Very true, as a whole, if you have a large number of claims period, regardless of what type, they will deem you as a bad risk and the number of insurance companies that will insure you will shrink very quickly. Leaving the non-standard companies who specialize in insuring high risk drivers, who will charge you a high premium to insure you. My point is that a comp claim will not go on you motor vehicle record (mvr) with the DMV and as an individual claim cannot be used against you to raise your premium. You pay your insurance company to cover you for all such incidences. For instance, if your car gets stolen (comp claim) and your car is not recovered, you pay your insurance to replace your car are compensate you for the value of your car. They cannot raise your rate because your car got stolen, because it is not a moving violation or an at-fault accident. Now if you have a car stolen every 6 months, your insurance company is going to deem you a high risk and will most likely cancel you after a certain # of claims. It all depends on how many claims you have and the kind of claims that they are. BTW, they can't just skip paying a claim if you were insured at the time of a loss. If your policy is in force at the time of the loss, they have to pay the claim.

ensheep-Unfortunately that is going to be up to the individual adjuster of your claim. It is going to be up to him to investigate the claim and make his determination. It could go either way, but from my experience, I would say that it is going to probably be charged against you. As far as trying to explain the limitations of human eyes at night, forget about it. You might as well talk to the wall. If the estimate is $800 and your deduct is $500, I wouldn't even report it or mention it to the insurance. Pay for it yourself and don't even give them a reason to raise your rates. Since it was a solo accident, you don't have to worry about another party coming forward and making a claim against you. Good luck man.

 

[QUOTE=Hexxum001]Actually that is incorrect. A comprehensive claim (theft, fire, vandalism, falling object hitting your car) is not something that would go on your record and your insurance company cannot increase your premium because of that type of claim. If you have too many comp claims they could end up cancelling you because they consider you too high of a risk.

ensheep - To answer your question, a falling object that hits your car would also be considered a comp claim and not chargeable against you. Now in your case, it sounds like you hit the object, which would be covered under collision and is definitely something that would count against you and yes it is considered a solo accident. Any time you hit something/someone, it will always be considered an accident that can be chargeable against you regardless of the $$ amount of damage.

Exactly the way I would have explained it. One extra note: Comprehensive is also known as Other than Collision.

 

[QUOTE=andychan]Thanks Andy, being in the insurance business I sometimes forget that saying Other Than Collision is an easier way of saying comp and easier to understand.

 

Alright... I got this straight...
I found out from my insurance company that the trigger limit* to increase my insurance rate is $750 besides my $500 deductable. Good thing is I have rental car reimbursement at $50/day.

So now I am facing
1)If I do not make a claim, I am facing $800 repair fee + possible suppliment fees (who knows how much it is going to be)

2)If I make the claim, currently the insurance is cutting a $700+ check to bodyshop and to me as rental car reimbursement ($450). I am still below the $750 policy.
So if there is no suppliment, I am only paying $50 without affecting my rate. And if there is suppliment, I will paying roughly $900 increase rate on my insurance for three consecutive years. So I will end up paying roughly $1000.

I am really not sure how bad the car is because the bodyshop does not know until they are actually in the action of repair. I think it is a better idea to go with the claim because my worst case is to pay extra $200. However, if there is no suppliment and suppliment does not go over the trigger point, then I will only be paying $50.

If I do not make the claim, basically I am withdrawing the claim this time and will be taking a risk of a huge suppliment. If I get unlucky (I just got into this accident, I don't really consider myself so lucky now), I may end up paying way more.

Thank you all for the info. I will give a call to CHP and see if they have a record of this unknown object. If this object can be identified, then maybe it would not be considered as a collision case.

 

Hey ensheep, Im in Chino Hills, im out your way often, let me know when theres a meet or something.

 

late to jump in, but here's my say...

You probably hit an alligator (tire strip off a blown tire) and yes, it is considered a one-car collision.

 

A little late to the game here, but this happened to me, too. It was a bundle of wire-mesh fencing - practically invisible at night against the concrete - accompanied by a handful of large white boxes scatttered across the other lanes on hwy101 in SF (and who knows what would be in the boxes...).

My police report (even though there were quite a lot of reports for this same incident) didn't help. Some dumb **** didn't tie down his stuff, but no one saw or caught him.

Mercury Insurance said that it may or may not count against me, upon decision by the adjuster. My agent said it would not increase my premium - we have yet to see. For those shopping for insurance: the person who took my initial report was so friendly it was a little annoying, but the adjuster was a jerk.

