QuestionQUESTION: Hi Bennie,
I was recently involved in car crash. I was west-bound on a three lane street and the other party was making a left hand turn as i approached an intersection. I attepmted to sway and avoid this vehicle but they proceeded in turning and struck my left front fender, causing my car to spin and once again strike the other vehicle in the right rear with my left rear fender. I was forced onto the ajacent curb and struck a signage wall in front of a shopping plaza. The other car 180'd and hit the median and struck another vehicle approaching the same intersection. The police report puts the person making the turn at fault. Aside from loss of consciousness upon impact- I have sustained head, back and neck injuries for which i've been receiving treatment for the past week or so since the incident. Now the coverage on my vehicle was liability. According to my adjuster I should be medically covered for treatment. However all towing, storage and repair costs would have to come out-of-pocket until reimbursement from the at-fault party's insurance. My car is completely totaled- and would cost more than twice its actual vaule to get fixed, so I'm not fixing it. And I've been without a vehicle for the past week or so since the incident. I carpool to work every day, but everything else as you can imagine has been a major inconvenience. Appearently the other party's insurance company has yet to contact that person for reasons un-known, but in the mean time I still need a vehicle. My question to you is whether I should pay only the initial fee for a rental and use it idefinitely until the at-fault party's insurance does what they have to do and once I get the bill- forward it to that company? Or am I going to have to pay 'God knows how much' for a rental during the months it'll take before the insurance company makes a decision?? How can I minimise my out-of-pocket expenses and still be able to drive before I get reimbursed by the insurance company?
ANSWER: Hi Karl,
You need to contact the insurance company of the at fault driver and file a claim for your car damage and request that they provide a rental car for your use until the claim is settled. You should have no problem having them authorize a rental. The rental usually ceases at 11 AM on the day following your signing all the release papers and securing a check for your car. If requested, most companies will allow an extra 2-3 days so you have transportation while shopping for a replacement car.
Hope this has been of help, please write again if I can be of more assistance.
Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area 12-09-07 4:17 PM PST
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thanks for your response. Here's the latest- After discussion with my lawyer today it turns out that the reason the company couldn't contact the other party was because she was in a coma. Appearently she died from the coma just yesterday. So now according to my lawyer my insurance company has to compensate her comany regardless of who's at fault- since she's the one that died (not sure why that is). Furthermore, since she wasn't there to give her side of the story, her company doesn't want to accept liability. Which means I had to fork out all the money in a week's worth of storage fees to get my car out of the towing yard just so they could tow it to my house. They will then have to come to my house and look at the car.. don't understand why they wouldn't just look at it at the towing yard, but that's what they're doing. I'm not sure now how long this is going to take but I feel like i'm simply being punished for not having full coverage on my car and for being there when a lady decided to make a left turn. I'm not even at fault. That's what pisses me off about insurance companies. They seem to forget about who the victim is. Plus I gotta deal with the guilt of knowing the woman's dead from the accident. Thinking about her family's been eating me up all day. I just want everything to be over and to at least have a car again so that i can get around independently. How long do you think everything will take??
AnswerHi Karl,
Like you, I am sorry to learn of the death of the other driver.
Since there was a very complete and concise police report of the accident this situation should not affect your ability to eventually receive a full recovery from her insurance company as evidenced by the fact that they are willing to come and inspect your car damage.
We, as citizens, seem to have a propensity to elect attorneys to represent us in our state legislatures. The Bar Association has a very strong lobbying group and over 40 years ago they were able to convince their friends in the legislature to enact laws that prevent your own insurance from assisting you or providing any 'free' legal advise in cases where they have not been liable to spend funds by repairing your car. The follow up question was the first time that you mentioned that you had retained an Attorney. Since I am a licensed Property/Casualty Insurance Broker, that same law now applies to me, since you have now retained an attorney.
Based strictly on the information that you have provided, I do feel that you will eventually be able to receive full compensation for your damage and injuries. I am unable to guess at a time frame.
Since you have retained an Attorney, you will need to refer all your future questions to him.
I hope that I have been of help and would appreciate your feedback by taking the time to rate my answer.
Sincerely,
Bennie
12-10-08 6:10 PM PST
