The impression I get was that he only had 2 or 3 car lengths to react and stop. There's no way he would have been able to stop at 40mph. 40kph maybe but not 40mph. If he would have seen the other car sooner, maybe it wouldn't have happened but it really sounds like the other guy made one or two bad calls (no lights, pulling out infront of traffic without right of way, not turning in to the correct lane, you name it.). Hope he's alright though.

Sounds like you did everything right. Calling 911 and checking to see the other guy was ok. Really sorry about the car. I know what you mean, I'm not even the first owner but I baby my car and I worry everyday about messing it up. Just gotta keep trying to drive defensive.

 

1. Sorry about your loss. Others have said it, I don't know any way better to put it.
2. Contact a Lawyer and get yourself check out.
3. Contact his Insurance company and file a claim. Becaure of what you said. If they ask if you're okay. Tell them that you DO NOT KNOW. You'd need to have a doctor check you out.
4. REMEMBER ONLY to response about the car. NOTHING RELATED TO HEALTH PROBLEM. That should be dealt with by your lawyer and the doctor.
5. They should cover everything: Car rental, Towing, Total loss, Lawyer fee, doctor fee, etc.
6. You should not spend a dime.
7. Again, becareful of what you said. If they ask you to state what happened. Say it just like the police report. NOT YOUR VERSION OF HOW AND WHY

 

HOLY CRAP!!! That's painful to see. Be VERY glad you walked away from that. YIKES!!!!

Sue the damn bastard!!!!

 

i am glad you are okay. in new york state as long as you are on the road you have some percentage of liability unless it is fully proven it is the other driver's fault.

 

I had a similar situation with my FIRST accident (out of two).
I was 16, with my '87 Dodge Charger. I had left school to go to my job or something. Going down the street, before the major intersection, a woman pulled out of a parking lot to my right trying to cross traffic to turn left. All of a sudden, she was just sitting there in front of me. I'm wondering if she stalled or somthing. Anyway, I lock up trying to brake, and swerving was too late, since I was locked...and end up T-boning her driver's side door and turned her 270°. They faulted her.... (can't remember the term they used) for failure to use caution when entering traffic.

Funny, now that I think of it, my second accident was similar to the first, except that I was at fault for pulling out into an intersection. But I swore that the dude was turning right....that's what I get for assuming.

 

Yes, got through his insurance company. UPS hit my car last week, and I jumped the gun calling my insurance company first. UPS' insurance company took responsibility and handled it all, rental and repairs (no deductable) and I got the check today , also go the check from my insurance company as well (which already had a stop payment on it once the other insurance company assumed responsibility)
Yes, get checked out.. might be more than just the visible marks.

 

As far as accidents like this go, the rule of thumb is, if a vehicle is entering the roadway and is struck from the middle of the car forward it is that vehicles fault. If it is struck from the middle rearward it would be your fault.
This is the theory used by a majority of police. It's kind of simple really if you hit the front half you could not react and stop fast enough because he pulled out so late. The back half means you saw him and reacted and in theory tried to stop and couldn't but often that would mean you were traveling to fast. You should easily be in the clear given the other circumstances and that the cop was theorizing how the other driver could have pulled out into traffic like that.
The other thing is, a lot of time they will investigate the accident before issuing a ticket. I would talk to the officer and get an answer as to whether he was issuing a ticket and why or why not.

 

Rick,

Glad to see that the G holds up so well and that you're OK! We recently purchased our G after my high mileage Q got totaled in a comparatively minor fender bender. Sadly, when the retail value is $3K, a car can be totaled very easily.

In my accident, it was the other driver's fault - and his company happened to be State Farm. I handled the claim directly with them... if you file with your company - they will just negotiate on your behalf with the other driver's company. At least that's how it works in South Carolina. I trust my negotiating skills more than leaving it to someone else.

