While at a stop light yesterday my wife was rear ended by an elderly woman doing about 30mph. There didn't seem to be any attempt to brake on her part and the impact forced my wife's car into the car in front of hear damaging both. Police, fire engine and paramedics all responded and were on scene.

Not surprisingly my wife was very shaken up but seemingly okay. Paramedics checked her out and she declined a visit to the hospital. She's a little sore from the impact and has a Dr. appointment lined up just to be sure. The elderly driver was taken to the hospital but seemed to be more in shock than anything else. Didn't say a word to my wife when she asked if she was okay...just stared blankly straight ahead.

It looks to me to be about $5-6k in damage which means it's probably more like $10-12k. Rear end is pretty bashed in, front end is slightly crunched in, rear quarter panels are a bit out of alignment, right front wheel is chewed up as it was pushed into the curb. Her active headrest was triggered but airbags did not go off. The electronic system apparently shut down as well and the car was not drivable. May not have much bearing but it is our "nice" car, a 2010 BMW 535i.

So, on to the insurance: We have State Farm Insurance. The elderly woman has Hartford and all of this is in California. We don't have accident report yet but this would appear to be pretty cut and dry that the elderly woman is 100% at fault.

Insurance questions:

• Any advantage/disadvantage to filing claim through our insurer vs. her insurer?
• If I file through ours (State Farm) they clearly are pushing for one of their Service Select shops but have stated we can go anywhere to have it repaired. The shop that is part of their program is a good shop (I've had work done there) but it sounds like the Service Select program may require them to use less than new parts for the repair which gives me caution. Does this matter because ultimately the elderly driver's insurance will be paying.
• Looking for claims advice/suggestions/things to be aware of etc.

Thanks all!

I'd use her insurance. I see no reason for you to incur increased rates and deal with the hassles of replacing/repairing your car.

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Is there a BMW dealer you can ask about how parts are provided for the Select Service program. Maybe just talk to the "good shop" about what the requirements are for the State Farm program.

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I'm glad she is getting checked out by your doctor. An accident like that will definitely cause joint and connective tissue damage. She will be in a lot of pain for the next few days at a minimum. The other driver's insurance company will fiddle and delay, but having a clear diagnosis and whatnot is useful.

And yeah... definitely push to get that car back in 'pristine' condition. Or replaced with equal or better. Do realize that damage like that makes it pretty much unsellable in the Carfax era, even after repair.

You can/should start a claim with your insurance company and when the other driver's company takes 100% liability (they should...rear end collisions are nearly always the rear ender's fault), you can then cancel your claim. Your record will show a canceled claim with your insurance company but this should not adversely affect your claims history and/or future premiums, etc.

Your company may be able to speed the process along with the other company and then gracefully bow out when the other company takes responsibility.

This is what we did when my wife was involved in an accident last December:

[forums.macresource.com]

And see this thread about getting more money from the insurance company for her totaled car:

[forums.macresource.com]

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The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado

I was the victim of a similar accident when I was in my 20s - didn't feel a thing at the time, but over the next few days, neck pain grew and grew and grew. No real damage, but I was shocked at how difficult it was later when I felt nothing at the time. And I was in my 20s - no doubt, it would be WAY worse now in my 50s. If that happened today, Id go straight to a doc after I was done with the police.

Laws vary by state. I am not in CA, but will give you some feedback anyway.

Go find a BMW enthusiast forum that has members in your area. Ask them what the best shop in the area is. Get a quote from them and give that to your insurance company. You can then decide when/where to have the repairs done.

Your car needs to be looked at by a professional. 30mph impact, and from the outside looks like $5-6k in damage... it could very well be totaled. In my crash last year, the exterior didn't look that bad, but it added up to $10k in damage pretty quickly. And that's before they did a teardown to see what the internal damage really was. You also don't want a car fixed that shouldn't be fixed.

I had one car hit while it was parked. My dad saw it happen so he called me to look at it. Bumper scuff, slight crack in taillight, rear fender pushed in slightly. $3k in damage. I got a quote from the best shop, and the driver's insurance co matched it within a few bucks.

