so I hit a little girl in March. I was driving down a street and she darted out from between two cars and I nailed her. Broke my windshield, dented my pass side front quarter panel and scratched my hood to hell. My car insurance company only paid to fix the windshield as I had a deductible for the other damage I had to satisfy so I never got it fixed. So today I open the mail and I'm getting sued "for injuries sustained in connection what a motor vehicle accident on 3/6/08." I don't know why I'm posting this, probably because I'm a little taken aback. The police didn't charge me with anything, in fact they let me go home. I had a valid DL, was driving within the posted speed limit and there were two witnesses to the accident that I have already contacted and would be more than willing to provide any statements/ personal appearences or whatever is necessary to determine liability. You guys should have seen it. I was going down a side street to get on to the main drag after work. It was about 6:15 pm on a warm sunny spring day. As I drove down this side street there are alot of houses close together with driveways in between. As I approached this one driveway there was a Ford F250 parked on the right hand side of the street in front of this one driveway, blocking my view. Just as my bumper passed the bumper of this truck this 11 year old girl comes whipping out of the driveway on a bike and I blasted her. She hit the pass side front quarter panel of the car, rolled up on the hood and went through the windshield. I stopped and got out and ran back and she was OK from what I could gather. No blood, still conscious and no visibly broken bones. The cops and the FD came, tended to the little girl and took her to the ER the cops questioned me and took statements and let me drive home. Now I'm being sued. For what I don't know. It totally wasn't my fault. There was no way that I could have seen her, she just wasn't paying attention and went into the street. My car is still fu@ked up.... hood still dented, quarter panel still dented and now rusted. I am so pissed off I am seriously contemplating filing my own civil suit for the damages to my vehicle that insurance didn't cover. I'm sorry to ramble and to vent but I'm pissed man. I am the one driving around the ratty looking car because this parent couldn't watch or teach her child to pay attention and IM the one getting sued? I don't want my car insurance company to settle anything because it was HER fault not mine and I don;t want to be a dick and sue this underpriveleged family, but Im wicked pissed. Sue ME for something that I couldn't control and not I am the one driving around with a messed up car? Whatever ......any advice ?

 

so let me get this straight. The little girl rode down the driveway and hit your right front quarter panel (the side of your car) the rolled over the handlebars onto the hood and smashed the windshield? How fast were you going? The Best thing to do is going to be to get a lawyer. Do that first tell him what happened, he will take care of it. If the Little girl did hit the side of your car I doubt they are going to have much of a case seeing as that would be her fault for hitting the side of your car.

Your details were a little drawn out and hard to understand so let me know if I am unerstanding this right lol

 

yep she came down the driveway and rolled in front of the truck on her bike as I passed the truck parked on the side of the road she blasted into the pass side quarter panel went up and over ....

 

If it happened exactly the way you said in the story there is no way they can win in court. If you're gonna counter sue, don't get greedy. Just ask them to pay for your legal fees (if any) and to leave you alone. You're gonna have to bite the bullet on the damage of your car, if you try to sue them for damages to your car then everyone is gonna think you're the bad guy.

 

^Yeah, don't counter-sue, especially if it's an underpriviledged family, and stay out of those neighborhoods...nothing but trouble on that side of the tracks.

 

And don't worry about venting, thats what we're here for. I'd do the same if it were me.

Best of luck with it. I'm usually grumbling how 'theres no justice in the justice system' but thats usually related to me getting pulled over for something when its the cops picking out anything they can, not for safety, but to provide revenue for these rinky dink towns.

I really hope in this case it goes like it should. This girl hit you. End of story, end of court case.

 

thats jacked up they did u wrong and now they gonna try to sue u, well i guess thats America

 

That totally blows.

Best of luck to you though!

Hopefully you'll get what you deserve.

 

I work in auto insurane claims - let me see if I can assist you.
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1. Your vehicle - only the windshield was covered? - Let me guess - no collision coverage - only glass breakage coverage? Bummer.
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2. Do you have liability coverage. If so - how much?

This type of incident is precisly why you need liability insurance - even if it isn't your fault, you insurance company will hire their house counsel to defend you (up to your policy limits)(that's part of the insurance contract).

The plaintiff's attorney can made all kinds of claims against you - speeding, innattention, etc. Lets say her claim, at full value, including all the medical expenses, is worth $35,000 (and I'm being conservative here). If they find you only 10% at fault - that's $3,500.

Assuming you have liability coverage, you need to have your insurance company get involved right away so that they can defend you.

If you don't have liability insurance - why are you driving?

 

Like said before, she hit your side so there is no way in hell that YOU could of hit her. Honestly i would contact a lawyer if they actually want to sue you. I would try to contact them and tell them again how its not your fault and if they did try to sue you, they would lose and you would counter sue them for the damage to your car. This just bugs me because also like said, this is America, everyone tries to make a buck of their own stupidity if they can.

So again about this, atleast no one got hurt, but this sueing issue is just nuts