Terrible weather, Steve was sitting at a red light in his two door jeep and a kid in a pickup truck slid into the back of him. Hard hit, but it’s icy, so the jeep slid - unclear if any or how much damage (Steve has a big assed trailer hitch, and he thinks that helped) Kid called his dad, they were both super nice, police came, wrote up all the stuff, and then in front of all of them said something like “ it’s always better if you settle this without involving the insurance company” - and then turned to Steve and said “but it’s up to you”. That made Steve really unhappy (I mean, better for who?!) - we are really happy with our insurance company (AMICA) and they have helped us a ton with car accidents (like when the cab in Seattle sideswiped us and then said it was our fault) I want to call the insurance company. Because the car needs to be checked out at the minimum, and that will cost $. What would you do? (Also really annoyed at the policeman, but this is a small good old boy town and you never know who knows who).

Do you need to involve the insurance company to have someone thoroughly check for damage and give you a reliable estimate to fix it if there is any damage worth fixing?

If the kid's dad will fully cover the cost of any work done, it seems you could avoid the insurance company. This is often the issue for relatively small $$ stuff where the deductible is high.

Ok that makes sense, with the deductible. To at least have it checked out first. What a ******* hassle.

Did Steve get checked out by a doctor? Injuries from rear end collisions can seem to not exist but there was trauma to Steve's body here. Insurance is not just for the car.

Some kid drove into the back of Mr wtg's car on an exit ramp. Mr wtg stopped to merge into traffic (there were cars coming) and the kid didn't. It was a relatively minor tap but there was damage that needed to be repaired. This was in the pre-cellphone era, so Mr wtg and the kid exchanged DL #, insurance info, and phone numbers, and they went their separate ways. I don't recall if they called the police, or if Mr wtg went to the police station to fill out an accident report.

Mr wtg got home and called the insurance company to report what happened.

A few hours later the kid's dad called us. He wanted to handle it without getting insurance involved and said he would pay for the repair. Mr wtg took it in for an estimate to a body shop we chose. When he called the kid's father back with the estimate, the guy balked and said it was too high and that he had a friend who could fix it for less.

We ended up putting the claim in/handling the repair through the insurance company. We didn't want to deal with the hassle.

I can understand that your situation might be different, being in a small town.

quote:

Originally posted by markj:
Did Steve get checked out by a doctor? Injuries from rear end collisions can seem to not exist but there was trauma to Steve's body here. Insurance is not just for the car.

DING DING DING. We have a winner.

I wonder if not reporting it might jeopardize your coverage going forward.

https://greeninglaw.com/risks-...t-insurance-company/

If you fail to involve your insurer and then the driver and his father stiff you, it will likely be too late to go to the insurer. Most policies require time notice.

Jf

So Steve took it to the body shop, they said the car was fine (they looked under it) - he had an extender on his hitch, which is wha the truck ended up hitting - put a big dent in the truck, but the hitch is connected well, the car slid after getting hit (it was on ice). Also, he talked to an insurance agent that he was doing an work related thing with this morning - not our insurance, but happened to be insurance company of the car that hit us - and that guy said to contact our insurance for sure (if there was any damage - that was before he went to the body shop) - that legally you had to notify your insurance. So that is what we would have done (if we had to fix the car) And he is fine - no whiplash.

I don't have any advice for you but I'm sorry you have to deal with this! And I'm glad it wasn't any worse!

Wait a couple of more days on the whiplash thing. It sometimes manifests a few days later.

Generally, if someone hits you from behind, it’s 100% their fault. However, in various states, your insurance premiums could take a hit because you were in an accident and put in a claim, even if it wasn’t your fault. That’s how it could be better for you. Needless to say, I don’t know anything about Montana insurance law.

I've been hit from behind in a very similar scenario, Jodi. In Montana.

I suffered no negative outcomes from contacting the other driver's insurance. They totalled the car, sent me a check for more than I paid for that car, and I kept the car.

The medical issue is not minor. It can take a while before you know how your body took the hit. Often, that doesn't show up right away.

I think the cop was way out of line saying what he said. Whose best interest? Is the kid or his dad a friend?

If it were me, I would be contacting the other party's insurance with the police report. It should not affect your insurance premium at all. But my info on that may not be up to date. You might want to call the state insurance commissioner to find out all the ins and outs. In my experience, the insurance commissioner's office is a great source of info.

If your state has “no fault” insurance, you would contact your own insurance company, not the other driver’s.

Jf

quote:

police came, wrote up all the stuff, and then in front of all of them said something like “ it’s always better if you settle this without involving the insurance company” -

.

What a strange thing to say.

People who say at the scene that they will pay often don’t.