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drunk drivers

3K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  Kampr 
#1 ·
I was at a party in the next town over from me and my dad calls me to tell me that a truck just ran into my car and a couple more cars on some other streets. what got me real mad is when the police came the parked in front of my house and saw my old car and all my friends came with their old cars and went straight to the new car that only had a scratch on it. ill try to put pictures on but no promises. I sure hope insurance covers this
 
#3 ·
Did the cops at least give you an accident report? You will need it for inshurance. what kind of inshurance do you have, classic car inshurance or regular auto inshurance? as a generallity regular auto inshurance will only cover up to $500 damage, any more and they will toatle the car out, or you will have to pay all of it. I don't know how much a new door skin and front fender, along with new paint ( or primer ? ) will cost but if they value the damages under $500, they will give you whatever they think the repairs will cost.
 
#4 ·
i have regular auto insurance by mercury. the police did give me a report number but they wouldnt talk to me till my dad went over to the truck and told them my car was hit too. even though the parked right next to it and shined their lights on it and all my friends then walked away. i havent called any shops yet but the door skin is 140 and the fender is 300 new. i will call memeroy lane and a couple shops tomarrow. I was afraid they might total it out too. it just got a street strip tranny a month ago and i just painted it 2 weeks ago. I dont know if the insurance will even cover it because one of my neighbors followed him to an alley and the driver took off running and left his keys in the car. If they cant find him im screwed because i only have liabilty. :( :spank:
 
#6 ·
In Ca do you have "uninsured motorist insurance" in your policies? The insurance laws in each state are different. In VA we have it automatically when be get a policy. It covers your vehicle if the other driver is not insured, or cannot be identified. If they are insured, your insurance has no bearing on the damage. As for the car being "totaled", in VA the determining factor of if the vehicle is a total loss is the ACV(Actual cash value) of the vehicle and the amount of damage. Fortunately, with the information available on the "net", people are more easily able to get a more accurate value on older vehicles. The days of the insurance companies just guessing on the value are a thing of the past.

As for the damage to the vehicle, it looks from the photos that the door is damaged past just replacing the skin. It is also likely that the door post/hinge pillar is damaged, and will need to be pulled out.
 
#7 ·
I do have uninsured motorist but my dad wants to use that as a last resort because he said we would file a claim against are company and that will raise the rates quite a bit(he has 2 tickets i have 1). Actually the hing pillar looke fine from what i could see when i cracked the door open. it was the first thing i checked in the mornig after it happened. but i will ot know for sure till a pull the fender off. I sure hope the guy has insurance though.
 
#8 ·
Acutally -

Since he hit you, you should go after HIS insurance company to pay for the damages. It should cost your NOTHING, regardless of the cost to fix the damages. You should NOT have your insurance pay for this as your rates will go up due to the claim.

This is of course assuming the ***** has insurance...
 
#9 ·
1969NovaSS said:
i have regular auto insurance by mercury. the police did give me a report number but they wouldnt talk to me till my dad went over to the truck and told them my car was hit too. even though the parked right next to it and shined their lights on it and all my friends then walked away. i havent called any shops yet but the door skin is 140 and the fender is 300 new. i will call memeroy lane and a couple shops tomarrow. I was afraid they might total it out too. it just got a street strip tranny a month ago and i just painted it 2 weeks ago. I dont know if the insurance will even cover it because one of my neighbors followed him to an alley and the driver took off running and left his keys in the car. If they cant find him im screwed because i only have liabilty. :( :spank:
If it's not a stolen vehicle you can find him. The police should help you with that.
 
#11 ·
As I said before, the insurance laws in every state are different. Uninsured Motorist coverage is not the same as Collision coverage. If the other driver or vehicle is not insured, or identified, it comes into play. It has nothing to do with your driving record or your rates. In VA and NC, the adjuster handling a claim under Uninsured Motorist must handle it like the vehicle that they actually insured, is the claimant. The reason for that, is that they are, after the claim is settled, going to go after the other person to get the money back. They cannot take the other person to court with the appearance that they gave away the bank.

As for the damage, if you can just crack the door open, when it is damaged that way, and tell that the hinge pillar is not damaged, you may have missed your calling. When a door and fender is hit in that way, there are very few people in the repair industry that don't have to check a whole lot to make sure it isn't damaged. Usually, until another door is installed, you cannot be sure.

Aaron
 
#14 ·
1969NovaSS said:
I was at a party in the next town over from me and my dad calls me to tell me that a truck just ran into my car and a couple more cars on some other streets.




This is what happened to my 1940 Ford coupe.......I was hit from behind. His fault....his insurance. They wanted to total my ole coupe and give me cheap $$$ ( about 1/10 of it's market value ).

I threatened to sue and they paid to fix it......over 10 grand......

Do NOT let them give you any grief.....If the Nova is in your Dad's name......he will have to be firm......you should not be out anything because of a drunk.....

I HATE DRUNKS..... :smash:
 
#15 ·
1969NovaSS said:
I do have uninsured motorist but my dad wants to use that as a last resort because he said we would file a claim against are company and that will raise the rates quite a bit(he has 2 tickets i have 1). Actually the hing pillar looke fine from what i could see when i cracked the door open. it was the first thing i checked in the mornig after it happened. but i will ot know for sure till a pull the fender off. I sure hope the guy has insurance though.
Check into your uninsured motorist coverage, the uim I have seen only covers medical bills to people in your car, in the event you are hit by someone with too little or no medical coverage.

I feel for you, my wife's Bravada was recently rear ended. The driver claimed to have insurance but provided no proof, she received a ticket for over $400.
The cop also told her not to turn it into her insurance company ? There also was no report made because he called it a fender bender. I have estimates for $ 1400. + frame time, the back doors and the tailgate do not work properly now. (wife was too shaken up at the time to notice.)
To top it off the address given on her license is not current and the phone # given is her cell that she won't answer.
 
#16 ·
Back in about 1976 or 1977 (yeah that was a long time ago) my pickup truck was parked at the end of the driveway on a winter night with snow and ice on the street. I woke up the next morning to find the drivers side in the front all banged up. Someone had slid up in there, hit it and then drove off. I don't know if he was drunk or not but probably was. It was on a weekend.
With the 2-tone paint left on my truck and part of a side marker light I was able to find him. When I confronted him he said he had knocked on my door but could get no answer. I guess he expected me to believe that. This was several weeks later and he had not tryed to get in touch with me again. He just couldn't understand why I was so upset. I did get get payment.

If you drink don't drive
Danny
 
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