" with the offender's insurance - she may not have been covered at the time of the accident!! But the MINI (Nitro is his name) held up very well. However, I got to looking at the damage a few minutes ago and would like to find out some more info. from you guys. All of the damage is located on the rear bumper and lower, so thankfully there's no damage to the boot. But when I got to looking underneath the bumper, I noticed there's a metal piece on the driver's side that is bent pretty far forward, enough so to push the plastic wheel well up against the tire. What is that metal piece? Is it a serious part of the unibody, or is it the metal substructure of the bumper itself? What kind of repairs am I looking at?

In all, the bumper is scraped, gouged, and creased (enough to require a totally new bumper, in my opinion), the heat shield just behind the bumper is pushed in, that metal piece I mentioned above is bent, the plastic trim on the bottom of the bumper has a couple broken connectors on each side of the exhaust, and the exhaust tips are now off-centered. Anybody have any idea as to what else may be damaged?

I posted this on MINI2 as well, so I apologize if you read this twice.

Here's a pic of the metal piece:

 

The metal piece is the bracket that holds the wheelwell in place, not unibody. You can see the wheelwell on the tire. If you bent the bracket back you would see the hole in the wheelwell lines up with the hole in the bracket. The frame which above the metal where the wire is running across does not badly bent if bent at all. From one picture it is hard to tell. But if this is the damage it should be easy to fix.

 

I hope you made a police report - if not, do it NOW!

 

I did, but the trooper classified it as a "non-reportable accident" because, in his estimate, the damage between both vehicles was $1000 or less. That means she didn't get a ticket

 

And he didn't check her insurance either?! :(

 

When you get an estimate for over a grand, then what happens? Does she get a ticket then!?!? That's crap!

 

Honestly, I'm not sure. He had us fill out the little info. forms and exchange them. But because it was "non-reportable", he didn't take down any info.

How exactly does uninsured motorist insurance work (thankfully I have it)? Will my insurance company go after her for the money if they have to end up paying? Will it effect my premiums?? I wouldn't see how, since it was her stupid fault, but with insurance companies ya never know.

 

Yes, actually, I think she would get a ticket. I think the trooper said something to the effect of having the insurance company contact him if the actual damage was more than his estimate. I can't remember everything he said 'cause I was still incredibly angry at the time.

 

Uninsured motorist insurance covers the cases where the other person does not have insurance (which is probably illegal although some state may not require insurance, I can't believe it these days). However, some states require very low minimums.

As to premiums going up, that all depends upon your insurance company. For example, mine says the first accident is free. After the second one, it goes up 30%. Third, 70% and from there doubles each time.

So the question always comes up of whether or not is worth it to make a claim ... and that also depends upon your deductable althought I don't know if uninsured motorist insurance has a deductable. Just go read your policy because they are all different. Then you have to decide whether a $1K claim is worth the effort of depending upon your circumstances.

I know that for small stuff, there has been an occasion where I did NOT claim it because its simply not worth it. That also depends upon how high your insurance policy may be. If you get another accident in six months and your policy doubles and will remain at that level over the next three years, would it be cheaper to just pay the repairs the first time up front. Only you can figure that out

I do not know if the insurance company will go after her because usually insurance companies sue other insurance companies. If she has no insurance, they probably aren't going to get anything out of her anyway.

Best of luck!

 

Worst comes to worst, have your insurance company take care of it. Then let them go after the other party. Similar thing happened to me once. After everything was settled, I even got my deductible back.

Sorry to hear about your ride

 

Sorry to hear about your accident I got rear-ended too a few months ago so I know how you feel.

Fortunately the other driver had insurance and it was her fault. The damage sustained was less than $500, but since I took a precautionary ride in the ambulance, they had to file a report.

First, make sure your ok. It's ok to be pissed, not ok to be in pain the next day and not get checked out. Second, get your estimate. Depending on the result, that should direct you to your next step as mentioned by others already (you insurance or theirs).

Good luck. keep us informed.

 

$1000 is not much money in the realm of collision repair. I wonder how familiar the trooper is with the rates for MINI service. In my town cops don't write reports unless there is an injury. They claim it's too time consuming. It seems easier to determine whether there's an injury than to estimate the cost of repairs on the spot. Could a trooper know how much collision repair will cost for every year and make of car and for specific incidents? There have been other threads on NAM about troopers in VA.

 

sorry to hear about your car.

i would say between $800-$1200 for the repair. hey, it's a BMW.
it's a good time to get an aero kit.

