Hopeless Geek

I just spoke with the State Farm agent about the accident I mentioned earlier and they’re turning down the other party’s claim against me, which is their way of saying they can’t reasonably claim that I was at fault. This is good, considering the scenario that the other party presented was utter insanity.

Let’s use John and Jane for the sake of privacy. Jane is driving a medium-sized SUV and John is in an unknown vehicle several cars back along the road with the kids. As the diagram below shows, there are two lanes going to the left/West and I am in the inner lane and she is in the outter lane. We are both going in the same direction. As I pass her, I see her dive into my lane. I slam on the brakes. With both ABS and EBS I figured I had a better chance, but no, the side of my car struck her wheel. I pull beside her and ask her how bad it is and she grimaces and says, “It’s bad.” We agree to pull over.

Mistake number one: As I had a camera on me, I should have told her to sit still and taken a picture of the cars in the position they were during impact. You should, too, should this happen to you.

As we pull over, I see that her car has very little, if any, damage to it. I can’t imagine it being bad on my car. Well, I was wrong. Since I hit her tire at a sheering angle, it sheered parts of my fender off, impacted my wheel and caused suspension issues as well as damaging the alloy, and then damaged even more things inside that part of the engine compartment.

So when I see this, I freak. Those two parts were in the street, so I had to go and fetch them to include in the shot. I have a photo of her damage, but it’s both trivial and a privacy issue to post. Essentially, a small scrape and a little part of the body near the wheel well was bent. Jane then tells me that her fiancé John is a deputy and is in another car and will be there shortly.

Here’s where it gets interesting in my mind. This happened in Williamson County. Williamson County is one of the most buddy-buddy and, thus, corrupt counties in Texas. I’ve heard more horror stories of the police sticking up for each other and the judges supporting it from this county than any other. When I heard that he was law enforcement (of any kind) the only thought in my head was that a police report would be a gamble, even if it were just “blue forms”.

Mistake number two: Always get a police report on private property. Even if you feel it’s a waste of time, it’s information that the claim adjusters will want to speed things up. Also, it means that all parties will have to say what happened while it is still fresh in their minds and have it on paper. If you give someone time with the situation they can try and spin it all kinds of crazy ways, as we’ll see.

When John walks up he announces that he’s a deputy and that he can call the police for a report. I said that wasn’t needed as we were on private property and both insured. He didn’t have much of a facial expression, but after he suggested that a few times he asked, “I just wonder why you don’t want the police involved.” “I don’t care if they’re involved, I just don’t think it would do any good. You can call them if you want, but we’ve already exchanged information and will tell our insurance companies what happened. What more can they do?” said I. His face crumpled a little bit and then he dropped it.

All the time Jane is there being quite amiable and we’re actually being polite to each other and ignoring the icicle between us. She spoke up about the police bit and said, “Well, the only question is ‘Whose fault is it?’” John rapidly spoke up, “Well, it’s obviously his fault.” I was rather shocked and responded with, “I was driving in my lane and she moved on top of me. How is that my fault?” Again, John just stood there, staring at the car, or the mall, or whatever he could without turning his head or uncrossing his arms.

With the information exchanged, they take off and I call my insurance company. I relay everything that happened and we talk for a bit as it starts raining. I get inside the car and turn on the power so I at least get a fan blowing in my face (it’s hot and humid) and, happily, the car’s Bluetooth takes the call over so I can write things down. I just didn’t want to start it, not knowing what was broken. A bottle was leaking onto the pavement and I was mentally preoccupied enough that I didn’t think to look at what it was (washer fluid) so I played it safe. Fifteen minutes later I have a repair shop and a towing company that works with them (one bill!) and then the car is towed away.

Mistake number three: Notice how I didn’t mention stopping witnesses. You’ll see later how that sucks. Always stop people and just get their name and number at the least. The more you have, the better things are, especially if you’re not at fault and know it. Even if one screws you over, another will support you. The more points of view you have, the more stories the adjusters will have to merge and get what really happened. It’s their job, and they’re generally good at it.

The whole reason I was here was to see a movie with friends, but they were in a car a whole minute behind me so they saw nothing. I did, however, get a ride home from them instead of the tow truck, so that’s good. The tow truck ride home with your car on the back is easily the worst ride ever.

When I got home I started to ponder the situation. First, I had just switched insurance companies from Progressive to State Farm since one of my friends is a State Farm agent and he’d been pressuring me into consolidating my insurance with them for a while. Just a month prior I’d done so. Having never had an accident before, I got a rather good deal. Now, shortly after signing up, I have an accident. How’s that going to look?

Then there’s the matter of John saying it’s my fault (and Jane not commenting). Will he contest this and try to push the issue? At the scene, right after John walked up, I saw a man come up to him and talk a little before walking away. It turns out that was a witness saying it was my fault as well. How could it have been? Well later on I hear the stories from the insurance agent after I’d given over every last bit of material I had:

John’s Story (as repeated by the insurance agent)

He was coming out of the parking lot and into the road without looking and so her car hit his.

Witness’ Story (as repeated by the insurance agent)

He moved into oncoming traffic to pass the other car when she turned into his car.

My Story

I was driving on the left of the other car, passing it, and she turned into my car.

See the problem? I’ll get to that later.

So for a day or so I’m kind of disturbed. I’ve been driving twelve years and have never been behind the wheel in an accident. I had my share of moving violations when I was younger, don’t get me wrong, but in the past six years I’ve not done a thing. So, here I am, carless with an insurance argument brewing. Yay me.

The very same friend drove me out to Houston for an Astros game (which they soundly won in a great show). That helped to get my mind off of it, but I sat there during the trip to Houston with my phone on its loudest setting waiting for every call. I took a few related to it and filed with her insurance company during the drive as well (at the suggestion of my agent).

A week went by with nary a word aside from a request for the above diagram. The car shop received authorization from State Farm and went ahead with the repairs. It’ll be done next week, they say. Since it’s a new car (3,000 miles on it :’( ) and the parts are not available in town at the moment they had to order them.

Then today, frustrated with no contact from either insurance company, I called them both and left voice mails. Mine called immediately back and said she was going to deny the claim for the other party. Sooooo happy am I.

See, she said, the “witness” was coming out of the parking lot on another aisle and did not have a good angle to view this situation from, so he thought I was in the oncoming lane passing her, but he supported that she turned into me. He was unaware that there were two lanes, or mistook which lanes we occupied. A piece of information to note also is that he did not claim I was coming out of the parking lot as John did (he handled it all for his fiancé). He placed me in the road and parallel to her car, just as I did. If you took his story and moved us both one lane over then our stories matched perfectly. Because of his location and belief that it was a two-lane road and not a three-lane road, he thought I was in oncoming traffic and she was in the correct turning lane. Once you correct for that little problem, he saw things the way I did. So, in effect, he was my witness, not theirs.

However, I was told, while there’s enough information in the stories to say it was unlikely to be my fault, there may not enough information to say that it was definitively her fault. Getting the other company to pay my deductible will be a small pain if they decide to put pressure on the situation at all. Since it was an accident on private property, things usually go the way of each person paying their own deductible and moving on. They’re going to try, however. I’m sure they’d like to recoup some of their money, too.

The weekend will pass uneventfully, I suppose, and next week I’ll find something out. Of course, now that State Farm is talking to the other insurance company about it (and it’s not a very small company) it could easily drag on a little while.