<p>Glad it worked out for “Driver.” :)</p>
<p>Phew! Kids do the darndest things! Our S had his 3rd rear-ender in less than a year–the other two times he was rear-ended and this time HE did the rear-ending. I told him to just let his insurer handle it. That was the “duh” moment when he admitted to allowing the insurance to lapse! They wonder why we get white hair!</p>
<p>HImom, ouch! The biggest fine handed out today was for no insurance…NJ takes that very serious. Any chance it was short enough that they would reinstate with back premium?</p>
<p>I guess no insurance might be a reason to consider leaving the scene…I think it was 1000 fine. Don’t remember if any license suspension. No, not condoning it…but wouldn’t it be tempting if you thought you could? I would try to keep the police out of it, though if I were the other driver I might not agree. </p>
<p>Figures your son had insurance when he didnt need and not when he did need it. Hope it worked out for him. Did you try to help him deal with insurer?</p>
<p>Btw, This was not football son…</p>
<p>For S, he has tried to work things out with the car he hit but neither that person nor that person’s father will talk to him. I asked S to send a certified letter, return receipt requested showing that he is attempting to pay them for any damage he caused.</p>
<p>Fortunately for S, no police were involved at all and he got no citation. He has since made sure that he keeps his insurance up to date! He purchased esurance right away & will shop around some more now that he has more time to consider whom he wants to have his next policy with.</p>
<p>Our state does not have a way to get zero points. Our S lives 5000 miles away & has been rear-ended in LA & DC! Can’t believe he’s been in 3 accidents in less than a year. Guess he does drive a lot in highly congested areas.</p>
<p>HImom, we lived in HI twenty years ago, and continue to return there for vacations every few years. We live in the DC area now, where H leaves home before 5AM every morning to avoid the worst of the commuter traffic. Even with the heavy increase in road traffic on Oahu since we lived there, we feel like we’ve been slapped in the face with rudeness every time we return to the east coast from Hawaii (also happens when we return from the midwest states).</p>
<p>Occasional fender benders are just the cost of driving around here. Made worse by the differing laws in Maryland, DC and Virginia, and the stew pot of drivers from other parts of the world, and the incredible number of people around here who absolutely believe that they, personally, are the most important driver on the road (or on the shoulder of the road, if that’s what it takes to get to their destination 30 seconds earlier). So your son’s three accidents in less than a year in the DC area aren’t necessarily unusual.</p>
<p>Glad to hear there was a good outcome.</p>
<p>Yes, good to hear there was a fair result. The decision as to whether to hire an attorney or not with regard to traffic violations varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. No one should ever use the results from other jurisdictions to decide what is best where they live.</p>
<p>That was really good that he was able to go in without an attorney and have the option of bringing one in if things got sticky. We hired a lawyer to help our son with a ticket (of course son insisted he was innocent). After paying our lawyer friend over $1000 I wondered if we would have all been better off with no lawyer and a guilty plea.</p>
<p>You do whatever you need to do to keep from getting points. In some places, that necessarily involves hiring a lawyer. In others, it is not necessary. I would never take a lawyer to traffic court where I live. It might even work to my detriment if I did.</p>
<p>HImom – we had a friend who was rear-ended multiple times in LA, and of course it was always the other driver’s fault legally. But I drove with him to a party in Hollywood one night, and quickly understood why he’d been rear-ended so often: he was an engineer, he new exactly what stopping distance his car required on dry pavement at typical surface street speeds, and he never put his brakes on until the very last moment. So now when I hear of someone who gets rear-ended a bunch, I wonder if he might have some driving habits that contribute to this. Just a thought.</p>
<p>Yea, I told both kids I thought they would benefit from taking defensive driving courses. I know S has not had all that much experience with driving, as we just sent him a car in the fall of 2009. Hopefully he won’t continue to get rear-ended.</p>
<p>I know I almost got creamed on a rear-ender recently. I could hear the car behind me & he was close. I decided to run the light because there was NO WAY he would stop in time while I sat comfortably behind the stop line. I DID get through the intersection & he stopped WAY past where I had just been waiting behind the stop line.</p>
<p>OP:
I’m glad it worked out well. From the way you presented it here at the beginning it didn’t sound like they had much on him as far as the ‘leaving the scene’ goes. </p>
<p>HiMom:
I guess your S should pay special attention to how beefy both bumpers are for his next car purchase (plus paying closer attention to the insurance lapses). ;)</p>
<p>I hope he doesn’t blame the other driver/dad for not wanting to deal directly with him on this - I wouldn’t either since there are too many times the at-fault driver who at first is apologetic and promises to pay for the damage ends up weedling out of it somehow by convincing themselves that it wasn’t really their fault (ex: other driver must have stopped short or something - yeah, that’s it!), or don’t have the funds, or balk at the higher than expected cost to fix the damage (and collision repairs are always higher than expected) and end up not paying up. I’m not talking about your S specifically of course who I’m sure would be honest and dependable but the other driver doesn’t know your S. It’s much better to let the insurance company deal with it from their perspective and then your S can deal with the insurance company. That’s part of what they’re paying the insurance company for - dealing with this situation.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts & comments. S inherited the car he’s driving. It’s a 2002 Mercedes 2-door. So far, so good, other than a few “gremlins” S has found that make it quirky. </p>
<p>Am letting S handle the car incident. Have not heard that there was an insurer that the other driver had either. Not sure what is going on, but am glad he tried to do the right thing by sending them a certified letter to indicate that he would like to make amends. He will be more careful about keeping his insurance up to date & forwarding mail (he’s had a bunch of different addresses over the past 18 months, which is probably part of the problem).</p>