Great advice!

I think another reason NOT to get out of your car is so you don't FREAK OUT on the other person! There was a time that I can remember where I got hit by somebody, and I immediately got out of the car fuming with anger!

That's never a good situation. Sit in your car; collect your thoughts; make sure you're not going to do anything stupid!

Good post.

http://www.financialnut.com

I was in an accident last week and my car was totalled. I had a 2009 Nissan Versa.  My insurance company said that because I had really good insurance, my car was under a year old, and some other rider policy that I didn't know about, they were going to replace my car.  I was shocked!  The dealership where I bought my car last year said they had one waiting for me.  I now am justing waiting on the insurance company and the finance company, Nissan, to work something out.  I never heard of getting a car replaced because of how old or a rider policy. Anyone else have experience with that?

Last year, my husband was cut off by a semi and rear ended a van. Two people stopped and told the officer what had happened but it was his fault. The woman that he rear ended denied medical help 3 times. She needed a new bumper at the very least. Our car was totaled. My husband even called the woman and checked on her and then apologized to the husband. It was a slow speed crash because the air bags didn't deploy. But in the end, she sued us and it got nasty. Our insurance company was wonderful and it worked itself out. But it was scary none the less. In the end it was all his fault, he never denied it, but it's scary what can happen for a small mistake. If anything good came out of it, our 16yr old daughter saw what could happen and hopefully learned from it. And my husband totaled our daughter's car, what are the odds of that? I think it is supposed to be the other way around!

Great article!

amommoneyandmore.blogspot.com

Another piece of information you need to get is the VIN number of the vehicle. I got rear ended in July. The guy gave me a false name, false insurance information and the tag number I got turned out to be expired and not belonging to the car that hit me. (Should have asked for his drivers license and insurance card instead of relying on him to give me the information.) After months of trying to contact the guy, both me and my insurance company, my insurance company (Allstate), changed the claim to an uninsured motorist claim, saving me $250 on the deductible. So, get that VIN!

Or in my case my Dad owns a towing company ergo I call him first let him freak out assess the damage call the insurance company and almost have my car towed by another towing company. True story happend to my sister in 2002

You need to have he police file a report.  After an accident you can't trust that you will e level headed enough to get all of the information needed for all of the correct documents.  That's the police's job.  The police report also makes the claim more legitimate for the insurance company.  I've had the mistake of taking the other driver's info myself and found the hard way that I didn't get everything I needed.  The next accident I got into, many years later, I made sure to get a police report and it ended up savings me from paying out the deductible!

freefrombroke.com/.../not-having-the-police-at-a-car-accident-can-cost-you.html

What do you do when the police won't give you the other operators information ?

Accident on 12/03/08  was going thru a green light in travel lane of a four lane non-divided highway, other operator was taking a left turn in massachusetts, I hit the brakes, unfortunately made contact with the other car ont he passengrs side

killed the headlight assembly and windshield of my car, airbags did not deploy,

asked officer to let me write down other operators information, was told to come to the station and obtain copy of report, went next morning, report costs 5.00 paid them they could not find it, said they would mail it to me, month later no report.

called police dept, gave them date of incident and time, I WAS NOT LISTED AS A VEHICLE INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT !!!  the officer had F**Ked up the report, and my insurance copmany does not believe that an accident happened at all

so in response to get all info  HOW DO YOU WHEN THE POLICE WON'T LET YOU COLLECT IT ????????????????

I don't necessarily agree with everything in this article.

1. DON'T GIVE ANYONE BUT THIS POLICE YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE INFO.

   with identity theft being as widespread as it is your setting yourself up for the     possibity of being a victim of that.

2. If you aren't injured please check to make sure the other party is ok.

Sometimes it make the difference between someone's life or death.

Most witnesses or passersby don't stop.

I witnessed an accident a few days ago, a 3 car pileup behind me.

No one checked on one woman that was hit, never even spoke to her.

I thought that was terrible, especially since I noticed after she was hit she sat in her car not moving at all.

I safely parked my car and went over to her to make sure that she was ok.

I did check on the others in the accident and they were fine.

The girl that hit her was screaming crying (she was upset) for the entire hour it took the police to arrive. The guy that hit the crying girl was trying to blame everyone else

(including me) for the accident when he was the one tailing at about 35mph

I'm constantly amazed at some people's attitude.

One thing that should be added is that Insurance Companies tend to steer you to repair shops where they have arranged relationships. Where that may seem like a good idea, remember you own your car and no one, not the insurance company, not the tower or the police can make you take it anywhere you dont want. Choose your repair shop wisely and stay away from places that do not have the correct equipment to repair your car. If your car is totaled and towed, you have a duty to make a realease on the car in order to mitigate your loss otherwise the insurance company can deduct excess storage from your settlement. Your rental car is only available for reasonable days ie: 40 hours of repair equate to about 10 days rental (4 hours per day). Going to the dealer doesnt guarantee you a better repair nor a quicker one. Dont accept the first settlement offer from your adjuster. Ask to see the evaluation and make certain that all the options on your vehicle are included. It is common for a car to be miscatalogued ie: Corolla CE vs. Corolla LE and so on.......

Also beware of "ambulance chasers".  You're likely to get bombarded with calls from  chiropractors wanting you to come in to get looked at for a "free" consultation. Accidents are public information and they line up to buy lists of accident information  from the courthouse.  Stay away from them, go see a real doctor to get on the right course of treatment.  All too often chiropractors see you as their meal ticket and will try to eat up your policy limits without putting your best interests first.  Excessive or the wront type of treatment causes everyones rates to go up.