First accident in my 3 month old insight

insightinsa · 07-31-2010, 11:25 AM

So, 18 year old girl texting while driving decided to run a stop sign on July 8th and t-boned me. Set off all of the side airbags of course, and did a decent number to my car. Then we look at her's, not one dent! WHAT! All she had was blue paint, and tore the license plate off of her Ford Taurus. So USAA goes out and looks at my car, original estimate 7k. Not too bad. Now we are sitting at over 10k in damage.

Now on her car, only 1600.00 damage. Another 2k, and the car is done for. So now we are playing the waiting game to see what USAA decides, since the side airbags are on national backorder. This has been one complete nightmare.

jrlnc · 07-31-2010, 12:02 PM

A wrecked car will never be repaired to 100% new condition.

There may be internal damage that you won't discover until you've driven it more. There could also be frame damage that will destroy your tires and other components.

There is also the added benefit of that amount of damage being reported on your carfax report so now your car has less trade-in or resale value.

I would raise holy hell with the other driver's insurance. She was at fault (and should have been ticketed for texting). You (and her insurance) are lucky you weren't injured.

I would make sure you have at least 2 body shops inspect for frame damage. If the frame is damaged, insist on totaling the car so you can get a new one.

insightinsa · 07-31-2010, 12:17 PM

I was injured. I spent 10 hours at the ER, and have to do physical theropy now. I am only 24, and have never had back problems. I looked at the car myself when the shop put it up on a lift with the USAA inspector. There was no frame damage. She hit above the frame, which can be good or bad. You can see in the pictures that if she was a little lower, it would be a different story.

jrlnc · 07-31-2010, 01:36 PM

Frame damage or not, your car is now instantly worth less money if you wanted to sell it or trade it in.

Do some research on "diminished value" due to an auto accident, and then make an appropriate claim.

I never knew about this when some idiot driver hit my brand new Civic. It was less than a year old and it drove funny afterwards and ate tires.

You really should pursue this. You have their insurance company by the throat, and they should be glad you're not suing for more because of your injuries.

If you insist on the diminished value claim and don't back down, they will pay it.

Good luck.

insightinsa · 07-31-2010, 03:56 PM

I have heard of the dimnished value claim before, and I will absolutly go after them for it. Now here's the sticky situation. Both of us have the same insurance company. So do you think that will be an issue? I have heard in the past that people that have the same companies have a hard time. But I honestly havent with USAA so far. They have been great to me.

vmirjamali · 07-31-2010, 03:56 PM

I won't say your lucky since you lost a car and will have pain for the next few months, maybe in a year or so.

I got in an accident and felt the pain 1 year later. So keep that in mind.

Get around 1-2k for hospital stuff, and get them to get you a new car. Completely. 10k means it's pretty much totally since the car is only 20 k total. Keep in mind if it cost more then 50 percent to fix they will total.

Cobb · 08-01-2010, 12:37 AM

Thanks for the photos. Wow, 10 hours. I am 32 and I can feel my aches and pains act up before it rains. I hope you just have muscle damage or stress, which ust takes rest to recover.

Is it really 10l in damage? Looks like you need a nes rear passenger side door, air bags, head liner and some pulling of the rear quarter. I bet it drives just fine as is as the door took the brunt of the damage.

eldaino · 08-02-2010, 03:44 AM

you are alive, that is plenty to be thankful for.

t boning is one of the worst ways to get hit...do you have an estimate of about how fast she was going?

get well soon my friend

insightinsa · 08-03-2010, 12:23 AM

She was doing between 15 and 20 mph. I got to see it today, and it looks great. The body shop here in San Antonio has done a great job. It hopefully will be ready within the next few days.

insightinsa · 08-10-2010, 04:46 PM

Well I still don't have my car back. For some odd reason, Honda has the head curtain airbags on backorder. No one can get one in the entire nation. So the car is sitting, waiting for 1 fricken part! Honda sent the local dealership the supposed airbag, and it came out to be the wrong one. So now its been over a month, and still no car back. As I like to say, patience is not always one of my virtues.