Not Sure How this is Gonna Go!

[davidbill]

This is my first car accident, so please give me any advise. I have Progressive, the 2010 Camry has State Farm, and the 05 Ranger has Alstate.

So I got into a fender bender last Friday with like... an '05 Ford Ranger and a 2010 Camry, with my '14 Accord. Basically what happened is a Semi was stretched across 3/4 lanes of traffic trying to back into a parking lot just on the other side of an intersection. The '05 Ranger stopped at the semi. The lady behind him slammed on her brakes. I was coming up behind her through the intersection and when she slammed on her brakes I also slammed on mine and began to swerve right to avoid her vehicle. But, it had been raining that morning so the ground was fairly wet. I avoided all but... 6 inches of her car. A little ding to my Honda, and a slight scrape to her '10 Camry (though there was tons of other damage, so no telling what was old and what was new). She however hit the Ranger in front of her and the tail hitch cracked her headlight, and it slightly cracked the plastic top of his bumper.

I still don't know who hit who first. We were all polite but tight-lipped, as to not admit fault... though secretly, I assumed I probably pushed her into him and that I was at fault for the entire thing, though I tried my best to avoid it. However, to do that much damage she'd have had to have been fairly close to his bumper already. Honestly, even at this point... no idea. The police officer didn't really take any statements and kept referring to her as if she was the one at fault (so I'm not sure if she mentioned something to him that she didn't to us).

Everyone agreed we didn't want it on our insurance since all of our cars were rather old, paid off, and it was minor damage (all less than $500).... but then today I got a notification from Progressive that she filed a claim. Now, I'm not very familiar with Progressive but my status says "{claimed received" and under payouts, it has "Collision: 0.00" for mine and "Bodily Injury - 0.00, Property Damage 0.00" on hers.

Does this mean she's claiming Personal Injury and Personal Property? She said she was completely fine, made a joke about "it's going to hurt tomorrow" and then negotiated with the man in front of us and myself to not claim it, but then said, "I'll have to run it past my husband". Should I be worried?

 

[stephenborg]

@davidbill She filed a claim, she may/may not have claimed injuries and/or damage to her property. Progressive should handle her damages. The worry for you would only come in if your coverage limits aren't sufficient to cover the full damages and/or when your rates go up for an at fault accidents.

 

[former32%C2%B0mason]

@davidbill As long as you have adequate liability limits (not minimums), you should be fine. Police don't determine fault, and it doesn't matter what was said by anyone at the scene. The insurance companies will take statements from the drivers and determine fault. You should be prepared to be the majority at fault for all damages.

Your policy will pay for their damages and any injuries up to your liability limits. Because there were multiple vehicles involved, it's possible their damages will exceed your limits, in which case you might be sued. Your insurance company will represent you and make every effort to get them to settle within your limits. There is nothing to do now except cooperate and give your statement when asked.

 

[a43]

@davidbill They’ll typically open up the coverages that could come into play, think of it like they are primed and ready to hear if she has medical costs. If no such receipts are communicated then it would just close at 0.00. That said, the “going to hurt tomorrow” could have just been more of a light hearted statement than an actual joke. If there is pain or a need to be treated then it would most likely come the next day. In my experience, Progressive will go to bat for you so if there’s any inkling she may have hit the first vehicle first they will often try for it but with this scenario the more likely result will be 100% fault for you.

If you have liability insurance then you’ll just give them all the details you know, including that you’re not sure if you caused her to hit him or not, from there they’ll give you options such as whether or not you want to use your collision coverage, and guide you on how to proceed if you do. If you don’t opt to use your own coverage (which comes with a deductible) they’ll just focus on figuring out the share of liability and getting the other folks damage taken care of. You won’t have to be too involved with that part unless they want to go over certain details of the incident with you again.