This is where the university might help with leverage. Needs a permit to park on campus, I bet. I’d be pretty surprised if a parking permit would be granted without some statement about complying with applicable laws and being insured (I’d be shocked, actually, because an uninsured accident on campus could cause problems for the university).
So here’s a thought. 1. Take what data you have ( police report, any pictures, drivers license student ID number, whatever) to campus security and affirm that this person, claiming to be one of their students, has been cited for a hit and run and 2) also affirm that your insurance has determined the other driver is not, in fact, insured.
It might be that the university cares enough about who drives on campus to track them down for you.
Tomorrow, I’m hoping that Allstate will have been able to track the VIN number to possibly get the car owner’s insurance info. If not, I will try some of the above suggestions.
More than anything, I want her off the road. I would feel very guilty if she hurt someone.
I am glad for you, I went through that years ago, my wife was driving in NYC and a truck decided to make a right turn in front of her from the lane next to her (left of her), and the bumper of the truck hooked the front bumper of our car and tore it off (not very hard, cheap plastic bumper). The guy had one of those temporary binders, the pink forms they call them around here, and of course turned out it was not valid. Allstate, our insurance, tried to trace the guy, turns out he fled to Puerto Rico and they couldn’t find him. Since we had collision on the car, Allstate paid it though we were out 500 bucks, and it didn’t cause our rates to go up since the other guy had been found at fault. If something like that happened and Allstate tried to raise our rates or drop our good driver discount, I would change insurance companies in a flash after giving them a mouthful and filing complaints for fraud, how can you blame the driver of a car that isn’t at fault?
Im just glad that I don’t have to pay the deductible now AND my deductible won’t go up. I have a “good driver” reduced deductible, that I would have lost if my uninsured motorist coverage would have had to cover this.
I just hope her licensed is removed or she has to provide documentation that she’s gone thru some sort of intensive driver’s training (on road, with instructor).
I don’t yet know when the court date will be for her “hit and run”. If she pleads guilty, I don’t think there will be a court date.
USAgencies just called my insurance (Allstate) and said that the policy was lapsed! So they’re not going to pay! What the heck? What was this mornings convo then???
Allstate of course will cover (minus deductible!) and they’re sending me a form that I need to fill out and send so that will prevent the owner from registering the car again until the liability is paid. Fat chance that will happen. So annoyed now.
Still thinking the university is key to getting this sorted out.
If she’s a student there, you may have it in your power to prevent her from getting to class - or maybe more - until this is settled.
Even if not, you still have a fool proof way to get her into a small claims court if it comes to that. Not sure exactly how that works, but I expect either registered mail or a human being would be used to alert her that her presence was required. She’s not going to give the university a bogus address, and she’s not going to skip too many classes to dodge anybody.
Ok…correction…they didn’t use the word lapsed. It now sounds like there is insurance, but the owner lent this car to this lady and her license expired, and so USAgencies won’t cover based on that??
Allstate told me this happens all the time with these flaky cheap operations. Allstate said that those companies will accept liability and then they’ll find a way to decline.
It’s not really USAA is it? I believe they own Progressive. They wouldn’t give you the run around though.
The cops should know that she was driving either without valid insurance or without a valid driver’s license (or both). That is another ticket for her. It seems that they should have caught a not valid driver’s license at the scene. If so, this is likely insurance shenanigans.
I looked over the police report and next to her DL number there is a box that asks about DL status. in the box is an E, which I guess means Expired. Next to mine there is a C, which I guess means Current. So it looks like the police did note that.
She was cited for: No proof of insurance, driving wrong way, leaving scene of accident (hit and run), and some other citation for her turn. I’m surprised that she wasn’t cited for the expired DL, but if it’s recently expired, then she’s Ok because AL has a 30 day grace period for expired licenses.
I don’t know if this is a cultural thing or not…but she hasn’t answered the phone when Allstate or I have tried calling her. I don’t know if she’s forbidden from answering numbers that she doesn’t recognized? Maybe because she might get in trouble for talking to a male? She is married with kids, but everyone is in Saudi while she’s a grad student. I don’t know how it works.
lol…I did email her today to ask about her insurance and she said USAgencies and gave a policy number, but I already know that they’re declining. So, I did ask her to email me a pic of her policy that show dates of coverage, etc.
lolol…her response was…“Are you going to fix my car?” lolololol
Oh my goodness, you have an uphill battle on your hands! I think some people will just “wait you out” until you give up. Don’t give up!
Keep emailing her. Tell her what’s going on and that you will contact her university if her insurance policy doesn’t cover the claim. Maybe that will scare her into some action. At least it’s early in the semester.
I think people say that about 15-20% of drivers don’t have insurance. The fact that she is a graduate student might help out because it means she has something to lose and probably isn’t going to just ignore the police or a court summons, so you might have a point of leverage.
Here’s one way I’ve seen a case like this work out. If the state decides to prosecute her for hit and run, etc. then you would be called as a witness. But if she covers all your out-of-pocket costs, then you can decide not to show up for the court date and usually the judge just drops that charge. This might be worth enough to her that she’d pay your deductibles etc. One difference between this and the case I saw is that there wasn’t also a cop that witnessed them driving the wrong way, so the whole matter was dropped by the judge. This made the guilty party eager to pay to fix the car so the whole thing would go away. This might not be the case here, plus there’s possibly an expired license.
Might be worth a try. However, I believe that it is unethical for an attorney who is a member of the bar to use the threat of prosecution to force a civil settlement, so your attorney might not want to be involved. Personally, if the only problem was the damage she caused to your car I don’t see anything wrong with doing this. However, in this case you might feel that you have a moral obligation to get her off the road before she kills someone, and so it isn’t just a question of money and you’d want to help prosecute.
Right. I really want her off the road, or at least required to take some intensive lessons NOW. The idea that she might hit a pedestrian or another car and cause injury or death is very scary.
I am concerned that her husband (in Saudi) may just decide to order her home since she’s causing trouble here and might face prosecution. He may just want to avoid everything by just having her pack her bags and come home. If she were to suddenly leave, there would be no long-arms to get her.
As an aside…I wonder if she had to pay her entire 12 month lease upfront? I imagine that it would be impossible for any landlord to go after someone who’s left the country.
I’d doubt that her husband would order her home without first trying to buy you off. It would cost him far more to bring her home then to pay to fix your car.
^^
I don’t think I’m really the problem. I think the problem is that she’s likely going to lose her license and won’t be able to get to class. She chose an apt complex that is about 8 miles away from campus. I guess she could take a taxi everyday, but don’t know if that would be allowed (alone in a taxi with likely a male driver).
I’m not sure it would cost him “far more” to bring her home. How much would that cost? $1500?
If he’s (more likely the family) has already paid tuition, and a years rent, that plus air fare and visas would be less than the cost of a car. I know things have changed, but I went to an international high school many years ago and things that happened in the states where not held to the same scrutiny as things that happened in Saudi.