Can't buff my car out v. drunk driver

Scottwax said:
That piece of crap is refusing to cooperate with his insurance company so they won't do squat for me until they get the police report. :mad:
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I fail to see what he needs to cooperate on ? He was drunk, he hit you, end of story. The fact that he was arrested and charged with impaired driving usually means automatic "at-fault" when it comes to insurance claims, at least here it does. Same thing if you get in an accident and it's proved you were speeding "x" amount or more over the speed limit. None the less, since this happened several days ago, shouldn't the police report be fairly easy to get ahold of ?
 
Glad that you and your kid is all right. I really do hope they grill this drunk SOB. A drunk driver ran over my brother and he of course did not survive the accident, but the drunk driver did little time and we got very little from him.
 
WAS said:
I fail to see what he needs to cooperate on ? He was drunk, he hit you, end of story. The fact that he was arrested and charged with impaired driving usually means automatic "at-fault" when it comes to insurance claims, at least here it does. Same thing if you get in an accident and it's proved you were speeding "x" amount or more over the speed limit. None the less, since this happened several days ago, shouldn't the police report be fairly easy to get ahold of ?
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Until they have the police report or a statement from their insured, the only side they have is from me. I talked to our attorney handling the injury side of the case and she hasn't been able to get the police report either. Arlington only says it takes at least 48 hours from the time of the accident to have the report ready. Could be they are waiting on the official BAC results? I don't know. Seems really cut and dried to me even without confirmation of his BAC that he did in fact run a red light.



I've got full coverage on my car and I thought that included rental. I wish my agent had pointed that out when I took out the policy on my Maxima, I certainly would have paid the extra.



Jon-sorry about your brother, that's just terrible that he's gone and the guilty party didn't get proper punishment. At least now, judges and juries are getting tougher. There was a DWI multiple fatality wreck in the early morning of Easter 2010 in the Dallas area. A guy ON PROBATION FOR HIS 3RD DWI WHO WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO DRIVE A VEHICLE EQUIPPED WITH A INTERLOCK SYSTEM got behind the wheel of his wife's car with a BAC 3 times the legal limit and plowed into the back end of a car with a family inside, killing the mother and her daughter. The speed at impact? 134 mph. According the prosecutor, the impact "switched the mother off like a switch". The judge sentenced him to life in prison.
 
Holy crap Scott. You've had the worst luck with cars lately! I'm glad you and you son are ok. When I saw the buckled roof I knew that thing was a gonner. I hope you get top dollar for your car. Because your attorney isn't handling the Property Damage to your vehicle, I suggest having both your and the other person's insurance appraise the value of your car. If you need me to review the value on your car let me know.



Many times, until the other person's insurance company has both the police report and a statement from their insured, there could be a huge delay in getting paid from them. Even though the police charged him with DUI, it doesn't make him at fault for hitting you. But, based on what you've documented it seems very obvious.
 
Dave-not only did he run a red light but he swerved around the cars stopped for the light and up over the curb and out into the intersection. My insurance doesn't have to wait on anything to pay me, then they'd go after his insurance.



I went through through that intersection today and realized that after the impact he moved my car a good 30 feet. I was southbound in the middle lane (3 lanes each way, center turning lane) and we ended up in the middle northbound lane and the truck was blocking all but the right turn lane on the northbound side!
 
I gotcha totally Scott and you probably have multiple witnesses that will back that up. I understand you can go through your insurance at will as well. One of 2 down sides in doing that is that you are *initially* responsible for paying the deductible. The second is to consider what the other party's insurance company will offer you for your car. They could actually figure it at a higher value than your own company does. It happens all the time. You've got the option of going through who ever you'd like for coverage. I suggest following the money. Best of luck.
 
Scott, you may have go after him personally. A friend of mine had the same thing happen to him in Denton Co. and the insurance companies haggled it out for the value of the car but when it came to paying his deductable he got left holding the bag! Had to sue the lady who hit him and it took over a year to get the $500 bucks!! And it cost more in legal fees, but got money and then some! She drove a pretty nice car (lease) and had some money. The insurance company gave him all the excuses, can't find the address for her, can't find out where she works, has no money! He did all there work for them and gave them her address of her current home and work and her bosses phone number! And the best part was he had photo's of her 4800 SQ FT house with a 5 car garage! By the way her accident with him was her 5th DWI!! Both of them had STATE FRAUD insurance! Not some fly-by-night company! The fault lies in insurance companies how does this happen? How? If you keep raising the rates and they can pay then the greed of big business takes over? Not the safety of the general public!
 
maxepr1 said:
The fault lies in insurance companies how does this happen? How? If you keep raising the rates and they can pay then the greed of big business takes over? Not the safety of the general public!
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Oh please. That's rediculous.
 
