Had a Dinger Yesterday

[Fishindude77]

My wife and I were headed in town yesterday evening and got stopped on a two lane street waiting for a truck that was backing into a driveway to load something up. We hadn't been stopped for more than 10 seconds and got rear ended by a minivan, pretty good. Soon as truck was out of the way, I promptly pulled ahead and off the street to get out of the way. Looked in my mirror and thought minivan was doing the same but he promptly fled the scene.

There were a couple witnesses where they were loading that truck, as well as ourselves. Blue Honda minivan, really smashed up bad, grill was laying there, saw their air bags went off, leaking fluids and steaming as he sped away. We were driving a Jeep Wrangler which was higher and it didn't suffer near as much damage, will probably need the bumper, tailgate and spare tire holder replaced but it's drivable. Cops called me a bit later, they found the dude and he admitted to everything. No injuries, but he had no insurance, no license and was drunk to boot. Went directly to jail.

So, having big fun this morning on the claim, getting and estimate for repairs, etc. Luckily we have uninsured motorist coverage. Also have rental car coverage, but probably won't use it as we have an extra vehicle. Buckle up and drive safe !

[bjl584]

At least you didn't get hurt.
Hit and runs are always fun.
Guessing you will be out your deductible but nothing else?

[Fishindude77]

At least you didn't get hurt.
Hit and runs are always fun.
Guessing you will be out your deductible but nothing else?

Turns out we have uninsured driver coverage, so everything is taken care of.

[bjl584]

Turns out we have uninsured driver coverage, so everything is taken care of.

that's nice.
I'll have to look and see if I have something comparable

[rennigade]

Glad no one was injured. Ive been in a lot of accidents, first thing I do is get out of my car immediately and snap a photo of their license plate....assuming you're not somewhere that you're going to get hit by drivers flying by.

[ua_guy]

Glad nobody was hurt.
You may be able to cash out your rental coverage even if you don't need it.
You may also be able to make a claim against your UMBI coverage for any injuries including pain/suffering.

I got blasted from behind in 2020, same thing, guy was uninsured.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

lucky they stopped. My recent accident the driver stopped but the passengers fled the vehicle

[Fishindude77]

lucky they stopped. My recent accident the driver stopped but the passengers fled the vehicle

They didn't stop .... fled the scene.
Cops found him pretty quickly. We live in a small community.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Whoa. Glad you have good insurance. Hope no injuries have since surfaced. (I had whiplash that took hours to become obvious and then years to subside.) I would never be without insurance to cover incidents with uninsured drivers. There are just so many of them in my city.

[disneysteve]

Sorry to hear that. Glad all are okay. And glad they managed to find the culprit.

[mumof2]

glad you guys are okay and that the driver is now in jail

[myrdale]

A couple of years ago, I was out to dinner with friends. One of my friends was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and our other friend was in the back. As we were going through an intersection heading North, a girl in the South bound lane turned in front of us heading East. My friends truck hit the rear passenger wheel of her car. Air bags deploy. Steam everywhere. Both vehicles at a complete stop, her's spun in a circle in the intersection now facing the opposite direction, her rear tire is jacked up 45*.

We stumble out. Everyone appears to be fine. She starts crying. "Please don't call the police! I will be in so much trouble with my Dad if he finds out! I don't have insurance." Mean while I am looking at her rear tire. We tell her everything is going to be fine. Hold tight and the cops will be here in a minute. She keeps insisting we not call the cops. Finally she cranks her car whips it around in a circle and takes off. As she does, I snap a photograph of her license plate. There's a restaurant / bar about 100 yards from the intersection. You can hear the people gasp as she takes off. As she drives off, that rear tire is scraping the road and you hear a bang as she rounds the curve to disappear into the night.

Finally the cop comes. He takes our statements, I provide the photo of the license plate.

It ends up the car is in the girl's father's name and he does have insurance. My friend who was driving asked the judge to go easy on her. I appreciate being a dumb 17 year old, but her getting away with hit and run never sat right with me. I suspect it is a pattern that will repeat in the future. I'd hate to be her future employer / spouse / friend / etc.

[Drake3287]

You must live here in California! Happens all the time and our criminal justice system does very little about it. And that guy being in jail, he's already out and he won't get any additional time. People like you and I pay the price of this unfortunately.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

A couple of years ago, I was out to dinner with friends. One of my friends was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and our other friend was in the back. As we were going through an intersection heading North, a girl in the South bound lane turned in front of us heading East. My friends truck hit the rear passenger wheel of her car. Air bags deploy. Steam everywhere. Both vehicles at a complete stop, her's spun in a circle in the intersection now facing the opposite direction, her rear tire is jacked up 45*.

We stumble out. Everyone appears to be fine. She starts crying. "Please don't call the police! I will be in so much trouble with my Dad if he finds out! I don't have insurance." Mean while I am looking at her rear tire. We tell her everything is going to be fine. Hold tight and the cops will be here in a minute. She keeps insisting we not call the cops. Finally she cranks her car whips it around in a circle and takes off. As she does, I snap a photograph of her license plate. There's a restaurant / bar about 100 yards from the intersection. You can hear the people gasp as she takes off. As she drives off, that rear tire is scraping the road and you hear a bang as she rounds the curve to disappear into the night.

Finally the cop comes. He takes our statements, I provide the photo of the license plate.

It ends up the car is in the girl's father's name and he does have insurance. My friend who was driving asked the judge to go easy on her. I appreciate being a dumb 17 year old, but her getting away with hit and run never sat right with me. I suspect it is a pattern that will repeat in the future. I'd hate to be her future employer / spouse / friend / etc.

Maybe but a dumb 17 year old I would hope would learn a lesson and mature. We all are not the same people at 17 that we are now. So pray that the lesson sank in

[rob62521]

Glad you weren't hurt and that he was eventually caught. Sorry about the inconvenience.