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Should Have Called The Police


Rob Peters

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In the state of Pennsylvania, in case of an automobile accident, the police usually will not respond unless one of the following things is true:

1)  Property damage other than the cars.  2)  Someone is injured.  3)  One of the cars has to be towed.  

On August 10th our son and I were stopped at a light in my GMC Terrain Denali.  All of a sudden our car was pushed forward a little but and that crunch sound was heard.  I got out and there was a kid (really not a kid, he is 31 years old.  He was very apologetic and said, let's pull over into the CVS parking lot and exchange information.  His speech was a little slurred and he was really shaking so I said OK but give me a second.  To make sure I had his license plate number I took a picture of the rear of his car so I would have the make, color, model and license plate number.

We pulled over and I took a picture of his drivers license which was current.  He did not have an insurance card but he had an invoice with a phone number so we called his insurance agent who told me he insurance was up to date.  His agent gave me his policy number, and the phone number of the insurance company.  He was still very nervous and I was tempted to call the police because he seemed too nervous but I had all of the information I needed.  I told him to file an accident that report with his insurance Company that afternoon.  I told him to call the company,  not just what we had discussed with his agent and gave him my information so he could report it.

I waited and did not hear from his insurance company so I called them Wednesday of last week and they gave me a claim number and told me an adjuster would call me by last Saturday.  When the adjuster did not call me I called them again and they said an adjuster had not been assigned but they would do that right away.  When I did not hear anything again I called back again today and they told me the hold up is that the driver never called to report the accident and their attempts to reach the owner (his girlfriend) nor him were returning their calls.

The damage is minor $726.00 but if I report it to my insurance company I will have to pay the majority of that in deductible fees and and they would try to get my deductible back for me from the driver or their insurance company but if they can't the deductible would be out of my pocket and it will be a claim against my policy and could cause my rates to go up.

I am thinking about just going to a district magistrate and file a claim there.  Today I went on line and found out this so called "KID" has at least 2 arrests for DUI for drugs.  After the second drug related DUI that I can see it looks like he spent 90 days in jail. and I assume he lost his license for at least a year or two.  

Bottom line, in the future if I suspect something is fishy I will call the police and hope they will respond.

rob

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You can always call the kids insurance company again and play the “I get my lawyer involved card” and with the minimal claim amount they may just settle with you since you have all pertinent information. 

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21 minutes ago, Dtret said:

You can always call the kids insurance company again and play the “I get my lawyer involved card” and with the minimal claim amount they may just settle with you since you have all pertinent information. 

I already told his insurance company I am considering going to the district magistrate.

rob

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Bummer on the outcome, people are the same everywhere and hardly ever fess up when they are at fault.

I learned my lesson years ago and now have a camera in all my vehicles. Saved me twice and the simple words of telling the other insurance company I have video proof speeds things up dramatically. I have even pulled over after "witnessing" an accident and showed the police my video of it. They very thankful and cited the correct person which they said before seeing the video they were just gonna let the insurance companies fight it out.

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