[SWM]

So truth be told despite the title of the thread I felt kinda bad for this guy, but anyways... So I'm on the way home from my grandparents this afternoon in Gallatin. I had been helping them move some furniture. I'm going down Highway 109 at about 50mph or so nothing crazy. There is a big bridge going across the lake and the bridge kinda arches up so you cant see the other side of it until you are almost to the middle. So i'm cruising along and start to go over the bridge, there is a ford taurus in front of me but they are 2 or 3 seconds ahead so I'm nowhere near tailgating well as I see him go over the top of the bridge i see his brake lights come on, no big deal so I start slowing down a little. Well as I get closer to the top of the bridge I see the very top of a tractor trailer rig on the other side so im thinking what the heck so i start slowing down more then right as I round the top of the bridge I see the Taurus completely stopped 20ft in front of me so I lock up my breaks and tried scooting over a little but there is a 75ft drop off on one side and oncoming traffic in the other lane so I dont have many options. I slid right into him kinda hard but not hard enough to set off my airbags then he slides into an older chevy pickup. So I get out and walk up and the guy in the taurus was like a 30yo ish mexican and the other guy is like a 50 year old guy. So i get out expecting the dude in the taurus to be pissed as hell but he suprisingly wasnt because he said there wasnt too much i could do to avoid hitting him. So we were all good nobody hurt. But on my truck it dented in the top part of the bumper a little and bent in the bottom left where my tow hook went through his bumper but nothing major basically the bumper needs to be replaced and that should be it. His trunk lid got smashed and flew open and the rear part of his car was all mashed up and where he hit the guy infront of him the guys bumper cruched up the taurus's hood and kinda messed up the radiator. all that happened to the front truck was his bumper bent slightly but he didnt care really. But so i start talking to both of them and asked if either had called the cops yet. well when I did that the mexican was like no no no my friend we dont need to do that. so i was like why man cuz you gotta anytime you get in a wreck? and he was like no please dont my friend I dont have a license. So i asked if he was illegal and he didnt speak much english so he didnt understand but i said do you live here and he was like oh yes i do. So im not too sure on if he was legal or illegal. But anyways somebody else called the cops so they show up and we pull off the bridge, luckily his car started. and then we went through all the normal wreck stuff no big deal but im not really sure what happened to the guy because the state trooper told me and the other guy we could leave after giving us the paper work but he started talking to the mexican guy as we were pulling off. So wether he was illegal or not I still felt bad for the guy because I think no matter what he was going to be getting in some trouble. He was really nice too which made me feel even worse about the whole situation but owell i guess.

So the trooper didnt say anything to me about it, but i know its always your fault when you rearend somebody, however do you all think I will still be held responsible to pay for his damages since he didnt have a drivers license?

 

[SaintsTheMetal]

Yes, similar thing happened to me. I hit an illegal mexican here in Cali, no drivers license didn't speak a lick of english. female. slammed on breaks randomly on high way in heavy rain heavy traffic. i barely rear end her someone else calls cops. she gets cited and stuff for no license i still cover everything and 100% at fault on insurance license or no license doesn't matter

 

[dazedasp]

Dam. As nice as he was, if he's illegal, hes trespassing, and what do you do to trespassers..He probly got deported if he didn't have a green card. Maybe this is the same scenario as if you hit a drunk driver even if it's your fault, the drunk driver is at fault.. I guess you'll hafta wait an see. If he doesn't have insurance then you'll just hafta go through your insurance. Forget callin the cops, some dude without a liscence gets out of the car and doesnt really speak english, border patrol is the first person I call, then you make sure he stays put until they get there. Hope everything works out well for ya.

