Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 12:20:36 -0400
Reply-To: Tim Smith <smitht@UNB.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tim Smith <smitht@UNB.CA>
Subject: accidents/insurance
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi,
Having been stung by a couple of accidents my policy is that I won't move
my vehicle or allow the other vehicle to move until the police have seen
everything, talked to both drivers and have made a report. I don't care
who this bothers, nothing gets altered until the cops ask me to. I've been
T-boned by an uninsured driver, who just HAD to get to her dentists
appointment, I offered her a quarter and pointed to the phone booth. You
can still agree to allow a direct settlement instead of going through the
insurance companies, letting the police write their report doesn't affect
this option, even if they press charges.
Coming to a 'gentleman's agreement' without the police report means the
other driver can and will most likely blow you off. Remember that you are
looking at least say $500 for a body shop to get involved, price a broken
vanagon tail light to get an idea of the starting bid. If they don't want
that on their policy they likely don't have it in the bank either. And even
if you have name's and addresses of a couple of witnesses for your side
they can still blow you off long enough that you have to get repairs done,
then go after the money when you can no longer show their ins. co. the
damages. Plus the police get ticked at being called into an accident
afterwards. Witnesses may also orget or not want to bother after the fact.
Get their names anyhow, even though the police are coming/there, and pass
them on to your insurance co. too.
Be careful just walking away from a minor fender bender when no damage
beyond bumper to bumper contact has happened. I have had a guy later report
a claim to his company that I had crunched the passengers side of his car,
he had a body shop bill to prove the repairs. I had to fight this one, his
description of the accident included the details that it happened on a
oneway street and he was turning right when I 'hit' him (we'd nicked
bumpers due to slippery conditions) Took a while to get my insurance
company to reject the claim, until they woke up to which side of the car
the repairs were done on.
bottom line, 'call da cops', and stay put. If you block enough lanes
someone will call the cops anyhow, while you make sure you don't get a
'drive-away'.
HTH, Tim
Finally I have had some fights regarding 'depreciated' value of my vanagon
(it was 3mos new when T-boned, to the final tune of $3400Cdn) Bottom line
is unless the vehicle is a write-off I'll fight against ANY depreciation, I
wouldn't be replacing these parts myself, why should I have to pony up any
money because someone else makes me need replacements? Insurance companies
have a hard time with this, be ready to fight and DO NOT use their rec'd
body shops for an estimate, stick with dealer or high end body shops that
know European cars. I have had an insurance co refuse to give me more than
what 'their' shop estimated, then the shop turned around and jacked the
amount during the job and was paid it. Enough that I could have had it
fixed at the dealer.
|