bad Fri night for us- mom wrecked multiple cars

[shaynaatl]

Everyone is healthy, so that's the good news. But my mom was driving our Hyundai SUV for some errands yesterday.  When she came back to our place, I guess she accidentally hit the gas instead of brake, and hit the back of a friend's car who was visiting me, and then veered into the neighbor's driveway (we are in a townhome).  She messed up part of a brick wall, and landed partly on top of the neighbor's car.  You wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it.  

Friend's car has bumper damage, but still driveable.  Our car (only 11 months old) has a lot of front damage, but the tow guy was able to pull the cars apart without causing extra damage.  Neighbor's car is old and will likely be totaled based on the damage.  Neighbor is already stressing to us about how they don't have any money to buy a new car.

And since the insurance is based off the car owner, not the driver, we will be responsible for everything- 3 damaged cars and a brick wall. Can't wait to see how much our insurance goes up (we have Geico and have no at-fault accidents or speeding tickets).  Any chance they might have mercy since DH and I weren't actually driving?  

[changedname]

Ouch, sorry to hear that.


It probably varies by state but my ex-boyf crashed my car in 2008 and it went on my insurance. He had no car insurance as he didn't have a car but my insurance company did say that if he had, they would have tried to get his company to pay.

It has made me very wary of letting other people drive my car as my insurance went up for 6 years and the accident is only off my record this month.

[hbomdiggity]

Glad everyone is ok!

Not sure what the neighbor is hoping for. I mean they will get the value of the car, but whether they have enough to buy a new car is not your problem. It sucks but accidents happen. They should be able to get enough $$ to get a used car in similar condition.

[mollybrown]

At the company I worked for, the accident would not have made your rates go up since accidents follow the driver. It just depends on the rule of the company. But there would have been a lot of questions about why she was driving your car, and she might be added as a driver if she lived locally and regularly had access to the car. I would bet money that after that kind of an accident, they will want to guarantee that she's never ever driving your car again.

Glad she's okay!

[AAM2012]

Nov 22, 2014 14:50:24 GMT -5 mollybrown said:

At the company I worked for, the accident would not have made your rates go up since accidents follow the driver. It just depends on the rule of the company. But there would have been a lot of questions about why she was driving your car, and she might be added as a driver if she lived locally and regularly had access to the car. I would bet money that after that kind of an accident, they will want to guarantee that she's never ever driving your car again.

Glad she's okay!

I will say that the company I work for also has the same rules. While your insurance is primary and hers will be excess your auto insurance very likely may not have any changes in the premiums because it wasn't a listed driver driving.

[hulley]

I don't know the actual rules and whether it caries by state/company/whatever, but we just met with an insurance agent as part of DDs driver's ed and she was sure to stress that letting anyone else drive your car was the same as you driving it yourself. I hope this isn't the case for you guys. Glad everyone is okay.

[shaynaatl]

I talked to Geico and apparently in our state, it's all based off the car's owner, not the driver. Just hoping we don't see too big of a spike in insurance. We will at least have to pay $500 deductible.

Bad timing also.  We had $1,800 worth of required service done on our other car last week.

[halfpint]

I hope it doesn't go up too much! My dad got in a fender bender with my car several years ago (not his fault, another driver rear ended him and then refused to cooperate). I called my insurance just to see if they could help me pursue it, and even though I didn't end up filing with insurance (minimal damage, would be less than the deductible), they still had it on record and increased my rates.