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Car Accident with different accounts from both parties

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gjhansen

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin

Hi all, I am a first time user and I'm hoping to get some good advice on how to proceed on this issue. Thank you to everyone who is willing to help.

About a month ago I was driving to work on a street that I drive daily. While driving a woman pulled out from her parking spot into the passenger side of my car. Luckily no one was hurt, I was going 30-32mph and she was from a stop so not exactly a jarring impact. The police declined to come out because there were no injuries on the scene. We were both very courteous and exchanged information as well as took pictures. We both have the same insurance company and I believe this is where the main injustice has occurred for me. I go through the proper steps with the insurance company (mind you I am 31 yrs old and have never been in an accident before so it was very much a learning process for me). Last week when they finally made their decision they informed me that the woman claimed that she was in the process of backing into her driveway and I swerved into her car. Because there were no witnesses (unfortunately) they say that they cannot prove who is at fault in the situation. *I will provide a detailed description of the scene and scenario after I finish the summation*.

She was driving a huge work van (2006 ford econoline extended) with full coverage and I am driving my winter car (1986 pontiac firebird, though not mint it is in decent shape and has low miles) with liability.

The pictures show that my damage occurred on the passenger side of my vehicle behind the front wheel and into my door, no front end damage. Her damage was only on the side of her van, no front end. The picture that I provided show all of this.

Because the companies inability to show fault, they said that we would use our own individual insurances to cover our respective damage. The 3 people that I've talked to so far have all said that "my story sounds much more reasonable" or something along those lines and one of them even told me how they had been talking about it in the office and everyone agreed. The way I see it, where they might have agreed that my scenario is more logical, by leaving it up to our own insurance policies to repair our own vehicles, their company would only be on the hook to pay for one vehicles repair (hers) while I am left to repair mine out of pocket due to my liability insurance.

I see this as the company failing to act in the interest of their clients. They are not doing a full investigation into the matter and seem to have just brushed it off. I am still waiting for a call back from their manager. As a consumer of a product that is supposed to protect you in the event of an accident, I am feeling very betrayed.

The details:

Weather and road conditions: clear-slightly overcast, sunny, unseasonable warm 45°F, dry, no snow anywhere. Very light traffic.

Time approx 7:30 AM

Her vehicle: 2006 ford econoline e350 van 19.3 ft long, 6.5 ft wide


My vehicle: 1986 pontiac firebird 15.6 feet, 6 ft wide


For this next section, I had one of my employees (off the clock of course, and because she is a math major with a focus on mathematical modeling) draw me up a few diagrams on her computer to illustrate my scenario.

The street is approximately 23 ft wide.

Basically with the size of her vehicle, if she was backing into her driveway she already would have been a minimum of 2.3 ft into her driveway due to the distance between each diaganol point (20.7ft). This gives my vehicle the 6ft of width as well as 1 ft of room from the curb (because supposedly I "swerved" into her and I am being generous because I never reported any damage on the passenger side of my car because I never hit the curb). This leaves 16ft left of the road. Her vehicle also has a 48ft turning radius, which indicates that she would have needed to be utilizing both lanes of traffic (both the driving and parking lane) for a backing maneuver into her driveway.

My pictures clearly indicate that all of the damage was to the sides of our vehicles. Had she been backing up, and I swerved into her, as she claims, there would have been damage to the front of her car. One indication to this is the design of her bumper, it starts on the side of the vehicle for about 8-10 inches, has a 45° angle for another 8-10 inches, then does another 45° angle to go across the front. There is absolutely no damage to the middle (side to front) 45° angle stretch. Only on the side of her vehicle the initial part of the bumper (the entire bumper, only on the side of her vehicle, is dented), again no damage to the front but on the side of both of our cars.
Because the damage on my car was so far back (4.5 ft from the front corner), and her is only on the side of he vehicle, this tells me that I would have needed to slide nearly parallel into her to create this damage. Indicating that my car would have been careening out of control.

Another aspect of the situation is the human nature, when someone is in an accident their first instinct is to stop. had she been backing into her driveway, and already partially in, why after I "hit her" would she have pulled back out from her driveway into the street, pulled over to the curb and neatly reparked on the street. Admittedly, no one knows how they will react to the situation until it happens, but the simplest course of action would not be a maneuver like that when she was already partially in her driveway.

My story stays the same that she pulled out into the side of me. I believe that my story is obvious and my pictures and evidence prove it. Everything that I have been reading online basically states that a driver who is parking must do so with due regard for all other traffic in driving lanes.

The lack of a witness to the incident as well as having no police report definitely do not help, unfortunately.

Basically I'm wondering what a good course of action would be for this. Can I get insurance to overturn their decision, take her to small claims court, Sue the insurance company for lack of due diligence and basically just screwing me over? I have never been in a position like this and I don't know if I should get legal assistance or not.

I know this is long-winded but I just wanted to present all the facts for well informed opinions. Again, I thank everyone for taking the time to read this and for any opinions offered.
 
Last edited by a moderator:


HighwayMan

Super Secret Senior Member
You chose to have no coverage on your vehicle above and beyond basic liability. I can't see how your insurance company "screwed you over".
 

adjusterjack

Senior Member
Sorry, but I had to stop reading about half way through. It's just way too long.

I do, however, agree, that your version of things is more likely but your insurance company is doing nothing wrong when there are two conflicting stories and no independent witnesses.

Your option is to sue her in small claims court for your damage and convince a judge that she is at fault.
 

quincy

Senior Member
As a note: FreeAdvice values the privacy of posters and encourages anonymity, which is why personal identifying information should be left out of postings. Documents, photos, and links to the same are not allowed for your protection and for the protection of those who are involved in your legal action.
 

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