<p>I got involved in a very very minor accident in a parking lot. An idiot decided to come out of a parking space without looking while I was driving on the main road. There was a light mark on his car and I got a minor dent on my car. Nothing serious and it should be fixed very easily. The man first said he was sorry and apologized. It took him forever to find his insurance paper. I found it strange when he said he didn’t know what insurance company he is with, but the insurance number was found when I called in the claim, so it must have been legit. Then, after his friend came to his car, his story changed. His friend who works for an insurance company advised him not say anything. The man then changed his story and said it wasn’t his fault- when there was a dent in my car and a light mark on his car. </p>
<p>Why do people have to lie when they do something wrong? I never understood the concept. If I hit somebody and I know it was my fault 100%, I would be compassionate with the person and make sure everything is easy for them.</p>
<p>This is why cameras were invented. Nowadays almost everyone has a camera with them on their cell phone. Always take pictures immediately. Take a number of them including different angles, close up, and further back for perspective. Make sure you get a pic of the license plate and preferably the vehicle model. For a situation where one backs out of a space right into you, make sure you show the space and orientation of the vehicles. From pictures it’s usually straightforward who was at fault.</p>
<p>‘Never’ trust the person when they say to not call the cops or insurance company and they’ll pay you directly. They almost always change their story or dispute the damage. They usually have no idea how expensive it is to fix even seemingly minor damage and when they find out how much it’ll cost they usually dispute more fervently and deny being at fault even more.</p>
<p>‘Always’ call your insurance company right away and provide all the details you can and inform them you have pictures.</p>
<p>If you live in an area where police respond to these kinds of things (many areas they won’t) then call them to write a report. </p>
<p>Why do people lie? Who knows. People don’t want to be responsible for anything. People don’t want their insurance rates to increase. They don’t want to pay the deductible. They don’t want to admit they were a dufus who backed into someone without looking first. They usually twist it around in their mind that it’s not ‘really’ their fault and the more time that elapses the more they convince themselves of this.</p>
<p>Sorry this happened to you. It happened to me around a year or so ago by some idiot without insurance (similar story as the one you just mentioned - he said he had it but didn’t really since he switched cars). He caused a lot of damage to my very nice car and minimal damage to his beater truck. In the end though my car got fixed and my insurance covered it.</p>
<p>I took every single piece of information I could from him and pictures were taken. I found it very suspicious that he didn’t know what insurance company he was with and the driver’s license and insurance card address didn’t match. Coincidentally, we both have the same insurance company. I already called in the claim, so hopefully the information he gave me was valid. Also, since the accident was on private property, I can’t make a police report over the phone, so I will be going tomorrow morning to file a police report.</p>
<p>What ****ed me off more than the damage was that he had the gall to lie to my face when he said he was sorry when he first got out of his car.</p>
<p>The worse part I think about this was that he had his two kids in his car with him. It’s very very sad to think he’s teaching his kids to lie to people when you do something wrong. I really hope the kids don’t lead by example.</p>
<p>I work for an insurance agent and see this all the time. The guilty party jumps out of the car and apologizes for being such a dufus–basically admitting he was at fault. They don’t call the police because dufus has taken responsibility and gives his insurance information. Then dufus goes home and his parents or spouse are angry because he put a dent in the car, so dufus lies and says it’s not his fault to save his own butt at home. Or dufus talks to a friend who says if that guy wasn’t going so fast, he wouldn’t have hit you when you ran that stop sign in front of him, thus convincing himself it wasn’t his fault after all.</p>
<p>I tell people to ALWAYS call the police, no matter how minor the damage. Of course, in my town, the police won’t make a report if it’s on private property (parking lot) but it doesn’t hurt to call them anyway.</p>
<p>Well here’s a story, I backed out of a parking space into someone and naturally I thought it was my fault and said I was sorry, but then immediately after I’d spilled out my apologies I realized that he was equally responsible since he’d been backing into a space. The police came, the insurance companies said we were each half to blame and no issues, but sometimes one’s first instinct is to apologize when actually the story might be more complicated. Not in your case though!</p>
<p>ra8722, you want to know why someone would LIE after getting into an accident? I’ll tell you why. They don’t want to pay and experience the consequences of being at fault in an accident. FOr some, it’s just a matter of the repairs, but once something is reported to the insurance company, it can be a lot of money. One can also get reamed in terms of damages. The consequences could mean literally not being able to drive for a long time. By just staying mum or lying, they can make out If you are able to afford the hit of an accident, it’s one thing but there are some who cannot. There are also those who try not to have to pay out if there is any way they can avoid it.</p>
<p>I was hit by a car that swerved into me. Not a thing I could do about it and I had several people in the car who saw exactly what happened, Driver said I swerved into her. The insurance company would not take the testimony of those in the car and split the blame 50/5, so she made out somewhat over taking the full blame as she should.</p>
<p>My son was involved in a major accident, no seemed to be hurt. He took the blame We got sued a million dollars. The ins company and attorneys said he was stupid to have admitted blame. Never admit blame they said. In this case, the suit was fraudulent, and after 4 years was dismissed, but we took a major hit on this, that might not have been as bad had he just kept mum.</p>
<p>Well no one likes their insurance rates to go up to be honest. But it’s not really that much of a surprise that someone would lie if they thought they could.</p>
<p>As for CPToftheHouse.</p>
<p>If your son was involved in a major accident and WOULDN’T take the blame, I’d of made sure I sued the hell out of him and the people backing him. A major accident has someone to blame and that person better take responsibility.</p>
<p>Compassion ahs nothing to do with anything. You had to call police so that police report is filed. If you did not do this, good luck! My minor accident was not visible at all. I could only feel it with the finger sliding on the surface. The price of fixing was $500. Why would my car be lowered in price if it is somebody else’s fault. The person did not object paying out of pocket, young guy did not want his rate to go up. We did not care. All was done quickly, nobody denied anything. The reason - the police report was filed.</p>
Unfortunately, in my area even on city streets the police won’t even write a report unless there are injuries or maybe major damage. </p>
<p>But I agree with the advice to always call the police and at least see if they’ll write a report. Hopefully they’re more helpful with these types of accidents in most areas compared to here.</p>
<p>Where I live too, the cops will not come unless an ambulance is needed and that’s the only time they will write a report. Other states I’ve lived in the cops HAVE TO find fault and issue a ticket in any and every accident. Virginia has everyone going to court no matter what. It makes sense to find out what is required in your area, and where ever you drive.</p>
<p>FWIW, you shouldn’t ever admit fault. Not to the other person in the accident. You might be wrong and you’ve just handed them a weapon to use against you. Just be dispassionate and exchange information. You tell the whole story to your own insurance company and let them sort it out. And to the cops, if they are there. It’s a very bad idea to try to have the people involved sort it out!</p>
<p>I have a dashboard camera but it’s such a PITA that I rarely set it up. I probably should.</p>
<p>I was attending my D’s graduation last year. While stopped at a stop sign in my rental car waiting for traffic to clear, I was rear-ended by someone. He apologized profusely. Since we were hosting a graduation dinner, and didn’t want to be late, I didn’t call the police. We exchanged information and I noticed the guy who hit me lived in Seattle. He said he played football for the Seattle Seahawks. (The guy looked kind of small, maybe 5’ 10" 190 lbs. I asked him if he was a running back and he said yes. I also didn’t recognize his name but he said he was a rookie.)</p>
<p>As soon as I returned from dinner, back at our hotel, I Googled the guy. The Seatlle Seahawks don’t even know this guy existed. I called the local police in the town where the accident occured (Newton Center, MA) who said they could not write a police report after the fact but I could pick up an incident report at their station and complete it on my own. </p>
<p>Police departments vary from state to state and/or city to city regarding whether they respond to accidents that don’t involve injury. It turns out that in the Boston area they will come out even if no injuries are involved. In my home city of Walnut Creek CA, they will NOT respond unless there’s an injury.</p>
