A fuller story
For those who don't have a point of reference on the "no car" post from the other day, here's a bit of an update.
I was coming home from work Friday and was driving through a green light at an intersection when somebody decided to turn left into oncoming traffic (namely me). I managed to brake and swerve enough to hit the rear of the car instead of the occupied passenger side, which I considered a good option at the time. (I'll come back to that.) My front right side took the brunt of the impact. My lights were busted out, my bumper pretty well smashed, both airbags deployed, and my passenger side door jammed. In other words pretty safe to say it was totalled.
So, my past week has been spent trying to figure out ways to get around while I'm stuck here in Joliet without a car.
Today, I finally managed to speak to an insurance adjuster live. Of course it was from the other guy's agency. He informed me that Illinois is a "marginal liability" state. Which is to say that while their guy caused the accident, they can say it's not all his fault, never mind that it's his fault.
In this case, the point of impact was the front on my vehicle to the rear of the other guy's. They are suggesting that this indicates that he had almost completed his turn, and therefore I'm 20-30% liable. I like to point out that it's the front right corner, suggesting that I was swerving to the left in an attempt to avoid the vehicle, and that I slightly disagree with their assessment that had I opted to just plow into the occupied passenger side resulting in a "front of vehicle to front or side" impact and killing the passenger I would somehow be less at fault.
So, yeah. That's been my week.
I was coming home from work Friday and was driving through a green light at an intersection when somebody decided to turn left into oncoming traffic (namely me). I managed to brake and swerve enough to hit the rear of the car instead of the occupied passenger side, which I considered a good option at the time. (I'll come back to that.) My front right side took the brunt of the impact. My lights were busted out, my bumper pretty well smashed, both airbags deployed, and my passenger side door jammed. In other words pretty safe to say it was totalled.
So, my past week has been spent trying to figure out ways to get around while I'm stuck here in Joliet without a car.
Today, I finally managed to speak to an insurance adjuster live. Of course it was from the other guy's agency. He informed me that Illinois is a "marginal liability" state. Which is to say that while their guy caused the accident, they can say it's not all his fault, never mind that it's his fault.
In this case, the point of impact was the front on my vehicle to the rear of the other guy's. They are suggesting that this indicates that he had almost completed his turn, and therefore I'm 20-30% liable. I like to point out that it's the front right corner, suggesting that I was swerving to the left in an attempt to avoid the vehicle, and that I slightly disagree with their assessment that had I opted to just plow into the occupied passenger side resulting in a "front of vehicle to front or side" impact and killing the passenger I would somehow be less at fault.
So, yeah. That's been my week.