Car accident in rental on business trip, not at fault--what happens? UPDATE post 30

[manning]

I'm with golfgal. Turn it over to DH company. That is why they have insurance. Like I said in a previous post When I got rear ended it was the fault of the other guy. I filed with his insurance and it took me forever and a day to get the car fixed. Matter of fact I had the car towed to the dealership and it sat there for four weeks before they came out to look at it.

I also said in that post my insurance guy asked why I didn't call him (first time this happened to me and I didn't know better). They would have repaired the car and gone after the other guys insurance for re-embursement.

That is why your DH company has insurance, to take care of matters like this.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

These insurance companies collude against their policy holders - My FiL was hit by a kid on July 3rd. Even though the accident was admittedly 100% the fault of the other driver (the kid), Progressive agreed to affix a portion of the blame to my FiL. On principle, my FiL said that he would take them to court over it, but they refused to change the paperwork. They have tried to get my FiL to pay his deductible, but he has refused. If they sue him for it, he will have his day in court...

As for who should pay - I never get insurance when I travel, and my company has agreements in place with the vendors. If we have an accident, our company handles everything...

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

. Even though the accident was admittedly 100% the fault of the other driver (the kid), Progressive agreed to affix a portion of the blame to my FiL.

Do they do this b/c they can or b/c they find that someone like your FIL (or maybe even my husband) wasn't driving defensively enough?

I don't blame your FIL for standing his ground.

 

[golfgal]

These insurance companies collude against their policy holders - My FiL was hit by a kid on July 3rd. Even though the accident was admittedly 100% the fault of the other driver (the kid), Progressive agreed to affix a portion of the blame to my FiL. On principle, my FiL said that he would take them to court over it, but they refused to change the paperwork. They have tried to get my FiL to pay his deductible, but he has refused. If they sue him for it, he will have his day in court...

As for who should pay - I never get insurance when I travel, and my company has agreements in place with the vendors. If we have an accident, our company handles everything...

There is something called comparable negligence which simply means everyone has the responsibility for watching out for everyone else on the road. If your FIL had some way to avoid or lessen the accident and didn't, he can be assessed some fault. Without knowing all the details of the accident there is no way to know if that is the case or not. There is a big difference between insurance fault and everything else. One example would be slipping on ice and colliding with a car. Many people will blame the ice but the insurance company will tell you that you were driving too fast for the conditions, and rightly so, even if you were only driving 1 MPH if you slid, you were going too fast.

 

[ZachnElli]

These insurance companies collude against their policy holders - My FiL was hit by a kid on July 3rd. Even though the accident was admittedly 100% the fault of the other driver (the kid), Progressive agreed to affix a portion of the blame to my FiL. On principle, my FiL said that he would take them to court over it, but they refused to change the paperwork. They have tried to get my FiL to pay his deductible, but he has refused. If they sue him for it, he will have his day in court...

As for who should pay - I never get insurance when I travel, and my company has agreements in place with the vendors. If we have an accident, our company handles everything...

Here, you pay your deductible to the body shop directly and if you don't pay it, you don't get your car back. The deductible does not go to the insurance company.

 

[auntie]

In my experience..(body shop...we repair cars for Enterprise) The car rental company is repairing the car..and going through their own carrier...or simply out of pocket. I'm sure they have body shop on retainer that they have all their work done by. This is customary in the industry. They aren't waiting to see who the insurance companies deem repsonsible for the accident to get that car fixed and back out on the road. They paid the body shop..that car is repaired and back at the lot being rented.
Whether they get the deductible amount back is between their carrier and your husbands company ..or it's between them and whoever the renter is. The assignment of the deductible will be based on who was found to be at fault by the insurance companies. Even if the other person said they were at at fault..frankly, that really doesn't mean a thing. That's why your insurance carrier states in it's policy and usually somewhere on the back of your insurance ID cards..NOT to admit fault in an accident. That is for the insurance company to determine. Always good to have is a police report.. even if no injuries were involved and the police weren't called. Call them anyway and ask for a report. Sometimes an officer might tell you that you don't need one, but ask for one anyway. You generally have to pick it up at the station at a later date. That's okay..it's worth the extra time and effort to have.
Oh and there could have been additional work done to the car during the repair that had nothing to do with the accident in which your husband was involved. We've done this also.
Heck..we've even had cars that were in additional accidents while on their way to the shop..or on the way back, where the car had to be repaired again.

 

[auntie]

Here, you pay your deductible to the body shop directly and if you don't pay it, you don't get your car back. The deductible does not go to the insurance company.

Same here. I'm not clear if in this case the car being repaired was the father inlaw's or the car of the kid who hit him. I'm sure his car had some damage as well?..just wondering how it was that the body shop let the car go without the deductible being paid. For either car. I know we'd still have it, and would be charging daily storgage charges. Which can really add up.
Deductible is paid directly to the shop. Could be that repairs were made through the kids policy...yet to some extent the father in law was found to be at fault. Kid's insurance company is looking to be reimbursed for his part of the deductible amount...which was already paid to the shop. The insurance company for the kid can be looking to get that back for it's insured if they paid it..or for themselves if they paid it. Either way..the insurance company would be seeking the deductible amount. They would be looking at the father-inlaws insurance to get that back. If the father inlaws insurance company did pay it..then they are looking to get their own insured to pay his deductible for a claim that he was found partially responsible for.

 

[auntie]

I got rearended several years ago and I dealt with the other guys insurance company. My agent when he found out said why did I do that? I should have reported to him and my insurance would have been the middle man and settled everything. They would have settled and gone to the other company for payment. That is what should be happening here.

If you get hit in the rear..it's always the other guys fault...pretty much no matter what. Your agent was right. You should have called him..they would have gone through the other guy's policy, and you would have had no out of pocket expenses at all. Also..it wouldn't be attributed as being your fault and wouldn't have effected your rates in any way.

 

[manning]

If you get hit in the rear..it's always the other guys fault...pretty much no matter what. Your agent was right. You should have called him..they would have gone through the other guy's policy, and you would have had no out of pocket expenses at all. Also..it wouldn't be attributed as being your fault and wouldn't have effected your rates in any way.

Not in Illinois and possibly in other states now. If it is established that you recklessly made a sudden stop causing you to be rear ended you can be held responsible for a percentage of the damages. You caused the accident by the sudden stop and the person who hit you caused the accident by following too close to safely stop.

In my case I had no out of pocket cost. It just took longer than necessary to get the car fixed.

Also I was not at fault in any way in my case because the flag man in the contruction zone unexpectedly flipped the slow sign to a stop and everyone in front of me jammed on their brakes. I was far enough behind as not to hit anyone.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Update: DH finally spoke with progressive. His story matched the police report and all is well. They just confirmed no injuries and then said they would deal directly with Avis.

Receiving the paperwork over a three-day weekend and not being able to follow up with anyone until Tuesday was the cause for his concern.

We will continue to follow up, but it looks like Progressive is simply taking care of the matter.

Thank you to everyone for your helpful tips.