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...And it has nothing to do with my friends, for once. (Well, actually, I'm posting this to avoid posting about friends-drama which I am more upset about but everyone is sick of hearing.)
So. Sunday night I got involved in a minor car accident. I was in Boston, after having dropped Mara off at the train station, and I was trying to get onto 93-S to get headed back home. I wound up in the right lane when I needed to be in the left lane, and as I switched lanes, the guy in the left lane switched into the right lane and there wasn't enough clearance between our cars, and my front right bumper clipped the corner of his back left bumper with a noticeable lurch
So we both pull over, guy gets out while his girlfriend stays in the passenger's seat, looks at the car, and then starts talking to me. I panic, because this is my first real car accident, but some phone calls are made, and it's decided that he would get an estimate done and call me, and my family would decide if we would just pay then (to avoid the possibility of raising our insurance premiums) or go to the insurance company. As he drives off, I see the damage, which is a roughly six-by-six inch scratched up section - no denting, just the paint.
Girlfriend calls Monday, gets my dad, tells him that the estimated damage was $400, and gives my dad the name and number of her boyfriend. Upon any inquiry as to the body shop the estimate was done at or their insurance company, she just says 'Ask my boyfriend.' So my dad calls the boyfriend, we discover that the girlfriend is the actual owner of the car, and the boyfriend claims he doesn't know the body shop or insurance company off the top of his head, but will find out. There is a collective moment of 'Well, shit.' here as we suspect that they just made up some number, and were very possibily driving uninsured (which is illegial here in MA). But we figure we'll wait and see.
Then, today, their insurance company calls - I figure they decided that if we weren't giving them their $400 without more info they'd just go straight there. I talk to the agent, and discover they said they were at a full stop while I remember them being moving. This apparently means that I may have to deal with another agent later this week because the agent I spoke to doesn't handle those types of claims. We also call our insurance company to let them know, and I talk to that agent as well.
The long and short of it is that apparently if the damage is less than $500, we have no increase in our premiums. The fact that I'm no longer facing paying $200+ out-of-pocket is nice, but I still feel like total shit about the whole thing, and have all week - kind of like I want to go curl up in a corner and die of shame or something. Which is probably why I'm doing a massive write-up here. I also feel like shit about friends stuff, which this made worse, but there will be time later to rant about that.
So. Sunday night I got involved in a minor car accident. I was in Boston, after having dropped Mara off at the train station, and I was trying to get onto 93-S to get headed back home. I wound up in the right lane when I needed to be in the left lane, and as I switched lanes, the guy in the left lane switched into the right lane and there wasn't enough clearance between our cars, and my front right bumper clipped the corner of his back left bumper with a noticeable lurch
So we both pull over, guy gets out while his girlfriend stays in the passenger's seat, looks at the car, and then starts talking to me. I panic, because this is my first real car accident, but some phone calls are made, and it's decided that he would get an estimate done and call me, and my family would decide if we would just pay then (to avoid the possibility of raising our insurance premiums) or go to the insurance company. As he drives off, I see the damage, which is a roughly six-by-six inch scratched up section - no denting, just the paint.
Girlfriend calls Monday, gets my dad, tells him that the estimated damage was $400, and gives my dad the name and number of her boyfriend. Upon any inquiry as to the body shop the estimate was done at or their insurance company, she just says 'Ask my boyfriend.' So my dad calls the boyfriend, we discover that the girlfriend is the actual owner of the car, and the boyfriend claims he doesn't know the body shop or insurance company off the top of his head, but will find out. There is a collective moment of 'Well, shit.' here as we suspect that they just made up some number, and were very possibily driving uninsured (which is illegial here in MA). But we figure we'll wait and see.
Then, today, their insurance company calls - I figure they decided that if we weren't giving them their $400 without more info they'd just go straight there. I talk to the agent, and discover they said they were at a full stop while I remember them being moving. This apparently means that I may have to deal with another agent later this week because the agent I spoke to doesn't handle those types of claims. We also call our insurance company to let them know, and I talk to that agent as well.
The long and short of it is that apparently if the damage is less than $500, we have no increase in our premiums. The fact that I'm no longer facing paying $200+ out-of-pocket is nice, but I still feel like total shit about the whole thing, and have all week - kind of like I want to go curl up in a corner and die of shame or something. Which is probably why I'm doing a massive write-up here. I also feel like shit about friends stuff, which this made worse, but there will be time later to rant about that.
