Not reporting accident to insurance company effect? (Ontario)
Bitemee
08-31-2005, 10:04 PM
Hi everyone. My husband was in an accident on Saturday in Ontario (I was in car too). We were travelling down the highway when it started to rain, and cars were moving at about 70kph. We were in the right hand lane (two exit lanes split off to the right of us just where we were as well). The car in front of us darted to the left, and we saw (too late) that the car in front of him was at a dead stop. My husband tried to brake, and brakes locked and we were sliding towards the car in front of us. We were slowing down and it just looked like we were going to stop in time, when we started skidding to the left. My husband turned the wheels to the right to compensate, and just before it looked like we were going to stop, the wheels gripped and our nose ended up going right into the next (exiting) lane, where we were hit on the rear fender by a car, then the front fender was hit by the same car, but we managed to limp to the shoulder two lanes over. I got out of the car and ran to the other driver to see if he was okay, he didn't say a word to me, not then and not the whole day at the Collision Reporting Centre either.
Whose fault would this be, according to insurance company? We put down "lost control" under Driver Action, while the police officer changed it to "following too close", which is BS, since he wasn't there and my husband was 200 feet behind the stopped car and we were almost able to stop, even on a wet road! The lady at the Collision Reporting Centre said it would be up to the insurance company to decide who's at fault.
Anyways, it turns out that we have $3-5k in damage, which we are probably going to pay out of pocket. We haven't contacted his insurance company yet (he has USAA in the US, as he's immigrating to Canada currently). I called the Collision Reporting Centre, and the lady said the other driver wasn't sure whether he was going to report to his company or not. She suggested we wait to see if his company contacts us or not, or to contact him to see if he would be going through insurance (don't know if this is a good option since he didn't say a word to us the entire time, even though I made attempts to talk to him). Would you wait? How long should we wait?
My dilemma is that we are going to be switching from US car insurance to Canadian insurance. If we don't report this accident, and the insurance company doesn't find out, we'll be able to get coverage for about $2500/year (prior to this, he had one at-fault accident with no claim as he didn't have collision in 2000, and one speeding ticket for less than 45kph over in December 2004). If we do report, but don't file a claim, insurance jumps to $5000 per year, even though no claim is being made! What should we do? We need insurance, but can't afford $5000 per year. How can we do this without the insurance company finding out, so that we can get the cheaper insurance once we switch to Canadian insurance? Thanks.
Whose fault would this be, according to insurance company? We put down "lost control" under Driver Action, while the police officer changed it to "following too close", which is BS, since he wasn't there and my husband was 200 feet behind the stopped car and we were almost able to stop, even on a wet road! The lady at the Collision Reporting Centre said it would be up to the insurance company to decide who's at fault.
Anyways, it turns out that we have $3-5k in damage, which we are probably going to pay out of pocket. We haven't contacted his insurance company yet (he has USAA in the US, as he's immigrating to Canada currently). I called the Collision Reporting Centre, and the lady said the other driver wasn't sure whether he was going to report to his company or not. She suggested we wait to see if his company contacts us or not, or to contact him to see if he would be going through insurance (don't know if this is a good option since he didn't say a word to us the entire time, even though I made attempts to talk to him). Would you wait? How long should we wait?
My dilemma is that we are going to be switching from US car insurance to Canadian insurance. If we don't report this accident, and the insurance company doesn't find out, we'll be able to get coverage for about $2500/year (prior to this, he had one at-fault accident with no claim as he didn't have collision in 2000, and one speeding ticket for less than 45kph over in December 2004). If we do report, but don't file a claim, insurance jumps to $5000 per year, even though no claim is being made! What should we do? We need insurance, but can't afford $5000 per year. How can we do this without the insurance company finding out, so that we can get the cheaper insurance once we switch to Canadian insurance? Thanks.
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