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Car accident shenanigan?

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Lou337

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Florida, Miami-Dade County.

Hello, thank you for taking the time to read this thread.

I am 18 years old, have my driver's license (not restricted), and have car insurance with statefarm.

I got into an accident last wednesday with an old man. I was making a left at a light, the arrow to turn left was green, but I didn't notice that the old man had run his light. It was a slow accident. I was going maybe 5, him 15. I turned because it seemed like he was going to stop as all the other cars around him already did. I turned into his front, with minimal damage to the front of both cars, e.g. lights, hood, & front bumper. However, $1,000 each isn't very minimal to me. I already have my car back from the body shop fixed up, paid out of my own pocket. I have insurance for the old man, but not for me...so that's why I had to pay for it.

The old man at the accident was very friendly, sustained no injuries, and no blood from either one of us was spilt. His door wasn't even hit. His airbag went off and he said he felt some pain in his stomach. But after a few minutes at the accident it went away. He was nice. However, we think that when he got home his family convinced him to ask for damages.

Statefarm never took the photo of my car after the accident, but they have the old man's photos and there is minimal damage and shows no damage to his side door. The police & ambulance reports also say that there was no blood, injuries, and that it was a minor accident.

A letter from statefarm said that if his claim of $10,000 from his insurance company (also statefarm) wouldn't be delivered, then he may sue me for damages. The letter itself said that if that happens I should send them whatever he sends me and that they will take care of it because they believe the damage isn't enough for his "injuries."

(We don't know for sure if he is really hurting or not, but he was good and standing at the accident.)

My questions:

1) If he somehow dies or gets seriously ill enough to be in the hospital will I go to jail for his "internal" injuries sustained from the accident? (Of which, none are filed under the reports. The old man is going to his doctor in a few days to get a checkup.)

2) Will I have to pay anything besides the ticket (written for careless driving) and go to traffic school?

3) My parents also want to hire a lawyer to contest the ticket and traffic school.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)
 
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Lou337

Junior Member
yes, because I was supposed to wait for everything to be clear before turning. I assumed he would stop.
 

moburkes

Senior Member
What liability limits do you have? Please tell me that you have bodily injury because its smart to have...
 

bulrid8

Junior Member
Yes, He could have injuries. They can take hours to show up.

I don't think you will be arrested, no reason for it.

Find out what injury he is claiming.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
You will DEFINITELY not be arrested.

What was the point of impact on your car and his car? Though if you saw him coming, you should have made sure he was stopping before starting to turn, his running the red light was at least as much the cause of the accident, if not more!
 

moburkes

Senior Member
I know you edited your post, but in Florida, unless he purchased his policy between Oct (1st - I think) and Dec 31st, you aren't required to carry bodily injury. The law only requires prperty damage and PIP - unless you're involved in an at fault accident.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
Yeah I know I just mis-read his post, I thought he was totally uninsured.

Anyway FL has a high threshold for BI claims, so it probably won't be an issue. I'm still dubious about him being totally at fault though.
 

moburkes

Senior Member
Yeah I know I just mis-read his post, I thought he was totally uninsured.

Anyway FL has a high threshold for BI claims, so it probably won't be an issue. I'm still dubious about him being totally at fault though.
Proximate cause, though.

I haven't seen that to be true about a high threshold for BI claims. Interesting.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
It's like NJ, they require "serious and permanent injury" in order to claim non-economic damages, and medical bills are paid by PIP.
 

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