Just Had My First Car Accident and I Don't Know what to Do!

[lizsf89]

Hello everyone I am new here and I had my first car accident. I was driving northbound down a main street which is shaped like a T. There was a lot of traffic and the light was green for the left turn lane and I merged into the center turn lane to cut traffic. Another driver coming west managed to squeeze through traffic and by the time I saw her I stepped on my brakes. I thought everything was ok because I stopped a few feet in front of her but since she was distracted, looking at the opposite direction trying to merge southbound, by the time she saw me it was too late and hit the left side of my front bumper. She said it was my fault, I said it was hers. Her insurance gave us 70/30 fault, 70 for her, 30 for me. I was ok with it until I found out that my insurance felt that she is 100% of fault. I also found out she managed to get a phony "witness" to say that I was the one distracted when this happened. Anyways when I talked to her insurance, I agreed with taking 30% fault. Now I want to see if I can fight it so that she gets 100% fault because that is what my insurance believes it should be. Can I change my mind or is my recorded agreement binding and final in this case? By the way this happened in California. I will also like to know if this will go on my driving record. I tried uploading a picture but since I am new, it wont let me post it. But here is the url, it wouldn't let me post it so I did a space between the http and : Erase it to acess the photo

< http ://i828.photobucket.com/albums/zz204/eli_m_ramirez/Accident.jpg >

 

[djs]

For the most part, you are in CA, you don't care what the fault percentage is, since anything under 51% doesn't impact your rates.

The car gets fixed.

All is good.

Don't lose sleep over it.

According to the diagram, you shouldn't have been where you were, which gives you at least partial fault. The reason the lanes are marked the way they are is because of this very issue, it poses a risk to someone making an otherwise legal left turn. Yes, she shouldn't have hit you but you shouldn't have been there.

70/30 seems right to me, but again, its CA, so normally you get either 100, 51, 50, 49 or 0 percent. Its not often I see 70/30. The only issue this could/should make to you is if you have a $500 deductible, you might end up paying 30% of your deductible since the recovery will likely only be 70%.

Dan

 

[USF3983]

I'm not licensed in California, but it seems like it is comparative negligence like it is here in Florida.

It appears California has low liability requirement like we do. 15/30/5. Ours is 10/20/10.

The $5,000 property damage liability seems scary low though.

Here's where that split fault can hurt you in the future. I'll use an extreme example to put it into perspective.

Say that lady was driving a Lamborghini and they find you 49% at-fault and all you have is $5,000 in property damage liability. You might end up being responsible for 49% of say $20,000 in Lamborghini damages. That would be $9,800. Your policy pays $5,000 and you are on the hook for $4,800.

That's an example of how a not at-fault can end up being not so good. But that's an extreme example and maybe you have higher than state minimums.

 

[TreatIns]

For the most part, you are in CA, you don't care what the fault percentage is, since anything under 51% doesn't impact your rates.

The car gets fixed.

All is good.

Don't lose sleep over it.

According to the diagram, you shouldn't have been where you were, which gives you at least partial fault. The reason the lanes are marked the way they are is because of this very issue, it poses a risk to someone making an otherwise legal left turn. Yes, she shouldn't have hit you but you shouldn't have been there.

70/30 seems right to me, but again, its CA, so normally you get either 100, 51, 50, 49 or 0 percent. Its not often I see 70/30. The only issue this could/should make to you is if you have a $500 deductible, you might end up paying 30% of your deductible since the recovery will likely only be 70%.

Dan

x2. Don't lose sleep. You should just have to pay 30% of your deductible.

 

[ZakaryCyrus]

Hey you should go for insurance. if he is peying for it then its better.