Stupid parking lot accident...

[iblizzard]

I was driving along through the Crowfoot parking lot, doing a reasonable speed (10-15 or so, since it was really dark and hard to see all the people walking to and from the theatre). I let a car from one of the "aisles" go in front of me on the main route (He was on my right and made a right turn). As soon as he turned in front of me, he stopped very suddenly, and forced me to stop (I didn't have to slam on my brakes or anything, just gradually slowed down). There was a truck going in the opposite direction as me on the main route and was turning left (to go down the aisle where the car had turned out of), but didn't notice that I had stopped, so he clipped the back corner of my car. But when he hit he didn't stop, he kept driving and scraped the length of his driver's side fender and door on my bumper.

At least the guy was really nice and cooperated. Exchanged info and he even admitted it was his fault and he just wasn't really paying attention... And it REALLY could have been worse. :)

http://www.martyr.ca/paragon/crowfootaccident/Accord1.jpg

http://www.martyr.ca/paragon/crowfootaccident/Accord2.jpg

http://www.martyr.ca/paragon/crowfootaccident/Accord3.jpg

http://www.martyr.ca/paragon/crowfootaccident/Accord4.jpg

http://www.martyr.ca/paragon/crowfootaccident/Accord5.jpg

http://www.martyr.ca/paragon/crowfootaccident/animation.gif

[GQBalla]

nice .gif animation btw SHIET are you goin through insurance for this??? even though i thought insurance didn';t cover parkin lot accidents?!?

[GwaiLo]

i wouldnt go through insurance, just get a settlement and buy a new tail light.. not worth it for that car lol

[Xtrema]

Report to cops at very least. Deal with insurance later

[blueripper6]

Man.. wash the car, then take pictures, it will probably be a lot worse.

[20incheyes]

yah your car is filthy, but the animation is excellent! Two thumbs up for the anitmation

[iblizzard]

Yeah, I took those pictures right when I got home, so I didn't have time to clean it off. I just got an estimate today and it was at $1656... and reported it right after that.

I'd like to not put it through insurance, but I doubt this guy is going to want to pay that much money up front.

We'll see how it works out. It's awkward too because this guy is from Saskatchewan and was just visiting, so he's heading back there in a few days.. and it's awkward to reach him while he's here. I figure my car has almost 250000kms on it, it's in really good shape still, but it's pretty old.. so I think I might just ask for $1000 or something and replace the tail lights and the bumper myself... leave the dent on the quarter panel.

Oh, and... animations help everything. much easier to explain what happened when you have a little diagram, and what better diagram than a moving one!!!

(Completely unrelated to this.. but.. an example of a much better animation i made a year ago for some stupid lady doing something stupid)
http://www.fallcon.com/www.parag0n.net/intersection.gif

[JDMImports]

haha what an idiot.. just goes on the red

[iblizzard]

So I got a fancy letter from SGI today. It basically says the guy who hit me is claiming that I'm at fault.

Here's the letter I got:

December 30, 2004

Yourself vs James Horn
Date of Loss: December 29, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------

This letters refers to an accident on December 29, 2004, wherein Christopher Horn sustained damages. It is alleged that the accident occurred because of the faulty operation of a motor vehicle owned and operated by yourself.

A review of the information available to us indicates that you are or may be liable for this accident because when applying your brakes it caused your back end to slid over and collide with our insured’s vehicle.

As insurers of James Horn we will be paying the loss our insured sustained and will be pursuing recovery from you.

Although the damages have not yet been fully ascertained, please take this letter as formal notice that we will be looking to your for payment when amounts and particulars of the damages are available. This information will be forwarded to you at that time.

If you have an insurance policy in respect to the vehicle involved, may we suggest you refer this letter to your insurance company.

If you have any questions or wish to settle this matter directly with SGI, please contact me.

I was in NO WAY at fault. I was completely stopped. The roads weren't even slippery (In the police report they are listed as "dry to the pavement, but damp". He was saying "Oh, it's my fault, I'm sorry.. blah blah blah".. and then on December 30th, I called him and he said he hadn't talked to his insurance company yet. Bullshit! The letter was SENT on the 30th!!

