by marie » Sat Sep 08, 2007 01:30 pm
i was 1 of 5 vehicles hit on my street the driver fled on foot leaving behind his truck i have the owners name and address on report but do not have any info on their insurance what can i do my truck is totaled and i only have liability ins.
Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 03:35 pm Post Subject:
You mention that you have a report. I'm assuming that this is the police report. It should be a preliminary report. The police should continue to investigate the situation. They should contact the owner and determine who was driving the vehicle, who the owner is insured with, etc. My recommendation would be to contact the police dept. with the report number, find out who is investigating the loss and let them know you wanted to find out if the owner or operator has insurance and explain that your vehicle is a total loss and (perhaps) you don't have any way to get to work and earn a living (officers work for money as well and can identify with this). They will probably tell you they will add that info to the report and it will take xx number of days (most likely at least 10). I'd make this call to put the insurance issue into the officers head as their main investigation is not to find out about insurance and it might be overlooked.
Now for the bad news... accident like these happen and people usually run as they are DWI. If they did not catch the person then your actually in luck as they probably won't be able to charge the driver with DWI. The bad part is that many people who would DWI and run don't have any insurance. You will have to wait and see.
Some states (_very_) few have uninsured motorist property damage (again, very few) so if the other driver does not have insurance, you might want to ask your agent if your policy contains this coverage.
Hind sight is 20/20 but if you commonly park your vehicle on the side of the road, I'd consider adding comprehensive and collision coverage or at least comprehensive coverage. If the vehicle is left on the side of road often it's very susceptible to vandalism.
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:25 am Post Subject: FEW SUGGESTIONS
You have the drivers name and address, see if you can get a plate number, or VIN, (if the local authorities are of no help).
Contact your states DMV (check their web page), they should be able to trace it, might cost you a couple of bucks, you need to find out if the driver is the same as the owner or if there is a co-owner, if the driver is not the sole owner and had permission to drive this vehicle you may be able to also attempt recovery from the owner.
Contact your states Dept of Insurance (they also have a web site), file a state report, or find out what the laws of your state are regarding this, you should be able to file a report and start the process of getting this joker's license and plates pulled.
File a small claims action, get a judgement if he is employed also file a garnishment, small claims judgements are also useful in the state report I mentioned above.
Be sure you have all your documentation in line, estimates of repair, police report, photos etc.
It is a process and I'm so sorry this happened, I had this happen as well about twenty five years ago, I did get my money eventually took about five years of payments but I got it.
Good luck to you, and if I can be of any further assistance please don't hesitate to ask.....
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