Yesterday I had a minor car accident. It was noon, sunny, I was turning right onto the highway from a shopping center. Traffic on the highway was medium. I was looking for oncoming traffic and it was clearing up so that it would be safe to turn. While looking for oncoming traffic, I saw cars turning into the shopping center from the highway. One of those cars caused glare to be reflected and that’s when it happened. I was turning and, as I was turning, I hit the back of the car in front of me. That car sustained scuff marks; however, my car received a dent in the side of the hood and cracked the glass covering the turning signal. I want to fix the dent if it does not cost much and I want to replace the glass for the turning signal. Fortunately, the hood is able to be opened, the turning signals work, and the other car did not get the brunt of the impact.
Am I at fault? What about the glare? Is that a factor?
How much will the dent in the hood and the glass covering the turning signal cost? What if the total cost is lower than my deductible? Do I just go into my car insurance’s office and tell them that I had a minor accident and that I need to repair the hood and the glass covering the turning signal? What else do I need to tell my insurance? What about the other driver?
I can pay these two repairs (assuming they aren’t thousands of dollars). What about my insurance payments? Will they go up?
Just did this last week. Turning on to a very busy main road at rush hour, with a stop sign on the on-ramp. Each car was slowly waiting their turn and merging onto the road. This was facilitated by having a dedicated lane after the sign, so we didn’t have to jump right into traffic, but we had a few hundred yards after the sign to merge.
When my turn came, I looked all over the place to make sure I was clear and started easing onto the road, looking over my left shoulder. When I looked forward, I was shocked to see that the car in front of me had gone past the stop sign and then stopped in the road.
I barely tapped her car. My car wasn’t scratched at all, but my license plate left a dent in her bumper.
I paid it myself. The damage was below my deductible and I really don’t think any good could come from my insurance company hearing about any kind of accident. The car was a rental, and she was returning it, so we just drove the two blocks to the rental place and I settled things with them directly, letting her get on with her life without any need to deal with the problem.
Factors involved: nice people, no police, very easy resolution, damage below deductible.
If anything were different (e.g. woman was a jerk, police involved, complicated repairs, or much damage), I would have involved the insurance company.
Be aware that any bodywork will cost a few hundred dollars. If two cars are damaged, that will be for each car. What looks like a small dent can easily cost north of $500 to fix.
The way I approach it - if the damages look to be less than or slightly more than my deductible, I’ll deal with it myself and not involve the insurance company. Same for the other car. If, however, it’ll be an expensive repair, that’s what insurance is for. So I guess it’ll depend on if the other driver is going to be honest and reasonable or if he’ll see your insurance as a chance to get his car repainted or something.
I don’t know that there’s a one-size-fits-all rule for what affects your premiums, but I do know that making lots of little claims in a short period of time will get your policy cancelled (my idiot BIL thought insurance was designed to keep his car showroom perfect…)
So you paid for the other car’s repairs. Assuming that I don’t have to pay for the other car’s repairs, I do have to pay for my car’s repairs.
Police were involved. She called the police. A police officer came. We wrote down a joint accident report. The women and the officer appeared to be nice and I was nice too, albiet concerned with paying for damage and my insurance. Should the police have been involved? Wouldn’t that officer’s time be wasted dealing with a minor car accident? Why did she call the police? I got out of the car like a good citizen, checked her car, looked at her, and she said lets pull over to look over cars and talk.
Since the police were involved, does that mean that my insurance company needs to be involved?
Sorry, I think I was caught up in my own tale of woe and didn’t address this directly.
In almost all cases, you are at fault if you hit the back of the car in front of you.
There are rare mitigating circumstances (e.g. other car was backing up), but those are few and far between. As soon as you say “I hit the back of the car in front of me” you are almost certain to be found at fault.
Assume you are at fault and budget accordingly. If the other person wants the scuff marks made perfect, you will end up paying for that, either directly or indirectly.
For question 1, you can ask local repair shops for an estimate. You already know the answer to question 2.
Number three is tricky. Have you ever had an accident before? How long ago was it?
Here’s a good overview of how your rates might be affected.
In my experience, you can contact the insurance company to discuss this. As long as you don’t make a claim, it won’t affect your rates. I had to replace a windshield once, but after I talked with my insurance, the cost of my replacement was less than my deductible and my rates didn’t change. I needed them to cover an accident a couple of years later, and the increase in my rate was less than the amount the insurance company paid out, even considering the years the higher rates would be charged.
