Long story short, Mini Cooper is totaled but my dog and I are safe.....











Now the longer version:

So I was on my way into work (on my day off) for a last minute mandatory meeting. When I came up to the Seneca off ramp in Seattle, it was backed up and at a stand still. I slow down and come to a complete stop and wait for the traffic to start to move. I looked in my review mirror and noticed this POS Saturn was hauling *** towards me and I thought to myself "Hmm...he's going pretty fast......OH ******, HE's NOT SLOWING DOW...." - BAM!!! He hits me going over 65 in a 60 zone. The air is instantly knocked out of me, my head hits the part where the roof meets the top of the windshield, my dog flies forward and hits the steering wheel, and my drivers side door is now facing oncoming traffic.

With that being said, I've never been in an accident like this before. What exactly do I have to do now that I'm dealing with someone who doesn't have insurance? My insurance covers uninsured drivers, but what legal actions do I need to take? Do I need to get a lawyer involved at this point? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

In other news, this means I'm most likely coming back to the Mazda family. It'll either be a GenWon Speed3 or a Speed6, not sure yet......

 

Good to see you are not really messed up. Depends on who your insurance company is and how they treat you as to wether or not you need any lawyering. I'd wait to see how it starts to shake out. Certainly need to get the back evaluated.

My wife was recently hit and State Farm (her insurance) was not very helpful, but the hitters insurance Progressive was on the ball and sent my wife checks for expenses she told them about.

 

Sorry to hear about your accident, Mar 22 2014 my flawless PW MCS "Lucy" was rear-ended by a white chevy Tahoe, while stopped waiting for a light to change. I heard brakes and looked in the rearview mirror, saw a nose down Tahoe, then the SMASH, the hit knocked me across the intersection, and more lights came on in Lucy then I had ever seen. The hitter was in a borrowed car, 5 people in the Tahoe no one knew who the driver was!!!!He fled the scene, suspended license, turned himself in 2 days later, time to get a clean BAT.
That all said and done, 1. get a list of the local comp values for your car, and any pricey mods you have done. The insurance company will deal a little on the value of your car if you can provide a "valid" reason for not excepting their 1st settlement. I got $10500 finally, the 1st offer was $9100.
From what I have found out the standard settlement $ with no disability's will be around 1 1/2 times the medical costs. save ALL your receipts, rental car,parking,Dr visits.therapy and so. I went to the ER after the incident CT,MRI and ER visit around 9K. I still haven't settled yet in Ohio you have 2 yrs to settle. The insurance company will want to settle as fast as possible, the young ladies that you talk to at the insurance company seem nice, but they just want the get you to settle as fast as possible, and as cheap, they are not your friend.
As for getting a lawyer, it's up to you but they get between 1/3to 1/2 of your settlement, I didn't, I talked to several and without me having a permanent disability,or really bad injury they said my case wasn't worth their time.
Now for the good side of this, I found after looking at 100s of R53's in 3 states. I found a 06 MCS Black, options 1,2,&3 with 36k miles at a local BMW dealer for 12k. Like having a new MINI.
Good Luck Foo.

 

Like foo, been in the same situation. Also depends on the limits of your uninsured/underinsured coverage. A lot of people opt for minimum coverage, so you'd be on the hook for any additional expenses (have since maxed out my coverage). Also mentioned above, most lawyers want cases where the client is seriously injured, but it wouldn't hurt to talk with a couple. Pleased to see you and your dog walked away from that one..

 

Holy crap! I would have expected the MINI to be crunched in that rear corner. Looks like it actually held up well for that type of hit.

 

Seriously though, your MINI looks fine structurally!!! I can't believe he smashed into your car that hard, while going that fast, and the MINI's frame didn't buckle. Incredible. So glad you and your dog are alright!

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I've never been in that type of situation :( Like everyone else has been advising, maybe just play it out at first and see how your insurance handles it. When/if you reach the point of being unhappy with their procedures, that might be a good time to look into getting legal advice. You don't want to jump the gun and waste money on legal fees if you didn't end up needing them.

 

Be cautious of time deadlines. In Arizona you have 180 days to file a claim. Check you local laws for time lines.

 

Oh man you seem more hurt than your Mini, I hope your road to recovery is a short one! Your MCS doesn't look that bad from the picture, wrapped her/himself around your Mini with little cosmetic damage. These Mini's are unibody and when there buckled in the rear, the force of the impact can travel through the different sections deforming them. In order to bring the rear-end back to where it was the body shop would use a $300,000 machine to basically do the opposite of what the crash did to your unibody.

The problem is once bent to a point it would be like taking a coat hanger and bending it and bending back, bend it again and structurally will fail/snap in half. Uninsured drives **** me off, a few months ago I was involved in a parking lot accident guy back up into me, uninsured POS! It looks like the other car hit you where the rear bumper mounts to which is where all the strength is, there's another one on the other side. These Mini's are build tough as far as impact damage for such a small car!

Keep us posted on your road to recovery.

 

Sorry to you had to go through this ,but I would strongly suggest you get that back looked at. Last thing you want is to deal with something like back problems because of this later down in life. Good luck to you on a quick recovery.

 

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I'm most likely leaving the mini platform after all the headache I had with this '07. As much as I love the '15s, I really want to keep my costs down until I finish school, then I can get myself a brand new toy of some sort.

As for my back, I had Cat Scans and X-rays done, all came back with no fractures or cracks, but oddly enough I'm now starting bruise dead center on my lower back. I'm making an appointment with my Chiropractor for later this week and I'll have him check it out too just to get a 2nd opinion.

