According to far too many auto insurance companies, claiming another driver ran you off the road is akin to you telling the company that you saw a ghost.
Although direct impact vehicle crashes take up most of the time of insurance adjusters, another type of vehicle accident case can tie up an insurance adjuster for days, if not weeks. It can also find its way to a civil courtroom where a judge must find out which party was at fault for a no contact vehicle accident.
No contact vehicle accidents typically unfold when one driver forces another driver to take an action the other driver would not ordinarily take. For example, a no contact accident occurs when a driver moves into another driver’s lane, which forces the other driver to take evasive action that can include driving into the median. Finding fault in a no contact accident often involves weighing the information provided by each driver.
In other words, it boils down to your word against the word of the other driver.
Dispute Fault in a Timely Manner
You can be found at fault for an auto accident when your insurer rejects a settlement claim. That is not the worst case scenario, since assigning fault to you can lead to you paying costly medical and auto repair bills. You can even lose money in a settlement that has received approval when a judge or an insurance adjuster discovers evidence that places at least some of the accident blame on your shoulders.
If you were involved in a no contact car accident, you need to file your insurance claim as soon as possible after the incident. Any time wasted can come back to hurt the credibility of your story that another driver ran you off the road or forced you to make a driving decision you would not have otherwise made.
There is the possibility that the other driver did not know what he or she did, which means it will be your account of the incident that represents the entire story.
Proving Negligence in a No Contact Accident Case
There is not another auto accident incident that relies more on witness accounts more than a no contact case. One or more witnesses can verify another driver ran you off the road or made you take an action that caused you to hit a third moving vehicle. The key is to interview witnesses right after a no contact accident occurred. The longer you wait to write down the accounts of witnesses, the more likely the witness accounts will contain a few holes.
Witness accounts are especially critical if the no contact accident forced you to swerve into another vehicle. Now, you might be accused of negligence, while the driver that caused the no contact accident is resting peacefully miles away at home.
Getting at least a partial license plate number, as well as detailed description of the offending vehicle, can provide you with the information required to involve the closest law enforcement agency. Auto insurance companies use police reports to justify how the decision was made on a no contact vehicle accident case.
It is important to know where you stand with an auto insurance claim before you formally submit the claim to your insurer and/or the other driver’s car insurance company. Participate in a free case evaluation today to determine the strength of your auto insurance claim.
