Need help immediately, road accident

[Tony D]

How does your medical insurance 'get pulled without your knowledge'?

 

If you're a full-time student, you can be covered on your parents policy till 25.

 

If you're not, I'm not sure what, but at 21 you should have that 80$ monthly policy for big catastrophic hospitalizations...

[kiwi303]

Surely if you buy something like an insurance policy, before they can cancel it they HAVE to notify you? that is the law in NZ, and in the more litigious environment of the US of A I'm SURE the company would have an enormous Cover Your Ass department advising the decision makers... I find it hard to believe the CYA dept would allow the company to cancel your paid-for policy without telling you.

[josh817]

Wasn't anything to do with the insurance company. My parents are divorced, step mom works for omni hotels. Her and my red decided they couldn't afford it as of January and I didn't get the memo until three days ago. Too late for Mom to put me back onto hers so we are seeking a solution. When I went to the doctor today he said I could file with my own auto insurance if I had PIP, and I do. They will give me money, even though this incident didn't involve any of the datsuns, and then when I'm all well they will go to the ladies auto insurance and settle with them to get their money back. Apparently it won't raise my rates either so w will try that out.

 

Even without insurance, my doctors visit and xrays haven't surpassed $300. $90 for the doctor visit, $100 for the xrays, another $90 for a return visit probably and then two prescriptions. That should be it unless they find something in the xrays.

 

Does anyone know how insurance prices a vehicle. For instance they may say a TR3 is only worth $12000 and if damages are more than $6000 they may decide to total it. However, if we have all the invoices for everything that has been done to the car while it has been built, will they say "ok its not $12000 its whatever you have invoices for"? The main body tub is compressed behind the door in the door jam so it won't be a matter of just fixing fenders and rear panels. The entire back half of the jb will either need to be cut off and a new half welded or tear down the entire car and replace the shell, assuming the chassis is ok. Either way, an expensive endeavor. If her insurance says they won't pay up that much, we will have to go to his classic car insurance. The vehicle is covered for COMPLETE expenses with them, however we obviously are trying to avoid doing that because we don't want the owner to be penalized by his insurance for this incident.

 

Last question, does anyone know of a way us regular public people can see whether a vehicle is registered as a classic or antique? Maybe a carfax or something? Owner has the registration somewhere in a lock box most likely, we do not have it, and I want to confirm that the car is indeed an antique before I go marching into court like a doofus.

 

 

I seriously appreciate all the help you guys. Never been in an accident of this nature and I would be lost without having people to ask.

[clutchdust]

No matter what they say it wasnt your fault, she hit you from behind so no matter what its her fault...

THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY TRUE!!! While it may (and should) be in this case, it's not always true.

Just a few weeks ago I hit some guy in the rear with my truck. Highway patrol listed him as 100% at fault. I was driving center lane of the freeway when he gets on. He swerves in front of me all the way over to the fast lane, then swerves all the way back across in front of me all the way back to the slow lane, then right in front of me. That's when I crunched him. Smashed his brand new 2012 Hyundai all the way up to the back doors. I thought for sure they were going to blame me, because like you, I thought a rear end collision was automatically my fault. Fortunately for me, Highway Patrol disagreed.

OP may want to check on the rules of the road in his state. I would be worried that someone may claim he "brake checked" her, causing the crash.

[josh817]

That is indeed a good point. The insurance has already said they will take responsibility. Really it is probably just a matter of reason. The police and insurance already have statements, it is already clear that my actions didn't purposely or accidentally out of stupidity cause the incident. At this point the blame game is too late. Now we look at how much they will give us.

 

As far as my ticket is concerned, the judge shouldn't twist things around. What I mean by that is that we are there to argue the ticket which is driving without inspection, not who was at fault. unless if they throw some crazy curve balls at me I should "win" the case. Had someone I know in law enforcement check to confirm whether or not the car was registered as a classic or an antique. It is registered as an antique, and not only does the Texas dmv and dps website state that antique does not require inspection but legislation statute 548.052 also lists what applications are exempt.

 

Now the tricky bit is that I can walk in with those three proofs but if they ask me to prove that the car is under antique, I cstill haven't found a way to do that because I don't think that legally I can print off registration information of a car I do not own. The car is in the states' system though so they should be able to see it themselves. I can definitely see them sdoing that to me though, show proof and then go oh Yah you can't because you don't have the authority to do so.

 

This however is just more proof that the officer was trying to be as difficult as possible. First he looked up the price of the vehicle when it was FIRST registered which was $5500, and said that's the value of the car.... Yah when the owner first bought it, before he dumped ten times that amount into restoring it . This is blatantly obvious when you see the car, even to one who doesn't know anything about vehicles. He then said damage looks minimal. He then didn't like the photocopy of insurance I had and tried to cite me for not having insurance, and finally he cites me for no inspection even though on his system he can see the car is registered as an antique which would imply that he is either ignorant of the law or he was trying to bust my balls, both of which are unacceptable.

 

I suspect this will call for more action on my part after the court visit.

[BLOZ UP]

Is that one that Steven garages?

[BLOZ UP]

That sucks. Like others have said, if they rear-end you, it's their fault. They should have been following a safe distance at all times. That includes following a distance where if the car in front of you mis-shifts, brakes hard, explodes, implodes, etc., you have enough time to react and avoid. Period. The only case I know that's an exception is fraud (people slamming on brakes just to get insurance/slamming on brakes to "teach a lesson"), and those are insanely hard to prove.

 

I wouldn't say anything to them or their insurance, other than "She hit me."

 

Even in this perfect world of the officer's (DWG?), if your car were inspected it could have had a mechanical failure after passing the inspection. Either way, it's not a moving violation and can't really affect this case a whole lot, whatever the officer's opinion.

 

Yet another reason for autonomous vehicles. Average Joe doesn't give a **** if your car is handbuilt, they just want to talk on the phone and sip their Starbucks while they tediously drive their 5000 lbs. vehicle at 60mph. "Oh, oops I hit you! Oh, just drop it off at the repair shop, what's the big deal?"

[Tony D]

"The only case I know that's an exception is fraud (people slamming on brakes just to get insurance/slamming on brakes to "teach a lesson"), and those are insanely hard to prove."

 

Welcome to Southern California! Happens all the time, and it a primary reason most guys in company trucks will take off any identifying logos or signage while on the freeway. It's like a big "I'M INSURED" sign, meaning swoop-n-squatters will target you.

 

One guy was prosecuted for murder as he ended up getting all his passengers killed when he obviously was swooping on an auto-transport. It was obvious, but the truck always stopped in time. Only through some miracle did people STICK AROUND to testify to the CHP on what was happening when one of the cars on the top of the transport broke-loose and came down in this guys back seat killing the back seat passengers (three people in a Pontiac Firebird????) No license, no insurance, no green card, looking for the green-gravy train of Jackpot Justice in the good old US of A!

 

If only the car had shot just a bit further forward in order to dispatch all the vermin in the vehicle and not just the avaricious backseaters.