Auto Insurance folks...

[sam_gordon]

I know there's a number of folks with insurance knowledge that I have a couple of questions for...

Setup
I was in a car accident yesterday. I was stopped at a light. There was a truck in front of me and a car behind me (all stopped). A 4th vehicle hits the car behind me, that car hits me, and pushes me into the truck. Fortunately minor injuries, the driver behind me had a couple cuts. Her airbag (and the one in the 4th vehicle) deployed. Very slight damage to the truck in front of me (he said he didn't even know if he's get it fixed), moderate damage to my car front & back (two estimates are $11.6k & $13.4K), severe damage to the car behind me and #4. Police report taken, my insurance contacted.

Questions
1) Would you expect my rates to go up because of this claim? My last claim was in 2017.
2) One of the shops I went to said if they're dealing w/State Farm Insurance (I don't have the 4th driver's insurance... it will be on the police report), there's an additional 2-4 week delay to getting repairs scheduled. Why would the insurance matter on scheduling?

 

[kymom99]

Rates should not go up.

I use State Farm and no wait as long as I used an approved repair place

I’ll add, I was hit from behind. I had my insurance (State Farm) pay my repairs and subrogate to get their money back. I had to pay the deductible but they refunded it after they got their money back. It saved time.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I know there's a number of folks with insurance knowledge that I have a couple of questions for...

Setup
I was in a car accident yesterday. I was stopped at a light. There was a truck in front of me and a car behind me (all stopped). A 4th vehicle hits the car behind me, that car hits me, and pushes me into the truck. Fortunately minor injuries, the driver behind me had a couple cuts. Her airbag (and the one in the 4th vehicle) deployed. Very slight damage to the truck in front of me (he said he didn't even know if he's get it fixed), moderate damage to my car front & back (two estimates are $11.6k & $13.4K), severe damage to the car behind me and #4. Police report taken, my insurance contacted.

Questions
1) Would you expect my rates to go up because of this claim? My last claim was in 2017.
2) One of the shops I went to said if they're dealing w/State Farm Insurance (I don't have the 4th driver's insurance... it will be on the police report), there's an additional 2-4 week delay to getting repairs scheduled. Why would the insurance matter on scheduling?

1. I would not expect your rates to go up since you were not at fault. If they do go up, I'd discuss it with my insurer and if I couldn't resolve it, I'd look for another company.

2. My guess is in the shop's experience SF's claims procedures are slower and/or more burdensome.

In a similar situation our insurer (not SF) waived our deductible because we were clearly not at fault and the at-fault driver's insurer accepted liability.

 

[lynxstch]

@Praying Colonel said--2. My guess is in the shop's experience SF's claims procedures are slower and/or more burdensome.

Wonder why that repair shop said it would take longer to process if using SF.
We have State Farm and hubby had an accident last year (hit from behind like OP was). We filed the claim online, by the time we finished, within 5 minutes we had the repair shop calling us to set up an appt. We brought the car in the next morning and it was fixed and back to us within 2 days. SF waived the deductible as it wasn't his fault. Our rates did not go up. They also provided our rental car at no charge. I would use State Farm again in a heartbeat..have never had one issue with them.

 

[sam_gordon]

I had my insurance (State Farm) pay my repairs and subrogate to get their money back. I had to pay the deductible but they refunded it after they got their money back. It saved time.

I thought about that, but especially since there's a couple month lead time before my car can get taken care of, there's no sense in paying the deductible. I hate driving around (and it's only been a day) with dents/dings/lights popped out (not as bad as you probably image)/can't open the hood.

 

[amcnj]

I assume no fault was assigned to you. If not, I would hope your rates would not be affected.

As for the delay with certain insurers, it could be slower claims processing and approvals (sometimes the car repair places find additional damages and need approval to continue) or possibly any inspections of vehicles by field people. I wonder if this slowness is recent or that repair shop has always noticed it with State Farm claims.

 

[cvjw]

We have State Farm and it is super easy to file a claim to get your car fixed. We have never had any issues with a delay in repairs. State Farm basically allows you to go to any repair shop you want. Find one that can fit you in quickly.