 

They do not send the cops to school for estimating damage. Fender benders can vary in price to repair, depending on car, hidden damage, etc. It is discretionary.

As for the insurance, there is no way to check to see if the insurance is "currently in effect". Anyone can carry an insurance card. But there is no way to tell if the person's insurance has been terminated short of making phone calls. The cops aren't going to do that. It is up to the parties involved in the accident or their insurance companies to duke it out.

 

Daughter in the back seat in her Triumph Convertible Car seat, both of us are OK, except for my stiff neck. Bike rack on front of BUS may have helped us out quite a bit. It was quite a HIT, I think bus didn't hit brakes until after the hit. Wheels don't appear to have been moved but back is pretty well crushed. Tow truck driver stole all my change from it after dropping it at Collission Center.

All-in all a very safe car even for my daughter in the back, plus "angels on our shoulders", now I want the 2007 with increased power and MPG, but it won't be available until Nov. "Professional Driver", asleep at the wheel, and no excuse for it. He did get a Careless Driving ticket, supposedly. No question about fault, we were all stopped waiting for a traffic lite...BAM!!!!

 

Accidents suck, my first Mini was totaled in an accident just 3 months after I got it (See Sig). Some tool decided to make a left hand turn in front of me as my front bumper was pretty much crossing the x-walk. The light had turned green 7-8 seconds earlier so I was pretty much coasting to a stop, and just began accelerating as I got to the intersection. It never fails to amaze me how bad some people are at driving.

Just the other day the SAME situation almost happened. Luckily since my accident I've been much more attentive to what other drivers are doing on the road, and manged to avoid it, barely.

Now, got the Mini bug again, so I went on Monday to place my order!

Anyway... glad to hear you're alright, and I hope you get your Mini back in one piece soon!

 

Although I've been in a couple of accidents and the cops were eerily close on their estimations.

 

It's going to be an expensive repair job, and I'll probably never think of it any other way than "used", but they're pretty good at repairing everything these days. Maybe they'll "total" it and I can just order again, 2006? or wait until Nov. for 2007? I like the higher HP/MPG figures for the 2007.

 

Accidents DO suck. Two weeks after paying off my '02 Jeep, (in 2003) a nice ooold lady made a left directly in front of me causing $8,000.00 in damage. Luckily I didn't kill her (by the impact).
You never do feel the same after your new vehicle is crunched in a accident.
Glad you're okay, hope all works out w/ the insurance zoo and your MINI turns out like new.

 

That is absurd...especially since you could have an injury that surfaces later!!!
I would report to my insurance immediately, and file a report at your local police station anyway...would also report the officer since he would have no way of accessing the value of the damage unless he were a certified auto adjuster (or something close) For all he knew, the frame might have been bent (doubtful)

Also in most states, hitting someone from behind is an automatic ticket...means "she did not have control of her vehicle...probably a Hummer driver!

I have never heard of a state that would not allow a citizen to file a report at the station and I would have definately taken his badge # (he just did not want the paperwork) AN ALL TIME LOW FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT!

 

UPDATE:

I've been able to gather a bunch more info. this morning. First is the bad news - her insurance company says she was not covered. So I filed a claim with my company, and thankfully the body shop I want to use is associated with my company. Unfortunately, I don't have rental car coverage on my policy. Because of that, I gave the offender a call to discuss payment for a rental car (I did some research and found out she can handle it - I love the internet). She seemed to think that she should have been covered, so she was going to call her company. That was just over an hour ago - I plan on calling her back to find out what's going on.

I also spoke with the state police, and left a message re: her not being insured for the trooper that responded to the accident. The person I left the message with said 1) it was up to the trooper to determine if she would get a ticket for not having insurance, and 2) even if the damages end up being over $1K, she still won't get a ticket - that only could have happened at the scene.

 

Two words: CIVIL SUIT.

And while you're about it, collect all court costs too.

 

Believe you me, I thought about it. But that brings us to another...

UPDATE:

The woman has agreed to meet me at the car rental location tomorrow morning to secure a rental car for the duration of the repairs. She seems to be very forthcoming and willing to get this situation taken care of. We shall see...

 

Well that's a good thing.

 

I think the trooper was way off on the estimate...
this cost my insurance company 1300 dollars to fix...Sorry to hear about your accident, but it seems you are dealing with an honest person who wants to do the right thing...Good luck