Just over a week ago, whilst I was stopped waiting at a red light, a car driving too fast to make a right turn, turned too wide and turned into my car. My car is scratched and dented all down the drivers side (luckily myself - apart from constant backache since - and my children weren’t hurt). I called the police and the other driver did turn round and come back. The officer told me to contact his insurance as the accident was his fault. Roll on a week, and his insurance company can’t get hold of the other driver (he was almost 19 at the time of the accident) so they can’t assign liability! They have spoken to the policy holder and owner of the car (who I assume is his mum), but as she wasn’t present she can’t give any details about it. I have sent his insurance company a copy of the police report, which they said they could use to determine liability if it’s clear in the report who’s at fault. His insurance company are giving him till Tuesday to respond.

I have also also contacted my insurance company. I can get the repairs done through them, but we have a $1000 deductible which we will have to pay out till liability is determined. Also, we don’t have hire car coverage on our policy, so we’d also have to pay that whilst my car is being fixed. We want to avoid paying anything out if we can avoid it.

Now to make things more complicated, we’re moving back to England in just under 6 weeks. My car is a lease which has to go back so I need to get the repairs done soon.

So our dilemma is, do we wait for his insurance company and hope that if they don’t get hold of their driver they will determine him liable from the police report or do we go with my insurance and pay out the deductible and car rental and hope we get it back before we leave?

We live in Pennsylvania.

Thanks!

What bad timing, sorry to hear that this has happened to you. While living in the USA we had 2 similar incidents and each time we found the claims process to be glacial, so I would expect that the claim would not be resolved before you leave in 6 weeks. Personally I would go ahead and get it sorted on my insurance while pursuing the claim on the offender’s insurance.

Thanks for the replies! I think we’ll go with our insurance company as need to get it fixed quickly. The car is leased through the Ford garage so wondering if should take it there to get it fixed - at least that way they’ll have it if it’s not done before we leave. This is added stress I could do without!

It is never good to contact the other drivers insurance company. At the scene make sure the officer writes it up correctly to reflect what happened and you get the other drivers insurance info. Then call your insurance company immediately and report the accident. They will take it from there. If you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage you have nothing to worry about.
Also like previously mention by other poster make sure the company you lease from is advised and approves of any repairs and hold those responsible for any loss of value to the car when lease ends.

Update: the other drivers insurance has called me. They’ve got hold of their driver. Got his statement and are accepting 100% liability. Feel very relieved!! Car is booked in on Tuesday and they sort out a hire car for me. That still gives me Monday to check with the Ford garage (we lease directly from our local dealership) if they’ll be an issues with this. I was in there the other day for something else and I told them about the accident and they didn’t seem too concerned, but that was the service side and not the sales side that did the lease. Starting to feel slightly less stressed!

The car is leased from our local Ford dealership. I’ve checked the lease contract and it says ‘replacement of sheet metal and all other repairs must be made with Original Manufacturer parts. Discuss this requirement with your insurance company prior to authorising any collision repair work’