Rear ended and pushed into car in front

[Norm Olt]

Originally Posted By: whip
Originally Posted By: sunfire
I know someone that was in a similar situation in a 5 car pile up. The result was each driver had to pay for the damage to the person in front. Sounds unfair.

Each car, except for the one in front, failed to have an assured safe distance. Sounds fair to me.


This is completely false.

If you are stopped behind another car and hit from the rear there is one impact for you in the rear and one in the front when your car is forced into the car in front of you. If you 1st hit the car in front of you and then are hit from the rear there are two impacts to the car in front of you. If there is a 4th car three impacts to the car in front of you.

An assured safe distance has nothing to do with a stopped vehicle: if you are stopped you did nothing wrong and, as indicated by the o/p's carrier, your car and the car in front of you have their claims handled by their respective carriers under un-insured motorist coverage.

This is why it is so very important in chain-reaction accidents like this to get the driver/passengers of the 1st car in line to make statements about the timing & the number of impacts, and a competent police investigation usually gets this info into the accident report.

Usually one of the 1st questions asked after "Is everyone allright?"

The general governing principle is that there is no liability if there is no negligence.

The is no negligence in being legally stopped (obviously you need to be in the correct direction of traffic: no being stopped on a one-way street headed in the wrong direction) and then being hit in the rear (or side, etc.) and driven into another vehicle.

Cheers!

p.s. There is also a chance, if there are witnesses and there was room for you to have come to a stop based upon your speed, the amount of room, the speed of the car that hit you in the rear, etc., that you could also be in a position of no liability because of no negligence.

It is exactly the same logic as on of the previous examples: if there is only one impact on the 1st car the guy that hit you from behind is responsible.

 

[rjundi]

All this happened at low speed. My wife was rolling
Minor unfortunately for us is $2000 with $500 deduct.

Insurance renewal is forthcoming next few weeks. We shall see if any rate increase.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: Norm Olt

The is no negligence in being legally stopped (obviously you need to be in the correct direction of traffic: no being stopped on a one-way street headed in the wrong direction) and then being hit in the rear (or side, etc.) and driven into another vehicle.


Norm, I'm with you 100%. That's how it should happen, but once the ambulance chasers get ahold of it, they'll twist it up in such a way they'll convince the jury to come up with a negligent verdict.

That's what happened with us. My wife was stopped, foot on the brake, in grid-lock, stop and go traffic and was bumped into the car in front of her.

They just kept hammering her on the stand, asking the same things trying to get her to slip up- and this was after years of coaching from our appointed attorney. I wish I could have taken the stand for her it was so bad.

Joel

 

[Tdbo]

That whole scenario is just a PITA. When it happened to me, I was sitting a car length behind the guy in front of me on wet pavement and the guy in back of me hit me square at 35 MPH and sent me flying into the guy ahead of me. Fortunately, the guy ahead of me saw the whole thing plus two other witnesses did too. The guy who hit me ended up having to have his vehicle towed.
The guy who hit me blamed it on his ABS. The cop (prior to citing him for assured clear distance and speeding) had a good chuckle about that.

 

[mechtech2]

Actually, there are [or were] laws that made the person at fault if he rear ended another. Even if he was pushed into a car while stopped.

 

[mikered30]

After reading these stories it sounds like I should get a car camera.

 

[rjundi]

Things works out.

Got a check for $500(my deductible) from Progressive. So apparently my insurance did go after the person who hit me in the rear to pay or up or their insurance.

 

[dparm]

Just curious, how much room did you have between your car and the one in front of you? Did you follow the "rule" of being able to see the bottoms of the guy's tires?

Not your fault, BTW, but leaving a bit more room between your car and the one in front can lessen this type of damage.

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Just curious, how much room did you have between your car and the one in front of you? Did you follow the "rule" of being able to see the bottoms of the guy's tires?

Not your fault, BTW, but leaving a bit more room between your car and the one in front can lessen this type of damage.


I think my wife mentioned about 1 car length rolling barely in neutral and hit/pushed. She had no brakes on.

 

[ffhdriver]

Here the car that rear ends you is at fault, it makes no difference why you were rear ended. I know from personal experience.

 

[Norm Olt]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
Things works out.

Got a check for $500(my deductible) from Progressive. So apparently my insurance did go after the person who hit me in the rear to pay or up or their insurance.


That's great news.

That's how it should be handled as you had no negligence = no liability. Did they find they guy who hit you?

One further question: Is Progressive your carrier or the one for the car behind you? Could even be both.

It would seem rather convoluted that your carrier would "reimburse" you for your collision deductible if they paid your uninsured motorist claim for damage to your vehicle. Did your carrier initially pay the other $2000? If so, they either effectively subrogated the claim entire claim (meaning they found the guy who hit you) OR are paying you the collision deductible out of uninsured motorist and paid the $2000 out of your collision policy.

It does make a difference: if they subrogated you should not have any claim AGAINST your policy and no legitimate reason to raise your rates or remove any "accident-free" discounts. If they paid the entire claim under uninsured motorist you are still, basically, not at fault and the same should apply.

NOTE:I said "should".

 

[rjundi]

My insurance is Progressive.

Progressive did find the person who hit me/ insurance(Arbella) on vehicle based on plate # we gave. I know its Arbella since they sent us a letter requesting an accident statement. Not sure if my wife is going to bother calling Arbella.

At this point get the car fixed and move on.....

 

[JHZR2]

Had this happen to me. I was in control, girl hit me, pushed me forward, went to the next car in front.

The forward most person got the bulk of the funds, then the next guy, then me.

The girl was underinsured. By the time they gave me my share, I was nowhere near whole and had to sue her.

Someone with nothing was an exercise in futility. I sued progressive too in order for a more equitable split. It didnt do much, but at least I caused them to loose a LOT more money on labor. Jerks.

 

[Norm Olt]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
My insurance is Progressive.

Progressive did find the person who hit me/ insurance(Arbella) on vehicle based on plate # we gave. I know its Arbella since they sent us a letter requesting an accident statement. Not sure if my wife is going to bother calling Arbella.

At this point get the car fixed and move on.....


If YOUR carrier sent you $500 for the part of your repair you paid under your deductible it would seem that the carrier for the car that hit you (Arbella) has acknowledged responsibility for the accident.

They are probably contacting your wife primarily to see if she was injured in the accident.

You are also entitled for compensation for a rental while your car is being fixed. You may or may not have rental coverage for your collision coverage but you are entitled to this from Arbella.

You should find out if the above is true. In writing, preferably. It would mean that YOUR insurance shouldn't go up because your wife was not negligent in this accident.

Cheers!