I just had an accident. My first accident
It wasn’t that bad because we’re both fine and neither car was totaled.
However, I wasn’t driving my car. It was TVGeek’s grandfather’s car. His grandfather was going to give/sell it to him and I was driving it because the heat is broken and I have a shorter drive. I didn’t want my fiancee to freeze on his hour+ commute. I had already left for work but had to go back home because I left my reflux pills in my car and I needed to take one.
I was entering my street from the back way and was approaching a curve which intersects with another street. There’s no stop sign and no one seems to know who has the right of way.
Anyway, I didn’t see the other car because of the large tree right on the curve. When I did see her, I started slowly braking and gently turned the car to the right - away from her. The car wasn’t having any of it. It continued going straight. The other driver tried to turn her car to the left but also kept going straight. God damn mother fucking snow :mad: Fucking city plowers who don’t even do a halfway decent job plowing :mad: .
So, the other lady was really nice and we drove to her house to swap information. Her rear passenger side door is going to need to be replaced. Grandpa’s front bumper and left lights will need to be replaced.
I feel like such a putz. I’ve been driving for 6-1/2 years without an accident and my first one happens in someone elses car. Now I have to go get an accident report from the police and bring it to the insurance company. With my luck, they wont cover it because it wasn’t my car and I’ll also be found at fault because that’s just the way my luck goes.
HOW THE FUCK DID I SUBMIT THAT? I wasn’t even anywhere near the submit button.
As I was saying - we swaped information.
Now, I’m sitting here waiting for the insurance company to open and I’m not getting paid for it. I called work and told them I’d be in as soon as this was taken care of. They’re ok with it which is at least some good news.
So, who do I pit? Me, for driving someone elses car? The othe lady for not stopping (I think I had the right of way)? The city for not requiring a better plow job? The city and the condo association for not being able to decide who owns the streets so neither thinks it’s their responsibility to put a fucking stop sign there? How about mother-fucking-nature for dumping another 6" of snow on us when the last bunch finally melted?
That car was 10 years old, had slightly over 50,000 miles and not a single ding in it.
And, I STILL HAVE FUCKING HEARTBURN!!!
If TVGeek’s grandpa has insurance on the car, and you had his permission to drive it, then his company will pay out if you are found at fault. Don’t worry about that. And don’t let *anyone * tell you otherwise, especially his insurance company.
The permission thing is a bit hazy. TVGeek had the car because it hasn’t been driven in a long time and it will most likely be his soon anyway. So, he was supposed to be driving it. I was driving it only because I have a 15-20 minute commute where his is about 1 hour 15 minutes. With the heat broken, it would make for a very uncomfortable commute.
Anyway, I have an update. I went to the insurance to file the report. Grandpa and I have the same insurance company. They were very nice to me, even though they had a slightly hard time understanding why I was driving the car. I described the intersection where the accident occured and they decided that I was not at fault since I was on the street that the other street ends on. They said that if there had been a stop sign, it would have been on the other street, not mine. However, the other driver’s insurance has to put in their input. I should know something within the next day or two. I’m feeling much better now. I just hope they decide it was no fault because I don’t think the other driver was at fault either. I’m also going to call the condo association to find out why there isn’t a stop or yield sign there.
Unless Grandpa had Physical Damage coverage (Collision) on that 10 year old car, his insurance won’t be paying to get it fixed. If it’s determined that the other driver was at fault then her insurance will fix it.
The term “no fault” refers to Personal Injury Protection (PIP). Meaning that no matter who is “at fault”, your own insurance (in this case, Grandpa’s) pays for your own medical bills. It sounds like there were no injuries so this aspect of the coverage won’t come into play.
Fender-benders happen. Sometimes where’s nothing you can do to avoid it.
