blizzak

So, i'm driving my 1990 mercury sable along a circle which connects the various parking lots in a mall, lots on both sides of me. I'm going clockwise around the place so i'm on the inside lane. Well, I see a car ahead of me on the right waiting for me to go by so that they can turn right.

Just then, a girl in a civic (probably 2000-2002 model) is driving up beside that car, on the car's left. At this point, she's in the lines where cars are supposed to be parked, but the lot was kinda empty at the time, being far away from the mall and not christmas. I think it's kinda weird, but I keep driving as normal. But wouldn't you know, she keeps going and hits me at about 30 kmh.

So we did the usual swap information and all. She was like 2 feet shorter than me(I'm 6'4) and looked about 17. This was pretty much confirmed because when I saw her license, it was a paper G2, the actual card had not been sent to her yet. For those of you who don't know about graduated licensing in Ontario, G2 lets you drive alone but with certain restrictions(the full license is a G). Here's the pics I have so far of my ol' car(like my rigging job with the cargo net?):

<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1031240/brokencarcarshow018(Medium).jpg' >

<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1031240/brokencarcarshow019(Medium).jpg' >

<img src='http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1031240/brokencarcarshow020(Medium).jpg' >

So my bumper got cracked, and a circular piece that connects it to the body was kinda pushed through the metal interior. I'm kinda dissapointed that my car didn't hold it's composure better hah. Seen some great crashes with older cars that hardly had a scratch on em', while the 2000+ model that collided with it was so badly damaged. The civic's front bumper was crumpled on the left side.

All the time at the scene she was saying "I'm sorry, I didn't see you" and crying and everything, but I rigged up the bumper and left after we got all the information. So her dad calls me about 20 mins later, and wants to go through insurance! There was no convincing him that it would be in his best interests to write a cheque to me after I got an estimate. Some people are so dumb. In Ontario, it's "no-fault" insurance, which means you go to your own insurance company for compensation. But since his daughter is such a new driver, we go through insurance and her premiums will skyrocket, since she was totally at fault. Lucky for me a man was walking by and gave me his name and number as a witness.

She should have seen me, except she was TOTALLY unaware of her surroundings. Even then, she should have seen the car stopped in front of her on the right and put two and two together. Why would that car be stopped if it was okay for her to go? But like my friend said, "never try and rationalize other people's decisions, it gets you nowhere".

All in all, it's too bad the father has to be dumb and not just write me a cheque....he'll end up paying like 4x more than that in premiums for the next couple years. I'll update this thread once I figure out more. Guess i'll have to call the insurance company today.

/rant

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irseg

Maybe his daughter is responsible for paying the insurance, and he wants to teach her a lesson. However now you have to deal with the guy's insurance adjuster, who may very well claim it's totalled since it's a 15 year old car. Keep any recent repair receipts, etc. around to show money you've put into the car, in case they go that route.

My first car was a '90 Sable. I still miss it.. It was completely loaded--black leather upholstery, 3.8 V6, digital dash, factory CD player, moonroof, etc.. It's a shame mine wasn't more reliable, or I'd probably still have it today.

Redjake

ouch. trust me on this one: the whole scenario changes when it's your fault (or at least your fault on paper). be lucky someone ran into you and not the other way around. hope your car gets fixed soon. good luck!

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catback

The father sounds like he just wants to do things right so he doesn't have the possibility of regret for doing it the wrong way. So many drivers young and old are just horrible at the wheel, more so with the growing popularity of cell phone usage while driving. In my opinion, it's literally a miracle that there aren't more accidents per day than there are now.

On a side note, yup now I remember why I don't like the new cars.

TM875

I had a GMC Envoy t-bone me going 60mph while I was making a turn in my Ford Focus. Needless to say, it didn't end well for my car. Going through insurance sucked, but (for us) there really was no option.

The rough part is, that since it was deemed a no-fault accident for both parties, it was a game of who could file civil suit charges first. No fun. Be happy that you can easily get on with your life and not have to deal with insurance or court issues.

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"I've made only one mistake in my life. But I made it over and over and over. That was saying 'yes' when I meant 'no'. Forgive me."

blizzak

Yeah, thanks for the words of encouragement
The insurance company called my witness, and he backed up my story, so they found me totally not at fault. But yeah, the insurance company is probably going to try and just write off the car; me or my dad is talking to the adjuster tomorrow. It's got almost 280,000 km on it.

Been pretty reliable though...my dad changed the automatic transmission on his own like 4 years ago. Also, I changed the water pump recently, exhaust manifold, and it had about $700 worth of parts put into it a few months back. It's good that I have absolutely no fault in this, although it still sucks not having a car for the time being.

We're thinking of just repairing it ourselves...finding a bumper would probably not be much of a deal, and even recouping the old one is possible. Other than that, might have to weld the chassis a little but my dad has a MIG welder at work so we've definitely got the resources. I'll let you all know how it goes.

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