Only after my recorded statement did they tell me that in order to be covered under comprehensive, 1) the object had to have been moving, 2) I had to have seen it fall off of another vehicle, 3) the police report would have to say this was dropped by another vehicle. At one time my adjuster said "you should have been going at a safe speed". I said, "the limit was 65 - I was going less than 55 - so what is considered a safe speed?". He answered this question a few times with the same 'inverted-question' answer "whatever speed is safe enough such that you wouldn't hit that object". Well, I also know how to turn lead into gold - use a process that turns lead into gold! ***... yeah, I'm still bitter about it.

I had to go thru insurance b/c my car was 1mo old, and it was about $6,800 in damage. For anything less than a grand, I would probably just do it out of pocket and drive even more cautiously. Lesson learnt for me... consult someone who knows insurance, before making the claim.

 

Ouch...

 

I don't know.. but i think it was hit by another car and bounced to my lane. The reason is that the car in front of me seemed fine (no dodging action no losing control). And suddenly that thing appeared in front of me.

Safe speed? Ask anyone to drive at NIGHT and see at what speed is it for you to dodge a black object. It is just unreasonable.. but oh wellz... rules are not perfect and I accept that. At least my gf and I did not get hurt. If I tried to doget that thing I might have lost control or hit other cars, etc.

I called CHP but they were not able to find the object... duh... my gf was on the same hwy today and she told me there were a lot of junks on the shoulders of hwy 60 between fairway and fullteron exit, including strip off tires... I wonder how come CHP is always useless when I need them the most? hehe =P

 

When I have my Acura Integra, It was beeeeeeerrrrryyyy looooooooooooowwww about 2" from the road, i was doing 60mph when i see somethin jumping in the road and it gets under my car, and BOOOM ,the impact was so hard that it really makes my car jump of the road and when i see to my back i was leaving a lot of oil in the road , i park and @&$%#*&%$ that thing break the body of my trans. I have to call the police to make a report whitin 1 hour of the accident to report it to the insurance agency, i pay 500 bucks and the repairs cost a total of 1500. If it was a hole on the road you can claim this to the goverment and receive your pay in about 5 to 7 YEARS

Sorry men, beleive me , i know how you feel, ( **** happens )

Try to claim it to the goverment, to see want happens, you dont loose anything asking

 

Dang! That sucks big time. Sorry to see that sort of damage. Glad to hear that you didn't get into an accident. MAN, I trust you get your G back in shape very soon.

 

ensheep, if you haven't made your 'official' report yet, make sure to include the part about another car hitting it and knocking it into your lane. It might just make it comprehensive for you. Some friends suggested to me, after-the-fact, to report that it had fallen off a <insert color here> pickup truck and the license plate started with 5A?????

 

Right, I understand that the DMV will not hear of such claims, but the insurance company doesn't forget. All those little petty claims add up over time and will be held against you (insurance company holds it against you...not DMV). A windshield here, shopping cart there, kid on a bike/vandalism, etc. These things happen every day (well not to G's that are loved ) but that is why I despise insurance companies. I pay and pay and pay and have a great record...then make a claim that probably is 1/10th of what I have payed since I have been driving and they want to raise my rates. BS!

I don't know but some insurance companies will have a cow and raise the hell out of your rates. For example, my fiance had a 15 MPH speeding ticket and the cop was a real lying A$$ and gave her wreckless driving to boot. Her parents took the ticket to court and had it truthfully recognized as 15 MPH without WD because the insurance company threatened to drop the ENTIRE FAMILY (life/home/7 cars) that had been with them for 15 years. EDIT: to make it clear they never once made a claim in that 15 years...all perfect records.

BTW I understand if you were insured during claim time they have to pay. I mean they pay and then drop. So they just decide "alright this is the last time" and drop afterwards.

Hell when I was younger my dad was in an accident...his rate went down and mine went UP. They attributed my increase to claims that were not me...it was because I was the "young and unsafe" driver.

I guess I just don't agree with many underwriters.

 

I had a simular thing happen to me. In my case it was a dear in Topanga Canyon in a 300ZX. I recall them saying that if the object was in the air, it was different then as if you had hit something on the ground and there for would never be questioned as being your fault. Thats paraphrased from a while ago. In my case, the dear had jumped in the air when I hit it. It then flew through the air after that.

 

Mercury is known for it's friendly, cooperative ways