<p>S just came home from his volunteer work having been in a fender bender. He was in the parking lot and a van backed into him, causing some damage to the front passenger headlight. From the description and angle, his story seems to hold. The van had a woman “in her thirties or forties” and a child.</p>
<p>She gave him a business card and said that it was her fault and she’d pay for it if we sent her the bill. He wasn’t thinking. He was trusting and naive. He didn’t call the police or take down the license plate or get the woman’s insurance info. To top it off, when he went inside his volunteer place, apparently a man indicated to him that he had seen the accident and knew that the woman was at fault, and he (S) didn’t ask for the man’s info.</p>
<p>We’ll wave aside the fact that S has learned his lesson and he’ll <em>never</em> make those mistakes again, I can assure you.</p>
<p>We contacted the police, but it’s so after-the-fact, not sure what can be done.
We’re trying to ascertain if this parking lot had video cameras, but doubtful.
We have no way of identifying the man who saw the accident.
I’ve googled the business on the business card and nothing comes up (it’s a <a href="mailto:businessname@yahoo.com">businessname@yahoo.com</a>).
We’ve called both phone numbers listed on the business card; one doesn’t accept messages.
We’ve been googling her name in this area but it’s an incredibly common one, of the Jane Smith variety, so that’s not going to be much of a lead.
We’ve called our insurance company, though we’ll have to see whether it’s worth taking the insurance hit if we can’t contact her, or just worth paying cash. (Or S paying part of the cash outlay for the repair. I’m guessing it’s about $1,000.)</p>
<p>Any other suggestions? He feels so bad, and I’m sympathetic to the fact that accidents happen so no one’s mad about the accident, but we’re a bit frustrated with the not-thinking-it-through piece of the equation, not calling the police or getting the insurance info, and the possibility that we’re left bare on this. S is <em>so</em> trusting and it’s going to be the death of him one day.</p>
<p>Grab a phone book and see if you get anywhere. Go to the address of the business listed. Do some legwork and play detective! </p>
<p>Unfortunately, even if your son got the witness’s name, nothing would come of it if this elusive lady can’t be found. I do hope the police can help; if nothing else, she’s passing out bogus business cards and causing wrecks!</p>
<p>I’m guessing you’re better off paying for this without involving insurance. You’ll have the deductible after all.</p>
<p>So sorry about this. The only good thing is that at least your son saw who hit him. Wouldn’t it be worse if he came back to see the car in tatters and not know what happened?</p>
<p>Good suggestions – but the last name is almost as common as Smith. The address on the business card is merely a PO#, not an address-address. I’m usually a really good detective about stuff like this, but I’m feeling stumped.</p>
<p>In my experience police rarely come to the scene of an accident unless there is major damage or someone is injured. Especially if the accident occurs on private property (parking lot) rather than the public street. Best bet is to try to find the woman. The lesson for next time is to be sure to at least get the license plate and drivers license info.</p>
<p>So sorry that your son had to go through this.</p>
<p>Was there damage to the woman’s van? If so, it is suspicious that she was motivated to leave, unless she had prior accidents or no insurance, or an even larger problem. </p>
<p>Are you in an mandatory insurance state?</p>
<p>It is good that you contacted the police in the unlikely event that she files a hit and run report against your son. You never know - at least he has the report on file.</p>
<p>If you don’t plan to make a claim, the incident will be forgotten. If you decide to make a claim, your insurer will press for more information about the woman, especially because the accident was her fault. Did you try to contact her during daytime hours? Can you do a reverse lookup on the phone number to find her address? Was she a regular customer of a business in the parking lot?</p>
<p>Without witnesses, it appears as if your son will be deemed to be at fault since it is the front of his car that was damaged. Raise your deductible & pay for the repairs out of pocket.</p>
<p>There wasn’t damage (as far as S knows) to the van. Yes, we’re in a mandatory insurance state.</p>
<p>This just happened this evening – so we’ll give it a day or two – the business card appears to have both a work and home phone number, but we just left messages. I’ve tried reverse lookup but I’m not inclined to spend $15 for it, but maybe that’s shortsighted. I’ve asked S to investigate whether she is a member of the place where he does his volunteer work (where the accident occurred).<br>
Thanks for all suggestions – really appreciate! Yes, we made it very clear to him that the important thing was that no one was hurt, a car is just a piece of metal.</p>
<p>I would disagree.
by reporting accident, both your insurance and the other party’s insurance will increase.
The damage may be small enough so that the repairs will be less than the deductible.
