So, a younger married friend of the family was driving home last Friday night at 5 mos pregnant in a VW SUV. She was stopped at a light and was rear ended by someone driving an NC1. I'm guessing from the story the impact was 30-40mph. Driver of the car stopped, apologizes, gives his insurance card to her, says "I gotta go" and rushes off. After some googling, it appears he lives just around the corner from the accident. The VW driver phones in a police report, and calls this person's insurance company (State Farm). Her car has been towed to a repair shop, and she has all sorts of new medical bills and a rental car bill which is taxing on a younger family.
Today NC1's State Farm agent says to her that the NC1 driver has not admitted fault and therefore there is nothing they can do. Yet? Ever? I'm not an insurance Guru but I advised her to give it a day, then run it through her insurance company, and if that fails to contact a lawyer. Surely that amount of damage to an NC1 (sounds like bumper/hood/lights and maybe some structure) is not going to be able to be simply ignored.
Any advice from those who know more about this than I do? Is this just a case of 'slow is normal' or what?
Please don't ask me to publicly disclose NC1's info.
Posting for the first time in years on here. A friend pointed this thread out to me this morning.
I am glad that you have chosen not to post "NC1's" info, or otherwise you could be committing libel. For the record, "NC1" is me. Given that your married friend of the family has chosen not to communicate with me (contrary to your assertion, I made sure she typed my phone number into her phone at the scene), I am assuming that she may be seeking legal representation. That is unfortunate but not surprising given today's climate of litigation. Because of that, I am not going to comment on this thread any more after this post. I do, however, have a few things to say to address the conjecture around what happened during and after the incident because you're unfairly indicting me and my character in your post. It begs the question as to why you chose to post this on a public forum, when you were neither there nor involved? You are also not equipped with all of the information about the incident. If you have my contact information and know where I live, then why didn't you reach out to me directly? I've actually met you before at Cars and Coffee at La Encantada, so you should know who I am.
To call the incident a "hit and run" is profoundly insulting. I stuck around until it was clear that there was nothing else that I could do. I believe PCSO doesn't show up for minor crashes any more and instead says to exchange info. If it had been a "hit and run" as you say I would have been cited. For the record, I was not cited for anything at all. But the VERY FIRST THING that I did in the pouring rain was get out and be sure that your friend was okay. She appeared to be shook up but all right and she would not roll down her window to talk to me. I walked back to my car and came back a while later, and again I made sure she typed my phone number into her phone and gave her my insurance info. I verbally confirmed with her that she would be okay, and she did seem physically okay but emotionally not. What more was there for me to do? Stand there in the rain? I was already soaking wet and cold. My son was in the car with me and he was shook up as well. I needed to get him home and taken care of too.
As for the accident, the "30 to 40 mph" assumption is absurd. I was going maybe 10 mph at impact. Yes there was damage, but the airbags did not blow and the car was drivable. Her car, to be honest, appeared to be drivable as well and her airbags did not deploy either. 30-40 mph would be an entirely different story, the forces involved at that speed would have done a lot of damage. I'm not going to share video or photos of my car here, but you're more than welcome to reach out to me and come over to look at it. Anyone looking at my car would scoff at it being in a 30+ mph impact.
I gave my statement to PCSO for the report. Again, fully cooperative and forthcoming. I then returned every single call (and more) from the claim handler at the insurance company while crisscrossing the Pacific for work. I finally had to call a generic number at State Farm and went through several representatives before finally reaching a real person to give my statement to. If they told your friend that I was avoiding them, then my call logs would easily refute that.
I had absolutely zero idea that your friend was getting the run around from my insurance company. I'm the kind of person who will bend over backwards for other people (you can ask around here and in AZ, I have plenty of friends who can attest to that) and I am profoundly sorry that she had to go through that. That is precisely why I made sure she had my contact info, and if she had only contacted me I would have made things right as soon as I possibly could have. Had I known that this was holding up your friend getting taken care of I would have jumped through whatever hoops I could. Hell, I would have loaned her my car or loaded her up with Uber credits if her vehicle really is undriveable. I hope that things are finally moving forward for her and that she is okay. The insurance company and the police both have my statement and she has my contact info. You all know my phone number and where I live. I'm not dodging anything, and your impugning of my character here is unfortunate and insulting.