I would definately get checked out regarding your injuries... luckily that wasn't a factor in our wreck. I would also start documenting every minute of time you spend dealing with the accident. Estimate how much time you spent at the scene... document every phone call, every second. I did this and used it as a veiled threat when we got close to a settlement. Something like "I really would like to get this settled... we're very close... if we can't work something out I'm going to have to factor in all of this time if we have to take some other sort of action."

In my case, it took about three or four weeks of haggling. The Q was high mileage, but had never been wrecked, never had paint work, etc. I babied it, and had service records for it from the day it rolled off of the boat in CA back in 1989. The Qs also had a timing chain guide issue and Bose amp problems that I had fixed that would not be typically taken care of in a replacement. After adding in dealer estimates for new timing chain guides and Bose Amps, as well as tint and remote start - I came up with a replacement cost of over $7000! They kept saying that my value wasn't reflected in the market - but my response was that the appropriate value was what it would take to replace what I had, and that it was unfortunate that their insured had to have an accident with someone who's car was apparently not a good investment! Also, the car wasn't for sale when he hit me, so it's market value was not my concern.

So we eventually settled at $5350 + a tag and property tax allowance. Then I bought the car back for $350 and sold it to someone else for $700 who wanted to repair her... my backup plan was to part it out.

So that's my experience... hopefully it will help! Just remember to continue to beat them down until you get what you want (within reason). Do it calmly and politely - but be firm. Don't let them frustrate you into settling for less just to be done with it. Eventually it becomes a matter of "what do we have to do to make you go away!"

Good luck!

Heath

 

Well it looks like the "totalled" flag hasn't been mark just yet. The adjuster said he's going to have the body shop take it apart and see if there's any other damge that he didn't account for to see if it falls into the totalled category.

Here are the pictures from a real camera and not my phone:

 

sorry man, i know the feeling. thats most definitely a total right there. glad you are ok though, he is most definitely going to be at fault on that one.

 

I think you should try to make sure it falls in the "totaled" category if you can... I simply do not think that a car can be put back together to be as good as it came from the factory. Assembly line with highly skilled Japanese workers vs. guy at body shop. Not to belittle what they do at body shops... they do amazing things to mangled metal, but there will always be a rattle, a leak, a door that doesn't close as well, some paint that doesn't look just right under those lights at the gas station...not to mention the diminished resale value.

When I totaled a Maxima I actually told the guy at the body shop something to the extent of "if there's anything you can do to help State Farm decide that it's a total loss, that would be good. I don't want to be a jerk - but you'll never see the end of this car... there will always be something I'm bringing it back to fix..."

Amazingly it was totaled that afternoon! Then someone bought it out of the salvage yard within two days to rebuild. Felt sort of bad about that too, because when I went back to get my aftermarket alarm, CD Changer, etc let's just say I didn't hesitate to clip any wire under the dash that was in the way. Someone probably cussed me for days fixing all of that stuff!

Once they're wrecked, I would rather let someone else who got a good deal on a refurbished car deal with the idiosyncrices that will pop up...

Heath

 

Thanks for the input and trust me, I agree with your points. I know there will be under lying issues that will pop-up if someone trys and repairs it. I think if there were to take the car apart (which the insurance company said they would) then they'll see the extent of the repairs.

The only thing is that the car is still valued around 28k bluebook, so it's held it's value quite well, but in this case, might make it too valuable to total then to try and repair. I'm definitely pushing for a total and will stand behind it. If it does get repaired, I'm going for new OEM parts from Infiniti so the car will maintain it's full warranty.

 

hey,

if they total the car, can you find out what junkyard it is being taken to? i'd like to get some of the OEM stuff off of your car and replace them with mine

 

Looks like it's going to be totaled, but the insurance adjuster said the cost to repair was in the high $18k, but said it's above the 80% threshold, which doesn't make sense because the car is worth close to $28k....so we'll see what happens, but it's not totally a done deal yet.

 

whats with all the dents on the driver side door? after you t-boned him what happened? did the cars fly in direction? i mean i just dont see how the dents could've got there.