Auto Insurance Claims: Minor fender bender in california, no damage done to either car (driving friends car), insurance called, Possible Staged Accident

Question

Damage   Hi there!

Question for you:

I was a party in an extremely minor fender bender in California, if you could call it that. A person in front of our vehicle went through a stop sign then inexplicably stopped short. We bumped them from behind at less than 5 mph. We pulled over, investigated cars, and there was limited/no damage to either vehicle (attached picture. It is hard to see what is dirt and what is damage. The only thing we could attribute as damage is the 1" vertical scratch on the bumper) We were in a friend's car (the owner was not present).  We took photos of their car to prove no distinguishable damage, and agreed with the owner as such.  It was a black car with scratches already on it/around the bumper, and it was impossible to distinguish any damage done from our car, as we had none either (not even a paint smudge). There were no witnesses, outside of one person is his car and people in our car.  It was night time.

We were both in an extreme rush. No police were called, and I actually didn't get the other car's name (have his license plate). He took down our NJ driver's license, name, and cell phone.  No insurance info was exchanged. We parted ways amicably.

Just received a call from a Farmer's insurance agent asking for the car owner's name and policy numbers.  How do you think we should proceed? We were driving a friend's car.  Again, limited information was exchanged between us, and no police were called. My thinking is just to respond to the next Farmer's call and ask them to send me precise details of what was involved and why. I have no interest in getting my friend's auto insurance raised over such a small incident (I know, no incident is too small).

Thank you and best regards.

Answer
Jon,

You may wish to call Farmers to see if they can describe the damages and claim(s) being made. They will no doubt want to get you to provide them a statement and facts of the loss but I would caution you in doing so.

I understand your concerns but what I fear is you may have become a possible victim in what is referred to as a staged accident whereas the other party may have intentionally stopped short to cause the impact.

You can learn more in this regard by visiting this link regarding the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnnaDNZgSgs

The other party may be making a bodily injury claim in addition to their vehicle’s ‘damages’ or perhaps just want the damages, regardless of how minor, addressed…which they have a right to.
I believe in California the insurance follows the vehicle and it’s very important that your friend cooperate fully with their own insurer as their insurer could deny coverage for the loss if he or she fails or refuses to cooperate. The vehicle’s owner should report the loss and recent contact to his or her insurer and allow them (their insurer) to respond to Farmers on the vehicle owner’s behalf.

I would suggest you make yourself available to your friend’s insurer to provide them the facts and photo and to cooperate with them to ensure that all claims are legitimate and related to the loss.

In the future, it’s generally advisable to get the names and contact info for any witnesses and allow the police to investigate (especially of the other party is at fault!) to document the damages and the facts. Oftentimes people get amnesia and fail to admit to the loss or their involvement later on.

In this case, a police report would have documented the less than significance of the loss and resulting damages and avoided someone causing additional or more sever damages later to support a claim for injuries.

I hope this is not the case but today one never knows.
Good luck and I hope this has been of some assistance to you and your fiend!
Barrett


Jon, Here;s another link regarding staged accidents including Claifornia.

http://www.insurancequotes.com/auto-insurance-staged-accidents/