EP in accident...need advice

[Tekdemon]

I guess I'm kinda lucky in that my EP is in one piece and is more or less just fine...and the other car just has 2 dings on it...not too bad considering the speed this occurred at(like 60MPH).

Anyway, the damage to the other guy's car was very minor, but we took the info down for insurance and stuff, then he told me that the car he had was under lease so he had to report this to his insurance co(doh!)...and get the car checked out...

Now, I don't know what exactly he means by that, whether he's going to report my info or not...cuz I'd much rather not have my insurance co. show up... On the other hand, how do they prove you're at fault? And how much money would my insurance go up?

I personally don't think the damage exceeds $400(and that would be assuming he gets the entire rear bumper refinished and painted and not just patch up the two small areas).

Should I call my insurance co. now? Or should I try and get the other guy to just tell his insurance co. that there's damage like collision or someone hit his car while it was parked or something? In that case I could then just pay him whatever deductible he has or whatever? I dunno what to do!

This got me pretty freaked out since, well, I've never been in an accident involving two moving cars before(only stupid stuff like me scraping my wheels, screwing up my doors, etc) and having other people mess with my car.

The part that REALLY freaked me out was that while he was talking he said that it wasn't a big deal, that he saw stuff like this all the time since he was an attorney...and that really freaked me out cuz that means he could theoretically go nuts and use his attorney connections or whatever to screw me...gah!

[Si-Sissy-PA]

Did you bump him while going the same direction on the HWY?

what kind of car was it?

Are you ok?

I know in PA, regardless of whose action caused it - if you rear-end someone, it is automatically your fault - could get yucky, but most of the time people are really understanding when they know that insurance rates are involved.

->M

[Tekdemon]

It was a Subura Outback Limited edition, green I think(I wrote down all his registration junk so I can check heh)
Was pretty new, I think 2002?

Well, he was pretty understanding but at the end he said he was going to report it to his insurance company because the car was on lease. So after looking online at some places, I filed my own insurance claim with my company(travelers) just so there would be my version of the story available(otherwise if he files and I don't I'm a sitting duck).

I don't believe I have to file the DMV accident form, because that seems to be only for accidents with over $1000 in property damage...and from what I can tell his car's damage is either $100ish for the cheaper repair(buffing the area and repainting it), $50ish(painting in the small circles and waxing/buffing), or something like $500ish if he repaints the whole rear bumper...

I don't know how much a subaru outback rear bumper would cost to replace completely, but I really don't think that would be a reasonable method of repair for what basically is the same kind of damage you get when people bump into your car on the street(parked I mean).

I'm fine, the impact wasn't very harsh, I actually bit my tongue during the impact because my teeth sort of clamped from the force, but my tongue didn't bleed so it wasn't that strong of an impact...my neck did fly back but right now it feels just fine. The other guy said something like good thing there aren't any injuries so I'm assuming he wasn't injured either.

Yeah, the whole rear ending thing probably doesn't play in my favor at all, but I believe in NY state you are not neccessarily at fault if you rear end someone...still, the ins. companies probably don't look at it favorably. I basically wrote on my claim that he slowed abruptly and, due to the traffic conditions(it's NYC so it's pretty crowded) I couldn't just slam the brakes(or I'd get rear ended) so I tried my best to slow to not hit him but I still tapped him. That's basically the gist of my insurance claim. I did write that both cars were damaged but basically I think the ins. company can tell from my description that the damage is really minimal.

For me my license plate frame is bent and the license plate too, and the paint underneath is a little bit scratched, but that's not really serious damage. And I wrote that the other guy's car has two circles where the license plate frame hit his car...

Dammit, I should put foam strips on my license plate frame...that would have made this whole thing so much easier...*sigh*

[Si-Sissy-PA]

Wow -

Yeah, I had almost this exact same thing happen to me.. I was fiddling with the radio or something, and just rolling, but I definitely hit the fiberglass bumper of the civic in front of me -

luckily it was a gurl who's daddy obviously paid for everything - she was so clueless - she didn't care at all - she just wanted to get out of there... wouldn't even take my info.

it put 2 little circles on her bumper from the screws.

Now that I got rid of my crappy assed car and got my Si - No front Plate for me because of that !!! ;-) welcome to Pennsylvania.

[Tekdemon]

Dammit why can't I be lucky and get some careless girl...*sigh*

Honestly though, if someone else did that to my bumper, I wouldn't really be very pissed at all. It's like a $50-$200 repair, and $200 would really be pushing it. I probably would ask for $100 if they wanted to just deal with it privately. I offered to pay for all the repairs but the guy wanted to deal with insurance. Damn it all.

So yeah, my insurance company seems to be taking it chill cuz their website said someone would call, but since both my phones(home and cell) have voicemail/answering machine and I have 0 messages, I'm guessing they were too lazy(plus caller ID shows no calls from them, go figure).

It wasn't major enough for me to file the state form so I guess the insurance company is just waiting to see what the other guy does.

On the other hand I had such a freaky nightmare last night about how I got into ANOTHER accident and finally had to fill out the form, but this time my car was totaled because some maniac was driving the wrong direction down the highway and suddenly swerved into my lane going like 80. In the dream I had no injuries(which is probably not what happens in real life when someone 80 hits you head on when you're doing 60), but my car was totally messed up...the thing was at an angle between the wheels...crazy dream...and I thought it was real and I kept thinking, what the hell, what the hell, and I remembered that this time I would have to file the state DMV accident form...gah!

[Si-Sissy-PA]

Wow - that's intense.

Well, the Ep3 has one of the highest crash-test scores possible.

I have weird dreams like that too.

I never really gotten as intimate with my car as I have with this one - and after having it on a lift, and really tinkering with it, I see how little mass there really is to a car... it's crazy! It's amazing how so often we put so much faith in 1/16" steel cable to stop us. Things like that.