Don't mess around with lowballing it, especially since it's a relatively new and nice car and it's not your fault. I forget the exact phrase, but here they have to restore it to previous condition. Don't mess around with cheap parts, cheap paint, cheap prep work. It also depends on how long you plan on keeping the car. Cheap fixes can last 12-24mo, but start cracking, chipping... after that. If you want to keep it a while, get it done right.

Quote
ztirffritz
I'd use her insurance. I see no reason for you to incur increased rates and deal with the hassles of replacing/repairing your car.

Even in WA, that's not the case. If your insurance co is willing to handle things, I'd have them do it. They're working for you, whereas the other insurance co is working against you. Your rates shouldn't go up if you weren't at fault, regardless of how you proceed.

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Oh, and as far as the health thing goes, don't mess around with that either. Go to a MD and chiropractor. with my crash, I did ~7mo of treatment because neck and spine stuff is nothing to mess with. It can come back to bite you years later, even she feels fine now. I even did massage couple times a week for much of that time... and I actually don't like massage, but it does help with the healing process.

Like hal, I was in a crash in my early 20's and everything felt okay. It happened late Friday night. Early Saturday morning the at fault driver's insurance co was at my work. I signed papers then. Come Monday, my back started hurting... and I started getting regular back aches for years. Eventually I got that fixed, but I should have dealt with it at the time.

I would not sign any release for at least 6mo, if not a year.

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Quote
M A V I C
.... If your insurance co is willing to handle things, I'd have them do it. They're working for you, whereas the other insurance co is working against you. Your rates shouldn't go up if you weren't at fault, regardless of how you proceed.

One caveat... your insurance company is NEVER working for you. They are always working for themselves. Yes, in this case, someone else is paying the bills, but they are still not your friends.

Did airbags deploy? Usually the first question by the insurance folks.
I was #3 in my F150 with diamond plate rear bumper. #2 was sandwiched between with #1 (uninsured youth) being the driver of fault.
This was 20 or so years ago and we had coverage for the uninsured driver, after all it was in socal.
You should file an accident report with your company. You pay for their services even when you don't need them.
Good luck get everything in writing.

Feel free to file a report with your own insurance if they'll take it, but they are going to tell you to work with the other company, and to call them back only if you have trouble.

Wasn't there some lawsuit somewhere that bit the insurance companies pretty hard for using shoddy non-OEM replacements, and now they pretty much stay with factory parts as much as possible? Eh, maybe not. Anyway, in our four (*sigh*) accidents in the past three years the insurance companies seem to have paid appropriately for good parts and good work at their reference shops.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2015 03:54PM by Acer.

Chances are, your car will be declared totaled. The other party's insurance will lowball you with a settlement check. Never take their first offer. You need to find similar BMW's for sale in a (about) 50 mile radius. Print the highest ones to PDF and email them those, saying they should include those values into their settlement.

The medical settlement is more tricky. Do every medical test your doctor says you MIGHT need, and calculate treatment costs, and even then, don't settle too soon. Tell their insurance to be fair, so you won't feel compelled to retain a lawyer...

Daughter was involved in a similar situation back in May. Sitting on the interstate in traffice going to work and a guy hit the car behind her which hit her rear end. Slight damage to her rear bumper (which was basically replacing the bumper). No physical damage to her thank goodness. We/she are insured with State Farm. The police filed a report and said it was the person who started hit the last car in the chain's fault.

She called me while at the scene of the wreck and I told her to get all the information of the person who is at fault and the police report number and to call our insurance person to let them know what is going on. What I didn't do is tell her to not file a claim as that at fault person (who did have insurance) will be contacting her to pay for the repair. She had never been involved in a wreck and filed a claim with State Farm. She went ahead and got it fixed. Old Dad called our State Farm rep and he connected from our phone call directly me to her claim person and, after explaining the situation, they were very helpful--stated they would get her deductible back and the claim would not go on her record. She had every small detail of the person at fault information--insurance carrier, name, agent name, person's name, police report number, etc., which I gave to the claim person to make sure she had all the information she needed. Took about a month but she got her deductible back. State Farm emailed me status updates of when they contacted the other carrier and their responding that the would pay. Sent a letter to my daughter about the status also.

