I Got Hit ('94 Es 300)

[collegeguy]

This was Friday night...I was in the left lane of a 4 lane road. I was approaching an intersection at about 30-35 and there was a red SUV about 20 feet in front of me. The idiot in the oncoming lane wasn't paying attention and veered into our lane of traffic....the guy in the SUV swerved to the right, and got hit in the left rear of his truck. I put on the brakes and figured the oncoming guy would be able to stop/swerve in time to avoid me but alas, he hit me head on.

Now the good news - damage is VERY minimal (and wasn't even apparent until a close inspection of my bumper. The left side of the upper portion of my front bumper is pretty scraped up...and there are a couple cracks in the lower (darker tone) bumper. The foglight casing is pushed in about an inch from where it should be, and there is some crackage in the undercarriage (in the same general area). The issues SEEM to be only cosmetic in nature, and are not even noticeable until a close inspection. I looked under the hood and nothing seems out of place, and there are no changes driving-wise.

Anyway, I am considering filing a claim against this guy. 100% of the fault was pinned on him (there were about 7 witnesses between the passengers in my car and the passengers in the red SUV). Anyway, what kind of work am I looking at here? With the crackage in the lower portion of the bumper, am I looking at a full bumper replacement? The cracks are very minimal but I fear they might be susceptible to corrosion (although I'm not sure about this - since this portion of the bumper is plastic). Also, I don't want some engine problem to surface at a later date, when it's too late to file a claim.

Overall, I feel very fortunate right now - damage was extensive to the other two vehicles involved. Considering the guy was probably still going 15 MPH or so when he hit me - I expected a lot more damage than was actually present since he dealt me a direct blow.

[SW03ES]

First of all glad you're okay.

Second of all definately file a claim against this guy and get your car repaired. Why you would even consider letting him off without paying you the repairs on your car is beyond me. Have the insurance company pay you in cash if you don't want to have the car repaired.

[jragosta]

First of all glad you're okay.

Second of all definately file a claim against this guy and get your car repaired. Why you would even consider letting him off without paying you the repairs on your car is beyond me. Have the insurance company pay you in cash if you don't want to have the car repaired.

Absolutely. There's no reason why you should have to put up with damage (even minor damage) in this case.

On the positive side, it probably won't be a big deal to him anyway. If he's turned it over to the insurance company to pay for the SUV, they'll just add you to that claim. His record won't be any worse if he has a $12 K claim than if he has a $10 K claim.

Of course, it's possible that he hasn't filed with the insurance compnay and is paying out of his own pocket. That's his right - but isn't any reason why you shouldn't get your car fixed.

[collegeguy]

Thanks, I'll go ahead and file a claim. I know little about the process of filing a claim since I've never been in an accident of any kind up until Friday night. My only concern was that my insurance premium would go up despite the accident not being my fault. But if this isn't the case I'd definitely like to proceed.

And, just out of curiosity, what speed do you typically have to be hit at for the airbags to deploy? Even though I was hit at a relatively low rate of speed I was kind of surprised they didn't deploy, although I'm also very happy they didn't since my car would be undriveable right now.