The damage on an older car may not be worth the effort to even repair. </p>
<p>The lady may be sincere. She knows the consequences of a reported accident. If she refuses to then report the damage to your insurance company along with her name address and phone .</p>
<p>Police will come to any accident in our town if you call them. What they won’t do is assign blame - they leave that up to the insurance companies. I’ve been in two accidents in the last couple of years - one was deemed not my fault the other half my fault (we both backed into each other in a parking lot). It hasn’t made any difference to our insurance. The not my fault one totaled the car. The half my fault was minor but somewhat expensive damage.</p>
<p>Fix the car. Leave messages for the lady and make a reasonable attempt to find her. If she calls back, send her the bill. If not, DS can chalk it up to a life lesson. Have him pay for the damage over time.</p>
<p>DS may have lacked the experience to gather all of the appropriate information, but there is an even more important lesson to learn here. That lesson is to keep things in persepective, stay chilled out, and file an event like this under “no big deal”.</p>
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<p>Probably quite the opposite. S will proably live to be 103 years old. Sounds to me like he has the right attitude. I am married to someone like this. His laid back attitude towards people and things going wrong has served him very, very well.</p>
<p>So much of this varies from state to state that there is no way for others to give opinions on whether your premiums will increase if you go through your insurance. If you have uninsured motorist coverage, and it is paid as that, it may well be that your premiums will not be affected as it may be prohibited by state law for your premium to go up if the accident is not your fault. My car was hit in a parking lot and the person left the scene. No one saw it and my insurance company had my word only. The claim was paid with no effect on my rate. If they pay the claim, they may undertake investigation to find the person to recoup the loss. You may need to file a police report in order to make the claim so that will need to be done tomorrow. You can talk to your insurance company about whether this would be paid as an uninsured motorist claim.</p>
<p>Did you email the lady? The best you can do is to try to reach her at her contacts by phone and email over the course of a few days. If she never responds you’re likely out of luck and he needs to write this off as an expensive life lesson. </p>
<p>If the cost of repairs to the car is more than the deductible I would use the insurance company. I’ve done this with our cars several times. My insurance rates never went up as a result and that’s what I’m paying insurance premiums for in the first place is for coverage beyond the deductible. Of course, individual insurance companies (I have State Farm) and individual circumstances could have different results so it’s good to check.</p>
<p>If ‘misery loves company’ makes you feel any better, my vehicle was hit at a ski resort parking lot last winter but I was happy that there was a note on my windshield with a phone number. Of course, when I called the number after getting home I found that it was a disconnected, i.e. bogus, number. I guess the person putting the note on the car was for show because others likely saw him/her hit it.</p>
<p>Same thing happened to a friend’s daughter. The police and insurance companies were not called, the damage was $150, and the other driver returned the email and sent a check to cover it. Very low key and no big deal at all. Minor damage accidents are handled this way all the time. If only the front headlight is damaged it’s probably not a lot to fix.</p>
<p>It’s really not worth the stress to you or your son. Don’t assume that the other driver is hiding until she’s had a day to get your message.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, if you’ve been trying to reach the woman on a Friday night and she gave your son her business card, it’s not surprising you can’t reach her. Wait until Monday before getting nervous.</p>
<p>By all means try to locate the lady. But if you don’t, this episode is still a useful teaching moment. Many kids are unprepared to collect the necessary information for an insurance claim. DD was bumped on the Cross Bronx … in heavy stop and go traffic. She called to ask what she should do, but I could tell by her voice that she was reluctant. The guy who bumped her said he’d pay, but later changed his story. Damage was less than the policy deductible so …</p>
<p>Back in the day they used to advise keeping a camera in the glove box and taking pictures. Now just whip out you cell phone. Get the setting, the license plates, etc. This is particularly helpful if you are a bit shaken.</p>
<p>Having said that when two extremely, nervous, sort of drugged, scary looking guys did exactly what the lady did to your son in a 7-11 parking lot , I didn’t take pictures or exchange names. I had young girls in the car and the last thing I wanted was for them to be able to figure out where we lived and to build any sort of conflict/contact with them. When I told them they could go, they took off like bats out of hell, so I think I made the right decision.</p>
<p>I would take a week to locate her and then, depending on your deductible and uninsured motorist coverage, fix it yourself. I am hopeful that the woman will turn up.</p>
<p>If this was a fendor bender and you live in a no-fault insurance state it typically is much cheaper to not report accidents to the police and insurance companies … so the women’s offer is pretty typical around here (MA) to save on future rate increases.</p>
<p>The short-term issue is finding the women (assuming she was sincere) … if you have a business card can you google the main office / contact info for the company for which she works … this might provide another route other than the phone number on the card. Longer-term make I’d suggest your son know to collect name and address (off driver’s license) and insurance info … I would not suggest calling the police for fendor benders because of the insurance consequences.</p>
<p>Filing a police report has no impact on your insurance rates and may be necessary to make a claim. It will likely need to be done within 24 hours though so it might be too late.</p>