Anyone had a car accident or a 'Crash'?

[Penderbelle]

My DH always drives when we go to Florida and it looks real simple. I'd love to be able to go off with my 2 DD and do some shopping but one of the reasons I've never done it is I'm not 100% sure what you need to do if you have a car accident.
Is it like UK where you don't have to call Police if there's no injury? and do you have to exchange details only if no injury? The car hire people give you brief details but I'm still wary.
What are your experiences ( sorry to bring up bad memories ) and what is the legal requirement for us in the USA?

 

[irisheyes123]

Never had a crash but someone hit our parked car when we where in Washington Dc In 2008 We just called the police they came and took a statement and had a look at the car also I took so photos it wasn't bad damage just a broken light scratches and a dent the person who hit the car left a note taking blame so it was all straight forward when we brought the car back we just gave them all the details and that was the end of that We did try to ring the emergency number but couldn't get trough but it was over the christmas holidays

 

[scottishgirl87]

My dad had a car crash back in 2003 and it wasn't a pleasant experience. I was in the car, and we were all fine, some nice Brit expats actually stopped and made sure we were alright and asked if we wanted them to take us to hospital and stuff

Don't really remember alot about it apart from someone else had called the police and my dad had to pay a fine as it was deemed his fault (being the tourist and all). Apart from that the car hire company gave us another car, which was a nightmare as it was tiny compared to the one we had.

 

[kevin harrison]

I had a crash the other day. When the car in front stopped, the driver got out. He was real small - just like a dwarf.

He said "I'm not happy"

I said "Well, which one are you then?"

 

[jockey]

I crashed into the back of someone back in 2000 I got an $80 for careless driving but I had full insurance and the hire car company just brought us a new car the next day!

 

[eeyorefanuk]

I wondered about this as well - do you have to pay an excess if it is your fault

 

[mcarthur205]

I had a crash the other day. When the car in front stopped, the driver got out. He was real small - just like a dwarf.

He said "I'm not happy"

I said "Well, which one are you then?"

Good one!!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

We had a car go into the back of us at the lights just as you come off the I4 at sandlake road. It had been raining and he just slid into the back of us. We all got out and we wrote down as much info as we could think to remember,(ie his name, address, phone no, license no, plate, make of car, ins company info etc).

Whilst this was happening a police car drove passed us and didn't stop, so we just carried on exchanging info and then we drove to the Florida Mall and phoned Dollar rental car from a payphone there. (Typically it happened on change over day for us so we had all our luggage and no base at that time!!)

We then had to drive back to the airport and exchange the car. There we were treated like criminals as we hadn't phoned the police!!! We explained that (a) we didn't have a mobile phone - which they thought was incredible!! and (b) a police man had driven straight passed us and we had assumed he would have stopped if it was necessary. But they told us there are 2 types of police and he had obviously been the wrong type???!!!! - again, they acted like we should have known that!!

It was all resolved in the end, although we were asked to send two lots of duplicate info to Dollar upon our return, and I confess that I ignored their 2nd letter as I assumed the info had crossed in the post - but then we got a 3rd letter stating that if we didn't respond then we would be sued for the damages rather than the other party!!! - eventually it was all sorted out, but it wasn't the best experience we have had!!

 

[j9000]

I had a crash the other day. When the car in front stopped, the driver got out. He was real small - just like a dwarf.

He said "I'm not happy"

I said "Well, which one are you then?"

the kid playing drums does the rimshot!

 

[Penderbelle]

Thanks for your replies and the humour!!! ( if I ever have an accident that one's gonna pop into my head!!)

I'm gonna be confident and go for it more with the driving. DH may not be too happy to let me go shopping on my own ( especially with my DD's in tow) as I'm sure he'll be more worried about the credit card than anything else!!!!


I'll take a little pixie dust to keep us safe!!!

 

[giantstu]

We were involved in an accident in May.

We had reversed out of a parking space at Walmart, when some guy reversed into us, he was really nice apologetic admitting it was his fault.
We read the details in the car that said contact law enforcement , but nobody knew how (we didnt want to call 911 as like 999 in the uk we thought it was for emergencies only!!)
We flagged down the Walmart security guy in his truck who called the Sheriff, he took all the details etc and gave us the forms.

We went back to the hotel and rang the Virgin/Alamo helpline who brought us another car (ours was still drivable).

We had the Fully inclusive Virgin car hire package and have never heard anything else since the day the replacement car arrived!!

 

[disneyholic family]

I had a crash the other day. When the car in front stopped, the driver got out. He was real small - just like a dwarf.

He said "I'm not happy"

I said "Well, which one are you then?"

several years back a huge 40 foot truck backed up into me...
we were on a main road so why this idiot decided to back up i still don't know..
but anyway....he hit me before i managed to back away from him (i threw the car into reverse and backed up - thankfully, no one was behind me)..

we were in a cadillac on that trip, which helped keep the damage to a miniimum (since it's a strong car)...

the truck driver got out and i proceeded to scream my head off at him...i was so shaken up by the fright of it....seeing this huge truck backing up at me.....and having to reverse away from him....all on the road..

anyway....we had taken full insurance on the car so we had no deductable...so there was no problem.....we didn't call the police ....i just screamed at the guy then made him call his company to report the accident to them just in case there was any problem when i returned the car to the rental company...but there wasn't a problem since i had full insurance...