I got hit by a half ton

[George Selby]

At 11:30 AM 1/11/03, you wrote:
>1. the repair cost is going to be high (I don't want bondoed up doors
>and quarter panel) and he's going to want to negotiate or take the car
>to his budy to fix up, etc.
>
>2. if our neck injuries get worse, I would probably like some
>compensation for that as well.
>
>Either way it's going to be a pain to deal with it all...


Your last statement couldn't be more true.  First off, in many states (NC,
the one I live in comes to mind) there is a damage value for the accident,
above which it has to be reported to the police immediately, or else they
can prosecute both parties involved for leaving the scene of an
accident.  Here in North Carolina, the value is $500, all but the most
minor of collisions require immediate reporting to the police (because it's
much easier to investigate an accident when the cars are still there, skid
marks (or not) visible, etc.)  NC even has a provision for paying for the
accident yourself if you want to, after the police report is filed.  (If
you have no other traffic accidents or insurance points due to traffic
violations; you can pay 1 accident per 3 years of less than $1000 damage to
the other vehicle (and no personal injury) and you will not receive any
insurance points.)

 From the extant of your damage, it sounds like they are going to be
purchasing your car (Sounds totalled to me.)   It's not really up to the
person who caused the damage to be responsible for deciding how much to
pay.  Therefore, if he really want to pay to fix it, you get an estimate
from the shop of your choice, present it to him, and if he balks, tell him
no problem, we'll just file this with his insurance agent (You have the
leverage here, he doesn't.)  As far as totalling/not totalling, a had a 85
Celica with over 200k miles (and poor paint) that I paid $800 for get side
swiped by a truck not 2 weeks after I bought it, the insurance co had no
problem paying over $1600 to have that side of the car repainted (which I
didn't - FREE CELICA!)  I later sold it for $700 and the person who bought
it hopped in and drove immediately to California from NC.

Lastly, by not going to the hospital for the neck injuries, you have cost
yourself a major portion of whatever pain/suffering damages you can
recover.  The basic computation is they compensate you an amount equal to
your medical expenses in pain/suffering.  So the more medical expenses you
run up, the more pain/suffering you will get.  The biggest expense is the
ambulance ride and the emergency room care.  I screwed up on this matter
when my Audi 4kq was totalled in a rear ender (55 mph speed difference)
about 3.5 years ago and only got $1500 in p/s (slightly more than
medical,)  but at least my neck is totally healed (only took about 4 months
of visits to the chiropractor, the only doctor I saw.)  Make sure you get a
lawyer involved early, if I had, I might have gotten more.  As far as the
neck pain goes, from what the chiropractor told me, the pain will be the
worst on the 3rd day after the accident (Which is why many people don't go
to the hospital, it doesn't hurt right after the accident, but boy does it
ever hurt a few days after the accident.)  Incidentally, a side motion of
the head (such as in your collision) can cause more injuries than a front
to back motion of the same force.

George Selby
83 Audi Coupe GT
gselby4x4 at earthlink.net