Should I tell my insurance that I hit a pedestrian?

Question

To start off, I'm 17 years old, which would probably effect how insurance companies would treat me. I hit a pedestrian at a red light when I was trying to turn RIGHT onto a busy street. I actually hit him while I was coming to a stop, but I probably started braking to late, cause I ended up part of the way into the cross walk and I hit a kid (14 years old) on his bike.

The kid and the bike were perfectly fine, no injuries and no damage, he actually asked me if I was ok. There was a cop down the street who came over and took down all the info. He called me later and told me that he was making a case on what happened, but I wasn't getting ticketed and I wasn't in any trouble, and that it was up to me whether or not to tell my insurance.

My parents want me to decide what to do (to teach me about responsibility). According to the officer, my insurance will probably only go up a little if I do report it, and nothing will really happen if I don't. Does anyone have any advice? I have Century 21 car insurance, in case it matters.

Answer 1

Insurance doesnt base liability on your age.. they base it on the facts.

I guarantee this pedestrian will end up injured. Unfortunately we live in a world where due to all the lawyer commercials everyone is "injured!" regardless of whether they are really hurt or not.

Insurance will know about this accident anyways- they have access to police crash reports.  I would suggest you tell them about it before the pedestrian does or they find out on their own.

Your insurance policies states you must notify them of all accidents and on some policies if you dont in a timely manner they will deny the claim.  Dont take that chance for something that could end up pretty serious.

Answer 2

I would like to recommend you possess as much information as you can before taking action,here is a good place for that purpose.http://car-insurance.easyideas4u.info/ca...

Answer 3

If the officer said all is well and you and the kid made an agreement no harm no foul, then i would move on. I made a claim once when a dump truck took my side view mirror off(he left the scene). made a police report and all. my agent said i should have spoke to them first so my insurance would not go up. They would have handled the situation. In the end it is up to you. No worries. Stay up!

Answer 4

you should deff. tell your insurance for your own peace of mind and to prevent future headaches.

Answer 5

I don't know what state you are in, so I'm just going to give some general guidelines.

No, there is no reason for you to tell your insurance unless you are going to make a claim to get paid from them.  Otherwise they're on their own to find out about the incident.  They don't call you every time better insurance rates are available, and you don't have to call them every time your driving statistics change.  Especially in the case where no ticket was issued, no damage was done, and no one was injured--there is nothing to tell them.

If your car was damaged, then you might consider contacting the insurance to see about them paying to repair the car (but your rates may go up).  If the child ends up contacting you later with an injury, then at that time you would probably want to contact your insurance company and let them settle the issue.  Pretty much all insurance covers bodily harm to others, and if the kid comes back with any mention of an injury, you would want to let the professionals deal with it.  (Not just for your sake--the kid and his family would deserve a prompt response so they don't have to worry about whether you're covered.)

I'm not sure I understand what's up with the police officer.  It sounds like there is a chance you might get non-infraction charges filed against you.  If that happens, get help from your parents.  Learning responsibility for your own issues is good, but part of it is also knowing when to ask for help, and in that case you'd probably need a lawyer.  Even in that case, though, you would not need to tell your insurance anything.

Good luck.

Answer 6

You MUST report it. Your policy contract requires it.