need help! insurance! accident! florida no fault?

[Jonno06]

hey, its my bday, and it sucks butt.

speed limit=40. i was driving 45.

i was just driving south in the left lane on a 4 lane road with a turn lane in the middle. an elderly man in a late-model mazda truck pulls out infront of me to turn into the northbound lanes, but stops with the front half of his truck in my lane. i slam the brakes on my 2000 honda civic ex, and i slid about 35 feet and slam into his driver side fender. we both pull into the nearby parking lot. cops/firefighters/paramedics show up about 1 minute later. the elderly man happens to have a suspended liscense and an out-of-date temp. insurance card. i dont have proof of insurance because i just cancelled the policy on my other car, and was told i have 30 days to switch it to the new car(so i got a 70$ ticket). the cop writes up the report, and gives the man a citation for the accident. They said it was his fault, but she also told me to slow down because "my skid marks were too long to be going 45", which is bs.

anyway, my hood is fubar'd, my driver side fan is broker, radiator is bent, bumper support is bent, and im pretty sure the frame is bent.


my question is....because its florida no fault, does that mean that I have to pay to fix my own car, or will his insurance do it? the cop gave me a card with his number and case number and stuff, so ill call tomorrow to see if i can get a copy of the report. just looking for some info to see what i should do. thanks.

[maxama10]

sorry dude old people just should stay off the road including my grand pa but hey what can ya do... and i really dont know anything about fl driving laws etc.. sorry

[bornl33t]

if he got cited he's at fault. Assuming he has an inshurance company they will have to pay for it. The 70$ ticket will be droped if you have proof of inshurance and can show this is court. The way to prove this is to call your inshurance company and have them sent you a signed statement that basicly says you were covered at the time of the accident. You'll get off scotts free if he has an inshurance company, if not you'll have to pay the deductible on your old policy to have your car fixed, generally it's 500$.

btw, 35ft skids on ANY honda is WAY more then 35mph. I did a 35mph skid in a 92 mustang convertable (heavier car=longer skids) and my skids were less then 11ft. But that's beside the point. I hope it works out for you.

[PyRo]

Their are a million and three factors that could effect how long skid marks are. That wouldn't hold up in court for a minute unless they actually did the research to determine what your speed was.

[billybob_81067]

anyway, my hood is fubar'd, my driver side fan is broker, radiator is bent, bumper support is bent, and im pretty sure the frame is bent.


I'm pretty sure you don't even have a frame on a 2000 honda... it should be a unibody car in which the body basically is the frame and support system...

LOL some kid in my shop class pulled out in front of another car in his 2000ish saturn and it got all screwed up and to get it straightened out we took a chain and tied the car to a pipe cemented in the ground in the parking lot and tied another chain to the car in a different spot and then hooked it up to my powerstroke... Put it in 4LO and started pulling, but my tires were slipping on the asphalt, so I backed it off a little bit and then hit it again and it lifted the car up off the ground :p It did straighten it though!

:D Good times, good times....

[Jonno06]

well, im not sure how long my skid marks actually were, the cop estimated so im going with that number.


im going to see if i can get a copy of the report today, and get 3 estimates in the next few days so i can call the guy and see if he wants to pay for it himself, or if i should contact his insurance. so yea, he had insurance(actually, he had an expired temp. insurance card, but i guess the looked it up and he had it).

[Lohman446]

i just cancelled the policy on my other car, and was told i have 30 days to switch it to the new car(so i got a 70$ ticket).

Going by MI no fault (which sucks): You're insurance company is responsible for the damage to your vehicle, fault in the accident does not matter (hence no-fault). Your insurance coverage, covers you. Unfortunately it sounds like you had NO insurance as you had cancelled your policy rather than just switching it over to your new vehicle. In MI what that means is that your insurance is valid on your new car until you switch it over (30 days). It does not mean that you can cancel your insurance, avoid paying for 30 days, and still be insured.