!!! Had weird little accident, this Ford's TOUGH, but feeling a little guilty...

[Ed_S]

Drove to the store a little while ago, made a left out of my street & slide on wet blacktop. My truck, a '97 Ford F150 extended cab, long bed pickup, spun about 45 degrees into a Toyota in the far oncoming lane, hitting his driver's side as he passed. Pretty good crunch.
He kept going about 50 ft before stopping. I got the truck righted in the lane, then ran to make sure he's not hurt, which he wasn't. I grabbed my cell phone & called the police, then we got the cars off the road into a lot (2 doors from my house).
Still hadn't yet looked at my front end, half afraid to after seeing his car.
Now remember, I'm in the auto crash biz & know what I'm looking at...

His damage: Driver's door mangled. Unopenable, upper window frame bowed out. Mirror gone. Rear door caved in. Quarter panel caved in, torn open. Wheel bent, tire flat, rear suspension knocked out of line badly. '89 Toyota's totalled.

Looked at my truck in astonishment : Bumper's bent (slight). Bumper valence (Plastic) torn. Left headlight slight crack (from his mirror?)

That's it. Not even a scratch in the plastic color-keyed grill. Lights all work fine and are still aimed correctly. No sheet metal damage.

From a few feet away, you wouldn't see anything wrong. Built Ford tough!! But then again, tank vs tin can, what would you expect...


Now - the kicker. Cop shows up & writes the report. Guy's got no insurance!
HE gets the ticket!!

Cop says the guy's automatically at fault since he shouldn't have been driving at all,
therefore should not have been in MY way when I hit him

Poor guy just wiped out his car & got a ticket which the officer said is a $150 fine.

I don't have enough damage to exceed my $250 deductible, since I'll buy the parts at cost & do it myself.

Doesn't seem fair...

BUT....
The rest of the story...

The guy told the cop he has no spare & doesn't know how to change one anyway. I offer to change it, he again insists he doesn't have a spare. I let him use my cell to call for a ride (supposedly). I walked to my house & grabbed the digicam to photo his car while the cop's there. Took pics.

Cop leaves. I leave & go to the store. Upon return (10 minutes), the car's gone & the kids say that after he was alone, he got his spare from the trunk & changed it.
What was in that trunk???

I felt that his car is unsafe, uninsured, and transporting ???
I reported it. They're after him.
BTW, the guy's hispanic and could barely speak English while the cop was there, but was fine before & after...


Now, after the accident I did everything right , called the police, told them what happened, turned in all my info. By the book. And I pay a fortune annually for insurance, he doesn't.

Should I feel guilty????

[MrMikeL]

1. It warms my heart that you are an honest citizen, called the police, offered to help the victim, etc.
2. You are paying for his insurance in the form of higher rates.
3. So DON'T FEEL GUILTY!!

BTW, I think that truck was made here in Minnesota, so it's Minnesota Ford Tough!!

[Atomic Rooster]

For what? He has no insurance (which you are paying for in the form of "unisured motorist" coverage) and he's probably illegal. I been involved in two accidents with (what turned out to be) illegal immigrants. First one my family and I were side swiped by Datsun driven by a drunk Hispanic. Cops tracked them down 4 blocks later in the Safeway parking lot. No ins., no license, spent time in jail. The second one was where a Ford F150 turned left in front of my 20,000lb delivery truck. I tagged him in the passenger door. He then careened into a parked car on the street he was turning to and then bounced off that and crashed into a Caddy driven by an old man. By the time I got out of my truck, the guy had run away. Come to find out later, the guy either borrowed or stole the truck from a worksite in another town (the police never got a strait story from the owner) and had no ins., no license, and was illegal. So don't feel sorry nor guilty for what happened. It happens all the time.