MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: My son got into his first fender bender. Ugh.

> I showed up, and the other car had a dent, our car had all the damage. The other
> driver was also a kid, and his Dad called the cops, thinking my son was at fault.
>
> I polished up the dent, and pointed out the paint is perfect... I could fix his
> damages with a toilet plunger.
>
> Nothin' doing... waiting for the cops.
>
> Well, if you don't want me fixing it, let me pay for the damages... it will be
> cheaper for all of us, being that they are both teenagers, our rates will go up well
> beyond the value of that simple dent.
>
> Nothin' doing... waiting for the cops.
>
> Ok, $500, way more than the cost to bump out one dent. Think this through... think
> about your insurance rates.
>
> Nothin' doing... waiting for the cops.
>
> Plus, it looks liek your kid has got him two underage passangers, and the law is
> maximum one underage passanger... my kid may get a ticket but so is your kid.
>
> $500 you said? Deal.
>
> I knew we could work this out.
>
>
>
> My son now owes me $500... and I know just how he can earn that money.

The cops were actually going to come for something so minor? Around here they generally have a "no blood, no foul" policy.

I've been pretty lucky so far (knock wood), my only insurance-involved incident was in a moving van. Creeping down a street in a college neighborhood on move-in day, with cars and trucks trucks double parked on both sides, I misjudged a van and creased the entire side of it with my truck's box. Even worse, I had heard my mirror hit the upper part of the van, but didn't realize anything else had happened. I stopped and got out, saw no damage where my mirror had hit and saw no one around the van to talk to, so I got back in my truck to leave. Before I was able to get back into traffic, the woman who owned the van ran out and flagged me down. She was moderately pissed off, but actually pretty reasonable considering I had almost committed a hit and run.

The rental insurance was worth every penny. I had to describe the incident about a half dozen times to various people, but that was literally it. It never cost me anything, and didn't affect my actual insurance at all.