The Jeep is dead... Accident this afternoon

I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune. I sure hope everything works out for you.
After reading this I am going to be putting my dash cam back in my truck. I took it out awhile back to clean my inside windshield and never put it back in.
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OP, don't get mad at me, my dad is a retired attorney so I sometimes think differently.
Here is how you lost this one. You are response for staying in your own lane. The guy you are accusing didn't make contact with your vehicle.
You have brakes and didn't drive defensively. You may not like hearing that, but I'm thinking it will play into his insurance providers defense even if he was cited. But it will be glossed over.
I'm thinking your insurance will be the one paying, not his. Insurance companies no longer want to spend much money/man power investigating non injury accidents like this.
 
I would be willing to bet that the other drivers insurance will deny any liability citing improper evasive action. Since there was no damage to her vehicle or any contact. While she did do an improperturn the proximate cause of the damage is the impact by your vehicle. Your insurace will be on the hook for the damages to the sign and Wendys property. I dont agree with it but Ive had similar claims that Ive handled and after roundtable discussions I had to, alebit begrugingly, find my driver at fault. I wish it wasnt so and I feel you pain but I honestly believe you're going to be at fault. On a good note the adjuster may beable to put somecomparative negligence on the other driver it yourstate allows it, but that may bea hard sell or the could try to subrogate or try arbitration.
 
I am glad you are OK. It was a single car accident involving you and nobody else. It would be hard for own insurance company not to find you at fault, much less for them to go after the other driver. From your description the other guy did not leave the scene of an accident either. He was not involved in an accident, you were. Maybe mine seems like an unsympathetic viewpoint, of course I am sorry your car got wrecked. When it comes to determining whose fault the accident was, well you have a long road ahead of you.
 
I called my insurance and started a claim when I got back to the shop. Obviously, the Jeep only has liability on it, so there's no "claim" on my end, per se, however they have to pull the police report and then they'll pass along his insurance information so I can initiate a claim with them.

Worse comes to worse, my insurance will cover the property damage and my rates may go up slightly. Unfair, annoying, and (potentially) avoidable but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
So no Physical injury to the other party (only your tense back).......Property damage only?
I wouldn’t be to concerned about your Insurance company raking you over the coals.
They tend to want to close these cases quickly when there isn’t any PI. Personal injury cases are a different ballgame 💰💰💰💰💰
 
Thanks again for all the replies. I realize it's a long shot, but worse comes to worse I'll scrap the Jeep or sell it for parts on FB. I can probably break even on it, so at the end of the day it's not the worst outcome. I can drive my Volt through the rest of winter, I hope, and I'll just find another beater for next season.

I really should have just smoked the guy. Darn my natural reactions.
 
You are still talking about filing a claim against him. But the other guy gets to tell his own version.

All he has to say is I was minding my own business making a right turn when another operator left his own travel lane and smashed into stationary. trees and street signs off the road. Then he left the scene of an accident causing property damage, technically a hit & run, and chased me down cursing and swearing in a threatening manner over his one-car accident as if to blame me. Ordered me not to look at his wrecked car that was in plain public view in a public place, and that I must go sit in my car, unlawful detention. There is not a scratch on my own car because I was not involved in any collisions. Nevertheless I telephoned the police myself because I felt threatened perhaps this person would assault me, and wanted a peace officer to be present around this guy.
 
That sucks. I have long adopted the "*insert expletive* that guy!" mentality in driving. Because that's what the legal and insurance systems favor. You get zero favors for making it a 1-vehicle incident when you could have just visited justice on the idiot that actually caused the problem. I am glad you're okay, though.
 
Glad you are OK.

I hope you have good limits because what Wendys pays for signs trees and landscaping is probably going to be shocking...

Overkill has it right you'd have been better off to hit him, and failing that if you have UMPD you'd have been better off had he remained a "phantom vehicle"...

Oh well, at least he didn't cap you when you approached his vehicle after giving pursuit...
 
You are still talking about filing a claim against him. But the other guy gets to tell his own version.

All he has to say is I was minding my own business making a right turn when another operator left his own travel lane and smashed into stationary. trees and street signs off the road. Then he left the scene of an accident causing property damage, technically a hit & run, and chased me down cursing and swearing in a threatening manner over his one-car accident as if to blame me. Ordered me not to look at his wrecked car that was in plain public view in a public place, and that I must go sit in my car, unlawful detention. There is not a scratch on my own car because I was not involved in any collisions. Nevertheless I telephoned the police myself because I felt threatened perhaps this person would assault me, and wanted a peace officer to be present around this guy.

