My minor, minor, minor, accident.

Are the sensors off? If not, get them to cut you a check, use $15 in paint pen correction (it’ll be fiiiiiiine), send @Malvolio three cases of IPAs, and pocket the other $1600. You’re welcome.

 

maybe he read your license plate and thought your were gone

 

This is when the police report comes in handy. Blame gets situated pretty quickly when the man in blue has it on paper.

 

@CPS-65 The driver that hit you awhile back, probraly drinking, or stoned on weed when it happen. That possibly reason did not report accident.

 

The OEM parts issue is a good point. That is how my truck was repaired aside from the aftermarket tail lights.
The fault issue was why I hit this pretty hard right away by reporting the hit and run, taking some pictures, and forwarding all correspondence between myself and RM or my boss to the adjuster. The RM person admitted fault right away, so that was helpful. I didn't want to end up in some, "Whose fault it is isn't clear..." BS, so I made sure I established fault right away. In any legal proceeding, the first to act sets the tone and has a better chance of coming out on top. Victims call the police and make reports, bad actors don't.

Also, if I were to have any problems with the repairs, I have some recourse. Working through someone else's insurance, it would be more difficult.
This whole thing is also why no one should ever go for an "I'll pay for it out of pocket" offer from someone else.

 

I would hope not. they were from our Facilities Management dept., on duty, and at a school site during school hours. That could have been what happened, or the person had a previous accident, got scared, or just used bad judgement. I'll never know. The PD officer said they would be cited for the hit and run pending a review of the security footage.

 

As a rule, I save insurance for the bad stuff! A claim is a claim in there eyes and they don't like claims.

 

Many years ago my father in-law backed his truck into my WRX and crushed the headlight.

I called my insurance and along with my in-law's insurance, the 2 insurance figured out the cost of the repair and I picked the garage approved by the insurance company. My insurance premimum did not go up, my in-law's did.

To OP, If the other insurance write you a check, I would fix it myself and pocket the difference. I replaced a color matched bumper cap from Amazon for $140 bucks.

 

Happens all the time on accident/insurance/collision repair topics. And it's happening again in this thread, as you pointed out.

 

No. That is simply foolish. You have no more control over your insurance company than you do anyone else. They are not your friend. Your policy may cover more, but you are paying for it and anytime you use it, you are putting yourself at risk of higher premiums or being dropped because of number of claims. That is how it works. If your policy pays more, then it may work out better to file a claim against your own policy, but you need to know the risks before automatically calling your insurance company every time you get a boo-boo.

A police report in many cases is pointless. If it is on private property, there will be no investigation of a traffic incident unless their were injuries. Logging a report with a police department is really a waste of time. It means nothing other than you going on record.

As for what an insurance company pays, that is dictated by state law in most cases. Some states require OE parts up to a certain year. Some don't. If you don't like the settlement offer by any insurance company, you have the right to take them to court.

 

Things may be different in your state. Here, the Police do take reports in hit-and-run cases and, in fact, the employee was cited for it. School sites are public property and are subject to enforcement of the state vehicle code. You may not have read my response carefully, because I filed a police report so I would be on the record to make sure my claim of a hit and run by this other employee was the direction this problem was going. Why would I want to give the other person time to make up some nonsense or try to mitigate their responsibility? That is what wouldn't make sense in any context.

Further, Though I have had three instances of damage by others over the past ten years where I submitted the claim to my insurance company, who recovered their costs and my deductible via subrogation, my rates have never been adjusted. In fact, I get a discount for no accidents. Though we have high coverage amounts and low deductibles, our insurance is pretty low. No complaints have needed to be made, and certainly no one had to go to court. You may view my opinion here as "foolish", as you said, but it works exactly as described in my experience, and yes, I do understand how insurance works which is the whole point of my post. Maybe it works for me because I get after things right away, and take control of the direction something is headed, or because I carefully document what happened and follow-up. Handling things this way has worked well all my life, so that's how I operate. Your mileage may vary.

 

That bumper cover comes out, its like 30$ on AMZ.

The light though... OEM might be more expensive than 30$.

 

You are drawing unnecessary conclusion from your incident. Your truck was hit. You know who did it. That is the end of it. The criminal case is separate from the civil case. Your damage is civil. The other driver being cited does not guarantee a civil settlement. Being first to make a statement does not mean that you win.

Hit and run, yes. A run of the mill fender bender, no. Even a parking lot hit and run is a tough ask of the police. The chances of a prosecutor filing charges for something like that is pretty small because the driver can claim they didn't know there was damage so it isn't worth the time. I seriously doubt your insurance hasn't increased in 10 years. You must be the luckiest driver on the planet.

I do agree that taking care of things right away is the right approach and documentation is key, but there is no need to involve your insurance company unless you cannot get a favorable result on your own. Especially if you know what you are doing, and you seem to.

