Call insurance company or not?

by Jim

Was in an accident a couple days back - a kid decided to drive into oncoming traffic to pass a stopped school bus (with lights on) and hit me.

I was in the "oncoming traffic" lane, facing the school bus, and the bus driver just completed loading the student (wheelchair bus) and was returning to his driver seat.

The kid was traveling at a rate where he would have hit the bus driver if he attempted to pass between our cars OR slammed head on into me (with my two kids in the car).

I moved the car forward to eliminate this possibility, the kid didn't slow down and was going to cut around my right side in the breakdown lane. He wasn't going to fit, so I turned my car so I wouldn't be pushed into the bus / driver and he impacted my car in the front passenger side bumper.

His car (honda 4 door) had door damage (passenger side) my truck (ford explorer) had none.

This was 2 weeks ago, and I'm wondering if I should call my insurance company.... And if his calls, what should i do?

I have no real damage, but the kids car did.


Answer:

Hi Jim,

You have a very good question. You are obviously not at fault for something like this. The caveat is if you file, what kind of effect would this have in your insurance rates. We (me and my husband) couple of articles that relate exactly to your point. Visit: http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/when-not-to-file-an-auto-insurance.html to see them.

If you file, your rates could potentially be affected (I know this is unfair, but insurance companies use all data available to them when assessing risk).

If you do not file, you can be breaching your duty to report the accident and if a frivolous lawsuit comes about, you might have to pay for your own lawyer.

The best thing to do, is to probably call your agent and explain the situation. If your agent is NOT an independent agent (she works for the insurance company), you would be deemed as to have informed them of the situation.

You agent will probably tell you do no have to formally file the claim, but by telling her you are fulfilling the requirement of reporting the claim. This way you are covered in case the kid tries to get money to fix his/her car from you.

I hope this helps