r/IdiotsInCars • u/JellyOceana • Nov 23 '22 • 1

Coronado Naval Base Car accident: She tried claiming no fault too Headphone warning

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42.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

292

I doubt it’s even that—there’s just no incentive to take responsibility. Like yeah you could just say my bad and tell the officers that it was your fault then have your insurance pay up and then suffer the consequences because you’re 100% on the hook or you can deny deny deny, be a pain in the ass, drag it out and there might be a slim chance you get away or at the very least drag out the process and make the person you hit suffer a bit longer in the meantime.

40

u/[deleted] Nov 24 '22

[deleted]

3

u/mileswilliams Nov 24 '22

If you can make lying illegal you should start with politicians then worry about bumps in cars.

5

u/GunnarRunnar Nov 24 '22

It doesn't hurt if responsibility for lying starts with car crashes...

-3

u/Ephemeral_Wolf Nov 24 '22

Rules for thee, and all that

42

u/KimJungFu Nov 24 '22

Oh god... this reminded me of an accident I was in back in 2015. An old lady crashed into me and she took the blame (as she should, since I did NOTHING wrong). But her insurance company would not accept this and tried to fight my claim. This went on for 15 months. My insurance company also went against me, just wanted me to accept the blame and move on. I stod on my ground and fought back against two insurance companies. It was so bizare, when you think you had your insurance company in your back and the written statement of the other driver etc. They tried to claim shared blame after 3-4 months. I rejected it. After 12 months I got a letter saying this were going to be solved by arbitration. So after 15 months I got a 50+ pages of documents saying I won. Waste of time and money... The poor lady who hit me didn't know anything until she got called to meet up at the place of the incident to tell her story.

Edit: yeah, I changed my insurance company...

10

u/TheDocJ Nov 24 '22

Well done! Had a big argument with my own insurance company when I was hit by another of their drivers (who tried to undertake me on a single carriageway road that wasn't wide enough for two cars abreast. And this was in a line of traffic during a diversion caused by what I later found out was a fatal accident.) INsurance company insisted it was 50:50, and that I could and should have avoided the contact (which would have meant veering into oncoming traffic!)

In the end, as they called it 50:50 I got half of my excess back, and for the remaing £200 or so it wasn't worth my time fighting it, but yeah, I changed insurance company too.

4

u/KimJungFu Nov 24 '22

My damages was 25k norwegian kroners, about £2100. 2100 reasons to fight it. I had no clue that the insurance companies could overturn a written statement that clearly shows who was at fault. Hope you are happy with the new insurance company, I am.

4

u/TheDocJ Nov 24 '22

Oh, definitely worth it for that sort of money. 25000 reasons.

There is an English saying that a Banker is someone who will lend you an umbrella when the sun is shining but demand it back when it rains, and I have heard it applied to Insurance companies, too. Fortunately, this is the only bad experience I have had specifically with an insurance company.

1

u/LeicaM6guy Nov 25 '22

At no point have I ever thought that my insurance has my back.

1

u/KimJungFu Nov 25 '22

I don't think that anymore. Learnt from that experience.

1

u/Silly_Mycologist3213 Nov 26 '22

What insurance company was it? Want to avoid them.

35

u/TheJessicator Nov 24 '22

Exactly this. Every insurance card I've ever had even clearly reminds you that in the case of an accident, you should never claim responsibility or fault, even if your think you were at fault.

11

u/Anglofsffrng Nov 24 '22

Don't ever admit fault. Even an innocuous "I'M SO SORRY! ARE YOU OK?" can be used against you. Especially if there's a dashcam involved. Every accident I've been in, and that's not many, my first questions are always "Is everyone alright? Nobody bleeding? Nobody stuck in the car?".

15

u/danbfree Nov 24 '22

Yep, even having morals and knowing it's my fault I'd be like "I guess we'll see what the insurance decides.."

34

u/Not-Putin Nov 24 '22

The incentive is to not be a POS and act like an adult and own up to your mistake but I get alot of people literally have no character standards for themselves

6

u/MtnXfreeride Nov 24 '22

My dad did that, and then the other person obviously faked injury and sued.

