Here we go again with this damn truck…

He's 100% going to have more than just bumper cover damage.

 

Who would do the work and who is going to pay for it? Outside of answering calls for service, conducting investigations, current traffic enforcement and other daily police business. Who would have time to put in the work?

 

Your insurance company should cover this and get reimbursed from her insurance. Thats what they do and why were insured.

woops, read it to quick , I see she has no insurance, yikes!

The cops should have impounded her vehicle.


What Happens If You Have a Car Accident Without Insurance?
Except for New Hampshire and Virginia, some amount of car insurance is legally required by every state and Washinton, D.C. Typically, this includes a minimum amount of liability coverage for bodily injury to others and damage to their personal property, although some states require additional types of coverage. Drivers who fail to comply are subject to legal and financial consequences.

Penalties are dictated by state law, driver record, and how the accident occurred, and can include:

• Fines and/or jail time
• Suspension of driver’s license, vehicle registration, and/or license plate
• Being required to file an SR-22 form
• Impoundment of vehicle

 

The crash bar and everything attached to is probably pulled to the driver's side. Low speed so the frame probably didn't get yanked over in the wreck.

 

Option 3

 

Sorry man, this totally sucks!

 

Neither you or the other driver were injured ….. luckily
Maybe the at fault driver would pay for damages to your truck if you suggest legal action ????

 

The sale of the offending vehicle, payment to the other innocent driver to make him whole, and the rest to cover the program. Or, fire the police and hire a group that doesn't find a way to get out of part of their job. [traffic law enforcement]

Once it's towed by a wrecker service, the cops are pretty much out of it except a court date if the offending driver decides to fight it in court.

Many departments did everything in their power to NOT go to traffic accidents unless there are injuries. It was NOT that way when I was growing up. With new cameras, computers, someone rewriting everything [in some departments] ''nicer,'' and so on, a minor traffic incident, tickets for the offending at fault driver, towing if not legal to drive, all that shouldn't take all that long.

People aren't happy when they get screwed by both the at fault driver and the ''justass'' system and law enforcement who seem to not care to even show up. They wonder why so many people want to defund them............well, there IS no wonder frankly. The one time most honest people expect to see a cop when they are involved in something and it isn't happening. ''Why pay for nothing'' is what goes through their minds.

And I'm not placing the blame on the street beat cops, it all falls on govt officials at different levels [state, city, and so on] and the court system and elected officials who abdicate their responsibility to the citizens they represent.

 

I believe in CA cops or CHP can respond a collision. But AZ for example changed their law where police are not to get involved in collisions.

It can be useful for a credible third party (police) to take a statement. Or a witness. Because if the other driver admits fault to the police, or it looks like they are at fault and that comes down to a statement, you can provide that to insurance. You can get the report from the involved PD.

 

@cromag27

 

You might be going off the deep end. The thing is police stop uninsured motorists every day, site them and impound their vehicles. Once the offending drivers get insurance and pay the impound bill they can legally drive their vehicle again.

That's more than enough punishment for driving unisured. The offenders don't think that's fair and think their tax dollars should be spent preventing other offenses like homicide and robberies.

 

What would be good for the citizen. Would be a self insured savings account that they pay into. The account could earn interest and if a bank held the funds. You could borrow against your account interest free, with out taking the money out of the self insured savings account. If you never have to use the funds in the account you get all of your money back including the intrest accrued. Hospital bills, lawyer + doctor fees, the price of vehicles, and the cost to repair them would all have to be much lower. For the average person to make self insuring affordable. That's never going to happen.

 

True though sometimes I do think the officers themselves take a similar stance. A few years ago someone backed into me in a parking lot (doing about 2000 worth of damage). He refused to speak to me or give me his information so I called the police.

The responding officers asked who called, I said it was me and I was told "just so you know, this isn't our job unless maybe there's over $1000 of damage or injury".

After I got done laughing I looked right back at them and said politely

"First of all, he wouldn't provide me his information or say one word to me.

Second, I have no way to know how much damage there is but the fender, headlight, and grille are all destroyed so I bet it's over that.

Third, yes this is your job since he wouldn't provide me his information after he was clearly at fault, I'm certainly not going to just pay for his actions myself"

The other person lied and said I tried to leave the scene, at which point I laughed again and said "now why would I call if I was the one who wasn't being cooperative, nice try".

I did notice the other driver had some kind of police sticker on his rear window so I wonder if perhaps he was in law enforcement..oh well

At least here it is also an arrestable offense, whether required or not I do not know. Having no insurance here is also considered to not have a valid registration FWIW

 

In MD you have to have insurance to legally drive, but I dont know if you have to have insurance to get a registration. Anytime I bought a vehicle I had insurance, but not for that vehicle, so I guess you don't need insurance to register a vehicle. I have seen many people who had a valid registration but no insurance, the state might revoke your registration if you don't have insurance, but that isn't always the case. That might be the result of how fast insurance notifies the DMV, and the DMV enters that info info what ever data base the PD accesses, I can't recall the acronym.

Driving uninsured might also be an arrestable offense but an arrest will rarely happen on that alone. The charge is the same, so the arrest is kind of a waste of time and resource for all parties involved. Not much of a deterrent to prevent the offender of doing the same thing again. Not every uninsured motorist is inflicting damages on the rest of the public. Sure the potential is there, that's why the law is enforced.

 

True, I think here too it also depends on the whole situation. That said it's infuriating in my first example of no license/reg/ins

 

From my career I've witnessed thousands of small claims cases.. here's a clue, don't do it unless your life depends on it. No one wins, someone might break even but no one wins.

You have insurance for a reason, use it. This is the exact scenario you would need it. The accident was already reported so if it was going to raise your rates, paying the deductible wouldn't make a difference, the accident would.

Not worth the stress so don't over think it. Take it as it is and take advantage of that $500 deductible that just saved your ass!

 

I'd like to know why insurance isn't tied to the driver rather than the car...

I can only drive one car at a time, and if I drive someone else's vehicle that car should be covered by the driver (me) being insured. And I love that the driver's license is tied to the insurance, and suspect it is vise versa as well, the insurance tied to the driver's license. If either should lapse they should both be pulled.

 

I like the idea of that, like a flat rate for the driver then something separate for the car. A 1995 Honda is probably cheaper to insure than a 2023 Tacoma, hence the vehicles are insured and not the driver.

 

tldr; as always, lots of incorrect comments from people who know nothing about insurance or laws.

1 or 2 - which is more out of pocket for you? how do you know following through with your collision claim will increase your premium?

3 - if she has no insurance, do you really think getting a judgement against her will be beneficial? if she can’t even pay for auto insurance she probably has no assets you can go after.

 

I agree - no insurance, probably nothing to sue/collect but I swear that is what most people without insurance do + get away with = no consequences.. they don't care about having their license revoked

at least a judgement would screw up whatever hope the offender has of a financial future or a better job - something..

I wish there was an impactful punishment for those who drive without insurance.. meanwhile if you are the victim of such a person, your life can get flipped upside down..

I have a spinal fusion as the result of an accident where the person at fault had no insurance and no assets - it is infuriating