Excitement, danger, denial, dastardliness, uninsured drivers... this latest Norton family adventure has it all.
Mike seems to have the worst luck on the planet when it comes to fender-benders. Since October 2007, he has been in three-- none of which were his fault. Today was his third one, and has proved to be the most interesting. He was coming home from the hospital and driving up our street. We have a narrow-ish street where cars can park on our side, but not on the other. It was snowy out, and the road was a little slippery so Mike was driving down the center of the available road to keep clear of the parked cars, and this was no problem because there were no cars coming the other way. We have a narrow driveway that has a light pole directly before it, and usually a car is parked directly after it, so to pull in it is necessary to swing out a little before you make the right-hand turn into the drive, to approach it at a more direct angle. Otherwise you can leave a little piece of your side panel on the light pole. (We call it "auto bling.")
As he was executing this turn, a car that was coming up behind him quickly (Mike guesses probably 35-40 mph) decided to whip around him-- on the right-hand side! So smart, right? Mike hit the other car with his front passenger side, which sent the other car into a little fishtail and caused it to side-swipe the rear of our neighbor's car which was parked on the street. I know you are all dying to see pictures at this point, so I won't make you wait until the end of the post. I only have pictures of the perp's car, since Mike didn't bother to take pictures of his or our neighbor's at the time, and now it is dark. The damage to all three cars was minimal, the worst of all three was the guy who I will from here on out refer to as "the perp."
Damage where the perp's car hit the parked car
Damage from where Mike's car made contact with the perp's car.
So after the impact, the perp and his buddy (20-something young men from the "other" side of Larchmere-- you Clevelanders know what I mean-- sporting nice baggy clothing) approach Mike at his window and start berating him, and blaming him for the accident. Mike kept his cool and asked them if they wouldn't mind pulling over so they could follow the appropriate protocols. The guys didn't see why they should pull out of the road, but Mike was eventually able to persuade them that, "people live on this street. Someone is likely to want to drive past unobstructed." So after that, they kept insisting that Mike had been driving down the left side of the road and that he didn't signal and that it was his fault and that he "didn't even look!" About this time the owner of the other car (our upstairs neighbor, and fellow Case SOM-er, who I will now refer to as TIB [the innocent bystander]) arrived home, which was probably nice for Mike. It helped him in his quest to increase the average intelligence of the participants in the conversation. Mike called the police, but because all the cars were still operable and nobody was hurt, they said an officer was not going to be sent out, and that they could just go down to the station at leisure to file a report. So they all exchanged insurance information. But---whoops! The perp couldn't locate his proof of insurance. (RED FLAG) Oh, but he was insured by company X. (Honest.) He would go home and call within an hour to give them the information.
The parties dispersed, and Mike and TIB decided to go immediately down to file a report. At this point, Mike was unsure whether or not he would be at fault... it was kind of a fuzzy gray area in traffic law. But when they made their report and Mike clearly explained what had happened from his perspective, and also told the cop what he knew the perp would say had happened, the cop said from either perspective the perp was at fault. Even if Mike had been drunk swerving all up and down the road, the perp passed him on the right. 'Tis a big no-no. So, the policeman said that the perp would be cited for failure to yield. Yay! Victory!
When Mike got home, he still hadn't heard from the perp regarding his insurance information. Since he knew the company and the name, address, phone number, and license plate of the guy, he thought he would call the insurance company to find out if he was indeed a client of theirs. From the moment Mike told me that the perp didn't have proof of insurance with him, I started voicing my sincere doubt that he had any at all. My instinct proved correct when the insurance company said that they did have the perp in their system, but that he was not covered under any policies as far as they could see. Mike then called the perp, got his voicemail, and politely requested that he call back and provide his insurance information (this is what we call "calling his bluff.").
Unsure of what to do next, Mike decided to find out through our insurance company what the protocol and likelihood of a change in our premiums would be in the case of an uninsured driver claim. His intent was to do this anonymously, just in case the insurance company would seek to penalize him for some reason (those insurance companies can be tricky like that). However, the woman he spoke to told him that he was required by the terms of his contract to report all incidents to the company, and was he sure he didn't want to give her his policy number? At that point we were pretty certain they would be finding out about it anyway, because the police would be faxing them a report, and TIB had the same carrier as us. So Mike went ahead and had them pull up his policy.
When it came up, why, oh my lucky stars! A claim filed against Mike was there! Filed by the perp! Two hours earlier! (This was about three hours after the accident). The perp didn't have the time to make a police report, or call Mike with his insurance information, or even answer the phone when Mike called... but he sure as shootin' had time to file a claim against Mike! By this time it was too late to make a statement to the claims adjuster, so he will be doing that in the morning. Mike will also be calling the police departmente to make an amendment to his report to state the perp was uninsured. But now I just can't wait for when the insurance company receives the police report, views the physical amage (which according to the laws of physics could ONLY have happened the way Mike told it), and then fixes everybody's car except the perp's. It's going to be awesome.
Until then, this story will remain...
When Mike got home, he still hadn't heard from the perp regarding his insurance information. Since he knew the company and the name, address, phone number, and license plate of the guy, he thought he would call the insurance company to find out if he was indeed a client of theirs. From the moment Mike told me that the perp didn't have proof of insurance with him, I started voicing my sincere doubt that he had any at all. My instinct proved correct when the insurance company said that they did have the perp in their system, but that he was not covered under any policies as far as they could see. Mike then called the perp, got his voicemail, and politely requested that he call back and provide his insurance information (this is what we call "calling his bluff.").
Unsure of what to do next, Mike decided to find out through our insurance company what the protocol and likelihood of a change in our premiums would be in the case of an uninsured driver claim. His intent was to do this anonymously, just in case the insurance company would seek to penalize him for some reason (those insurance companies can be tricky like that). However, the woman he spoke to told him that he was required by the terms of his contract to report all incidents to the company, and was he sure he didn't want to give her his policy number? At that point we were pretty certain they would be finding out about it anyway, because the police would be faxing them a report, and TIB had the same carrier as us. So Mike went ahead and had them pull up his policy.
When it came up, why, oh my lucky stars! A claim filed against Mike was there! Filed by the perp! Two hours earlier! (This was about three hours after the accident). The perp didn't have the time to make a police report, or call Mike with his insurance information, or even answer the phone when Mike called... but he sure as shootin' had time to file a claim against Mike! By this time it was too late to make a statement to the claims adjuster, so he will be doing that in the morning. Mike will also be calling the police departmente to make an amendment to his report to state the perp was uninsured. But now I just can't wait for when the insurance company receives the police report, views the physical amage (which according to the laws of physics could ONLY have happened the way Mike told it), and then fixes everybody's car except the perp's. It's going to be awesome.
Until then, this story will remain...
TO BE CONTINUED
1 comment:
What bad luck! I love the people of Cleveland, I really do. I don't know how Mike was able to keep his cool...I would have lost it I think. Glad you're over the flu, we're getting there as well. Hopefully it will not be followed by a car accident.
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