As always, YMMV across the many jurisdictions in the good old USA.
But…
IMHO, you will be fighting an uphill battle trying to convince anyone that you were not at fault as the rear-end party of a rear end collision. You are expected to be in control of your vehicle at all times, and you are expected to be able to always have safe stopping distance in front of you.
Don’t get me wrong—I had quite a bit of a rant ready to go for that woman who was in front of me last Friday. I wanted to give her a piece of my mind about bozos who pull into the main roadway and then put their brakes on. I really do feel that she contributed to our little accident.
But I also know what my responsibilities are, so I smiled and wished her a good day after taking care of it.
I’m not trying to convince anyone that I was not at fault. I told the police everything about the accident. Should I tell my insurance company anything about the accident? Or should I just get the repairs done and leave it at that?
Why wouldn’t she call the police? There was a traffic accident. In Illinois, you need to file a report with the police if there is any injury or if there is damage of (just looked this up) $1500, or $500 if anyone is uninsured. Many cities require calling the police on the spot whenever there’s a car accident, so Illinois’ Rules of the Road document says to call right away regardless. I googled and per the info on the MI Secretary of State’s website under their “What Every Driver Must Know” section, they say call for $1000+ worth of damage.
And you’d be surprised how much damage can cost even in a minor fender-bender. I was at fault in one and it cost me over $300 alone just to bend a bit of the bumper frame back a half-inch or less. Replacing the bumper would have cost a hell of a lot more, not to mention the paint/body work cost for just a thin indentation on the front of the hood, and that’s not even counting what happened to the other car.
As for calling your insurance company, I don’t know how insurance works in Michigan (I gather it’s different there versus most states), but if there’s any way the other driver is claiming against your insurance, you’d better. Hopefully one of our insurance Dopers will show up shortly.
I’ve heard many, many stories that start like this and end with the other party going to the emergency room a few hours with a stiff neck. I would call.
And tell them what? That I need to fix the dent in the side of my hood and replace the glass for the turning signal and that the other car received scuff marks?
No. I once called my insurance company to ask for advice about whether or not to file a claim, and ultimately decided against it. Nothing went on my record, my premiums did not go up.
Also, if you have any questions about who’s at fault, mitigating circumstances, etc., your insurance company can probably help answer those questions too.
You live in a no-fault state, so normal advice about fault doesn’t apply. In no-fault states, your insurance company handles your damages regardless of fault. Her insurance company will pay for her damages, and yours will pay for yours.
No-fault insurance is really weird. But you don’t need to report it unless you want to repair your own damages. If she calls you bitching, tell her to call her own insurance company because that’s how it works in Michigan.
The turning signals work and the hood is able to be opened. Unrelated to the car accident is a breaklight that went out which I will get repaired in addition to the glass covering the turning signal. I don’t need to fix the dent in the hood.
Nobody can ever tell you for sure whether your premiums will go up before you file a claim. Nobody can promise they won’t–it’s not only an unknown, it’s an unknowable. Insurance is about risk, not about certainty. And there are a huge number of factors that determine your premium; your claims history is just one part of that. Your premium isn’t even going to be re-assessed until your renewal, which could be a number of months in the future. And it will be done by the underwriting department, which is completely separate from the claims department.
You could call your insurance company’s claim department and ask them for some general advice without filing a claim. But keep in mind, given that you’re in Michigan, the normal rules won’t apply. They may not know how no-fault insurance works. Try calling your agent, if you have one, or Google “Michigan no fault insurance rate increase,” because I’m not terribly experienced with no-fault myself.
Maybe a nice no-fault adjuster or underwriter will come along, but there’s no guarantee we have one. There are few no-fault states left these days. My advice? You have absolutely no idea how insurance works in your state. Just file the claim and suck it up if they raise your rates. The education your adjuster provides will be worth it.
Bottom line. Tell the police (which I did), don’t tell the insurance (which I’m debating), get the repairs (which I’m planning on getting) and my insurance rates won’t go up. Or, tell the police (which I did) tell the insurance (which I’m debating), get the repairs (which I’m planning on getting) and my insurance rates will go up. What’s wrong with just telling the police and getting the repairs? Why get the car insurance company involved?