 

[RamblingMad]

Rates will go up but not because of the accident.

 

[tvguy]

I can't speak to State Farm, but body shops here are backed up two months. With new cars almost impossible to find, and used car values soaring, a lot of cars that used to be totaled are now considered repairable.
My CPA had to wait two months for a relatively minor ($3,000) body repair, but his car couldn't be driven. Even though they had all the parts within a week, they had no repair bays available Supply chain issues also have impacted other repairs. And this was Caliber, a chain body shop with 1,400 locations. His car did get shuttled between locations as other locations had openings.

 

[kymom99]

I thought about that, but especially since there's a couple month lead time before my car can get taken care of, there's no sense in paying the deductible. I hate driving around (and it's only been a day) with dents/dings/lights popped out (not as bad as you probably image)/can't open the hood.

I would find another repair shop. It shouldn’t take that long

 

[_19disnA]

Maybe State Farm has to approve any repair estimates and what work they will authorize? Not sure if every insurance company has to pre-approve the work to be done and/or the paperwork processing time may vary by company. This keeps people from trying to charge the insurance company to do other types of repairs for existing issues not related to this accident. If you live in a state with no-fault insurance laws vs. ones that don't have that, likely your experience will be different.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

We have State Farm and had a claim last year when a semi tire piece hit our car on the freeway. There was a delay to get it fixed (about 4 weeks) but this was due in part because of the general delay in parts being available and the fact that our car was still drive-able. I found it was very easy to file a claim with State Farm and deal with their recommended body shop. There was no increase in our rates as a result.

 

[sam_gordon]

I would find another repair shop. It shouldn’t take that long

I've now been to three different shops. The first two said 2-3 months, the third one said 5 weeks.

 

[georgina]

It's been a few years, but my DH was stopped behind someone waiting to make a left turn when someone ran into him and pushed him into the car in front. The insurance company did raise his rates, saying he must have been stopped too closely behind the car in front if he got pushed into it.

 

[sam_gordon]

It's been a few years, but my DH was stopped behind someone waiting to make a left turn when someone ran into him and pushed him into the car in front. The insurance company did raise his rates, saying he must have been stopped too closely behind the car in front if he got pushed into it.

I could see that argument BUT, if the vehicle which causes the accident is going 100mph (for example), you'd have to be stopped dozens of feet (I'm sure there's math somewhere, don't want to look it up) behind the vehicle in front of you in order to avoid hitting them.

I am going to be interested in seeing if the police report has an estimated speed for the 4th car. I figure he had to be going at quite a rate to not only push the car behind me into me, but then me into the truck in front of me.

 

[mom2rtk]

It's been a few years, but my DH was stopped behind someone waiting to make a left turn when someone ran into him and pushed him into the car in front. The insurance company did raise his rates, saying he must have been stopped too closely behind the car in front if he got pushed into it.

That's the part I'd be worried about. Nobody leaves enough space to avoid this, but it might not stop the insurance company from assigning a small percentage of blame.

My daughter was in an accident in high school and they assigned 85% of the blame to the other driver, 15% to her. Luckily they did not raise her rates, even as a teen driver. I did contact the agent proactively though and she advocated for us with the underwriters.

 

[Dan Murphy]

he must have been stopped too closely behind the car in front if he got pushed into it.

That's new. I've never heard of a minimum or ideal distance your car should be from a car in front of yourself.

 

[Praying Colonel]

It's been a few years, but my DH was stopped behind someone waiting to make a left turn when someone ran into him and pushed him into the car in front. The insurance company did raise his rates, saying he must have been stopped too closely behind the car in front if he got pushed into it.

That is ridiculous. I couldn't change my insurance fast enough if I was told that.

 

[sam_gordon]

That's new. I've never heard of a minimum or ideal distance your car should be from a car in front of yourself.

I was taught (and taught my kids) that you should be able to see pavement behind the back tires of the vehicle in front of you. Not exactly scientific, but it seems to work well.

 

[sam_gordon]

That is ridiculous. I couldn't change my insurance fast enough if I was told that.

I agree. Unfortunately it's too late because you'll need the insurance.