A couple of days ago, my wife nodded off at the wheel waiting at a red light and rolled into the car in front of her. It was a very low speed, low impact collision. The kids, asleep in the car, didn't even notice. The guy in front jumps out of his car irate. They survey the damage; my wife's license plate left a rectangular mark in the paint on his bumper (he was driving, btw, a dinged 2001 Toyota Camry) with no damage to our car. He starts going off on my wife that she had better have insurance and generally being a jerk. My wife assured him that she did and suggested they move their cars to a parking lot to not block traffic. He tells her she'd better not run off. So, they get to the parking lot and the other driver calls the cops to report the "accident." He goes on about how my wife had better have insurance. She provides insurance information, but he refuses to share his. My wife starts feeling like it's a racial animosity, but has already resolved to be a good Christian about it and remain courteous. The cop arrives and seems a little annoyed to be called to investigate something that barely qualifies as an accident. The other driver continues his obsession with my wife needing to have insurance. The cop runs the insurance and confirms that its valid. The driver then says the insurance better provide for a rental car while his car is in the shop. My wife calls her insurance company to report the accident (she's admitted fault already, since she knows it is entirely her fault in the first place). The other driver insists on talking to them. So, my wife lets him talk to the agent when she is through. He's trying to ascertain how much coverage she has, but of course the agent says she can't divulge that information. When my wife gets back on the phone, the agent asks her, "Is that guy drunk?" When the cop was taking his report, he asked the driver if he had any injuries. He said he'd have to get checked out by his doctor (the man, btw, is very old). So, today our insurance company let us know that he is claiming an injury from the accident. My wife needs to take the car down to their office to be photographed to show the impact was so slight that no damage was caused to our car. It's an annoyance to have to go get the car photographed, especially for my wife who has a business to run. But, it's very annoying to see people behave this way, taking advantage of my wife's courtesy and paying it with rudeness, being rude to the policeman and the insurance agent too, and trying to swindle the insurance company in the bargain (at which I'm sure he'll not succeed).
I hate people like that. What a jerk. So sorry you and your wife have to deal with this crap. Hopefully your insurance company realizes he is faking and fights it.
Wow, that's really horrible. I'm sorry to hear that. Sounds like this guy couldn't wait to cash in. I had a similar situation in a parking lot. I was backing out, the guy behind me was backing out. The parking lot had a dip and I was driving an SUV, so I didn't see him even though I looked back. We ended up hitting each other right in the middle of the lane, so I thought it was reasonable to assume we were both at fault. But this guy comes out of his car yelling his head off. He's going nuts. I tried to kill him w/ kindness and a calm voice the whole time. Eventually he admitted he didn't see me either and while we waited for the police (took about 30 min, of course) we ended up w/ a friendly conversation. He even wished me good luck about starting my next semester in college and talked about his own kids. I was pretty lucky though. I don't trust people in general to 'man up' and admit they overreacted or were partially at fault. Luckily this guy came around or it would've been a long mess w/ the police, insurance, etc. We both opted not to report it to our insurance because the damage was negligible.
Very similar thing happened to me over Christmas holidays. I was pretty convinced the guy was going to hit me.
30 minutes is 5 seconds in cop time. i've never been in an accident but of those that i know of, no one's had a cop show up within 2 hours.
It's people like that who make me trust that karma comes back to bite them in the arse! Sorry you and your wife have to deal with him.
Sorry to hear about that but I have my own little accident story that happened last week. My girlfriend was riding in the car with her friend when they were stopped to turn on to another street with turn signal activated. Well this young girl (17) hits them from behind and totals the car and it probably totaled her SUV. My girlfriend sustained a broken nose and facial cuts and bruising and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Now my girlfriend's father comes in joking about how much money they can get and this and that but my girlfriend was like, no it is no big deal I have insurance that is going to cover all of this. Then her mom stated they would not do that anyway and that is why everybody's insurance rates are so high. The father of the girl even called to check on my girlfriend and apologized for it. Just thought I would give you an instance where somebody decided not to go for the gusto.
I think it will when his claim is DENIED. Insurance companies love chewing up silly claims like this. The good ones, anyway.
Could be worse. In my instances, a lady ran a red light, colliding into my front left (barely missed being T-boned), and totalled my car. Accused me of running the red light at apparently 5mph into ongoing traffic. Luckily, a car behind me saw the whole thing and called 911 before I did, and she got a citation. I decided to use my insurance deductible to cover me while they get the money from her insurance as well as a refund for my deductible. Her insurance is All State. Apparently a citation and a witness isn't enough to convince All State that she was at fault. They are claiming that I should have been able to avoid the car running the red light. It's been over 5 months and the last I've heard is that our insurance companies were going into arbitration. I think I've been pretty much screwed out of my deductible as well as the accident going on my record. Next time I'm suing like no tomorrow and claiming any injuries no matter how minor. Its the only way insurance companies will man up any responsibility now a days.
