I've spent the past three days on the phone with insurance companies, adjusters and car companies. As you may remember, my 20 year old son was involved in an accident Friday evening. He had the right of way, was about to head over the Shreveport/Barksdale bridge, and some guy coming the other way decides to "beat the light" and turns left on a yellow, in front of my son's car, and causes my son to T-bone him. Three kind souls stopped to give statements - one of them he (Stupid Driver - not John) nearly hit and another had to swerve to avoid hitting him.
I took yesterday off to get the claims process rolling. I got the police report today and was thrilled to see the StupidDriver had insurance.
NOT!
He told the cops he did. He even gave them a card saying his coverage was good until June 2012. So my agent calls his company today to make a claim and lo and behold, StupidDriver hasn't had insurance since December. It's not clear if he canceled his policy or if they dropped him.
Andy wrote recently about how easy it is to find out things with simple Google searches. I've long known this to be true. As it turns out, StupidDriver apparently doesn't have such a great driving record and was involved in an accident on the way home from a strip club in December. He broke his arm in three places. Or so he says.
I've only just begun to search.
At any rate, apparently it's quite simple to get yourself some insurance, get your handy-dandy insurance card showing you have coverage for six months or so, and then cancel it. And voila! You don't have to pay that monthly premium and can drive your piece of shit car around town, running lights, and bashing into innocent young drivers thereby leaving them without transportation to their college classes! And StupidDriver gets off free and clear. No worries for him. He doesn't even have to find some other insurance company to scam until June. He's still got a card that says he has insurance! He drove away in his bashed and battered Lincoln while my kid's car was towed.
On a related note, how in the hell can ObamaCare pretend to demand that every soul in America purchase health insurance (and enforce that) when we can't even guarantee that some scumbag in Louisiana has the barest minimum of car insurance?
Meanwhile, I have to rely on my "uninsured motorist" coverage to settle on my kid's car and my own rates will likely go up because of it, all for an accident that was absolutely not his fault and was totally the fault of some con-artist scumbag.
Enraged!
7 comments:
MikeAT' s fiancé here. See if you can sue him in small claims...if he doesn't pay up put a lein on what ever he has of value, property or what ever. It will make for a headache down the line. You may want to see if a lein can be put on his drivers license or car title, too. Anything of value you can put a lein on. Check it out, can't hurt.
Beth's fiance here. Pat, you and Steve need a body disposed of these things can be arranged. I travel to New Orleans regularly and the gators off of I-10 gotta eat! ;<)
Hope things get better!
Wow, that's so odd to me. In Georgia, if you cancel or are dropped, the state is notified immediately. (I almost learned that the hard way yesterday.)
Either way, glad your son is safe!
Yeah, it is as aggravating as all get-out, Pat.
But, I wouldn't think your rates would go up on a non-fault collision.
You would have thought that the guy's license would have been flagged in the system for lapsed coverage, and the cop would have known. That's odd. I'd let somebody at SPD know. The guy should have his tags pulled.
Good luck...and again, thank God for protecting your son.
You say he gets off scot free. I don't know how it works in LA, but in CA if you have an accident and do not have insurance the fines are huge. If you are taken to court, you can pretty much count on being bankrupted as well.
"In Georgia, if you cancel or are dropped, the state is notified immediately."
Yeah, that happens in CA, too, but unfortunately the state does nothing about the notification.
If your insurance pays you under the uninsured motorist coverage, all you can sue him for is your unreimbursed expense. Your insurance company will have to sue him for what they coughed up.
But good luck in nailing him as hard as you can.
It would be a good learning experience for the 20 year old grown man who got his car smashed to handle his own insurance claim. His mom won't be there forever.
@Anon:
Duly noted; in fact, he is handling some of the stuff but some of it I have to because it's my policy. But it is indeed a learning experience for him.
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