So I was in an accident yesterday. I was driving northbound on a major blvd in the far right lane. I came to an intersection where it opens up to a turning lane. For anyone in Los Angeles it was on bundy crossing exposition.
So I got into the farthest right that had opened up just before exposition. A car going southbound on bundy was making a left onto exposition. The cars were stopped letting him do so but I did not see this. So he pulled into my lane and I hit him smack in the middle of his car with my right side.
My questions are:
Is there any way that I could have been at fault? I’m confident that there is no way I was at fault but there were two witnesses that talked to the other guy but not to me so this makes me think they are on his side some how.
I have full coverage on my insurance. I owe $8k on my car. Both of my air bags popped. I have heard that these are very expensive repairs. Even more so than damage and that some insurances will just salvage the car instead of making repairs due to this.
What are the chances of my insurance salvaging my car instead of repairing it?
I’m no expert on traffic law, but I think you could be partially at fault. One could make the argument that you should have slowed down and been extra-cautious after seeing the other vehicles had stopped. For all you know, they could have been allowing a little old lady to cross the street…
Possibly, but that’s irrelevant. The inspectors/adjustors (yours, and the other guy’s) will make that determination after talking to them; it’s their job.
Talk to your agent/adjuster about this. If the costs of repairing your car is more than the car is worth, they’ll just call it a loss and write you a check for the cash value. I imagine you’d still have to pay the $8K you owe, however.
I’m just trying to figure how you hit the other car with the right side of your car if you were turning right, and they were turning left, and the two of you were attempting to occupy the same space.
I’d have expected either a full-on “T-bone” with your front left corner into their right side or a sideswipe.
If I understand this correctly, you’re north bound turning right, and he’s south bound turning left?
Did he have a left turn arrow? If he did then you made an unsafe right turn on red–it’s all you, baby.
Did you both have a green dot? How many east bound lanes were there? If more than one, did he fail to assume east bound travel in the closest (inside) lane? Sounds like maybe he turned into your lane & invaded your rightful space. In a comparative negligence call it won’t look good for you because your nose on his right side indicates he was almost completely through the maneuver–had gone all the way through the intersection and almost completed his turn–before you entered the intersection. From an accident avoidance standpoint, you might have breached your duty to yield ownership of the intersection to someone who was already there…lots of factors, I doubt anyone will get 100% responsibility for this.
Airbags for your car are roughly $1,000 each. NADA says your car is worth roughly $12-16k depending on whether you have the 4 or 6 cylinder engine. I’m guesing you’ll also be looking at a new airbag sensor or two (another grand or more) bumper, radiator support, a fender or two, possibly a radiator, maybe a pair of headlights at, what, $300 each? So cost of parts, and about that again for paint & installation. Probably your front end got pushed over to the right from the impact (look at the gaps between the front doors & the fenders, is the right fender hitting the front edge of the door now?) so don’t be surprised if the front frame rails need straightening (TOTALLY doable these days, by the way). Adds up pretty quickly. It’s probably time for a new ride. Brace yourself, locate your title, go shopping NOW for a replacement, but don’t commit to buying anything just yet.
Visit Cars.com & Autotrader.com & NADA.com, look for other 2000 EXs with 70-90k miles & figure out what they’re selling for locally. Pretend that you were looking for a used car, like the one that was just wrecked–what would you pay for it? Did your car have any prior damage? Have you had any maintenance done lately? Know what your car is worth in the used car market. The security of knowing “where it’s been” doesn’t count for much unless you can document that you’ve taken meticulous care of the thing since day 1.
Yeah, the loan. The bank won’t release their lien against the car until they’re paid off, so if it’s a total, they’ll get paid first and you get what’s left of the settlement–about $3k from the look of things.
I wasn’t turning at all yet. I had atleast 500 feet before I was going to turn into the gas station.
Ya know I honestly don’t remember seeing a blinker… but then again I didn’t see him until a split second before I actually hit him.
This intersection did not have a light for traffic. The lane has “do not block” pained on the ground. But my lane was clear all the way to the light at the next street.
The lane he went into only had 1 lane for each side.
I actually hit him dead center of the front of his car not the side. It was my left side into the front of his grill.
An update: Just now I had got a call from his insurance and I told them everything that happened. His insurance said that they don’t see how it could be my fault and they would take care of my vehicle, however the agent said that they still need to get his side of the story.
OK…so you were going straight through the intersection? Then it’s likely all him for failure to yield to oncoming traffic while making a left turn…but you already know that.
Ah… You mean it was his front that hit your side. Without knowing the intersection in question, I can’t say anything authoritative, but this could go either way.
I was a passenger in an accident last year where the car I was in got T-boned because the driver pulled out of a parking lot without ensuring no traffic was coming. The police at the scene said it was my friend’s fault, but the insurance company assigned no fault or points against him, saying the car that hit us was going too fast for conditions.
So his insurance has called me and they take full responsibility for the accident. My insurance had already started the repair process on my vehicle so they are finishing it and will send his insurance the bill.
Car is currently in the shop with $7k damage and will take 3 weeks to fix.
I’m just glad they are fixing it and not salvaging it. I would have lost about $8k that I have put into the principle of the car and had a minimal down from the leftover money after paying the car off.
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