So I called my insurance company and they took a claim report and said that they'll deal with SGI for me... but chances are, with the way insurance companies are, it will come back with me having to pay for some of it (or worse all of it), and I will have an accident on my file, and my insurance will go up and everything... at that point I'm going to have to get a lawyer and fight for this... :banghead: :guns:


Oh.. and, I got an estimate on my car and it was at $1656... I can only imagine what his car was...

[Speed_69]

that's fcukin b.s!!
does the police report state that the guy says it was his fault?
do you have any witnesses?

[Thaco]

with parking lots a lot of the time its 50/50...

eben if it is, it'd probably cost you like $200 to find the bumper and tail light at a wreckers... i agree its not your fault, but i suppose this would be a reasonble outcome.

[roopi]

By having the damage on your car inspected it should be obvious that he hit you and continued driving causing more damage (and not you sliding into him)

[iblizzard]

Originally posted by Speed_69
that's fcukin b.s!!
does the police report state that the guy says it was his fault?
do you have any witnesses?

Well the police report says that he claimed fault at the scene... but those are my own words, so....

And no, there were no witnesses... I'm sure most people didn't even know we hit (apart from us pulling off to the side and stopping for a while)... it was so slow.


Originally posted by Thaco
with parking lots a lot of the time its 50/50...

eben if it is, it'd probably cost you like $200 to find the bumper and tail light at a wreckers... i agree its not your fault, but i suppose this would be a reasonble outcome.
Yeah, it's 50/50 most of the time, but in this case I was completely stopped and he hit me, and continued to drag his truck along my bumper... the damage done to both cars couldn't be obtained by sliding into him. unless I was going at a much higher speed and spinning.
I'd rather not just pick up a new tail light and bumper from a wreckers and would prefer it to be fixed properly... I don't want to spend money on an accident that isn't my fault.. (even though I know it's possible that it might happen).


A friend of mine said that the letter might just be the insurance company trying to work the situation out in their client's favour. They may have read over the guys story and said it's possible that I slid into him. Maybe he didn't try and lay blame on me, but it's just the insurance company finding a weak spot in the story and trying to get money out of me for it.

[Loose]

don't back down man, they ain't got shit on you

[abyss]

Originally posted by iblizzard

A friend of mine said that the letter might just be the insurance company trying to work the situation out in their client's favour. They may have read over the guys story and said it's possible that I slid into him. Maybe he didn't try and lay blame on me, but it's just the insurance company finding a weak spot in the story and trying to get money out of me for it.


That is exactly what they are trying to do. When I had to go to an examination for discovery in my accident my lawyer went as far as totally denying that an accident even occured. When I questioned her about it, she said that their job is to make the guy prove EVERYTHING except why the sky is blue.

[iblizzard]

http://www.martyr.ca/paragon/crowfootaccident/accident.gif

There's a better animation of what happened. I figure it is easier to explain with diagrams like that than with words... so if the topic ever comes up and someone doesn't completely understand.. then i can show them that.

I should do it in flash. =(

[dj_honda]

i guess it is possible...but for FF cars.....when i used to drive my corolla if i braked hard on ice the fronts would lock up, but the rear wouldnt come loose? so i dont get how the rear would come loose at such low speeds but who knows.

another is that even if your back end came loose while braking, it would have made an instantaneous contact with the truck, not a continual one, so as you say the truck scraped against the car until the turn was completed, so there should be marks on the truck all the way down the side.

i hate shit like this. why can't people just fess up when they did something wrong.

[Mckenzie]

I highly doubt that it is anyway possible to break the REAR end of a fwd car free on wet pavement at such a low speed...sounds like his insurance is just trying to shaft you. Dont take that crap. Sorry about your luck...:dunno:

[Seanith]

Good luck getting this settled. You have a solid case that insurance company is just trying to screw you.

BTW how are you making these animations? I'm loving it :bigpimp:

[ricebowl]

Originally posted by Mckenzie
I highly doubt that it is anyway possible to break the REAR end of a fwd car free on wet pavement at such a low speed...sounds like his insurance is just trying to shaft you. Dont take that crap. Sorry about your luck...:dunno:

:werd:

[iblizzard]

Originally posted by dj_honda
another is that even if your back end came loose while braking, it would have made an instantaneous contact with the truck, not a continual one, so as you say the truck scraped against the car until the turn was completed, so there should be marks on the truck all the way down the side.

