Got into an accident today...

[BerenTebogo]

Unless the light is yellow, in which case you floor it no matter how far you are.


Also, it's legal in Florida for motorcycles to drive between cars. Freaky shit, I don't know how people get the balls to do it so much.

I hate bikers with a fiery passion. There is always a voice in the back of my head whispering, "open the door" when I see bikers coming up between lanes in traffic.

S'cool if they want to do all the stupid shit in the world while driving and being dumbfucks, but get within 500ft of one on the highway? FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY! ENDANGERING MOTORCYCLISTS! FACIST! FACIST!

[BunkMonk]

I hate bikers with a fiery passion. There is always a voice in the back of my head whispering, "open the door" when I see bikers coming up between lanes in traffic.

S'cool if they want to do all the stupid shit in the world while driving and being dumbfucks, but get within 500ft of one on the highway? FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY! ENDANGERING MOTORCYCLISTS! FACIST! FACIST!

If wiki can ever be believed, it states that rear-end crashes in CA are 30% lower then in a few other states due to lane-splitting being legal. I do wonder though how many accidents are caused while a car is changing lanes due to not seeing the buggers....

I realize I messed up, I realize I could be getting reamed worse by insurance. They could have quoted an even higher price, I just thought personally $500 bucks for each part alone is crazy. Yes I'm even more careful now.

It's just all a PITA because I've had a clean driving record for the past 5~ years since my teen fuck ups, and this is gonna kick me in the ass when I try to get insurance on a car soon (I don't have a personal car now)

And sorry for being a bitch earlier :3 Bad day at work, PMS, and then the comment about repair businesses/insurance...just bad timing for me to be reading BG. Anyway, there are plenty of shops that can rip you off, and a lot of the time people who do the scams have their own set of doctors, repair shops, etc. But insurance companies deal with this shit all the time. They don't want to have to pay more than they are forced to either, so you have that working in your favor if ridiculous claims start coming in.

[jmc]

I really, really, really don't like agreeing with Plow, but I have to or risk being a hypocrite. MA is a no fault state when it comes to rear-ending so when I'm in the right lane on the highway (tired, distracted, lazy, etc) and somebody tailgates the fuck out of me with 2 open lanes to pass me in I frequently will drop 2 gears without any brake lights and send them swerving half off of the road.

I never do it without cause, as it is dangerous, but when people tailgate because they're too lazy to pass it makes me rage a la Looney Tunes.

Happened tonight with a truck behind me while I was just relaxing. Had fog lights with more intensity than my high beams and was sitting right on my ass blinding the fuck out of me. Gave them a bit of a warning by just taking my foot off of the gas and decelerating slowly - didn't get the message - hard downshift -> swerve.

Not saying Sean was intentionally being a cock like some people, but being that close to another car is asking for trouble even if you have quick reflexes. Shit happens and different states handle it different ways in terms of legality. (I'm fairly certain, and Mcgarrel can confirm or deny since he's a MA cop, that I can jam on my brakes for no reason whatsoever in the middle of an open highway and if you rear end me you're going to be told that it's your fault for not being far enough away to react accordingly.)

In a insurance standpoint, there is really no fault for accidents. Hence the "No-Fault" law, however for slamming on the brakes for no reason even with someone tailgating you it will be your word against the driver who rear ended you. With MA law, its the drivers responsibility to maintain a safe enough distance away from cars in front of you, to not rear end them in ANY situation.


Yet, if a trooper witnessed you slamming on the brakes for no reason he/she could cite you for reckless driving.

So, it could be a lose/lose situation depending on how you look at it.

[BerenTebogo]

In a insurance standpoint, there is really no fault for accidents. Hence the "No-Fault" law, however for slamming on the brakes for no reason minus someone tailgating you it will be your word against the driver who rear ended you. With MA law, its the drivers responsibility to maintain a safe enough distance away from cars in front of you, to not rear end them in ANY situation.


Yet, if a trooper witnessed you slamming on the brakes for no reason he/she could cite you for reckless driving.

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification.

[Plow]

It pretty much depends on the state, if it's a no-fault state then, well, it's exactly what it means.

If it's not a no-fault state, 99.999999999% of the time if you rear end someone under any circumstances you're screwed.

Thought that was common knowledge really.

[Plow]

Also, let me try being nice about this:


Let's pretend for a moment that there was a child and parent standing at the intersection. You can't see them, of course, because you're a foot behind an SUV. Right as the SUV starts to pull away, the kid darts out, or falls down, or whatever.

The SUV stops in time... but you, being a foot behind them, rear end them and push them forward a foot or 2... directly into the kid.

Kid breaks arm/leg/whatever, or head injury or something.


Am I still being a dick for bitching at you about it and telling you it's your own damn fault?


Defensive driving. It's not just for yourself.

[jmc]

Defensive driving. It's not just for yourself.

THIS^^^

[Cesaria]

I've always just taken the approach of assume everyone else on the road is a retarded moron who will do the most stupid thing possible.

