My girlfriend, my 3 month old and myself were struck from behind by an 88 year old driver in rush hour on the expressway leaving downtown Chicago. Driver hit us from behind and appears foot was still on the gas because then continued grinding down the side of our car until they were in front of us. They then attempted to take off but due to the damage of their left wheel they made it out into the expressway a couple hundred feet before stopping. They then got out of the car looked at the front and took off again but ended up smashing in center median.
State police came and collected our information. Wrote report stating other drive was cause of accident for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and following too closely but did not issue them a citation as far as accident report shows. At the scene the other cars passenger took pictures of both vehicles but I was too dazed and shaken to get out especially with new baby in the back seat on side the vehicle was struck.
I asked the officer what happened and we thought maybe driver was having medical issue and girlfriend is a nurse and could help. He said no, he just crashed because he's old. It took me about 3 weeks to get accident report from State Police. In the mean time State Farm paid off my car and sent me a check from tax, title, license and small difference between value and what was owed but kept my $1000 deductible until the ruled who was at fault.
When I get the report I see it says "amended". Driver's initial statement said I swerved in front of him and thats how he hit me. We were traveling in the left lane for many minutes when we got hit and had no intention to move to the middle lane any time soon because we were not exiting for 10 miles. The amendment was that the driver called the police 3 days later to change his story to that he was hit from behind and thats why they hit me. Trooper noted under the amendment that there was no visible damage to the rear of drivers vehicle.
State Farm now says they received pictures taken at the auto body shop weeks later that support the story that they were struck from behind. Obviously they could have done anything to the car during that time or known the person at the auto body shop since you can take to whatever body shop you want as long as they are State Farm approved.
State Farm now says they are not returning my deductible and its a claim against my policy because it was a "phantom" unknown vehicle that caused the accident. They said I would have to prove that they were not struck to get my money back. They said the police report being amended was proof. All it was, was the drivers amended statement, the state trooper made no changes to the cause of the accident.
Seems that State Farm is acting in bad faith so they can keep both drivers deductibles. Thoughts?
State police came and collected our information. Wrote report stating other drive was cause of accident for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and following too closely but did not issue them a citation as far as accident report shows. At the scene the other cars passenger took pictures of both vehicles but I was too dazed and shaken to get out especially with new baby in the back seat on side the vehicle was struck.
I asked the officer what happened and we thought maybe driver was having medical issue and girlfriend is a nurse and could help. He said no, he just crashed because he's old. It took me about 3 weeks to get accident report from State Police. In the mean time State Farm paid off my car and sent me a check from tax, title, license and small difference between value and what was owed but kept my $1000 deductible until the ruled who was at fault.
When I get the report I see it says "amended". Driver's initial statement said I swerved in front of him and thats how he hit me. We were traveling in the left lane for many minutes when we got hit and had no intention to move to the middle lane any time soon because we were not exiting for 10 miles. The amendment was that the driver called the police 3 days later to change his story to that he was hit from behind and thats why they hit me. Trooper noted under the amendment that there was no visible damage to the rear of drivers vehicle.
State Farm now says they received pictures taken at the auto body shop weeks later that support the story that they were struck from behind. Obviously they could have done anything to the car during that time or known the person at the auto body shop since you can take to whatever body shop you want as long as they are State Farm approved.
State Farm now says they are not returning my deductible and its a claim against my policy because it was a "phantom" unknown vehicle that caused the accident. They said I would have to prove that they were not struck to get my money back. They said the police report being amended was proof. All it was, was the drivers amended statement, the state trooper made no changes to the cause of the accident.
Seems that State Farm is acting in bad faith so they can keep both drivers deductibles. Thoughts?
