Quote:
Originally Posted by
FRANKRIZZO
Drove son to work last week. All of a sudden while drinking water I bumped car ahead of me. Guy pops out of car and immediately asks how I want to take care of it. Eyes were blood shot red. He tells me if I want to take care of it out of pocket without involving police. His car had no damage very light tap. I even asked him if he was trying to extort me. He said no. Any insurance matter is 500 for the deductable . I was almost going to offer him couple of hundro but then changed my mind and told him to meet across the street so we could contact police and exchange info. He looks at back end again and says forget about it. It was defo my fault there just wasn't any damage. I would have given him 2 or 300 if he had damage.
Yup, probably a drug addict or drunk. Good that you decided not to give him anything.
If there is no damage, he would have a hard time getting anything via your insurance anyway. Over the almost 35 years I've been driving, I've had a few incidents where I "tapped" a car and either caused no damage or minimal damage. In the no damage situations, everyone has always been nice about it and we just left.
When I was 16, I had a really stiff neck one day and couldn't turn my head well while driving, and low-speed rear-ended a pickup truck ahead of me. A young woman got out and berated me about it, telling me it was a "new car" and how I ruined it. We exchanged info, and I went home. After my dad yelled at me for driving with my neck in that condition, he called up the woman, and she had calmed down a lot by then. There was no dent but the bumper was knocked a bit crooked, and apparently the dealer said they would put it back in place for $75. So my dad sent her $75 and that was that. I was very relieved.
Much more recently, I'd say maybe 4 years ago, I rear-ended a car without even realizing it, when making a left turn at a light. I thought I stopped in time because I didn't feel any "bump", but the car then got behind me and flashed its lights, so I knew I probably must have hit it. I pulled into a gas station, and this time the 16-year-old boy was the other driver, while I was the adult in the situation. I told him I was sorry that I kept driving, and honestly didn't think I hit him. He showed me some moderate damage to the bumper. My car had no damage, but I believed it was from me, as it was exactly in the spot where I would have hit it. The kid nervously called his dad, and got yelled at for not being careful enough, etc. Felt very bad for him because it wasn't his fault at all, but his dad didn't really believe him. I asked if he would let me talk to his dad, and he said yes, and handed me the phone. First thing I told the dad was that the entire thing was my fault, and his son didn't do anything wrong. I then said that I would like to pay for the damage out of pocket rather than go through insurance, since it was likely to be about what my deductible would be anyway. The dad agreed and said he'd get back to me. The kid thanked me for telling his dad it wasn't his fault. I expected to be out something like $500-$750, and hoping it wasn't worse. The dad called me 2 days later and said he had a "cheap body shop" which could fix it for $250. Was thrilled to hear this, so I sent the dude a check right away and it was done.