That's the main point I'm going to be making. If you look at the damage on the two cars, it's pretty obvious that he hit me, and that I was stopped when he hit me.

Hopefully the adjuster from my insurance company gets in touch with me tomorrow.


Another thing I noticed (not that this will really have much to do with anything) is that they have my plate number wrong on the letter I received from SGI... they have the first three letters mixed up (WAY instead of YWA)

[iblizzard]

Originally posted by Seanith
BTW how are you making these animations? I'm loving it :bigpimp:

just a little bit of time in front of photoshop =)


I should really learn flash and do them in that, since it would be smoother and would take less time (having to manually edit every frame one by one is annoying)

[adave]

yeah normally it is 50/50 but i'm sure if u fight hard enough you can get a settlement out of the deal just tell them my car could have been parked and your telling me that its still 50/50 screw that keep on fighting and send the insurance company your animations lol.

[SilverBoost]

Another perfect example of why you should never take anyone's WORD when it involves an accidnet or liabilities.

sorry about your luck man. As was said, the damage completely contradicts his claim.

keep us posted so we all know how much we should try to avoid parking lot idiots.

[Z_Fan]

Typical insurance response. If I were you, I'd write up basically an exact duplicate of the letter, with the names substituted where appropriate and send it to the guy who hit you. Because reality is, your Insurance Company will feel the same way that "SGI" does...and he should endure the same stress that you receive. Or perhaps more since it was his action that caused the accident.

Anyhow - someone needs a lesson in physics. They think a car, moving at 10km-15km per hour is going to jump 3 to 6 feet sideways when the brakes are applied while on wet ground? Even if you were going 30km/h you wouldn't slide 6 feet out on your ass end unless the road was icy...and even then, probably not.

WAIT!!!

Oh, of course, I must have forgot "rule #1 of mysterious lateral car hopping" (BTW - that's found in the hand guide for "HOW TO BE AN INSURANCE ASSHOLE!" which clearly states:

All cars, when the brakes are applied, shall travel perpendicular to the direction of the wheels, however, ONLY in the LEFT direction, NEVER to the RIGHT.

YES! That explains everything!

What planet are they from? One where gravity must not apply. Insurance people piss me off.

They always try to blame the other guy and skirt their responsibilities.

What's really funny, is that parking lots are 50/50. So why the other Insurance company would even attempt to write you such a dumbass letter baffels me. OTHER than to indicate they will seek half of the damages suffered by their clients vehicle. Which is precisely what your Insurance company will seek and receive from them.

Do they, for some unknown reason, think they are immune to the very own rules they have instituted with regards to parking lot accidents? Idiots.

[iblizzard]

Okay, well... a little update on this..
I will make it short since I want to go to bed..

I called both insurance companies and started the ball rolling with them dealing with each other. Meanwhile, since SGI still thought I was 100% at fault, I decided I would try and talk to the guy who hit me directly.
I called him and left a message asking him to call me as soon as he could, because I got this letter.

He called back very quickly and said that in his statement to SGI he made sure to say that the accident was COMPLETELY his fault. He just wanted to make sure he didn't get any points on his license, which is understandable, since it was an accident, he didn't mean to hit me. So I told him what the story was and how SGI was trying to lay fault on me... and he gave his adjuster a call and told her what really happened.
The next day, I got a call from her saying that I am 0% at fault, and gave me a list of body shops in Calgary which I can go to to get everything fixed up.

I must admit, I am VERY pleased with this outcome.. and I am definitely going to be writing a letter to Chris Horn (The guy who hit me) to thank him for being honest in a situation which could have turned out to be much worse for me.


Meanwhile, I need to decide which body shop to go to... The three listed are:
CMP Classic
Stampede Pontiac
SOS Paint and Body

Now, I know I could take it to any body shop I choose, but it's more of a pain to have to send paperwork back and forth between me and SGI to get it done.. so I am just going to make it easier on everyone and take it to one of those three... Now the question is: which one? Anyone have any suggestions?