Guest Sundancefisher Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Went to look at it myself today but the person wasn't there. Will try again tomorrow. Firstly... From experience... If the accident was in a parking lot and damage is confirmed then it is basically deemed 50/50 fault unless someone "says" it was all their fault. Therefore your only hope is to show via video and camera proof that physically your vehicle could not of done the damage. I would say if the damage happened in the last 5 days that with this cold the rust could not possibly have happened. If the vehicle is newer that is claiming damage...the bumper most likely would of suffered some minor compressional stress damage at least which if they looked under the bumper could see. If just that dented portion is all the damage sustained then you should be able to see if anything on your vehicle was of the height and shape to do the damage. Asking the guys neighbors if they say damage previously would help also. Otherwise...any accidents in a parking lot is deemed joint in a dispute...automatically. Both guys insurance suffers. Cheers Sun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchy Posted December 18, 2008 Author Share Posted December 18, 2008 Firstly... From experience... If the accident was in a parking lot and damage is confirmed then it is basically deemed 50/50 fault unless someone "says" it was all their fault. Therefore your only hope is to show via video and camera proof that physically your vehicle could not of done the damage. I would say if the damage happened in the last 5 days that with this cold the rust could not possibly have happened. If the vehicle is newer that is claiming damage...the bumper most likely would of suffered some minor compressional stress damage at least which if they looked under the bumper could see. If just that dented portion is all the damage sustained then you should be able to see if anything on your vehicle was of the height and shape to do the damage. Asking the guys neighbors if they say damage previously would help also. Otherwise...any accidents in a parking lot is deemed joint in a dispute...automatically. Both guys insurance suffers. Cheers Sun Sun.. Good advice, thank you. This is why I want to go see the vehicle myself and take some more pictures.. it's just not adding up for me at this point. In regards to asking neighbors.. I had not thought of that. Thanks! Hawgstoppah - same situation as yours. It's a good thing I love my wife so much! Another thing I have to double check when I get home is how far exactly the hitch sticks out. I didn't think of it until today, but depending on what the angle was that my wife was backing up.. there's a good possibility that the bumper hit, not the hitch (rear passenger side of our bumper hit the front passengers side of their bumper). I didn't think of looking on our bumper itself for any marks because I was so focused on the hitch. She told me she was on a bit of an angle, I'll have to ask her again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbowtrout Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 We need a photo of you're Wifes bumper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawgstoppah Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 eeeeeeeaaasy now... this is about cars ain't it??? LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonefisher Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 I can't say how suspicious the damage looks. But From your description of the "accident" I would not even say that the driver of the green vehicle was responsible...... I hope she didn't accept responsibility..... if she did I would make sure to explain to the insurance companies that she was accepting the the fact that she was backing up to take another go at the corner...... Like Sundance fisher said most parking lot accidents go 50/50 and backing up in a parking lot is a very normal thing to do and may not even put her at fault. Its a rear ender collision and in such cases the person in the back is almost always at fault. Its like when you are at a stop sign on a hill and buddy pulls up 3 inchs behind you in your manual transmission if you roll a bit and he gets hit its his fault for not leaving sufficient space. Some people don't understand this and assume its their fault for rolling back. Funny story this is the only "accident" i have ever been in where I was driving. I once was fishing the Maligne river and was driving to the next spot on the river. I was going a couple KMs under the speed limit as I came up to the parking lot I wanted to pull into. I had my eyes fixated on the glimpses of river that I could get so I wasn't paying much attention behind me. I flipped on my signal light and proceeded to turn left into the parking lot. Unknown to me the guy behind me decided to pass about the same time I decided to turn and runs into the side of my preciously fragile 1982 Ford truck with a relatively good impact. Stopped blocking basically the whole road he gets out of his subaru with it still pinning my doors shut. So I am forced to go out the passenger side door. The driver starts yelling at me in Korean and the passenger (the owner of the car) starts yelling at me in English about how he wants to call the cops and "why did I turn in front of him". I'm pretty young and thinking this is my fault oh *hit. Finally I talk the guy into pulling back and letting us both get out of the middle of the road as we are basically blocking traffic. His subaru is crunched up good while my ford literally got a thin foot long scratch and a dent that I popped right back out. He proceeds to berate me and threaten me with injuries and lawsuits and all that jazz. I have a 6 pack of beer behind the seat and I'm paranoid and I don't want the cops to show up. SO I tell him yeah I turned in front of you I'll give you all my info and write out a statement saying that I made a left hand turn in front of you as you were passing me and got hit. Obviously we both figured that this situation was clearly my fault as he says OK my insurance company will be contacting yours for the damages ect. We swap info and both sign my statement. I called my Insurance company to tell them they would likely be recieving a claim soon but didn't really get into the details as I had this faint hope that the guy might not make a claim. So I spend the next couple weeks on edge as I really couldn't afford a huge increase in my insurance. Finally my insurance agency calls me and says this guy turned in my statement to his insurance and they are willing to pay my damages ect. Turns out it was all his fault and his signing my statement was the kicker. I was so relieved that I told my insurance company that there was really no damage and I didn't need anything fixed. My insurance agent says "what?" And I say "oh theres no damage"..... She pauses and says "his cars got $5000 worth of damage"..... "you sure there was no damage to yours?" "Nope" "no injuries?" "nope" "Ok then..... his insurance agency will be glad to hear that......" "Ok perfect..... so this won't cost me anything?" "No Not at all" "Oh thats great I was so worried" I had just automatically assumed that this was my fault because I didn't see him coming. But in retrospect the accident was clearly his fault. Thats why they always say to never accept responsibilty..... you let the insurance companies decide that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchy Posted December 18, 2008 Author Share Posted December 18, 2008 Got my wife to go out and take a picture of our hitch and send it to me.. I'm pretty sure I solved the mystery. I was focusing on the wrong part of the hitch. The damage was definitely from our hitch, and yes, this part of the hitch has rust on it so the transfer makes sense. The rust spots have been there since I bought it, and drive me insane! I periodically rub the stains away with an SOS pad. Works like a charm. I often have to remind myself that it's a 9 year old vehicle because i'm so picky! Arrow is pointing at the 'edge' that is the culprit. Rounded edges.. matches the pictures almost perfectly. Parking lot + no witnesses = 50/50 pretty much every time. Neither of them really admitted fault, although this lady did say to my wife that "I was distracted and not watching.." However, unless that was recorded on tape or something I don't think it would stand if it came down to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanJuanWorm Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 I blame it all on the fact that we allowed women to vote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weedy1 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I had a big long rant typed out but decided to say this instead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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