QuestionQUESTION:
Dear John,
I have a question regarding a minor accident I was involved in not too long ago. I was parallel parking my dad's truck and when I was backing up, I hit the front of a nissan behind me with the black rubber bumper of the truck. I only noticed the license plate was coming out of the black rubber casing on the driver's side and there was a ding in the black rubber casing on the other side. I did not see any damage elsewhere in the front except some black stuff on the non-driver's side, which looked lower than my bumper hit, and a paper thin tiny scratch on the side of the bumper of the driver's side, which I don't think I hit. So, I left a note saying I would replace the license plate and casing if it wasn't like that before.
The driver called the next day and said there was a big scratch and a dimple on the side of the car, (the driver's side) and never even mentioned the front of the car. The scratch is at an angle on the right-middle of the body, curving up to the window closer to the door. She kept asking me if I had a shopping cart and I didn't. I told her I just hit the front of the car. However, she said it's a brand new car. So, I've been worried about this because if there's any way I did this, I would like to do the right thing and pay for it.
So my question is: Is there any way I could have caused a scratch and a dimple on the side of the car by hitting the front of the car? Especially when there's no damage in the front of that side of the car? I think the scratch is over the dimple, but extends longer and is deep so that the paint seems to be peeling back. It just seems unlikely that I could have caused that, especially when it looks like I hit the non-driver's side of the license plate harder because it has a dimplein the casing while the other side doesn't. She hasn't contacted me since but I would like to know for my own peace of mind. If you could please let me know your expert opinion, that would be great! If you need more information, please let me know. Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
Robin
ANSWER: Robin, from what you've described it doesn't sound like you caused the damage. If I understand you correctly, you impacted her front bumper with your rear bumper. If that's the case then you couldn't have put a scratch on her driver's side fender way back by the driver's door. Do I have that correct? I carry a tape measure with me and often times will measure the height of bumpers of cars that I look at to compare to damage that people are claiming. What you're describing is typical. Most times when someone bumps into another person's car the 2nd party often sees an opportunity to have any and all damage on their car repaired at the other party's expense. If she pursues it any further you may want to consider taking your dad's truck over to her house and pulling it along side of her car and see if it looks like there's anything on the truck that could've possible impacted her car in the location that she's claiming... I hope this helps.
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QUESTION: Thanks so much again! So just to make sure, there's no way I could have caused that by hitting the front of the car, right? I'm not sure if my truck was exactly straight when I hit the other car on the front. Would that have made a difference if the truck's weight was not distributed evenly? Thanks! :)
ANSWER: You would not have been able to put a scratch on the fender unless you actually hit the fender. Hitting the front of the car wouldn't scratch the fender back by the door. The only instances where I see things like that are if you had a ladder sticking out of the back of the truck or something like that. I hope this helps.
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QUESTION: One last question:
I'm so sorry to keep bugging you about this, but I just want to be sure. The scratch is deep so that the paint is peeling (like small panels of paint are separating from the car right around the scratch).- I hope that makes sense. Could that have been caused by the dimple? And if so, could I have caused that dimple by hitting the front of the car as I described? Thanks.
--- Robin
ANSWER: Robin, without seeing the car it is impossible for me to give you a 100% definitive answer. If the damage that you're describing is indeed a scratch, then I highly doubt that you caused it. In order to scratch paint you have to physically touch the panel in the spot where it is scratched. If the paint peeling is not a scratch, but rather a buckle, that's something different. If you backed into the car and hit the front corner and buckled the fender causing the paint to crack, then it's possible that you did cause it. Is the fender "scratched", like you would see if someone keyed it, or is the metal "buckled" causing the paint to be cracked?
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QUESTION: Thanks so much John. That's good to know I couldn't have caused a scratch. I'm not sure. Yeah, I know I wish I had a picture to show you. A small part of the scratch looks like if someone keyed it but the other lookes like the paint is cracked. However, I did not see the metal buckled. It just looked like a dimple in one place. But maybe the crack spread from the dimple? I don't know. You'd think the repair people would tell her if this was caused by someone hitting the front of her car. I didn't only hit the corner of the car also, because I hit the license plate. So, is it possible to have caused that when I also hit the license plate in the middle of the car? I don't know. Maybe I should just pay for it. It's already been a month and she hasn't contacted me but I want to do the right thing. Thanks.
AnswerI wouldn't worry too much about it. If you bumped into the front of her car and hit the license plate the likelihood of impacting the fender as well is nearly impossible. Like I told you in the beginning, people like to exploit these types of situations to get as much money as they can. I wouldn't pursue her but if she contacts you offer to pay for the damage that you did and if she persists, tell her to contact her insurance company and that you will deal directly with them on it. If she goes that far then they will assign an investigator (like me) to go out and inspect both vehicles and draw a reasonable conclusion based on the evidence.