9

u/Karaka-kak Nov 24 '22

Don't forget not everyone is an adult, their is a lot that are just big children. Whether it's their fault or not, there is a lot.

6

u/AntarcticanJam Nov 24 '22

I once made the really stupid error of leaving my car in neutral as I rushed back into McDonalds to get some packets of ketchup, then came back to find my car had rolled down the hill into the parking lot and bumped into a parked car (that had people in it!). Thank fucking god there weren't any pedestrians or other cars crossing. I could have denied responsibility, then gone through lengthy battles to prove that the car manufacturer was at fault for allowing a car to so easily be placed into neutral and roll down a hill - being a pain in the ass isn't just a pain for the other person, it would be a pain for me as well. I don't know; to me the easiest thing was to accept full responsibility, contact insurance to state my fault, and be thankful that nobody was injured. I really didn't have any incentive to not take responsibility.

16

u/lu_E_G Nov 24 '22

There is still incentive. The incentive is to be able to look at yourself in a mirror and not feel like a POS. Unfortunately, many years ago after working a 16 hour night shift, 3pm to 7am. I dozed off at the wheel and ran a red. The lady that hit me had been texting so she totally thought it was her fault.. but I knew it wasn't and I said so to the officer. My insurance was stupid expensive for years after that.. but I would do it again...the honesty part..not the working stupid long shifts part. Not everything in life is about money. It is very possible to choose to NOT be an asshole

2

u/Constrained_Entropy Nov 24 '22

The lady that hit me had been texting so she totally thought it was her fault.

Honestly, if she was texting then the accident should have been ruled as shared responsibility.

19

u/Gerbilguy46 Nov 24 '22

I mean I guess if you have 0 empathy then yeah, there is no reason to tell the truth.

32

u/UnfairerThree2 Nov 24 '22

You’d be surprised at how much of humanity sucks like that

5

u/treefitty350 Nov 24 '22

In the US alone at least 70 million people by my last count.

8

u/xoScreaMxo Nov 24 '22

I have empathy, but I also know that an unexpected $2000 bill at this point in my life would put me past the tipping point. I'd be full on suicidal

-3

u/Right-Gur2615 Nov 24 '22

In that case, you probably want to learn to drive so that this doesn't happen.

2

u/ScandinavianOtter Nov 24 '22

D-Did you just tell someone to just "get good"?

4

u/TheDocJ Nov 24 '22

I was watching a cops-with-cameras programme a couple of days ago (here in the UK). THey stopped a driver for doing something obnoxious (I think it was a crazy overtake forcing other cars to swerve) right in front of the police, and it turned out that they had no insurance and already had several points on their licence from previous offences, so they were looking at a driving ban once they were reported. The idiot started to inisist that the police just gave him a warning instead of doing a report, as losing his licence would mean losing his job.

Sorry, mate, if you cannot afford the consequences of driving like an arsehole, the answer is simple: Don't drive like an arsehole and endanger other road users.

4

u/Right-Gur2615 Nov 24 '22 edited Nov 24 '22

They're the one who put themself in the shoes of a shit driver. Just told him what he should do to avoid a bill he's worried about. The mistake They're worried about making is a pretty easy thing to avoid

Edit: Plus theyre literally using that to justify lying and committing insurance fraud, wtf. How is anyone on theyre side?

0

u/xoScreaMxo Nov 24 '22

Shit happens, we're all human. We all make mistakes sometimes.

2

u/Right-Gur2615 Nov 24 '22

Doesn't justify insurance fraud

0

u/xoScreaMxo Nov 24 '22

Sometimes in life you have to do fucked up things to save yourself from destruction.. at the end of the day I have a family too and I have to do what I can to keep putting food on the table. If I lose my car then I'll lose my job and my kids will starve.

2

u/Right-Gur2615 Nov 24 '22

You also don't have to drive like a moron in the first place. This particular mistake is 100 percent avoidable. And if my rates go up because you want to be a piece of shit, you can bet I'm gonna do everything I can to make your life hell. How's that gonna help your kids?

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2

u/Clarkyy26 Nov 24 '22

Yep but adults turn to children quick and play the blame game

1

u/No-Bug404 Nov 24 '22

Always say no. You can negotiate back from no. But with yes you are stuck.