Pizza Delivery driver hit my car, what are my options?

[lukejay]

Hey guys,
So yesterday, my mother was driving our '16 mustang (I wasn't in the car). She was turning left to come out of a community and some moron was speeding to deliver a pizza and narrowly swerved away, scraping the front of her car. There was no damage to his car, but the front of hers was scratched pretty badly:

I attached a pic of the damage below

The police were called but they determined it made no sense to file insurance claims as his car was undamaged and the damage on ours is "minor" and filing would just make our rates go up for no reason. Has anyone been in a situation like this before? Would the driver or the pizza company be held responsible or is it on us to repair? And does anyone know what the cheapest repair cost would be? It seems like the valence would need to be replaced but the bumper can just be buffed and repainted. There is also paint that scraped off from this idiots car onto ours so if anyone knows any good products that could remove it that would be awesome.
Thanks!

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[oesman]

Is this one of those retarded "it's no one's fault, it's just an accident" special snowflake states?

Because I don't understand this statement:

>The police were called but they determined it made no sense to file insurance claims as his car was undamaged and the damage on ours is "minor" and filing would just make our rates go up for no reason.

His insurance would pay for your car in any normal "at fault" state. Your rate wouldn't go up. If your state isn't one of the idiot no fault states I would 100% absolutely make his insurance pay. There is no fixing that with cosmetic touch up. The chin spoiler is cut open for one. The paint itself is hard to see, your picture is very blurry, but it looks like its through the paint.

This is probably $800 to fix at the stealership bodyshop.

As far as removing his paint from yours, claybar and some decontamination would certainly do it. But if you're repainting it's moot.

 

[lukejay]

Is this one of those retarded "it's everyone's fault" states?

I feel like that was the unspoken outcome of this.

His insurance would pay for your car in any normal "at fault" state. Your rate wouldn't go up. I would 100% absolutely make his insurance pay.

No insurance claims were filed by us or by the delivery guy, but I will definitely look into it now, our rate is pretty low but the deductible is 1k and the total damage is most likely under that so thats why the police told us it's not wise to file.

There is no fixing that with cosmetic touch up. The chin spoiler is cut open for one. The paint itself is hard to see, your picture is very blurry, but it looks like its through the paint.

This is probably $800 to fix at the stealership.

Yeah I wasn't planning on taking this thing to the dealer, I was just thinking buy the prepainted parts when we can afford it and take it to a shop to get them installed. My mom took that pic, I'll get a better one tomorrow, it is quite blurry.

 

[lukejay]

I just don't understand how the OEM plastic chin spoiler on a v6 is $200+ and costs nearly the same as a new front panel. I'm really hoping I can go after the pizza company somehow because I can't afford to fix this.

 

[oesman]

I feel like that was the unspoken outcome of this.


No insurance claims were filed by us or by the delivery guy, but I will definitely look into it now, our rate is pretty low but the deductible is 1k and the total damage is most likely under that so thats why the police told us it's not wise to file.


Yeah I wasn't planning on taking this thing to the dealer, I was just thinking buy the prepainted parts when we can afford it and take it to a shop to get them installed. My mom took that pic, I'll get a better one tomorrow, it is quite blurry.

Yea for sure check it out. It's also my experience a high percentage of cops don't actually know the law. For one your deductible wouldn't come into play if you went after his insurance. Again, that's assuming your state allows that.

Take it to the body shop, let them get an estimate, as long as you have his info you can go after his insurance. Just call them up and tell them he hit you x days ago and you have a quote, etc...

Did she get a police report of any sort? Cuz at this point it may suck if he claims he never hit you, especially if he has no damage. Those cops really did you no favors... His cousins or something?

I'm really hoping I can go after the pizza company somehow because I can't afford to fix this.

Worth a shot. This may depend on how he's employed. Some of them I believe are just contractors, so they can just say he's not actually employed by them, just doing jobs for them. However they may choose to help you out anyway.

 

[lukejay]

Yeah they got a report written up and told her that if she wants to they can file it whenever she asks. I'm in NC so I'll have to look into that. They got his license info so the police do have a record of this incident. I'm gonna try and get her to take it to a shop soon and see how much this would cost to fix.

