Need some advice here-
Was involved in a 3 car accident yesterday. I have a dash camera, and have linked video below.
There is Car A, B, and C. I am car C.
Car A- Allstate
Car B- State Farm
Car C- GEICO
Car A obviously runs red light, causing car B to hit them. This causes car A to spin around and hit the front of me. I called my insurance and they suggested filing claim through Car A’s insurance. After hanging up, Car A’s insurance calls me and wants a statement. I provide my statement and dash camera footage. He calls me back and states that they are only going to accept 70% liability and place 30% liability on Car B. He stated that Car B, who had right of way by green light, didn’t do anything to avoid the accident.
This leaves me in a predicament, as I was not involved in any way with the accident, but still need 100% of my car fixed, not 70%. I feel like Allstate should be paying for 100% of the damage since it was their drivers negligence that caused damage to my car.
What do I do? Do I file through my insurance, pay my deductible, and hope Geico gets it back and risk my premium increasing? I’ve had no accidents or moving violations? I just don’t feel that it’s right I have to pay for something that was 100% not my fault.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
**EDIT TO ADD, this is in NYS
Dash Linked here: https://files.fm/f/3tbw78db88
Allstate Not accepting liability for driver running red light.
byu/MyThirdOrFourth inInsurance
Posted by MyThirdOrFourth
5 Comments
So, I understand you feeling on this. However, if that’s my insured I am possibly doing the same thing. Just because you have a green light doesn’t mean you don’t have to make sure the coast is clear.
Use your insurance and let them fight it out.
What state is this in?
Allstate is free to see it their way. You/GEICO are free to see it your way. State Farm is free to see it their way. The police are free to see it their way. In the end (legally speaking) it’s all just opinions. The video is obviously evidence that you had no liability in the matter and that it’s the fault of one or both other drivers, but short of a court order or arbitrators decision you can’t force either of the other parties to pay anything if they don’t voluntarily agree to do so.
One option is to go through your own insurer.
Another option is to talk to State Farm. In some cases if both of the other insurers in this situation see the liability the same way then the insurer with the greater level of responsibility will pay you 100% and then go to the other insurer to get back whatever proportion they had agreed on. (So for example here if Allstate and SF agree it’s 70/30 then Allstate can pay you 100% and then bill 30% of your damages to SF. That’s *if* they both agree to handle it that way in advance. If SF says no to 30% then you’re back to dealing with GEICO.)
Your third option is to file in small claims against *both* other drivers in small claims and let a judge sort out who pays what.
It’s probably easiest to just use your own coverage though. Then it’s all your insurer’s problem and not yours.
Driver of the blue SUV on the left should have maintained a proper lookout and taken evasive action. The silver SUV that ran the red light is the proximate cause. 70/30 sounds like an appropriate liability decision.
Your best option is to use your own coverage and let the companies hash it out on the backend in arbitration.
Allstate is still jointly and severally liable for all your damages since they are the majority at fault. So I do not agree with you being assessed the 30%. As Pizza stated Allstate can go after SF for the 30%.
Your best option is going to be to go through GEICO for your damages.
New York does follow joint and several liability so you’d be able to pursue your damages at 100% from either car A or B. The problem you’ll run into is that there might be limits issues. Convincing either carrier to do this is likely going to be an uphill battle and not worth your time. It’s more commonly applied for non economic damages like pain and suffering or when a suit gets to an actual judgment, but would apply here.