accident report

Ah, ya have a couple of tom's.

Roy

(top post to avoid snipping)

Nate.. My neighbor just went through something like this on her daughters car... it was rear ended and pushed up into another car.. (ouch)

Body work and all came out fine, but she was worried about resale... Her insurance company told her to get 2 "experts" to estimate the amount of resale value lost due to record of it being bent... She got one from a local dealer regarding resale, I got one from a friend that runs a used car lot... they were both pretty close, in this case about $3,000, and the insurance company agreed to compensate her that amount without a hassle.. Glad that the family is ok... I know that's your main priority...

Hope this helps a little..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Once again - I'll explain it so you can understand. Initially, the way Nate described it, it sounded like the impact occurred at 30-35MPH. When he clarified, it became apparent that the speed of the vehicle was determined to be 30-35MPH based on the skid marks, meaning that the speed at impact was significantly slower (as evidenced by the amount of damage done).

True. And as a 21 year police veteran in Texas, the guy was at fault. I know the accident didn't occur in Texas. But here a driver is required to come to a complete stop when exiting a private drive (includes parking lots). Then pull out onto the street only when safe to do so. It sounds as if the moron never stopped. As for the ticket issue. Here in Texas we don't issue traffic tickets either if an officer does not witness the accident or violation. Now if there is an injury or death then that's a different story. An officer will write tickets or make an arrest in those cases. An officer also does not find fault in an accident. Although there is a space on the accident report for "officer's opinion" as to who caused the accident. In Texas an accident is considered a civil matter and therefore your insurance companies "work it out" between themselves. They have their own investigators to do this. The police only are there to gather facts and to deal with the traffic nightmares that usually occur with an accident. On a side note the worst thing I have ever heard as an officer is while working an accident on a major highway. The squeeling of brakes will make you run and jump for cover and will make a certain part of your anatomy pucker up. People just do not pay attention to what they are doing.

Bob

I see what you're saying and can't argue with it. I'd want my truck fixed right to-back to like it was new cause it is a new truck. I just wouldn't want to get a lawyer involved in it since the cost of one would probably be more than the money I'd loose on the truck when I sold it.

Denny

An officer in Universal City, TX lost her legs about 2 years ago when a car rear-ended her patrol car at a stop, and an officer trying to catch speeders and DWI drivers in San Antonio got rear ended by a DWI driver and lost his life last month. (His wife was the dispatcher on duty when the call came in)

happens too often. OK finally passed a law this year that requires drivers to move over to another lane when passing a police car stopped on the shoulder. Hope that helps, but unfortunately there will always be bad drivers and drunk drivers out there. John

If I had a choice between 2 trucks at the same price I would definitely take the undamaged one, no question about it. But the real question is if there was only 1 truck available, and it was properly repaired, how much less would I pay than if it wasn't ever in an accident? I don't know. I might pay the same if it had the equipment I wanted and it was at a price I considered reasonable because there isn't a second truck to compare it to. The used truck market is too fluid to say what the value of one particular truck is worth from one day to the next. Depends on the market at the day of sale.

John

Actually, it can be better for you. You have your policy covering your insured interests under your "first party" coverage, and your company will cover the loss under the other drivers "third party" coverage. That means that any potential gaps in coverage would be covered by the other policy. They'll be quicker to take care of your repairs, and if you don't have rental car coverage under your policy, you'll get it automatically under the other drivers "liability" coverage as long as he's at fault. No protracted arguments between companies haggling over whether they'll pay your claims or not. Keep in mind that if they were different companies, your company would not necessarily be fighting for "your best interests". They are only allowed to subrogate for actual payments they made to you under the coverage that your policy contract calls for. They can't subrogate for extra money that they didn't pay for, and if your policy doesn't cover loss of value (very few do) then they can't try to get that from the other company because they won't pay you for coverage you don't have.

You keep talking about needing an attorney; you really should check to see what coverage you get under your policies before you waste your money on an attorney. I always felt sorry for those people that got an attorney to get coverage for their property damage. We ended up paying the same as the original estimate, but then they had to take a large chunk out of that and give it to their attorney, so they ended up paying the difference out of their own pocket.

John

They may have been going 35 at the time they applied their brakes, but it sure doesn't look like the damage to your vehicle was caused by a vehicle going 35 at the time of impact! Did they write those estimates in their police report? That would surprise me because they don't normally go to the expense and trouble of calculating estimated speed unless a fatality was involved. It takes a lot more to estimate speed than just measuring skid marks. For an actual assessment they need to weigh the load, check the brakes on the tow vehicle and trailer, measure the tread, take tire samples, check the air pressure in the tires, check the air temperature, humidity, and check the friction quotient of the asphalt or driveway surface if they want it to hold up in court. They don't normally do that for fender-benders. Of course nowadays they would just get a search warrant in a fatality case and obtain the actual speed from the vehicle computer.

John

ok i gotta ask....

so driving essentially blind folded is not careless???

I thought dealers automatically started with an offer 50% less than the KBB trade-in value. If they offered 30% less, then the vehicle appreciated instead of depreciated ;-)

John

Hmm, I have to wonder if it looked bad for it's age/milage, or something. I have had a few friends trade trucks that had been wrecked badly enough to pop the air bags, and none of them took a huge hit, and as far as I know the dealers all knew about the wrecks..

BDK

i dont know, it will be 10 days before i can access the report. the

30-35mph estimate was given to me by the highway patrolman over the phone.

That sounds about right, at least with a couple of weasels I have tried to do business with. I couldn't believe a couple were even seriously expecting me to go for them..

The amount one guy offered me trade in on two vehicles was less than I got for one of them (86 Iroc Z28) after parking it in front of my friend's store that's at a hugely busy intersection. I sold it the night I parked it there. The other one, an 88 S10 Blazer was sold a short time later to the friend above, who had it until recently when after almost

200K, two times being trashed inside when stolen, and a pretty good wreck, he sold it for way more than a sane person would pay..

If I would have taken the deal the weasely dealer offered, I would have lost about $7500, what I got for the Iroc.

BDK

Not if the conditions that are causing it are beyond your control.

from what comic pages do you come up with this shit ?

Total rubbish. The control factor is to stop the vehicle or pull over if you cannot see. It is well within the control of any person operating a vehicle to make a decision regarding if they can see or not. This is one more example of T-bone thinking that responsibility for ones own actions isn't necessary.

Yes, on your part.

Then I guess that all traffic going or required to look east must stop for the first hour or so after sunrise and and all traffic going or needing to look west must stop for the last hour prior to sunset on clear days as this visibility problem exists for all of them, LOL.

If their sun visors are of no help, yes, they must stop and pull over. Pretty much common sense.