 

[oesman]

Yeah they got a report written up and told her that if she wants to they can file it whenever she asks. I'm in NC so I'll have to look into that. They got his license info so the police do have a record of this incident. I'm gonna try and get her to take it to a shop soon and see how much this would cost to fix.

She has a copy of the report physically in hand? If so that's good news. That means you should have the cops info and his info on it.

I just looked it up and NC should be a normal state, so you should be able to just call his insurance up. You don't even have to talk to yours at all. You can if you wanna give them a heads up that someone may call and try to claim against you (if pizza guy blame shifts). I've had a guy who hit me on a 4-way stop in the middle of nowhere make up some insane story about how I hit him in some store parking lot like 30 minutes from where it actually happened. Luckily I called my insurance first so when he called they thought he sounded weird and it turned out he wasn't supposed to be driving and he was lying so his daughter who took care of him didn't find out what happened. I guess that other place was closer so he was trying to be like "hey i just drove to the store! totally not 30 minutes out of town!"

 

[lukejay]

Well not a physical report, but she told me she has a reference number or something and the cop gave her contact info and instructions to file

 

[oesman]

Well not a physical report, but she told me she has a reference number or something and the cop gave her contact info and instructions to file

Ah ok cool as long as she has some # or some way to prove it happened. These cops just sounded questionable based on your description. It wouldn't surprise me if they just didn't wanna do paperwork.

 

[lukejay]

Jeez that's rough, good thing you got it sorted out. My parents don't want to go through all of that trouble and they just want to drop the whole thing apparently so there's nothing I can do. We're just gonna get the front resprayed and leave the splitter alone for now. Thanks again for your help man.

 

[Nagare]

If they change their mind on the splitter, take advantage and swap to a California Special one if the base one really comes out anywhere close to $200.

But I can't see too much damage clearly other than the splitter so hopefully a good paint correction is all it takes.

 

[lukejay]

Thanks for the advice Nagare! I'll look into it, hopefully we can just buff it out and apply touchups on the paint chips

 

[oesman]

I would at least give the guys insurance a call. This is a very small accident. If it's below their surcharge amount, which is the threshold where they would have to jack his rate, they may not really care and just cut your body shop a check. Basically his insurer wouldn't even see this as an accident from the perspective of risk if it's under that limit. Can't hurt to make a 20 min phone call. Worst case he gives them some story and you just go on with your life. Best case free repair.

It's like if someone door dings you and has you bill their insurance, they don't normally jack rates for that. Of course it really depends on the carrier, mine is I believe $750 last I checked. I don't think most states set a mandated threshold. If you know your carrier's rules this is smart to remember if you ever cause minor damage to someone, better to have insurance cover a few hundred bucks if they can't jack your rate for it. Doesn't make sense to offer cash for something that insurance will just cover without any consequences.

 

[D24112]

So you mother was pulling out of a "community" . turning left and this guy had to swerve to miss her. He was an idiot, speeding to deliver a pizza. Lucky he wasn't going just a little bit slower or was 2 seconds later leaving the pizza shop.

 

[ScottyRyan2018]

Is this one of those retarded "it's no one's fault, it's just an accident" special snowflake states?

Because I don't understand this statement:

>The police were called but they determined it made no sense to file insurance claims as his car was undamaged and the damage on ours is "minor" and filing would just make our rates go up for no reason.

His insurance would pay for your car in any normal "at fault" state. Your rate wouldn't go up. If your state isn't one of the idiot no fault states I would 100% absolutely make his insurance pay. There is no fixing that with cosmetic touch up. The chin spoiler is cut open for one. The paint itself is hard to see, your picture is very blurry, but it looks like its through the paint.

This is probably $800 to fix at the stealership bodyshop.

As far as removing his paint from yours, claybar and some decontamination would certainly do it. But if you're repainting it's moot.

No-fault automobile insurance has nothing to do with property damage in a car accident. It's sole focus is bodily injury compensation.

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