Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello my fellow SUNies,
Just letting you all know that I was involved in a multiple car accident this weekend. the bad part about it was, the person that hit me was an un-insured motorist..
All this time I used to hate adding un-insured motorist to my insurance but.. now I don`t regret having it... Can you imagine... not being able to afford liability.. for 29.00 a month?? What is this world coming to? has anyone been in an accident caused by an uninsured motorist? If so... tell me what you did to not have your insurance go up...


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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Are you OK?

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Sorry to  hear about your accident!   I too felt like I was paying for my own
car insurance and then on top of that I had to pay for the other person
who might hit me...but you are glad to be covered if something happens!

 Hope you are recovering!! - Relax and take it easy ....



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Jo
NJ

I have had three accidents this year. You start to wonder if your own actions are the real cause of the accident... (I am accident proned.) In California we have a percentage system where the insurance companies interview all parties involved and determines a percentage of “fault” between both parties. I am happy to have not been viewed as “at fault” for even 1% of the accident. Therefore, they have not increased my rates.

My first accident, the undocumented driver hit me nearly head on. I am happy the speeds were low. At this time I did not have uninsured motorist coverage on my vehicle. That was a stupid oversight. To add the coverage worked out to about $3 a month (in addition to my current auto insurance bill.). Anyway, being undocumented, un-insured, and without ownership of the vehicle, I ended up having to sue the undocumented driver and owner of the vehicle. Just after the incident, the police arrived and towed his vehicle. Of course the guy was trying to work a deal with me while waiting for the officer to arrive. He spoke great English at that time. By the time the officer was involved, he was unable to speak English so much so, we had to wait another 45 minutes to get a translator.

After the lawsuit, I received a few on time payments to the damages, but only recouped about half of the total damage. Who knows where the guy is now.

The second was uninsured also, but now I was covered. Everything, including car rental during the repair process was covered. No issues and life was easy. And it only cost $3 a month.

The third included insurance all around. All accidents involved speeds under 30 mph. And, thankfully, no persons were injured. Although, there was an attempt to claim injury. She was busted through testimony.


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

wow..
that is a crazy story... See here is where I went wrong. I did not call the police to come out and file a report. In the state of California, do you know if: you are at fault if a car hits you from behind and pluges you to the car in front of you?
See this is what happened to us. I regret not calling the police because I ran my own investigation through zabasearch.com, and after doing extensive search "paid for the service" She had a fake license.... I guess the only thing I have to track her down is the license plate number.
Can you imagine that?
As far as injuries... is back pains considered injuries? I know in some states they don`t cover soft tissue injuries... is this correct? Thats what they call it..

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

It sounds like I am making this up, but accident 2 (or was it 3?) was exactly like that. The vehicle in front stopped quickly (rush hour traffic). I stopped quickly, noting the driver behind me slamming on his breaks. I could see the nose of his car sloped down. I thought of getting as close to the vehicle in front of me, to give the guy behind more room to stop. As I thought this, I also thought, a couple of inches, even a foot is likely not going to help. I stopped my car with about two feet of distance, between the head vehicle and me.

I was hit hard enough to shove my car under and into the rear bumper of the lead car. The rear of my vehicle was now slightly on top of the car behind me. The nose of my vehicle was slightly under the rear bumper of the vehicle in front of me. We were able to cautiously, but easily, untangle the mess and safely pull over. Everyone started exchanging information and appearing to be in good health. Near the end of exchanging information, I asked is everyone feeling OK? All of a sudden the lead driving started complaining about her neck, but didn’t want to call for a medic. After a short discussion about calling one, all three of us went our separate ways and insurance took over.

Later, my insurance carrier called to ensure everything was finalized (or maybe to get information). I made a comment that everyone was looking normal until I asked about feelings of good health. I told my agent that I thought she started acting at the point of my question. Sure enough, the girl was claiming injury. It went to court. She was found guilty of attempting insurance fraud. I don’t know what happened to her after that.

I was not found at fault at all. Maybe because I was completely stopped, before being struck by the vehicle behind me. Then again, no one asked me to prove it. Since police were not called, I didn’t have a policeman’s statement regarding tire marks to prove my vehicle was stopped. Maybe I am just lucky someone didn’t take it there.

About filing a police report. You can still file one after the fact. Matter of fact I recommend it. Tell all the information you have learned. As for the soft tissue injuries thing… I have no idea.


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

See your case was similar to mine.
I stopped about 12 inches from the car in front of me, but since the car that slammed into me didn`t have time to stop or put her breaks on, she slammed into us at about 40 mph.
Dead on... She didn`t even intend to put her breaks on. So after collecting everyone`s information I felt a sharp pain on my back. But everyone else said they where fine and that nothing hurted.
This morning, we recieved a call from the person driving the car in front of us. She now told us, she had severe pain on her back. (scam artist) So, later on today I recieved a call from her attorney, lucky I had my attorney on stand by. According to our attorney, we are not at fault. we did not cause the accident. Hopefully the lady that struck me can be found. If not, then UNM covers all the damages...
Any one has a similar experience?

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Nuevolution.
I know you are having some pain, but I am happy the accident was not worse. Thankfully you have not lost limbs, or life. The members of SUN would surely be loosing a great resource. Nuevolution! Stay strong. If you are injured, as it sounds like you are, get into the doctor. My step-father was struck from behind several years ago. Bad 5 car pile up. My father was car 4, hit by car 5. Although his vehicle was not pushed into the vehicle in front, he had a difficult time getting the insurance companies to pay the doctors. I say this... Stay on top of it and be aggressive. You are injured and you should be represented by a doctor and given the tools needed for proper healing. Again, I am happy your are still, mostly, yourself.


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words