Dec
13
Would my auto insurance rate go up if I am not at fault? The other driver drifted onto my lane and hit me.?
By
We were on the freeway when he suddenly drifted onto my lane and hit me. But he did not admit fault.
I could not avoid him because I didn’t see him. He was on my blind side and hit my rear quarter panel.
3 Comments
December 13th, 2009 at 10:24 am
He doesn’t have to admit fault.
And somehow, you have to admit that while you were driving along, unless he swerved with high velocity, you had plenty of time to avoid him.
So, either you have to claim that you weren’t paying attention, and didn’t avoid him. Or that he swerved so quickly, that you had no time to react. Which would cause significant damage, and at highway speed, it would cause a huge accident.
In either case, an accident is an accident. Most insurance companies will forgive small stuff. Some don’t.
The real question is why you haven’t just asked your insurance company, since THEY know their policy, and none of us do.
Seems like that would have been common sense….
December 13th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I would imagine since it occurred on the freeway and you both would have been going at a high speed there was a police report filed?
Based off the police report/citation and speaking with both of your the insurance companies (yours & other drivers) would be able to determine how the claims are paid out to fix both vehicles and medical bills if there were any.
If you are not at fault then all payments would come from the other drivers policy and no, your rates would not go up. This of course does depend in your state, if it is a no fault state it’s a whole different ball game and I don’t know much about the laws and payouts with that because I don’t live in one of those states.
Have you filed a claim with your insurance company? The claims reps should be working on deciphering who is at fault and payments and should be able to update you about it.
December 13th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Despite what so many believe. Admitting or not admitting fault means absolutley nothing as to which insurance company pays or which doesn’t pay for damages after an accident. Fault is determined by the involved insurance companies based on police reports, wittness accounts, drivers statements and their own investigation. Simply being on the road makes it partially your fault. Perhaps that is why your rates went up. perhaps not. Your company paying anything out on your behalf could be a reason or a general rate increase that would have been assessed anyway could be another.