kspurr

Ever have one of those days? The wife has been on me to replace our 2 vettes with a "responsible" 4 door car before our son is born (due at the end of September), and right when I'm about to get my butt in gear a "delay" comes up.

I was rear ended on the way into work on Wednesday and we did the whole insurance exchange, etc. I thought I'd be well on my way to getting everything squared away when his insurance called to politely let me know that his policy had actually been canceled since May 30th. Awesome...

So now I'm on my way down the uninsured motorist claim path, and just figured it wouldn't hurt to post some stuff for anyone else who may end up having as much fun as I am in the future. The preliminary visual only estimate is nearly $5k, and they warned me that it was definitely going up from there even though it looks fairly minor from the outside... So far, the Geico people have been great to deal with.











It's hard to see in the pic, but the ABS Panel even cracked...


The trunk isn't quite flush now, but hopefully that's just because some minor piece is bent on the rear where it closes.


His damage. Somehow it doesn't really seem fair, though his car was already ugly...

keliente

Booo, that sucks. Do you not have to have insurance in TX? Will he have any repercussion from this (i.e. a ticket, having to pay back your insurance out of pocket?)

dangerz

You got a police report, right?

I was f'd on my last accident. A lady hit me and spun me around on the highway.. I ended up crossing 4 lanes of traffic and went up a hill to land on another road. I was somehow able to drive my car away from that (this was my camaro). The police officer told me that in Texas, they don't fill out police reports if you can drive away.

The lady ended up telling insurance that I actually hit her and because it was her word against mine, I got nothing in the end and had to fix it all out of pocket. The skid marks were clearly all in my lane but without a police report, they wouldn't take my side.

hotwheels57

That's to bad. Yeah, I've also had one of those days.

One of the nicest cars I've ever built was a '64 Falcon Sprint with a 289ci motor built to full solid lifter 306hp Cobra specs (back in 1970, by the way). An uninsured goof never tried to stop before he hit me, stopped for a red light. My passenger and I luckily were not injured, but my beloved Falcon was never the same after that. We were both LE. The goof was also suspended. He did go to jail.

Unfortunately, there's more vehicles now than ever being operated on public streets w/o insurance...

kspurr

Texas requires drivers to have liability insurance and Dallas actually has a new law where uninsured drivers have their car towed at their expense, impounded with a $20 a day charge, and get fined $350.

In this situation the guys had an insurance card that looked perfectly valid, so I didn't find out until the adjuster from his insurance called me back with the bad news that his policy had been canceled before the expiration date...

I feel pretty stupid for making the mistake of listening to the 911 operator who said that we should just exchange insurance info if neither of us were hurt and both vehicles were drivable. I probably should have insisted on having a cop come out. After finding out about the insurance, I called the police again, and they've just instructed me to come by the local precinct to fill out a couple forms... I may have to put up a sign where he hit me to see if I can get a witness if he tries to play games with my insurance company.

Dream Tire

can you sue?

Im not 100% of this, but if you fix the damage and pay the 5K or w/e it is. Cant you do a private claim?

black98c5

Not sure what the extent of the damage is beyond what's visable in the pics, but 5K??? That seems a little . Anyways, That sucks and hope you get it all figured out. Good luck!

kspurr

I'm not really interested in suing anyone, but I'm pretty sure that's what my insurance company is going to do unless he reimburses them for the entire cost including my uninsured motorist deductible.

The $5k estimate does seem pretty high, but I'm definitely not a body shop guy. When insurance gets involved, they'll probably also be pushing for parts that are a bit cheaper than brand new. I'd assume anything requiring significant panel removal on the back of a vette could be a real pain. I'm meeting the adjuster and dropping the car off on Monday, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

BlueDream

Sorry to hear that. Hope it all works out in the long run. Congrats on the upcoming new addition to the family.

JDaniel

Texas law states that if you are hit by a non insured motorists then it is there fault reguardless of the situation. If you were the one that rearended someone with no insurance then the person with no insurance is still at fault because they were not supposed to be on the road in the first place. This is what a cop told me after my last accident and the guy didnt have insurance. I hit him and I didnt have to pay a penny and he was the one at fault. LOL I filed a non insured motorist claim with my police report and my truch was fixed pretty quick.


We just had our first born and I have been hinting to my wife that I need t get rid of the Corvette just to have the extra cash and she would not have it. LOL We have four vehicles and the Vette would not go she said. I have such a good wife.

killain

This sucks. This is one of the reasons I never take my 03 into the city. There are so many people out there without title, registraton, insurance and so on. But if I were in your shoes, I take her into Small Claims Court. It may not cover everything, but something is better than nothing !

greenc5

I'm just glad you didn't have blacked out taillights. We'd never hear the end of it.

Sorry, I had to do it.

Hope it all works out for you.

0Jeff @ TPE

Well, Look at the bright side.

You DO have insurance coverage, and it wont affect your insurance policies one bit. So in all honesty, wether you have insurace or he has insurance, the car is getting fixed no matter what. At the end of the day, its still a win/win outcome.

If your car is paid off, you can now upgrade those parts with a nice tigershark fascia, and some of our T2 Widebody quarter panels. You can tell the wife now that the car has diminished value, and your forced to keep it or else you'll loose your butt..

I have 4 kids, with the youngest being 2. I'd sell my wife before I sold my car.

dobewillie

sorry about your bad luck good luck to you in the future

intoc6s

ajg1915

I hope your wife doesn't see this comment as she mighty just decide to sell you off instead.

Blue Lightening

[QUOTE=Dream Tire;1571057971]can you sue?
QUOTE]

You can sue anyone but if they don't have a pot to **** in you can't get **** out of the pot....

0Jeff @ TPE

Ahhh ****.. I forgot I gave her a username.

Razorback58

My wife was hit in our 2003 convertible just 17 days after we bought it! The woman that hit her produced an insurance card, but that one turned out to have been cancelled. We went under the assumption that she didn't have insurance until we found out that the car that she was driving (belonging to someone else) was actually insured with that same company as ours. Anyway, when we thought that she was an uninsured motorist, our insurance company was going to take care of everything and then go after her. As long as your have decent insurance, your car should be fixed at no expense to you. Just be sure that when it's time to settle that you mention that your car is no longer worth what it was before you were hit (carfax will show that your car was in an accident). This will get you a few extra bucks, which you deserve.

Choreo

Hmmm? That might be a better use for all the clunkers they are trading in? Might buy a crappy car and start running around town slamming in to all the uninsured motorists locally? At least it might get some of them off the street since it sounds like they are fair game!