g2bme

iTrader: (6)

Hi All!

So just wondering and checking anyone's first hand account or just how they would handle. A friend's car was parked on my narrow street. Someone backed into his drivers side rear passenger fender and bumper. The tab is broken, and it's dented and scrapped so it was a bit of a hit. The driver fled, however, a neighbor said they saw the whole thing and took the person's license plate down.

My friend completed a police report and told insurance. I told him to get the witness to do a hand written or typed account of the incident and have it notarized. Provide that as well as the info and pictures to the police report and insurance. Fix the car, then when they find the person involved, file suit for this. I believe having a license and a car is a privilege and not a right, people who do these hit and runs are straight abusing the privilege AND their right to be able to drive.

This is on the 30th, imagine this person doing the same thing on the 31st...and possibly inebriated!!

thoughts?

YxUxMADDDD

iTrader: (2)

I had 2 occasions which will help or not ... 1st, my monster in law drove my rx330 and got t-boned (everybody is safe). got witness, phone number, and a picture the witness drew on the back of a paper that described what exactly happen, then left... now i don't know if the state of texas is lazy, dumb, or all the above, but according to the dumb pig that arrived an hour later to the scene stated "witness are NO LONGER VALID if they left the scene before an officer arrives to get the report. stupid, EXTREMELY! 2nd was recent, less than a week ago, new years eve ... it was a hit a run type of ordeal ... they swiped my friend rental car ... passenger side had long scratches and dents here and there caused by the hit and run... same scenario as yours parked car & and neighbor saw. luckily, the neighbors saw and knocked on the door to informed what had happened .... what's so funny is that it was the neighbor 3 houses down.. the idiot said the fireworks was loud and didn't think nothing of it. her van had a scratches all long the side of the her van... how could you not notice? anyways, cop came, took info down and that was it .... in the end, cops don't do shizznits but waste your time and give you a damn piece of paper with the claim number.. that's it... you can ask them questions, but they will tell you to contact your insurance. having a report is good but once you're done with your claim, you will see that it has no use to have a cop show up. they will not listen to you or care what you do. ***** without insurance still drive, get into an accident, and walk away paying bare minimum or nothing at all. why have insurance for when the outcome is the same as people with insurance. that's money wasted. might as well by an old truck and run people off the highway and get away with it. well, that's how it is in texas. i would go straight to the insurance rather than dealing with dumb pigs. oh and as far as the tow trucks that arrive on the scene, YOU DO HAVE THE OPTION TO TAKE IT TO ANY BODY SHOPS .. they will tell you there's a charge but if i take it to this specific collision place, there won't be a charge. LIES! ALL LIES! they get a percentage from that collision place they take it to and they get to drop off your car faster to move on to the next. so if they tell you there's a charge, it's a lie. just say, "well my friend is in the insurance business and that's not what they told me. they said i have the right to choose to tow the car anywhere. you work for me." i'm sure their rebuttal will be different then. good luck dealing with the insurance, pigs, other party, and tow truck morons. i dealt with this situation first hand that's how i know. all the information you have, just send it to the insurance and have them contact the witness...

IS350AWD

Well, that's fun.

I was parked while shopping the other day. When I got back, I immediately saw a dent on the passenger side (in between the front door and wheel well). I don't know who did it, but I suspect it was the guy retrieving the shopping carts. The machine that pushes the carts along hit the car (shopping cart too high). My dash cam shows the guy pushing the carts around when I arrived to park, but I cannot confirm it is him (I don't have the parking-on feature). Fortunately, the dent is not too bad; it is noticeable, but the dent did not penetrate the paint surface and some rubbing compound got most of the marks out. In my case, I don't think it's worth trying to seek out management and finding the guy.

Though this is not as serious as your friend in terms of damage, it just goes to show the decadence of society everywhere. People cannot be honest anymore; all they can do is run off and hide behind their keyboards, away from the world.

tex2670

You need to let your insurance company handle this--that's what premiums are for. If the cops don't make an effort to investigate, tell your witness to contact them to make a formal statement. If you ever find the other driver, your insurance company will go after them, and you can try and get your deductible from them or their insurance co.

whitebeast

iTrader: (5)

Did you give witness phone # to your insurance? If not, do it. That's all you should do. Nothing else

AZGHOST

iTrader: (6)

^^^^
Couldn't have said it better myself.

cremaster

iTrader: (1)

depending on the ins, your friend may have to pay their deductible and have their ins fix the car. then it's up to the ins company to go after this hit n run suspect.

i had a truck on the freeway unload a bunch of pipes, to which i ran over and couldn't avoid. i took down the lic plate and tried to get the driver to pull over. he just looked at me and laughed. fast forward 2 years, i finally got the check to reimburse me for the deductible i had to pay out of pocket. basically, my ins company sued the company of the truck driver and finally won. the cops didn't do ****; they "called" the truck company, but of course they denied any of what had happened.

tex2670

That's why having a witness is key--it's no longer one person's word vs. the other.

kingdave

"Fix the car"...how? Do you mean submit an insurance claim, pay the deductible and then have your insurance company pay the rest? If so, then your only loss is the cost of your deductible (the rest of the money came from the carrier's pockets). That would be the limit of what you could file suit. In other words, small claims court.

As a person who has been through this more than once, my advice to you is to follow the above suggestion: let your insurance company work it out. Otherwise, you'll waste your time learning harsh lessons about stuff like no fault insurance and what can/can't be used as "evidence" if you ever see a courtroom. On top of that, even if you went to court and got a judgment that's not a check in the mail. The person could still refuse to pay and then you'd have to figure out how to collect under the limits of state law.