My husband just recently bought me a 2012 Nissan Versa 1.8 S Hatchback for a mothers day gift. He works nights so he came home we had stuff to get done out of town so we left right away , came home later on in the afternoon and he had to make a trip to the store around 11ish at night and he fell asleep at the wheel crashing into a boulder and a tree on a median here in our town. He was up for more than 24 hours! The lower part of the body on the left side was partially hanging off. . The rims of both wheels on left side were dented and the whole front tire with hubcap came off , the hubcap of the back wheel came off as well but not the tire . The car had some dents and chipped paint too, not real bad though. No damage done to the right side of the vehicle. Not sure if axles may have broke but my husband had said that the left front tire and the front right tire were not aligned after the crash. . ? He said the car turned on and everything after the crash just fine but he couldn’t get it to move since the whole front tire came off and rims were damaged. The left front wheel was kind of dug into some landscaping rocks. We have full coverage insurance with $1,000 deductible. We are so worried about how much our insurance will go up and how much we have to pay out of pocket to get vehicle fixed and back to us. . it’s our only car we need it back ASAP! We are insured through Titan. My mom said full coverage should cover everything but how about our deductible?? We are new to all this so we don’t really understand what the whole process will be. . we are just terrified. Another thing. . we purchased the car with a loan through a bank and we’re making those payments as of now but would the crash affect our car payments or anything else besides insurance costs? How about if the total cost to fix the vehicle costs more than the actual vehicles worth. . would we get a check with the difference or how does that work??? I was reading some info about that earlier just want to clarify.
An adjuster from your insurance company will take a report from the body shop and make a determination if the vehicle is totalled or not.
Your $1000.00 deductable means you pay the first $1000.00 towards the repair of the vehicle and the insurance company pays for all other repairs over $1000.00.
Will your insurance rates go up? It depends on the insurance company. Some insurance company’s have accident forgiveness for the first accident. Look at your policy if there’s any mention of this.
It can vary by state but sometimes a vehicle can be declared a total loss if the damage estimate meets or exceeds 60-70% of the actual value of the vehicle. This does not mean an average retail price.
If a total loss, this means the insurance company could possibly pay the car off but that all depends. Many people are upside down on car loans and owe more on the car than they’re worth so it’s possible to have a total loss car and still owe the bank even after the insurance pays off.
As hard as that impact was I would strongly suspect that the car has suspension and/or subframe damage that may not even be detected yet…
If the cost to repair exceeds the worth of the vehicle, then the vehicle is normally totaled. In this case, the insurance company will make an offer to you to purchase the totaled vehicle from you, minus $1000 deductible. The proceeds will be used to pay off your existing bank loan; any residual belongs to you. If the amount is less than the current bank loan, you are on the hook for the difference unless you have gap insurance.
Yep agree with all the others. If it is totaled, they will write the check to both you and the bank so the bank gets their money and you get the rest and can start over. Now if you owe more on the car than they pay you, its called upside down which is possible for a new car, and you’ll have to take care of the rest. You have to continue making payments and insurance no matter what. A friend of our fell asleep on the freeway and knocked out a dozen barrier posts. They totaled the fairly new van and he was in a new one within a week. So just get an estimate and go from there.
You must keep making the car payments. Your loan is still in force, and if you stop payments it will affect your credit rating. You can get an estimate from a body shop before you file an insurance claim, but you really should report this accident to the police. Any vehicle accident that results in damage over $500 (amount differs state to state) must be reported to the police via an accident report.
Your damage is likely to far exceed the$1000 deductible so most likely this will be an insurance claim. Your rates will likely go up for insurance, but you won’t know how much until later.
He’s never going to drive in that condition again, right? Had he injured someone else, you’d probably be facing some serious legal and financial issues here.
count your blessens that the car and not somebody else was hurt. body damage is hard to figure out the cost to repair . don’t drive the car till you call your inurance company and fill a claim. they will be better able to answer any ??? you have. 24 hours with out sleep is not a good idea to drive no mater how far or close
I’m glad the issue of driving while known to be in a fatigued state has been addressed.
When I was learning to fly, we learned the acronym “IMSAFE”: illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, and emotion–any one of which could render one medically unfit to fly (or operate any motor vehicle, really.)
Way I see it, man operated a vehicle with a known (albeit temporary) medical disqualification, which proximately caused a bad wreck. I see scant difference between this behavior amd DWI. Had he wrecked into me, I’d see even less of a distinction.
Call your insurance company. Sounds like you did some property damage also??? You need to pay for that too beyond the vehicle damages.
If you have a decent driving record a first accident may or may not effect much of anything. It depends on a plethora of factors. My insurance company does not “count” an accident against if you claim under a certain amount. So you have the option still of paying outof pocket and not effecting anything if you decide after their estimate to pay out of pocket.
If you are making payments on a $15k car my assumption is you cannot afford to fix this out of pocket.
There are people in this country that are in dire finaancial straits
Some of them work 2 or 3 jobs just to survive and put food on the table for their family.
They’re obviously tired.
What are we supposed to tell them?
Sometimes taking the bus is not convenient. Bus service is not 24/7, and some people would have to transfer multiple times (and wait each time, obviously) just to get to work. That’s assuming bus service is available at 5:30AM or 11:15PM. Some people work graveyard shift or start work at 6AM.
I acknowledge the danger of tired drivers, but it’s not an easy problem to solve.
Agree db4690. Like I said in another post, there are many many areas of the country outside of the big cities where there are no buses period and often no taxis either. Red states in particular.
Sometimes you think you can do it but then doze off. Never happened to me but for our friend that hit the barrier posts, we’d just gotten back from a flight from Turkey. Long flight, delayed, got late, and had to drive 50 miles home yet from the airport. Everyone was tired but not to the point where we thought we were incapacitated. I’ve gotten out of the way of others plenty of time and that’s where defensive driving comes to play. Of course in a plane its a little different.
If hubby didn’t put a large down payment on this Versa, I’m willing to gamble you’ll be upside down on the loan. The insurance company pays average retail value plus taxes for the vehicle. I had a vehicle stolen and totalled by the thieves so I’m only too aware of still owing the bank after giving them the cheque for the vehicle.
Why didn’t he nap in the car that morning? Lucky he didn’t kill anyone, I have been up 24 to 36 hours many time due to the nature of my work, I never fell asleep like that. It sounds to me like he had a few to drink, perhaps now is a good time to determine if he has a closet drinking problem and just told you he fell asleep.
I mean who HAS to make a trip to the store at 11 at night, couldn’t have you went if it was that urgent? Sounds to me like he ran out of booze and went to get some more.
People can say what they want, but listen everyone, this story don’t add up. Lets be real. He was intoxicated.