Car accident

[J Smith]

Wife went to Memphis for a Hemophilia meeting Friday.Some guy backs into her Caravan.She calls me at work and is telling me about it so I tell her to call the police and get the guys info.While I am on the phone the guy says he does not have his DL with him.I talk to him and ask about his insureance.
Quote "My insureance won't cover anything like this"
He than says he thinks 2300.00 will cover it and will go get the cash.Yeah sure you leave and never come back.I get my wife back on the phone and ask her just how bad it is.Light houseing,fender and dent in bumper cover.I tell her that 2300.00 might do it and if he wants to go get the cash with the Police that will work.While I am talking to her someone is telling her that a auto shop would charge at least 3000.00 to fix it.I get off the phone and call back in a hour or so to see if the Police got there.They were very busy and not come yet but one of the men at the meeting said he would go with her and the man to the bank and to my surprise the man gets 3000.00 out of the bank in cash and gives her.She signs a note written up by our friend that went with her releaseing the guy from any other responceability.
She gets home today and I see that if I fix it myself I can do it for maybe 1200.00.The van is only worth about 5000.00 in trade in before the damage so I just got back from tradeing it in useing the 3000.00 to pay down.
In the end we got out VERY lucky.
Got her a loaded 2003 Town and Country.
Traded her van and the 3000.00,they paid off my truck and release the title to it to me and got the same payments on the van I had on the truck.

[psimonl]

Wel, out of respect, I must say I don't quite get your story. I just can rely to it based on movies. Here, we HAVE to pay inssurance for cars covering everything.

So if you jump someone, you just fill out papers and that's it. Never "personal" money involved. OK' It is simplifyed. You still have to pay a BIG premium the next year if you renew...

But must I say that with cars, it really doesn't not happen often you get out as a winner....... And you and your wife just did... Congrats'

Simon

[Dr. Snubnose]

Glad to hear your wife wasn't hurt J Smith...that's all that matters...seems like things worked out for the best anyway.....Doc

[J Smith]

Our insurance is a mess.TN has a law that you must carry insurance but it doesn't mean that all do.
I can't say for sure but it seemed like this guy was wanting really badly to settle the whole thing before the Police arrived.
Here if you do have a accident and do not have insureance you will loose your DL and not get it back until you pay the damages.

[vampyrewolf]

Glad to here she came out alright(at least by the sounds of it). Coming out ahead is great, but health & family are more important.

[J Smith]

Thanks,just wanted to say that she was not in it when it happened.
It was parked in the unloading area in front of the hotel.The man that backed into it pull around in front and backed in because he did not want to wait in line.

[peacefuljeffrey]

Our insurance is a mess.TN has a law that you must carry insurance but it doesn't mean that all do.
I can't say for sure but it seemed like this guy was wanting really badly to settle the whole thing before the Police arrived.
Here if you do have a accident and do not have insureance you will loose your DL and not get it back until you pay the damages.

He probably had warrants out for some reason or other and would have been arrested if the police ran his identification. (I'm not a cop, but that's what always happens on COPS.)

Part of me thinks that since the guy made good and gave a good faith payment to cover what he did ($3000 ain't piss, you know) without hemming and hawing, the overage he paid you ought to have been returned to him. But then again, he put your wife (and you) through inconvenience and hassle and you probably did him a favor by not insisting on involving the authorities, so calling it even might be just fine.

Sometimes you have to wheel-and-deal. The world's affairs don't always fit perfectly into the proscribed way of dealing with them. Nothing wrong with applying a bit of creativity to handling a situation.


-Jeffrey

[spydutch]

Glad your wife is OK J Smith

[The Deacon]

Glad your wife is ok and that things turned out well with the vehicle Jeff, those "I left my drivers license at home" stories rarely do.

[Ted]

Well, good you got lucky on this one and no-one was hurt.

Even if one has insurance, it might be more economical to pay for a repair in cash, considering the no-claim discount that will be less when the insurance has to pay. (that's how it works here).

[orthogonal1]

I'll agree it is often more economical to just pay out of hand the damages of an accident.

$1000 deductible plus increased cost of insurance seems to be the norm these days.

[David Lowry]

That's a great story. Ya gotta love America.

How awesome!

[stonyman]

Glad to hear your wife is okay. God Bless the both of you. Take care.

[dialex]

...I can't say for sure but it seemed like this guy was wanting really badly to settle the whole thing before the Police arrived.

Well, this is understandable. When you have 16 lbs. of heroine in your car, you'd better not make waves

Thanks for the story Jeff. Glad to hear no one was actually hurt (except for the car, but you said it was just a piece of junk after all)