I'm completely blown away at how well the Mini held up. The Saturn buckled like a fat kid in a candy store which is no big surprise there. I'm just pissed that I have to deal with this ratchet-*** dude who clearly is going to make things difficult. Just the way he spoke to the cop and how he was pretty much screaming about how stupid his wife was, I can just see him dragging his feet. Hopefully I can find a lawyer who will take him to the bank and get me covered for my losses.

 

I was plowed over a couple of years ago while riding my motorcycle by a van that decided tot turn in front of me. Turned out they were uninsured. I had just the previous year upped my insurance limits since it hardly cost any more and I'm so glad I did. I sustained a major leg injury requiring two surgeries and months of therapy. My hospital bill at the end was well over $150k. After write offs and everything, my uninsured portion of my motorcycle policy covered everything plus I settled for a large sum of money for pain and suffering. No lawyer involved.

I would recommend that before you contact a lawyer, check the limits of your policy. Whatever your uninsured limit says is what you are entitled to ultimately to cover medical treatment and then the remainder can be paid to you as a cash settlement for pain and suffering. The uninsured policy basically acts as the other party's insurance since they have none.

The second you sign on with a lawyer, you have committed to give a third or more of any settlement you get to them. If the sleezebag that hit you has no money to take (highly likely), then you will likely only get whatever the insurance policy gives you and a lawyer cannot do anything to increase the amount of their settlement above and beyond the limits of your uninsured policy. In other words, if your uninsured policy limit is $50k, then that is all you are going to get total in any medical coverage and payout total. A lawyer can't do anything about that. If you hire a lawyer, all you've done is given them a third of that amount and you have gained nothing and lost much.

My recommendation is to deal with your insurance first. If you do not yield what you need from them for your medical bills and whatever you feel is a fair amount to pay for pain and suffering from this incident, then look into a lawyer to pursue the other party AFTER you have settled with insurance.

Good luck and heal fast!

 

You won't have to deal with him, your insurance company will. You will not / should not be in contact with him. Since he is uninsured, all payments for damage and injury will be from your insurance company.

If you chose to sue him, your lawyer gets to deal with him. From experience about the Saturn driver, no insurance, no $$$. You'll win in court and get a judgment. That means you'll get a piece of paper that says he owes you $xxx. Odds are he'll never pay up.

 

I think the only benfit with a lawyer is if you sue the uninsured guy, who is probably up to his ears in money problems what with a wrecked car and a scalped wife. That looks like tough sledding to me. I'm guessing this couple isn't having tea with William and Kate anytime soon. Glad you're OK though.

 

sorry to say, but your prolly F'd.
like others said; no insurance, POS car, wife too stupid to wear seatbelt... this guy has issues to say the least, and having too much money is NOT one of them.

now, bc you were "hurt" to some degree, a lawyer "may" bite; but when i was rear ended, all the lawyers i talked to asked if i was hurt, bc i said NO, they also said NO, your SOL. chances are this guys broke, and your going to be dealing with his BS for the next year.

glad your ok tho!

 

Glad you're (mostly) ok -- and the puppy. Sorry about the MINI!

I was in an accident on my bike years ago, also the fault of a buttmunch driving with no insurance. I wasn't hurt, but my wife got banged up a bit -- nothing broken, but deep bruised muscles and that kind of stuff. I don't like being one of those people, but because there was an injury involved, I called a lawyer right away. As it turns out, because the other guy was uninsured, we were limited to what my uninsured motorist covered, which at the time wasn't much. Even at that, it was well worth having a lawyer to deal with the insurance company. Most times, your insurance is going to try to get away as cheaply as possible. And because most important factor us don't deal with this stuff every day, it's very much to your advantage to have someone on your side who does.

I won't tell you that you absolutely should; but if I had to do it again, I'd do it the same way, since I'd say that getting a lawyer is an option at least worth considering. In the end, you're going to get what you're going to get, and his cut is on top of your settlement. It's at least worth a call.

Hope you and the doggie are all ok!

 

So I had a chance to swing by the impound lot today to grab a few things from my car and I managed to snap a few photos of both cars....



The exhaust usually sticks out a little bit from the bumper, now its like 6" under the body....

 

I can see why they totaled it, the bumper got pushed inwards quite a bit and who knows how far the structural damages extend beyond what we can see. After reading your post about the unfortunate accident I have been looking in my rear view more often especially with all the rain we are getting lately. 30 minutes ago I heard a horrible collision on the I5 Interstate, I hear a few per month, the sound is unmistakable!

How's your back feeling?

 

James S.
Rogers… is a Seattle Attorney, that you night want to contact, He is exceptional.

 

Wow, that Saturn is fuc*ed.

 

so... how about that front passenger side headlight? and the sway bars?

 

yeah, I heard you SoCal peeps are getting dumped on. I'm originally from San Diego myself and I understand how crazy it can get when the roads are a little bit wet. As for my back, it hurts like a ****. :( I have a HUGE bruise on my lower back, my mom calls it my temporary tramp stamp.

I thought I saw Vultures circling around up in the sky :P

 

It might take awhile to fully heal, but it will heal. My mother's 79 and last year should had some guy in a Honda Civic slam into her Lincoln LS V8 at 50 MPH and she was at a red light and she recovered fully.

 

Glad your are safe, thats one nasty wreck on the Saturn.

Glad your pup is ok too!

You can always get another car.... but still, its a crappy deal for sure that no one ever wants!

 

Damn bro looks like the R56 saved your life and your pups. Resilient little guy!
Wishing you a speedy recovery and that your insurance treats you right.

 

Sorry to hear of your loss. One comment, if you haven't already left the fold--I had an '07 MCS (not a JCW), and now have a '15 MCS. I seriously considered buying a late '13 because I was so PO'd that MINI discontinued the CR color. I'm glad I didn't (I actually couldn't find what I wanted on the internet), because the '15 is a far superior design to the R56.

I understand your comments about cost, though.