That was our experience with State Farm and the sistuation and of course yours may be different depending upon what you decide to do since your vehicle has much more damage.

BTW best wishes for your wife's recovery.

"she declined a visit to the hospital"


Mistake #1. After being crashed into, you're not completely in your "right mind". In effect, your wife proclaimed she wasn't injured (which may or may not be the true case). She should have followed the paramedics' advice and allowed them to transport her to the hospital. I'm glad she didn't "wake up dead" from some problem that didn't manifest earlier.

You pay for insurance. Now's the time to use it. Insurance professionals gather information for a living. Why should you (or another family member) waste your time when you've already paid for a professional to do it? Those professionals should know exactly who to contact and, what questions to ask. Going this route, you'll have one primary person to deal with, the adjusted assigned to the case.


Do you have vehicle replacement coverage? What's the Kelly Blue Book value for your BMW? It may be "totaled".

Again, glad that your wife appears to be unhurt.

Thanks for all the input...lots to consider and process!
A few comments and then a couple of follow up questions:

Went ahead and opened claim with our insurer State Farm knowing that we may cancel it and file with the other driver's Hartford. Wanted to at least get the process started.

I am considering three shops (let's call them A, B and C) and stopped by two of them today (A & B). Shop C is the Service Select shop State Farm is gently recommending. A was recommended by our independent BMW mechanic, the BMW dealership and the tow company. I stopped by and talked to them (A) for a while and felt pretty good about the business. I am going to start by having car towed there to get estimates done. He said they prefer working with Hartford but only by a slight margin.

I really don't think the car will be considered totaled. I stopped by the tow yard to unload the trunk and had another look today. I think it will come down to if any internal damage was done.

Who makes the determination on whether a car is totaled? My insurance? Her insurance? Is it based on a single repair estimate? Seems like repairs need to be in the neighborhood of 75% of market vehicle value. Our market value is likely on the high side as this vehicle has absolutely all of the options on it. This may be offset by high mileage though (wife drives a lot).

I know I'll have some more questions to for a few particular people who posted going through this but need to head out for a bit.

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testcase
"she declined a visit to the hospital"

She should have followed the paramedics' advice and allowed them to transport her to the hospital.

Actually she did follow the paramedics advice, they checked her over and did not recommend she go to the hospital.

To clarify: they said it didn't seem necessary for her to go to the hospital but asked if she wanted to. That's what I meant by "she declined to visit the hospital"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2015 06:09PM by Bo.

Quote
Bo
I really don't think the car will be considered totaled. I stopped by the tow yard to unload the trunk and had another look today. I think it will come down to if any internal damage was done.

I'll PM you some photos... a car can very easily look fine from the outside but be totaled.

Quote

Who makes the determination on whether a car is totaled? My insurance? Her insurance? Is it based on a single repair estimate? Seems like repairs need to be in the neighborhood of 75% of market vehicle value. Our market value is likely on the high side as this vehicle has absolutely all of the options on it. This may be offset by high mileage though (wife drives a lot).

Insurance. Also, if any of the crumple zones have started crumpling, you'll want to have it totaled. Yes, they can "fix" it. And on an expensive car they are more likely to go through the effort. But it'll never be as safe again.

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Cost of Repair + Salvage Value > Actual Cash Value. This can vary by state; some states use a percentage, but from what I can see California uses this formula. [www.claimsjournal.com]

You're also entitled to a refund of a portion of taxes and registration fees.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2015 07:38PM by Acer.

Been there, done that. Dr., MRI's, physical therapy if necessary, Lawyer. I was pretty seriously concussed and the car was totaled. No way I was handling it all myself.

ETA: They paid market value for the totaled car, quickly and separately from the medical issues.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2015 08:40PM by August West.

I was in an accident that wasn't my fault. I told the other driver's insurance company I my minor injuries would feel a lot better if they fixed my car RIGHT, rather than give me half its value as a total loss. They fixed it right. I still got a small settlement for my injuries.

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Don't forget that your car will be worth less even after it's properly repaired. This diminished value is something the insurance company needs to compensate you for as well. The repaired car will have a Carfax report on it and when it comes time to sell it, or trade it in, the car will be worth less

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