That's all fine and dandy, except that's not even close to what happened and it can be proven. He was given a ticket for improper lane change, so he can "argue" he didn't but with photographs of my tire marks and ending position it's easy to dispute that. I did not leave the scene of the accident, I left my vehicle exactly where it was and took off on foot, returning not more than 5 minutes later. He wasn't "chased" down, he was followed to be held accountable for what he was (quite obviously) guilty of. Why else would he return to the scene? Yes, I did scold him with colorful language, but never made any threatening movements or in any way contacted his vehicle. If the officer on scene believed any of that, I would have had a much different discussion with her than I did. Telling him to stay away from my vehicle isn't unlawful detention, he in no way was forced to go sit in his car. I simply gave him a direction, the decision to follow it was completely voluntary on his part.

Your last two points are completely valid. No, his car was not damaged due to my quick actions and a little good luck. And yes, he probably did feel somewhat threatened, nor do I blame him. I admit that I lost my cool, and a crazy person chasing you down the street looks intimidating, however I did nothing that could be considered aggressive other than the volume of my voice and my language. That doesn't excuse my behavior in any way, but it is what it is.

Glad you are OK.

I hope you have good limits because what Wendys pays for signs trees and landscaping is probably going to be shocking...

Overkill has it right you'd have been better off to hit him, and failing that if you have UMPD you'd have been better off had he remained a "phantom vehicle"...

Oh well, at least he didn't cap you when you approached his vehicle after giving pursuit...

I wasn't worried about getting "capped". This was an upper-middle aged white guy that looked about as threatening as a church mouse. Not that regular guys can't be crazy, but at the time it was a risk/reward decision.

As far as coverage, I should be ok. Unfortunately, I just switched to State Farm from Progressive so I have no history with them. I just checked, I have $100k in property damage coverage. Hopefully that's enough to cover it if need be.
 
Glad you are ok.

As others have said- best bet here was to hit them - and not swerve off in all the other stuff. Just like with hitting a deer.

You likely won't collect a dime from the other driver despite them being ticketed. Your choice was to damage the other property and they don't have a scratch. If you stayed in your lane, you'd be much more likely to collect from them.

Looks like the wendys on Lyndale by 66th...
 
Did anyone witness what happened? If you can find a witness to the incident, and the witness supports your version of the story, then your insurance company might be more inclined to go after the other driver.
 
Did anyone witness what happened? If you can find a witness to the incident, and the witness supports your version of the story, then your insurance company might be more inclined to go after the other driver.
I have been thinking this the whole time.
OP, the person that gave you a ride to chase down the other driver, did they witness the accident?
 
One thing that hasn’t been discussed is shared blame. Say if the OP mowed over someone standing in the sidewalk. There are technical terms for it I have no time to discuss.
 
I'm not expecting to win, however having him receive a ticket for improper turn can't hurt my case. I'll have to wait until I see the full police report, but the cop sure did sound like she was on my side (again, not that it matters). She was genuinely sorry she couldn't write him a ticket for fleeing, but I understand why she couldn't. It's not what you know, it's what you can prove. That's why I'm so adamant on finding CCTV footage from somewhere to help my case.
The other driver will take it to court and deny eveything, and most likely get away with it.
 
The other driver will take it to court and deny eveything, and most likely get away with it.
I witnessed an accident where a lady in a Caravan blew through a stoplight and took out 4 cars ahead of her.
She took it to court and was her own lawyer. Bad move imo. She denied it was a red light
I testified that I saw her go through the red stop light and double checked the red light to ensure I was seeing what I thought I had seen. It was surreal tbh.
One of the drivers she hit stopped to thank me after the at fault ruling. If I hadn't stopped as a witness and had said I double checked the red light, she would not have been found at fault.

My take .. it is very difficult to prove guilt in a court of law.
 
Poor Jeep.

Not to be that guy, but if you hit him, wouldn’t you be at fault? I always through the rear ending someone was an automatic fault. There’s also no way to prove you weren’t say texting and driving and hit him while he was turning.. unless I’m missing something?
 
What was wrong with your phone camera while he left the scene?

Did your co-chaser/driver see what happened? He might be your only life line. Hopefully you have his info!!!
 
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