Hello! I was in a pretty bad car accident yesterday. I was on the tollway when a car on the left side smashed into me out of nowhere. Smashed into my back left and continued to pummel into the entire left side of my car. Not a car crash caused by a simple switch of lanes, they literally drove up and smashed into my left side. Seemed almost intentional honestly. Thankfully I’m fine and filed a police report, but the other driver called my insurance (Allstate) already saying that I was at fault.
I guess my question is: how does liability work with insurances? I’m planning on calling the other drivers insurance and the Allstate adjuster for the claim she filed. The state trooper that responded said that other driver was clearly lying given the damage to both our cars, but was vehemetly denying everything. Do police officers make note of fault in their report or add notes? It was a state trooper (Illinois) that responded.
I’m just PO’d at the fact that she’s going to try to pin this on me when she almost killed me. Any tips on how to proceed? Her insurance is a cheaper seedier seeming insurance.
Posted by interweb-escape
4 Comments
This happens pretty frequently honestly, people lie all the time. If the police report cites them or in their description of what happened states something like, “Veh 1 drove into Veh 2”, it puts the other driver at fault. Which your insurance and theirs should use and basically supersede whatever both of you said. Cops do get stuff wrong but not like this. Just tell the truth and you should be fine.
Police don’t determine fault. Insurance does. Call your insurance company and file a collision claim. You can call the other carrier and file a claim there as well. This may very well be a he said/she said split liability claim…
One thing that makes me question this collision is that you said she came out of nowhere. That is very concerning and can be taken as you not being aware of your surroundings and other vehicles.
Hopefully you have collision coverage on your own policy. Use it. Pay your deductible, get your vehicle fixed (or totaled), and let your insurance handle things. They will attempt to subrogate and recover your deductible from the other driver’s company, but since the other driver is telling a story that has you at fault, if you have no video evidence of the crash, you won’t be reimbursed. The police report isn’t proof if they didn’t actually witness the accident. Your insurance will deny her claim just as hers will deny yours, and each takes care of their own.
Something similar happened to me and the insurance companies said they couldn’t establish who was at fault, the evidence wasnt clear enough, so each party’s insurance covered damage to their vehicles. It was enraging. I now have a dash/rear cam. People are the worst.