Auto Insurance Claims: I hit a dog on the freeway, only have liability and uninsured motorist coverage..., uninsured motorist coverage, uninsured motorists coverage

Question
Hi,

This might be a stupid question, but this is my first accident ever so forgive me because I'm not very good with how insurance investigation works.

I hit a big dog on the freeway last week. The dog died but I didn't get injured in any way. I never found out if it was a stray dog or a pet because after the accident nobody came to claim the dog. I have some minor damage on the front of the car, and 2 airbags deployed. My car is still drivable but at the time of the accident I panicked and didn't wanna take any risks so I got it towed to a nearby body shop. Now I'm really regretting it because I realized I only have liability and uninsured motorists coverage on my insurance. So far the owner of the body shop hasn't charged me any fees for keeping the car there, he seems to think my insurance will definitely pay for the repair and airbags replacement. The claims adjustor hasn't gone there to check the vehicle and in the mean time I'm really worried about having to pay for the costly airbags myself.

So my question is this, how does insurance normally approach this type of accident? Will this be considered my fault? Do insurance companies in general ever make exceptions on covering property damage to the insured's vehicle that is not normally covered under liability (for cases like mine)?

Answer
Hi Julia,

Unfortunately, I only have bad news for you.  Hitting a dog would generally be covered under you comprehensive coverage. If you do not have comprehensive coverage on your policy, your insurance company will not pay anything.

You should go to the body shop manager to see what payment arrangements you can make.

I hope this helps.
Richard Hixenbaugh