My perfect little pony has been blemished by a Honda Civic. Thankfully, nobody was injured… aside from the cars, that is. The first thing I did after pulling my car off to the side of the road to prevent another vehicle from coming along and hitting it was to make a note of the plate number on the car that hit mine. It's something that came reflexively after my other Mustang got rear ended by a hit and run driver a few years ago. I noticed right away that the car that hit mine was a late 90's Honda Civic, so I was extra quick to get the plate, just in case it took off. Not that Honda Civics are bad or that their drivers flee scenes of accidents all the time, but that is one of the most commonly stolen cars out there, and if this one was being driven by somebody who didn't come by the vehicle honestly, the chances were high that they wouldn't stick around after the accident. Readers may recall a review I did of a 1998 Honda Civic last year, when I borrowed it to make a late night road trip to fetch my car keys that accidentally traveled to Iowa in somebody's pocket. Anyway, that particular Civic from the review had been stolen several times before, and has since been traded in on a brand new Odyssey minivan by its owner.
Luckily, the Honda Civic that hit mine was not stolen, nor did the driver flee the scene. The other guy and I exchanged information, but he wanted to wait around for the police to show up, even though we each had what we needed to complete a State Accident Report form. That was a decision he ended up regretting, because the responding officer told the other driver that he was at fault for the accident for not yielding right of way to me because I was on his right at the intersection.
In fairness to the other guy, though, this was in a suburb that apparently does not believe in posting stop or yield signs at its intersections, so the guy probably just figured he didn't need to check to his right before going through the intersection. He got kind of defensive when the officer told him his insurance policy would probably be paying for my damage because I had the right of way, making him at fault.
Then the other driver got upset that he only has liability insurance, so the damage to his own car (or rather, his sister’s car that he was driving at the time) wouldn’t be covered by his policy. I guess he figures this is my problem, even though I had no say in his or his sister’s selection of insurance coverage. Considering that the other car was a late 90’s Honda Civic, I pretty much figured that it would only have liability insurance, because the age and condition of the vehicle is such that it doesn't really make financial sense to keep full coverage due to how little the car is worth relative to the cost of full coverage insurance.
I told him that because we both have the same insurance company, albeit through different agencies, that they’ll likely try to recoup their losses and then some by raising rates on both of us. I added that at least everybody involved was okay, which is about the best we could hope for aside from never having crossed paths in the first place. It didn't console him much and he was still unhappy when we left (not that anybody at that scene was what one would call “happy” about the situation). I gave my insurance agent a heads up about the situation so they can be prepared if he tries to make a claim against my policy (which will probably not fly given the right of way situation and the fact that the police report backs that up), and called his insurance agent to start a claim on his policy. Now I’ll have to find a reputable local body shop to fix the damage on my car.
Aw, hell, look at my poor little pony! Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed in the morning, you know?
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