Scott...I am glad that no major injuries resulted from this. I hate to be the bearer of bad news (or good in your case) but your car did what it should have done. It buckled (absorbed the impact) which is why the roof buckled to protect the occupants, so you dont absorb the impact. This is called induced damage. Being a police officer and being certified in collision investigation, I see this all of the time. Induced damage is damage to a vehicle that is not directly related to the impact. Sometimes you will see light lenses blwn out, windshields buckled, etc. As mentioned before, just because he is drunk doesnt always mean he is the one at fault (not drawing any conclusions on your crash). We have 15 days by state law to complete a report. They may be waiting on B.A.C. results to finish it. More complex crashes take longer to finish. Irregardless, hopefully everything works out for you.
 
Ryan-he ran a red light, drunk or not it was completely his fault. I had a green light the entire 1/4 mile I could see it as I approached so it wasn't like he tried to beat a yellow. He had to drive up over the curb on the right to keep from hitting the cars stopped at that intersection in front of him so he could run the light. There absolutely isn't any doubt. The problem is he won't cooperate with his insurance company (which already says a lot) so until the police report is available or he starts talking, they won't do anything.



BTW, you can see what the impact did to the front upper strut bar...



strut_bar.jpg




Taking everything out of the car today, I noticed the passenger seat is now tight up against the center console, neither front seat belt will retract and the interior front passenger door panel is damaged.
 
Wow Scott!! That freaking sucks! You are lucky he hit you at the engine bay and not directly on the passenger door. That would have been horrible. We are having issues with drunk drivers here on Long Island too, they keep driving the wrong way on the parkways and causing major death and destruction. It always seems that these morons drive the biggest damn vehicles they can afford too!!!

Looks like the engine was knocked out of alignment which in turn knocked the tranny out of alignment.

Hope it works out with the insurance and hope he gets nailed in the police report.
 
Sorry to see that man! I remember when you posted and picked the car up! Make sure you and your family are cared for (and maybe then some) in all this.
 
David Fermani said:
Oh please. That's rediculous.
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However, it's not like the insurance companies are there to "help you". Insurance companies are a for-profit business, and anything they have to pay out is considered a "loss" for them. So it doesn't surprise me when I hear of insurance-horror stories.
 
Just got the police report which confirms the other driver ran the light and was arrested for "driving while intoxicated-felony repetition". His BAC was .216.
 
Scottwax said:
Just got the police report which confirms the other driver ran the light and was arrested for "driving while intoxicated-felony repetition". His BAC was .216.
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I don't know about you guys, but I'm not sure I'd be able to stand straight at that BAC level.
 
Scottwax said:
Just got the police report which confirms the other driver ran the light and was arrested for "driving while intoxicated-felony repetition". His BAC was .216.
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Did anyone else hear a cash register sound at the end of that sentance? :D
 
WAS said:
However, it's not like the insurance companies are there to "help you".
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I don’t think you know too much about Auto Insurance then or maybe that’s what it’s like in your country, but here that’s exactly what they do. They are in the business of helping people! If not there wouldn’t be Catastrophe teams employed to help people free of charge in times of need. There wouldn’t be customer service concessions given left and right as employees are always instructed to air on the side of the customer when in doubt. And there wouldn’t be tons of advancement concentrated on processing a claim faster if Insurance companies didn’t want to “help you” out. Many of the top companies push to inspect an auto claim within 24 hrs of reporting where back a decade ago it was within a week or longer. If these services don’t help than I don’t know what do? Can you give me specific examples of how they don’t help?







WAS said:
Insurance companies are a for-profit business, and anything they have to pay out is considered a "loss" for them.
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Well, that’s common sense for all businesses right? You’re obviously insinuating that if an act/process is going to cost an Insurance company money, they’ll drag their feet or not pay on their obligation which is not correct. Your insurance company has more to loose than just the payout of a claim. Insurance Fair Conduct Act

One of the biggest processes insurance companies actually focus on is paying out losses; i.e. Claims. The ones that are most successful are those who can correctly rate their polices to those in their target market and efficiently pay out what is owed per the policy if a loss occurs. Not the ones that will screw their customers like some may think. Not all policies are the same, but many companies (like Allstate & Progressive for example) are known to not air on the side of the customer when a loss occurs. They’re also the ones that have given some people bad experiences with their claim and usually are the ones you constantly hear about. .: Welcome : : Allstate Insurance Sucks : Index :. That’s why it’s important for people to do their homework before choosing a policy. Especially when they are shopping for the lowest price as this usually means the lowest coverage (exclusions/limitations).





WAS said:
So it doesn't surprise me when I hear of insurance-horror stories.
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Can you give me examples of these so-called horror stories?

For every one horror story, I hear about 1000 success stories. Auto Insurance companies aren’t there to screw people over when there is a claim like you may think. Many of the horror stories you hear about with auto claims is usually due to people not having the adequate coverage they thought they had. Which is mostly their own fault or their agent’s. Most of the time on Total Losses Insurance companies pay you more than what your car is really worth. With how depressed the Used Car market is right now I’m amazed at how much people are getting paid for their cars. I’m anxious to see how Scott makes out with the value of his vehicle in this case in comparison to what it would sell for in the real world market.
 
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