Even when nobody gets hurt, car accidents are always scary and frought with tension. After all, even though cars are material goods, they're still pretty necessary for a lot of us. Losing your car in an accident can at best be a minor inconvenience and at worst cause a total loss of income and the inability to get to school and work.
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As one man shared on Reddit, he was in a car accident not too long ago that is causing some serious strife. The man is fine, and he wasn't at fault, but the woman who hit him is suffering in a major way. In fact, she recently reached out to him to see if he could help her.
He was driving a $100,000 car.
The man begins by explaining the situation:
"I am financially well-to-do and my car is worth approximately $100,000.
"A couple months back I was driving and turned left on a protected green light. I was hit by a driver coming the opposite direction who ran their red light. Thankfully no one was hurt. The cops came and I told them what happened, and a witness who was behind me backed up my story. The driver was a young lady and she apologized and said she was distracted and didn't see the red light. We exchanged contact & insurance information and the cops assigned her 100% of the blame in the report."
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His car was completely totaled.
"My car was totaled. Her insurance only covered about half the damages I was owed. Not a problem, that's why I carry underinsured motorist insurance, and my insurance covered the remainder and I was made whole."
But the woman who hit him is being sued by his insurance company.
"A week or so ago I got an email from her," the man continued. "She said that I was ruining her life as she was being sued by my insurance company for the amount they had to pay over her insurance's max coverage. She would have to drop out of college and find a lawyer to fight the case, not to mention the damages she'd owe if she lost. She asked me to drop the suit and work out some other way to fix this situation. I replied and explained that I was not suing her, it was not my decision, I did not have any influence over what my insurance's legal team was doing, and that she had been judged as solely responsible for the accident so it was out of my hands."
She asked if he would help her pay legal fees.
"She also wrote that if I had been driving a 'normal' car her insurance would have covered all the damages and it's not right that she loses her future because of the type of car I chose to drive.
"She wrote back asking if I could personally loan her the money to pay off the damages and then she would work out some way to pay me back. I have ignored this email."
His friends are kind of on her side.
"I was talking to a couple friends and told them this story, and one of them said that even though she was responsible for the accident, he could see her side of the story and I should consider loaning her the money since I could afford it (which is true)."
So now he wants to know: Who is the problem here?
People do not agree with the girl who hit him.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, commenters are fully on the man's side. One wrote: "I would advise that you document and save the emails so you have them as evidence if anything goes sour. Money can make people do weird things. Do not feel bad about ghosting this person. Your insurance is handling this, let them. This is what they are for. Don't listen to your friend."
But the original poster did open up a thoughtful conversation.
While the man has remained steadfast in his decision to not loan the woman money, the conversation on Reddit turned toward the realities of what many people in the US face in similar situations. For starters, many commenters outside of the US were surprised by the startling low amount of money required for minimal liability insurance.
Ultimately, everyone received a great lesson in car insurance.
As one commenter put it, this is a great reason to learn everything you can about the hows and whys of car insurance:
"Yes. It was an accident. She didn't intend to total your car, but she did. She was distracted and made a serious mistake that has serious financial consequences.
"She is at fault.
"Looking at it another way: She could have hit you in a way that seriously injured you, not just a replaceable car. You could be hospitalized or permanently disabled, even if you were driving a cheap old beater.
"Nobody thinks you should feel good about this. But you protected yourself by purchasing adequate insurance for exactly this scenario."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