<p>When I returned home, I got a second phone call from his rental car company asking me my version of what happened. On that second call, I got curious/suspicious and asked the caller what his version of the accident was. They replied: “He says you backed into him.” The infuriating thing about this was I found out later my insurance company SPLIT the $1,200 damages to my rental car with his insurance company!</p>
<p>I was swiped by another car last fall on our way to see our kid sail in a big regatta on LI Sound. After I pulled over, got out of my car and approached the car that hit me the woman starting screaming at me that I had hit her. </p>
<p>It happened at a road construction site and fortunately in Westchester Co they have police at construction sites. The cop came over and asked what happened. He asked me to go back to my car and I explained what I thought happened and asked to file a report. Had to wait a bit for a traffic cop to come and they seemed aggravated that I asked but I didn’t care. The second cop took my info and then the other drivers info. </p>
<p>A few days later I got a call from my ins. company asking me about the accident (I hadn’t contacted them yet) and telling me the other driver had admitted fault and I needed to contact their insurance company. </p>
<p>I arranged with them to get an estimate and on the spot was given a check for $1200. My car had a long but nearly invisible scratch down the left side from the driver’s side door almost to the rear bumper. My mechanic buffed it every so slightly (about $200) and that was that.</p>
<p>other than my guess that nobody likes blame and most want the least punishment as possible. Human nature.
Look on this site in many past threads where people admit guilt to a traffic violation, but some are willing to go by hook or by crook to avoid the guilt and/or punishment. Often times lawyers are suggested to “protect one’s rights”. A cute phrase, but do those people really suspect their rights are likely to be trampled? The phrase really just means- to escape or mimnimize consequences. Remember an atty is often hired- not to seek justice- but to advocate his client’s wishes. Similar for an insurance agent.</p>
<p>there is an old phrase, though I don’t know who said it- if integrity was easy we’d all have it.</p>
<p>The letigious nature of our culture, fueled by advertising by legal firms ready and willing to make people PAY greatly for mistakes. This generates great fear and distrust of others by everyone involved.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that in Russia, there are so many car accidents, and so many people lying about what happened that it has resulted in most people owning little dashboard video cameras. That’s why we had so much video of that asteroid crashing down a few months ago.</p>
<p>Not to cast aspersions on Russians, it was just an explanation I heard for why there was so much footage of the asteroid which came down during the morning rush hour.</p>
<p>Remember too in this day and age that many parking lots and heavily traveled intersections have security cameras. Someone hit my car in a sports store parking lot and the security personnel who worked at the store were able to find the footage of the car and identify it. The police were called and they went to the house where the car was registered and in addition to paying for my damage they were issued a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident. Make sure you make a note of the time you think it happened so it can be easily found on the security tape. If someone suddenly changes their story and you think their might be cameras around, suggest you both go look at security footage of the accident, they will probably end up coming clean.</p>
<p>I didn’t even thinking of that yalemom15. If she lies to the insurance company, I will definitely be doing that. I actually have a receipt from the store where the accident happened, so it would be very easy to access the footage (if there is any).</p>
<p>I was bringing some belongings to Goodwill last weekend and someone backed right into me. Boom! She came out and apologized and then admitted she didn’t even see me. "What? I was right there, " I responded. Then she realized she didn’t even look. Dimwhit. I didn’t call the police, but did get all her info and her insurance company sent me a form asking for a description of the incident. I finally got the autobody shop yesterday and discovered it’s going to cost nearly $900 to get this minor accident fixed. What a nuisance.</p>
<p>Why do people lie, you ask? The person responsible will be charged for at least a deductible and will probably get an insurance hike. If it’s no-fault, deductible won’t be covered by the guilty party and insurance might not jump up.</p>