Auto Insurance Claims: auto accident w/pl. pd. only, car insurance company, hi jill

Question
QUESTION: my accident involved 3 vehicles.mine %26 two others behind me. i was rearended waiting for pedestrians to cross the street. the car that hit me was rearended pushing his car into mine. i have been left w/ damage to my truck %26 a medical bill of $1000.00. being unable to afford the medical care i was forced to end treatment. my ins. coverage was state req. minimum pl/pd. the car that hit me was full coverage, and the car that was responsible for accident was a excluded driver of the car owners policy of which i was unable to verify any specifics of coverage. my question is...whos responsible for my losses? my ins. co. came to inspect damage done to my truck and told me because of the age of truck and amount of damage that the ins. co. will probably "total" it. my agent refering to the ins. co.of the vehicle tha hit me. i since have never heard from my agent and the others involved!whats going on? fraud? i am left wondering also, is state mandatory min. ins. only a way to tax the poor? i do look forward to your expert opinion & will thank you now! sincerly, jill.

ANSWER: Hi Jill,

Unfortunately, I do not have any good news for you. If the driver of the vehicle that hit you was an excluded driver on the policy, that means that he is excluded from coverage and the insurance company will not pay anything. The only way for you to collect any money is for you to file a law suit against the driver personally. However, even if you win the law suit, if the driver does not have any money, you may never be able to collect on the judgement. You should still contact the insurance company of both of the other drivers. You may end up getting at least a partial payment from the 3rd car insurance company.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Richard, thank you very much for getting back so quick.  I am not sure that you completely understood the situation.  The excluded driver was not the one that actually hit me.  The man that hit me had full coverage with gieco, the excluded driver was the third car and he hit the man behind me.  The excluded driver was the cause of the accident according to the police report.  I was told that because the third driver was the cause of the accident that the man behind me did not have to pay.  I don't understand that.  This is my question, Isn't the man with full coverage that hit me responsible to fix my car and pay my doctor bills?   When the accident first happened no one could get ahold of the excluded mans insurance.  I spoke to a representative from geico and they were very helpful and then as soon as they found out they weren't getting paid from the excluded drivers insurance they would not take my phone calls or call me back.  So I was left with my very clean 1985 Toyota 4x4 with a nice dent on the corner of the rear and the tailgate, it had never been hit before.  So that is my question.  I appreciate you getting back to me, thanks, Jill Raquenio

Answer
Hi Jill,

The only one responsible for paying for your damage is the person who caused the accident. It does not matter if he had insurance or not he is the one responsible for causing the accident. Just because the at-fault driver does not have insurance coverage does not then make someone else who did not cause the accident responsible for paying for your damage. The only reason that the car that hit you did so was because it was hit by the at fault driver. So the person whos car actually hit you did not do anything wrong that would make them responsible for your damage.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh