Had a Car Accident...Need advice

[Earwax]

Several months ago (nearly 6) I accidentily bumped an unattended car while paralell parking. The hopelessly nice guy that I am, I decided to leave a note. The "bump" that occured was fairly mild, it occured at under 2mph, but it did manage to crack a taillight. I felt guilty since the taillight was broken, hence the note. I was later contacted by the owner who was very receptive and patient and agreed to try to settle this outside of our insurance companies. I left the note because I expected the damage was nearly insignificant, but that I should pay for the taillight which I cracked. I thought worse case scenario it was a $200-$250 bill. (I hit a decent car, not really a "nice" car, but a good one). Anyway, I got an estimate for multiple times that amount which I obviously could not afford. The owner claimed that because I "supposedly" also tapped the bumper of the car, and scraped a chip of paint off (no crack or bending mind you, just paint) that the entire bumper had to be replaced.

Anyway, I was horrified by the estimate and told the owner I couldn't afford it, I offered to pay half (which I think is more than generous). I also mentioned that if they wanted full payment, I'd either have to go through insurance, or wait a few months until I had a job (I'm still unemployed and penniless). I mentioned the job only because I figured they would want to go through insurance anyway. It turned out that they vigorously wanted to avoid the insurance (leading me to think this is a scam).

Anyway, long story short. It's been six months, this person doesn't know where I am anymore (I've moved), but they are vigorously trying to track me down. I'm confident eventually they'll find me (probably soon), so I want to find out what my liability is ASAP. I was wondering if there is some sort of time window or statute of limitations on this. Am I not liable after six months? There was no police report, and no witnesses to the accident. I don't want to call my insurance company up and even mention this if I am no longer liable for the damages.

I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone could let me know what my liability is. I plan on calling the police tomorrow, and depending upon what they tell me, I'll probably call my insurance company soon after.

Thanks for your input.

(PS: never leave a note if you hit someone's parked car)

 

[Mill]

If you hit it you are liable. Your note admits fault, and I'd bet they kept it. That's why you should have gone through your insurance company, because the estimates would have to be approved through them. Why didn't you ask the guy to get three different estimates and then go from there? Not all of them probably would have said to replace the bumper. Sounds to me like you are shirking responsibility for what you did. If I was the guy I would be pretty ticked off too that you disappeared, and didn't offer to fix what you broke. Why only pay half? Because his estimate was too high? You could have easily gotten him to get other estimates. Sorry but this is all your fault.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Mill
Sorry but this is all your fault.

It may be his fault but that doesn't mean that this guy isn't trying to scam him. There are thieves and crooks everywhere. From what it sounds the guy is asking for at least $1,000 for a broken tail light and a small amount of damage to a bumper, that seems ridiculous.

 

[Nebor]

Call Jim Adler?

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Mill
Sorry but this is all your fault.

It may be his fault but that doesn't mean that this guy isn't trying to scam him. There are thieves and crooks everywhere. From what it sounds the guy is asking for at least $1,000 for a broken tail light and a small amount of damage to a bumper, that seems ridiculous.

So? It is his fault he didn't ask for other estimates, or call an independent shop and have the guy take it there for an estimate. It is still all his fault. He ran into it.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: Mill

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Mill
Sorry but this is all your fault.

It may be his fault but that doesn't mean that this guy isn't trying to scam him. There are thieves and crooks everywhere. From what it sounds the guy is asking for at least $1,000 for a broken tail light and a small amount of damage to a bumper, that seems ridiculous.

So? It is his fault he didn't ask for other estimates, or call an independent shop and have the guy take it there for an estimate. It is still all his fault. He ran into it.

So, he should just pay whatever the guy claims? "Oh, there was frame damage under the bumper. The repair will cost $5000."

You don't think it's a little fishy that the owner doesn't what him to use HIS insurance company? It's not like the owner's rates will go up.

 

[Kelemvor]

Now you'll now better than to leave a note. Next time just drive away. Same thing happened to my wife. She was loading her car on a really windy day and the door blew open and hit the car next to her. She found the owner and told what happened. SO the lady tried to get her to pay for fixing every dent on that side of the car even though it's physically impossible for the door to hit the car in multiple random places.

End result is just turn the matter over to your insurance company and let them fight it out. You shouldn't personally be dealing with it at all.

 

[cressida]

Just go through insurance, try to have a disposable camera in your car too just for incidents like this

 

[Izzo]

To the people saying don't leave a note: Own up to your own stupidity and take responsibility for your idiotic actions once in a while. I wish many, many dented bumpers and scratched doors upon you. Hell, I wouldn't mind if an 18 wheeler ran over your car and didn't leave a note. And I wouldn't be too upset if baseball bats fell from the sky, hit you in the head and knocked some damn sense in to you. Why the fvck should the owner pay because you are a terrible driver/imbecile/fvckin moron with no balls and no sense of responsibility?

