Yesterday I got in a small accident where the other person is at fault. I was driving in a parking lot and he backed up into my car. I was honking but he did not hear me (he is 80 years old and hard of hearing) and evidently was not looking or using his sensors. He ended up with a broken tail light and for my car the door was damaged and side mirror was scratched.
He said he was unsure what the process was so I explained that we should exchange information first. When we were done, I said that we both need to file a collision report, bring it in to the collision centre, and then report to insurance. We then left and I followed all the steps we discussed.
Fast forward to today, he called me and said that he brought his car in for an estimate and his damage is only $300 and mine would likely be pretty small as well. I explained that I had already filed the accident with the city and my insurance company. He was then irritated because why would we go through insurance when the repair costs are so little, and going through their authorized repair centres means they’ll charge us way more than other places.
Should I feel bad about going through insurance without trying to resolve it on our own first? I did clearly say what I was going to do and he did not say anything about not reporting at the time. I should also mention that at the time he was trying to blame me for the accident saying first that I should have kept driving to avoid him hitting me (there’s no way I could have sped past before he struck my car) and also said that my car is too short so he couldn’t see me (he’s in a Ford Maverick pickup truck, I’m in a Hyundai Elantra). That played a factor in my wanting to go through insurance because I wasn’t confident he would pay me for the damages, but again, we did discuss what the plan was.
NTA, if he wanted to keep it all cash he should have said that at the time of the accident.
NTA – hope you had pictures and there was no way for you to be at fault since he was the one backing up/
If someone starts shifting blame at the scene, that’s your cue to let insurance do the talking
NTA – don’t trust anyone, they could come back to you six months later and make false claims. Also in a lot of areas parking lots are no fault.
You know darn well that old man was gonna blame you and just try not to pay. “Oh here’s $50 go pound sand you inconsiderate kid”. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit, but you know this has significant potential to go sideways on you, so you did what you had to do to protect yourself. NTA
I just had a “small fender bender with damage to the doors”
Cars totaled because they hit the b-pillar and the floors.
Nope. Insurance is there for a reason.
NTA. When I started driving my dad told me to always report an accident especially if the other person doesn’t want to.
While I don’t necessarily agree with this advice, I had a similar accident to you- got banned backed up into in a parking lot. The other driver came out screaming, I called the police. Took my car to a garage, no damage. However, months later the other driver tried some kind of fraud and I was really glad to have had documented it.
Handling small claims out of pocket isn’t unusual. However, there are bad actors who will not follow through.
I could see it going either way TBH, but you are NTA for filing.
NTA and he might not want it reported because he has other incidents already on record threatening his licensed status for age related negligence.
NTA. Damaged door is more expensive to fix than a taillight.
I always go through insurance. It almost always takes more than a day or two to do any repair and I doubt if he will be paying for your rental car.
NTA. I was in a similar accident and did the same as you. Some of my friends said I should have just accepted the other driver’s offer to pay, and not reported it, since there wasn’t much damage.
But when I took it in to get repaired, it cost $1600. And that was $900 more than the estimate because the mechanic said he found something that needed to be fixed only after he’d started taking things apart.
Cars these days are so fancy with all kinds of parts and sensors and whatnot. It’s not like it used to be, when cars were just big hunks of metal with 4 tires and it was possible to fix things in your driveway.
NTA. If Pops can’t drive safely, he shouldn’t be driving. You don’t owe him anything.
How does he know what much it it’ll be to fix your vehicle? It could cost thousands of all he knows .
He’s mad it’ll come up on his driving record. If he’s 80 years old and doesn’t know what to do after an accident. He SHOULD NOT be driving. Period.
You are NTA