Lynda - Don't take this the wrong way, but the driver who is 100% at fault in this incident is counting on YOUR age and-or inexperience to try to weasel his way out of responsibility for this incident. In most "accidents" where a vehicle is rear-ended, the driver in the vehicle with the damage in the REAR would be held totally blameless. Not all the time, but 99.99% of the time. If you claim that you were rear-ended, then it is up to the other driver (YOU, in this case) to prove that he-she was not responsible for the incident. That's because it is buttumed that the vehicle with damage in the FRONT was driven by the driver who had the last best opportunity to avoid the collision. Or relating this to your particular incident . . . if this really was a rear-end accident, YOU would be 100% at fault, in the eyes of your insurance company. Regardless of fault, your insurance company is going to pay for damage to all vehicles (didn't I read that the other driver had the same insurance company?). The only difference is, if YOU are found to be AT FAULT, then YOUR insrance premiums go way up for several years, because you have an "at fault" accident on your record at the insurance company.
When you were asked if you would like to dispute the claim (by another driver that you rear-ended his vehicle), you shouldn't have simply answered "YES". You should have immediately butterted that this was not a rear-end collision, and that you collided with a vehicle that failed to yield the right of way to you while the other vehicle was attempting to enter the road that you were driving on.
Conflict of Interest 3165BULLpoo. Why is that that on many roads the speed limits were higher 30 years ago than they are now? In the mean time car technology has come a long way. So the limits...
Ask your insurance company to fax you an accident report to fill out. The accident report should have several blank diagrams on it where you illustrate EXACTLY what happened. In one diagram, you should show the positions of various vehicles BEFORE the collision. On that one, be sure to show that the vehicle you collided with was NOT on the same road that you were on. That will make it perfectly clear to your insurance company that this was not a rear-end accident. You can only rear-end vehicles that are on the same road that you are on. If you hit a vehicle that was NOT on the same road as you prior to the collision, then a right of way violation has happened, somehow.
You know what happened, but your insurance company needs to know. The other driver is trying to screw you, after-the-fact, by claiming that he was rear-ended. He knows that by claiming "I was rear-ended", he is likely to avoid responsibility (and thousands of dollars in increased insurance premiums) by having the insurance company rule that the collision was YOUR fault. Don't let him get away with that crap. This was NOT a rear-end collision, it was a failure to yield to through traffic when legally required to do so. -Dave
