This morning when I backed out of my drive way, my car and the neighbor's collided. What happened, in my impression, was that I finished backing out, stopped looking backwards, turned to look forward and to my left, so I can turn left and drive out of the street. Then I heard a honk, and almost simultaneously, I heard the sound of cars scraping, and saw my next door neighbor (their house is on my right-hand side) driving into his driveway. His car was not on the street when I was pulling out, so I thought he must have justed came into the street and tried to drive through from behind me into his drive way. My child carpools with other children to go to school, and, with a moment of senility, I decided to go drop her off at her carpool place first and then come back to deal with the accident. I lowered my window and said so to the neighbor, and he nodded OK. Neither of us got out of the car at this point. I can see that his car has a long scratch mark from the rear left to the rear left car door.
I came back about 15 minutes later. The neighbor came over with his driver license and insurance certificate. To my surprise, he said that (insted of driving back into his driveway, as I believed he was doing), he had been sitting in the street all along when I was backing out, waiting to turn left and take his daughter to school, when he saw that I was backing rapidly into him, so he honked and quickly pulled forward to drive back into his driveway, otherwise I would have hit his car worse, said he.
I did not call him a liar, but we live in a cul-de-sac. I always back my car straight into the diameter of the imaginary circle, before I turn forward and left to go. It is a pretty long way to back out, and I always look through the glass at the back of my car while doing so (who wouldn't when you have a streetful of neighbors and kids). If he had been sitting in the street when I backed out, I would have seen when I walked into the garage, or seen him pulling out parallel to me but a little ahead, or at the very least, see him through the back window. But I did not see his car at all. So to me the only possibility was that he was in fact driving into his driveway from outside, and decided to quickly go through from behind me instead of waiting for me to finish my turn. He asked if he could tell insurance company about the accident the way he told me ("we have to be consistent, right?), I said "you should tell whatever happened."
I have deal with this guy before. He is one of the very few people I have met in America that habitually lies, with or without a cause. Knowing him, I regret that I did not stop right after the accident, call the police and get the facts straight. But as I did not, by the evening my insurance company called me, they sounded like they were already assuming it's my fault.
The damage to my car is a big dent to my rear right bumper. It is not expensive to repair (about $1,000), but of course I have the deductible and the premium increase to deal with if I am found at fault.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should go about presenting my case to my insurance company that this could not have been my fault, at least not entirely? I did not take any pictures or have witnesses, and the insurance company is not sending anyone to my house (I am going in for an inspection). I can take a picture of the street and go to explain it with a diagram, but I would love to hear anyone's experience or suggestions.
Thank you.
I came back about 15 minutes later. The neighbor came over with his driver license and insurance certificate. To my surprise, he said that (insted of driving back into his driveway, as I believed he was doing), he had been sitting in the street all along when I was backing out, waiting to turn left and take his daughter to school, when he saw that I was backing rapidly into him, so he honked and quickly pulled forward to drive back into his driveway, otherwise I would have hit his car worse, said he.
I did not call him a liar, but we live in a cul-de-sac. I always back my car straight into the diameter of the imaginary circle, before I turn forward and left to go. It is a pretty long way to back out, and I always look through the glass at the back of my car while doing so (who wouldn't when you have a streetful of neighbors and kids). If he had been sitting in the street when I backed out, I would have seen when I walked into the garage, or seen him pulling out parallel to me but a little ahead, or at the very least, see him through the back window. But I did not see his car at all. So to me the only possibility was that he was in fact driving into his driveway from outside, and decided to quickly go through from behind me instead of waiting for me to finish my turn. He asked if he could tell insurance company about the accident the way he told me ("we have to be consistent, right?), I said "you should tell whatever happened."
I have deal with this guy before. He is one of the very few people I have met in America that habitually lies, with or without a cause. Knowing him, I regret that I did not stop right after the accident, call the police and get the facts straight. But as I did not, by the evening my insurance company called me, they sounded like they were already assuming it's my fault.
The damage to my car is a big dent to my rear right bumper. It is not expensive to repair (about $1,000), but of course I have the deductible and the premium increase to deal with if I am found at fault.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should go about presenting my case to my insurance company that this could not have been my fault, at least not entirely? I did not take any pictures or have witnesses, and the insurance company is not sending anyone to my house (I am going in for an inspection). I can take a picture of the street and go to explain it with a diagram, but I would love to hear anyone's experience or suggestions.
Thank you.
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