 

[SWM]

Yea well if he is illegal then he is on a plane or bus on his way back to mexico as we speak lol which at least then I guess I wouldnt have to worry about him making a claim. But he told me he had insurance but that he just didnt have a drivers license so im not sure if it was a family members car or what. But needless to say if he does make a claim I'm probably going to get a big jump in the cost of my insurance and its already alot since im younger but owell I guess. I was kinda hoping they would put him at fault because he isnt a licensed driver and might not know how to drive lol but i am doubting that will be the case. However I didnt get either of the drivers names but on the report the cop wrote just one of their names down and it was Sebastian. I may be wrong but that doesnt sound like a very mexican name so either that was him or the cop just wrote the other guys name that was in the truck and had a little talk with the mexican guy after or something. I dont know lol

 

[dazedasp]

I would call a lawyer an discuss it with him. I too am younger and a small little thing like this plus a speeding ticket is why my insurance is 500+ a month. I think when it comes down to it though, your insurance company is going to see that you ran into him and just blame you. Depending on how much of a hike they give you, consider raising your deductible to lower the monthly cost, I wouldnt exceed 1k though jus to be safe. Too bad he hadta bump into the other guy, then maybe you couldve avoided the cops and just cruised away, then had your dad tell the insurance company he hit something and gone that route. If you really wanted a good laugh you coulda then followed the mexican a few miles and then called border patrol on him haha. Did the cop give you an actual citation, something like failure to control speed or something like that?

 

[TitanBlue]

The greatest benefit of insurance is that it covers your Lawyer. They provide that for you. Talk with your Agent about all of this, and you'll get far better advise, and in light of your particular policy and jurisdiction. The information on the other drivers will likely be contained in the completed Police report, which here, is available for $5, a few days later.

If the Hispanic Driver is Illegal, there may be no claim ever filed for his vehicle, so only your vehicle would be claimed. The Chevy would likely not claim against you, but then again, there was no impact until you started the chain reaction.

I was hit by a driver once, who was not insured or something. My Insurance company finally finished the Claim against him in court 5 years after the accident. He is now liable for a period of 12 years to repay the losses, which my insurance company does not expect to ever see. So, his accident follows him, legally speaking, for 17 years! But, he was in Leg Irons and an Orange suit last time, so he has greater issues...could be the time I read in the paper where he was shooting at cars and people from his bedroom window...

 

[PSNissanFleetMgr]

First of all, learn where the Return key is on your keyboard and use it. It's nearly impossible to read when it's one huge run-on sentence/paragraph.

Second, why are you smiling at the fact that you destroyed someone else's car? That's not cool at all man. And, for you to ASSUME that the Hispanic driver was an illegal alien is wrong too.

Oh well, I guess not everyone can be open-minded, huh?

 

[SWM]

I know sorry i didnt break it into paragraphs. And if you read the whole thing I said despite the title I actually felt bad about it.

Also I said I wasnt sure if he was illegal or not because he didnt speak hardly any english and didnt have a drivers license I never assumed he was for sure.

But anyways I got a call from the state trooper this morning and he actually thanked me for hitting the guy in the taurus lol because he said the guy had his license revoked due to too many DUI's and I believe he had also skipped court or something so he said even though it was my fault and all he was glad that I hit him. So i'm not sure if he will make a claim on the car then or not.

My dad and I also just got back in from checking out my truck and basically all that need to be replaced is the whole front bumper including the plastic left side cover piece and the front skid plate and I believe that is it. So right now I am in the dillema of wether I should just not make an insurance claim and pay for all the damage to my truck myself, pay the $500 deductible for insurance, OR buy an IronBull front bumper lol. I really like the sounds of the IronBull bumper but im thinking that will probably be close to double the cost of the oem bumper. If however everything for the oem bumper is close to the same price as the ironbull i would definately go with the iron bull.

 

[a4bry4]

Sorry to hear about the accident, and I'm glad to hear that nobody was seriously injured.

This reminded me of an accident I was in three years ago on northbound
HWY 101 at the Marin/Sonoma county line. The non-english speaking, no license, and no insurance driver of the Explorer lost control, flipped her SUV, and while she was airborne, tagged the back of my friend's Jeep.

The only one that I felt bad for was the woman's little girl who was freaked out after her mom flipped the SUV.