I'm rarely disappointed.

[sephir]

Bump:


I have a question regarding an auto claim. I rented a car from a rent a car place and we had the car inspected and found 2 dings in the paint. We documented these damages on the rental form. When I returned the car a week later upon doing the inspection we discovered a new scrape on the paint that was barely visible, and had not broken the clear coat (someone must have hit me when I was parked because I did not hit ANYTHING). The rent a car wanted a $500 deductible to repair the damage, but the damage itself was maybe $200 tops to fix and I offered to have it fixed at my own expense - the rent a car refused. Because I had been renting the car through my auto insurance I left it with them to deal with the deductible - this is what my adjuster suggested when I called him and told him the situation.

Now here is where it gets interesting. The rent a car decided to have the car damages appraised and sent me a copy of the statement. On it the damages accumulated to $1200, this included the 2 dings that were documented before I actually got into the car. I offered to pay for the damage that I was responsible for and not the other damages that were documented and I sent the rent a car company a check for the amount (it was $300).

Checking my Visa and my bank statement this last month, the rent a car put the entire damage statement through on my Visa (all $1200 worth) plus cashed the check that I had sent them for the damage that I claimed responsibility for. Essentially they charged me an additional $1200 they should not have and because I am refusing to pay the Visa (I have contacted Visa about this) they are now going after my credit.


Any suggestions on how I should deal with this? I am looking into small claims court as I have the documentation that shows the initial 2 dings and the statement billing me for those 2 extra dings that I am not responsible for.

[Melena]

I'd suggest contacting a lawyer asap. What rental place is this though? Some small one or is it a major one like Hertz?

[sephir]

I'd suggest contacting a lawyer asap. What rental place is this though? Some small one or is it a major one like Hertz?

Enterprise.

[Nephlite]

Small claims court and grab a lawyer. Maintain all records including the bank records of them charging your credit card (which is Fraud if you didn't authorize a withdraw), and the initial inspection where they documented the two dings then fixed the dings at your expense even though you weren't responsible for them (also Fraud). Civilly, you can get a large sum from this (don't back down because they WILL try to settle immediately) and MAKE SURE you contact the Better Business Bureau asap to get the ball rolling on their investigation.

[jmc]

Small claims court and grab a lawyer. Maintain all records including the bank records of them charging your credit card (which is Fraud if you didn't authorize a withdraw), and the initial inspection where they documented the two dings then fixed the dings at your expense even though you weren't responsible for them (also Fraud). Civilly, you can get a large sum from this (don't back down because they WILL try to settle immediately) and MAKE SURE you contact the Better Business Bureau asap to get the ball rolling on their investigation.

Exactly this. Even if Visa ends up siding with you, still get the ball rolling with small claims just so they don't try to fuck over someone else later on down the road. Kinda show them people pay attention to their shit.


If the enterprise stores are locally owned instead of just owned by cooperate, i'd give cooperate a call and let them know about this place too.

[zoobernut]

jmcgarrell I think you mean corporate not cooperate right? Just to clarify. Other than that yeah Nephlite and jmc pretty much hit it.

[jmc]

jmcgarrell I think you mean corporate not cooperate right? Just to clarify. Other than that yeah Nephlite and jmc pretty much hit it.

Yes I do.

My last post was from my iphone, so i'll blame the stupid auto-dictionary. lol

[Norellicus]

Pretty sure you've technically authorized all of these kind of charges when you sign that rental agreement, guys, so there's not a full blown fraud case there with regards to the $1200 visa charge.

It's still worth going to small claims court for since there's a good amount of shady about the situation though.

[zoobernut]

Pretty sure you've technically authorized all of these kind of charges when you sign that rental agreement, guys, so there's not a full blown fraud case there with regards to the $1200 visa charge.

It's still worth going to small claims court for since there's a good amount of shady about the situation though.

I am pretty sure that the agreement you sign says you agree to pay but it doesn't authorize them to charge your credit card. I may be wrong but I think you get to choose how you pay and they don't have a right to just go and take the money from you without authorization.

[sephir]

I did sign a form when I rented the car that basically said they could charge my credit card for damages I incur and tickets resulting in me driving the vehicle. However since they charged my credit card for damages unrelated to me driving the vehicle in addition to cashing a check I wrote to pay for the damage that incurred under my supervision, I do believe I may have a case here.

[jmc]

I did sign a form when I rented the car that basically said they could charge my credit card for damages I incur and tickets resulting in me driving the vehicle. However since they charged my credit card for damages unrelated to me driving the vehicle in addition to cashing a check I wrote to pay for the damage that incurred under my supervision, I do believe I may have a case here.

This makes it covered under fraud.

They have full right to charge for damages he did to the car, while in his care. However since they well knew about the damages they are trying to make him pay for, and he declined to pay for said damages because they were documented not his before accepting the car....... it makes it fall under fraud to charge for said damages.