^^^^ That's right!


YOU are in control here. not them. They have to give you fair market value. Find some for sale and use that as ammo. use blue book retail (not private party) as you have the grounds of saying: "I don't buy private party"

 

Quick comment on the accident and fault - the cop assigned fault correctly in this case. Without a witness, he was looking at two scenarios:

1) Big white car (BWC) runs a red light in the left turn lane, takes the nose off the FD who is turning right onto the same road. Fault goes to BWC for running a red light.

2) FD pulls up to intersection, does a right on red w/o noticing the incoming BWC and hits BWC in the rear side. Fault goes to FD for failure to yield when making the right turn under red.

Probable scenario:

3) BWC runs a late yellow light in the left turn lane. FD sees his light turn green and pulls out for right turn not noticing that BWC is still in the interesection. No fault.

Results: BWC ends up having to repair his own car and hopefully gets a good sized ticked for driving uninsured. FD ends up with the headache of dealing with a less-than-honest insurance company and a hard earned lesson about checking the intersection more carefully when pulling out after a light change.

As a side note, when I used to live in northern New Jersey it was common practice for people to run through intersections when the light was pink. You learned to wait for a moment after the green light and before you would pull out, to give the traffic time to clear.

Good luck with the insurance company.

-b

 

The color of the light isn't the critical factor. Lane discipline is.
The FD was obligated to turn from right lane to right lane. The big ugly boat was obligated to turn from left lane to left lane. Someone didn't. If there are no witnesses, and/or it could not be established where (on the road) the two cars made contact...I suspect the insurance companies are going to take care of their own respective policy holders within the limits of the policy. End of story.
If all the OP had was liability, then all this tough talk about how to deal with the insurance company is BS.

 

in new york you can write up to $1 less then the value of the car and not get a salvage title if the car is more then 7 years old.

A insurance adjuster just told me this 2 weeks ago, its a NYS law, im sure other states have similiar laws.

Now if he gets full value for the car and gives it to salvage yard then yes it will get a salvage title.

 

Insurance companies will always try to dick ya. fight it like said above. when i crashed my fd, geico said my can was worth 11,200. deeming it total lost b/c damage was 70% of value. i told them kbb AND nada were above 16k and they said they used "their" value books. i even brought them copies of similar color and mileage cars on auto trader, ebay, craigslist and they said no. so i told them fine, gimme 16 for total, fix it. or find me another one. the refused the 16k, said they "couldn't" fix it b/c they considered it a total loss already, and even if they "changed" the value to 16k, they can only give me 11 since it's the original deal or some **** like that. they couldn't find another "running" 7 like mine for 11k, so they finally umphed out 13,800 for repairs and my title is clear. you gotta fight man. Don't let them push you around. they'll do anything possible to spend the least. I'm in tx. so i understand the no insurance :P lol.

 

well i just talked to my insurance and here's why im getting what im getting. first they say the value they came up with is 11k. and when i first got the car i put it under liability so i can drive it around get it tagged and do the smog crap. and i told them that i was going to upgrade to full cover they said they would leave it pending and all i had to do was call and let them know the thing is its under my mom's insurance and she has to Handel all of the switches to plans and all that cause shes the primary on the account so i told my mom to call and let them know she did and letft them a msg but i guess they never got it so till this day it pending and ive been driving around thinking i was in full cover and in reality ive had liability.

and i guess they did a background check on the car and i guess it has a salvage title from prior to me owning it and i told them no the title i have is clear but they said it could have been title washed to say that. so since it has that salvage it cuts the 11k to 5500$ thats what they meant by 50% cut and the reason they offer 3700$ is cause under liability the max i recieve is 3700 regardless of the value of the car. but if i retain the vehicle and with decductions i get 870$ so thats it.

still havent took the deal. but it looks like im going to have to.

 

tell them that it is their responsibility to check their messages. if one of their employees dropped the ball, then you should suffer. fight for the max liability payout while still keeping the car.

I pull out EVERY angle with insurance companies. I have yet to get screwed. but it does take time and persistence.

 

Wow, that is really a bad situation

 

No doubt! Rule of thumb: Never get hit by a car with wheels like those!

But I hate to make light of a shitty situation... sorry to see your FD in such a sad state, regardless of fault.

 

When you have a witness, if he/she has to leave you get a phone number, or something to contact them by... I've done it plenty of times for other people, and I have yet to get called, because people settle, but you have to get a Number !

BTW I have Mercury, and when I rolled my car (my own Fault) they paid Auto Trader $$, and I got what I had paid for the car 18 Mo. later, but lost all the $$ on Mods I had done, and got damaged in the accident. But Bought it back, and parted it out... and made another 3-4$K Above the Buyback, had all my un-damaged parts back. That was in 2003, I think... ? I had to fight a bit, but I had full coverage, was 25 at the time, and did my own finances... Sucks to be young !? Sorry man !

 

A police accident report is not required to assign fault unless the accident occurred in police presence or there is SIGNIFICANT physical evidence that he blew a red light. Even an officer trained in accident reconstruction would only be able to determine where the vehicles were hit an how it happened, which means nothing if they can't determine who blew the light.

 

LOL, i have gieco, POS company IMO, will never use them again, state farm has been my best expereince so far and yes its a bit more expensive but they acutally work with you. insurance offered me like 11k with my car back, i laughed and hung up.. they called me back a few days later and said i should take it or get an appraiser, so i said ok i'll get and a appraisal and a lawyer. My appraisal is almost done, we will see how this goes.

 

+1 on the "uninsured motorist wheels" lol

i got 4k and the car back to strip out. for an FC. +$$ from sueing the uninsured hit n run attemptee.

they initially were planning to give me 700dollars w/car or 1100 w/o. after 3 months of back and forth calling between me and my adjuster. i convinced them the car was worth far more than the "evaluated autotrader cars". basically what they did was pull up a list of cars for sale, matched my car to it etc. i then found the most expensive car on there, and listed that my car had all of these options and more (receipts are your friend here)

after being very difficult with my adjuster she ended up raising the value of my car (essentially giving all categories an excellent condition and adding all additional options/luxories) and didnt even bother adjusting the salvage price. so i still got to buy it back for $400.


long story short. dont settle, im pretty sure your/(any) FD is worth alot more than that FC i had, plus the damage doesnt look too bad.