 

Maybe I wasn't clear in what I meant. To begin with, I'm not interested in the criminal case other than the police investigated, determined the other person (whose name I still don't know) was at fault. With that, it makes the school district (who we are both employed by) liable for the damage since the other vehicle was a district vehicle driven by an employee, while on duty. This was a good strategy because the district will not release the person's name to me or let me view the security camera footage, all of which puts me in a weaker position because their insurance carrier can claim it's unclear what happened, who was driving, etc., which can lead to denying responsibility or a claim of split responsibility, which is a common practice in parking lots. If you don't get out in front of things like this, you are behind it and have less to work with. When the police investigated, they determined the other driver was at fault and subsequently cited that individual. In CA, that hit and run is a misdemeanor which is treated as a cite and release when it is property damage. This guy will have to appear before judge and he'll probably get a small fine and a point on his license. Not my concern.

For me, this works well. I have good insurance, things are repaired properly, I get an appropriate rental car, and it's all done in a timely manner. If I were to deal with the district's insurer, which the district really pushed me on, their adjuster makes an estimate and below a certain level (I don't recall if it was 5K or 10K), they will write a check. The thing is, once you accept that check, the matter is closed (that is made clear in the paperwork they want completed) which means you have no recourse if in the course of repairs, hidden problems are found, or a part is delayed and you need a rental car longer.

I see we have different opinions on how to deal with this. My method has worked well for me and as I said above, I have had no adjustment to my policy due to at fault accidents. Our policy fluctuates up and down periodically by an amount of less than $10.00 for a six-month period, but it is essentially been the same for 10 years. It did go up when I bought the Tacoma I replaced my 20 year old truck with, but it was very little. Much less than I expected. We get a number of discounts for no accidents, over 40 years of driving experience, all of our vehicles, our home, a 1 mil umbrella policy, and my wife's professional liability insurance is all carried by the same company.

I don't have any desire to go around with someone else's carrier, or take anyone to court. That's not something I want to spend time on, especially if I can solve the problem via my own insurer, with an appropriate resolution, and no new costs to me. Taking legal action would be a last resort move. However, if I had to do that, I would be sure I brought compelling evidence and could make my case. For work, I've had to give testimony, and have been deposed a number of times. It's boring, and I will never get the time back. My wife has to take people, or companies to court periodically. It's just a time-sucking vortex. Even if the judge finds in favor of your complaint, it doesn't mean you are going to get any money. Many times, you have to go back and get a separate judgment to garnish wages. Wasted time. Like I said before, your mileage may vary, and things may work differently in your state. This is how I like to do things and it has worked in my favor every time. Some of what I stated may seem a little over the top, but I always over-prepare, get all the facts and evidence in hand, go in early, get done early, and hit it hard. It's just the way I am and how I was raised. My job has a lot of legal components to it with timelines and evidentiary processes. Any time someone higher up wants an update, I always want to respond, "It's all done, here's the report, results, whatever..." So yeah, I can be a little compulsive about some things. You seem like you approach things in a manner of practicality.

 

Out of pocket if you get the light replaced at the dealer ship that will be about $400. why I don't know?

The bumper cap plus other stuff will be over a grand. If the blind spot monitor is damaged that is grand itself.

Yes there is a 1000 dollar technology component sitting in your bumper cap. The only thing protecting it between it and the person rear ending you is 3 millimeter thick piece of plastic.

 

Exactly what I would have done, both in terms of the hit in general as well as the run. Fewer things more cowardly than someone who damages another vehicle and bails, I don't care what the reason. And yes it sucks if he got in trouble but he chose that. Not to mention the legal issue..don't go easy on him there either.

Don't see how they can since it was a rear end..though sadly some will still try.

Went through this recently in a parking garage and I called my insurance the next morning. They took care of me quickly (less deductible) and then they deal with the other insurance, my insurance company works for me not the other way around. This did help as the clown who hit me took his sweet time reporting it which would have held me up had I gone just through his.

Good. Testify if you have to. This person is slime..if they'll do it at their job they'll do it elsewhere too!

 

I'm not worried about getting the deductible back since it's 100% his fault. Of course I don't know what he told his insurance company. I also have to finish my accident report and send it to the police in the city where it happened. I don't know if I can upload it or have to print it out and mail it to them. That will be today's research project. Tomorrow's will be taking the truck and estimate to the body shop and seeing what they have to say. Kind of sucks having to find a new body shop after almost 20 years with the old one. I'll see what they have to say about ordering parts and scheduling the repair.

 

I mean you could take a road trip...kidding, of course.

It saddens me sometimes what people try. Guy backed into the front driver's fender of mine in a parking lot and tried to say I rear ended him, even though the directionality of the hit on the surface invalidated that..much less that my grille, front of the bumper, light bar etc was untouched.

 

Yup, I just took mine apart to install new painted bumper caps. Its all plastic pieces that bolt to the frame.

 

This is why I love my insurance company and my agent. Claims get processed faster and let them fight for the money back.