To the OP, yeah it sucks that the estimate is high. The only thing I would be worried about is that if there was a long time before the accident and now, then there is no way to tell if any additional damage occured. I guess it would've been nice to take pics of the damage right afterwards, but there's nothing you can do about it now. Just wait and see if he finds you. If he does, make sure you get your own estimate of the damages from a different shop. I'm not sure if there is a point where you are no longer liable.

 

[crystal]

Since the amount is more than you expected, just contact your insurance and let them deals with it. This is why you have insurance in the first place, i.e., take care these kind of problems.

 

[Earwax]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I had planned on going through my insurance anyway, guess I'll just have to bite the bullet. And yes, I wish everyone would leave notes, but unfortunately, I have yet to meet a person who hasn't criticized me for doing so. When I told my friends what I had done they basically laughed me out of the room, sad but this is the world we live in.

On a side note, I was driving through Southeast Washington DC about a week ago, it was around 2am, I was on my way home from working late, and someone in the left lane of a 2 lane road decided they needed to make a right while they were right next to me. They slammed into the front side of my left headlight, knocking it out of the recepticle, and significantly damaging my bumper (which is now being held onto by packaging tape). This person hit me while we were going 40 miles an hour, they made the turn, I looked over and stopped as they turned their lights off and sped down the road on the wrong side of the highway. I was much more upset that someone would hit and run than I was with the damage done to my car.

I like to think that I am an honest person, (and btw I did ask for another estimate and never received the documentation for the first one, or any confirmation of a second) but it seems that when there are this many unreasonable/dishonest people in the world sometimes it pays to lie. I know if this person were in my shoes they wouldn't have left a note, and if I were in their shoes I would be very relieved that a note was left at all, and would ask only for the taillight to be repaired.

The end result of this is someone who already has a lot of money is having fictional damage to their car repaired for free and someone who doesn't have a lot of money (me) is going to get their insurance rates hiked up despite having a perfect driving record for all 7 years I've been driving.

But hey, that's life.

 

[freebee]

Never pay an insurance claim out of pocket.

 

[911paramedic]

If you are going to leave a note accepting responsibility for something, you should take a picture of what you are admitting to. If somebody came after you and smashed into his car, he has your note and can blame you for it.

Sucks, but that's how it works.

 

[dxkj]

Ok, but would you leave a note if there was no noticeable damage?


My sister backed into a guys parked Truck before. It was a black truck, and there wasnt a streetlight so she didnt see it. The solid metal bumper shattered her tail light, but barely scratched his truck. She left a note, and it ended up going to the insurance company. He ended up getting 800 for a scratched bumper saying he had to replace things, etc (and apparently knew a few mechanics who backed him up?)


So I bought the car from her a year later. I was backing out of our schools parking lot and backed into a black truck, in the shadows. It shattered my taillight, but when I checked their bumper, not even a scratch. With no visible damage to their vehicle I didnt see the point in leaving a note and inviting what came upon my sister.

Do I think I am a bad person for doing that? No. There was no damage that I could see. If everyone was honest in the world then there wouldnt be the need for judgement calls.

 

[dxkj]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic
If you are going to leave a note accepting responsibility for something, you should take a picture of what you are admitting to. If somebody came after you and smashed into his car, he has your note and can blame you for it.

Sucks, but that's how it works.

I was about to say. It has been six months. Chances are if he has money he has repaired his vehicle already. Is the OP still responsible now? Especially since neither party took it to insurance.

Because the car owner could have gotten in X number of accidents since then and that kinda throws the whole thing off.

 

[Earwax]

Well I talked with the insurance people and they are going to contact the car owner. Next time (I hope there won't be one) I will definitely just call them to start with if I damage someone's car.

If the tail light had just been cracked I probably wouldn't have left a note, but a piece of it fell out of the casing, so I did feel liable. Needless to say, you wouldn't have been able to tell the car was hit if you weren't looking from within 2 feet of the fender. I think also that there is some law that you have a year to report an accident before you can get off the hook. That was never my intent, but I was curious to see if there were any criminal charges or anything which could be brought against me.

Had I found out that I was no longer liable for the damage, I probably still would have sent money to replace the tail light, even if I weren't required to do so. But I probably am going to end up being liable to pay for the whole thing. I just hope my insurance company investigates this and doesn't hand over bags of cash.

 

[maziwanka]

Originally posted by: cressida
Just go through insurance, try to have a disposable camera in your car too just for incidents like this

i should seriously do this....

 

[dxkj]

what vehicle do you drive? Your bumber must have been pretty high to hit their taillight?

The sad thing is, unless you made sure 100% that everything was in line and that you definitely did the damage, a part of it could have been there already.

 

[boyRacer]

I admire you for being honest... but seems like nice guys finish last in this life. Good luck man... hope it works out.

 

[LAUST]

Ask this guy if he wants to go to jail along with you. Not reporting an accident is a big penalty. See how he chews on that.