I was in a car accident and no fault has been determined?

Question

I was driving my wifes car, even though I am excluded from her insurance policy. Bad Idea, I learned. I was at an intersection waiting to take the left turn at a yellow light. The two cars approaching: one car stops the other (closest to my lane) flashes his lights while still being a good distance away from the intersection. I try to go, but realize he's not going to stop. Crash. Why did he flash his lights!

No police report was filed. My insurance for my car will not cover because my wifes car is excluded from my policy. And my wifes insurance will not cover because I am excluded. The other party's insurance has covered the cost for his vehicle and they want me to discuss the accident with them again.

It's hard to determine who is at fault, and I do not want to pay his insurance company just because they fixed his car.

Any advice???

Answer 1

It doesn't matter who is (most) at fault.  You don't have insurance so you are in effect "self insured".  You will have to at least pay the others collision deductible and maybe all of their repairs

Answer 2

Well, you are at fault because you were making the left turn in front of oncoming traffic.  You are now on the hook for all damages to your wife's car, rental costs, damages to the other car & any & all medical bills for the other party, hopefully they don't sue for bodily injury. Why were you excluded from your wife's policy?  Why did you have your own?  This is very dangerous to do as you can now see.  What you should have done is have both your & your wife's cars on the same policy with both of you as drivers.  You both could have been named insureds.  In my state, it is illegal to exclude any driver, so this could never happen here.  You probably could have gotten this cheaper than what you pay for your 2 current policies.  Most companies give multicar credits from 5% to 25% depending on the State & company.

Do you both have agents?  Did they suggest this to you?  Did you SIGN off on being excluded on each others policy?  Did you really understand what you were doing?

Answer 3

Where exactly was your car impacted? This could determine if you had control of the intersection. I think you know the other driver had the right of way. Whenever you're making a left turn, you have to yield to oncoming traffic... it's probably your fault. Since you were driving as an uninsured motorist, the least you could do is cooperate with the rest of the investigation and get it resolved.

Answer 4

The bottom line is driving her car was the same as driving without insurance.  It doesn't matter at this point who's fault it was, and her insurance company paid under the Uninsured/Underinsured policy. It works just same way, if you actually had insurance, and your insurance company paid to fix her car. Most likely, they want more information so they can determine that this was an accident that wasn't staged and that she has a legitamite claim. And, it could also mean they simply want to be sure that no other insurance coverage was available as they would prefer not to have to pay.

There was a reason your wifes insurance company excluded you and you did not have your own insurance. Typically, a husband and wife living together are insurable unless one or the other is unsurable, e.g. no license, too many violations= high risk etc. The insurance company may also report this to the DMV as any accident over $500 in damage must be reported, so I would expect you to also be hearing from the DMV. It's also possible your wifes insurance will cancel her as they don't want to be involved in this kind of mess, but not sure.

Answer 5

OK well bad news is YOU are at fault.  you made a left turn on a yellow light with traffic coming at you.  it doesn't matter if he flashed his lights at you or not.  my guess is he flashed so you would see him coming not to let you know to go.  that said...you have NO coverage because you drove a car on a policy you were excluded from.  the other persons company wants to talk to you because they paid his damages and are now going to try and collect the money back from you because you are at fault.  they may be willing to set up a payment plan for you.  was the other person hurt?  if so you are also responsible for his medical bills.  best advice...work with his company on repayment...if you don't, they will just take you to court and it will end up costing you more.