Big Problem weighing on my conscience

ALright so here is the story( by the way it is not related to weed so if this is what you reading for your not gonna find it here i just want some opinions and maybe some closure about the situation). Alright so i got my provisional liscense 2 weeks ago, and i am driving my sister's car (she is at college). I am driving home today and am sitting in traffic but i realize i am low on gas so i try and switch to the right lane to go to gas station thats to my right. While i am looking in my right mirror to switch lanes i take my foot off the brake and tap/hit the car in front of me. When this happens i am dumbfounded. So we both pull into a parking lot. I come out of my car and immediately start apoligizing my ass off for like 5 minutes. She says its not a big deal and we look at her car and there is virtually no damage (two pinhead sized white dots next to her plates) and none on my car. I keep apoligizing and she says that she prob won't call insurance since there is no damage and that "these things happen". I give her my insurance information and she writes down my policy number and name and I give her my cell phone number and tell her to call it if she wants to report a claim. She says that she prob won't but her neck feels a little wierd, and she just felt more comfortable having my information. Before she left i told her to please call my cell if she wants to report a claim so that i can tell my parents first. Then she leaves. In my stupidity i got NONE of her information because i was so shaken. See this wouldn't be that big of a deal if my insurance situation wasn't fucked up too. See my older sister has gotten in 3 accidents and the insurance is so high that if I even have an incident, i cannot drive for a long long time. This problem is weighing on my conscience heavily. I have no idea whether he is gonna call or not, or make a claim or complain of whiplash and sue me. The worse thing is that i have none of her information so I can't even contact her. The only sense of slight security I have is that she was kinda nice but i mean you can't really judge somebody in 5 minutes after an accident. This is killing me, i cannot stop thinking about it and i don't know whether or not i should tell my parents. See the thing is, even if she never calls me i will still be "waiting for the other shoe to drop" and wondering if hse is ever gonna do it. I don't know what i am going to do. Anybody please help me.

i dont think she'll call man, if it was onmly 2 small little holes she probably doesnt care.

stop worrying about it, there's your help right there. just forget about it, it's out of your hands now.... whether she calls or not is up to her, so there's nothing you could possibly do... best thing is to just forget it, and hope it doesn't come creeping back in your life.... or you can sit there keep worrying about it and letting it cloud your mind if you really want to..

yeah but the thing is the complaint of "pain in her neck" that is the classic bullshit story of figuratively fucking another person in the ass thorugh insurance prices

Sensimilia, don't worry. She was simply keeping her options open and trying to bluff a bit, I expect, by even mentioning her neck. She's not going to sue you. You're a teenager. Teenagers aren't lucrative sources in civil litigation. Trust me here. Plaintiffs, lawyers, and insurance companies around the globe recognize this fact.

The only risk you're facing is of her making a claim against your insurance company. If, by some million-to-one shot she ever filed a plaintiff's action (lawsuit) in your direction, it'd be against your insurance company. THEY'RE the rich folks.

You'd better keep your fingers crossed that she doesn't call and file a claim or even make a simple report to both your insurance company and her own as an FYI. Be prepared that she might do that, however. That's fairly standard procedure for anyone who's had any sort of incident/accident. They'll then call you and ask you for your version of the story, and it should match hers. Just tell them straight out what happened. It's OK you apologized. You were the one at fault. That's not going to be in dispute. But if she files a claim for any damages to her car or any personal injury damages to her neck, then your insurance company may well raise your premiums and, if that's what your parents have promised, you won't be driving for a while.

Considering that this was a very tiny and minor accident, I doubt she's going to file a claim. I think you should try and chill and not borrow any extra trouble before you're actually facing it.

Did you learn anything out of this? There are three very simple answers to this question. One of them is for you to always keep your eyes on the road. The second is to make sure you stay calm enough after an incident that you don't forget your half of the give-me-your-info procedure. It's much harder to stay calm after actual accidents, too, but even more vital after those. And the third one is simply to get thorough information, including a car license tag, car model/descritpion, two valid phone numbers for the other person, a DL#, and the car's VIN# if it's not on the insurance info. A lot of people only get insurance info and then find out it's fake or not traceable to the driver, who might also be a fake or in a stolen car. Get the car description/tag/VIN, the driver's personal info, and the insurance information.

Smoke a joint, man.

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Originally Posted by make it legal

Smoke a joint, man.

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Yeah agreed ^^. Leave it to the fates There is nothing you can do now to change a thing so why fret about it? Smoke a fatty and remember shit happens...A lot. :dance:

Go to which ever parent you are most comfortable with and tell them what happened.
The lady may have "seemed nice" at the time but her husband or whoever may see things differently and call the insurance company, if they haven't already.
Hopefully she won't make a claim but be prepared.
Talk to a parent, that way, they'll know and the whole thing will be off your shoulders.

Thanks for the help. I am still going over four issues in my mind though. Number 1: should i tell my paretns and risk getting in a lot of trouble. Number 2: Do you think if she was gonna file a claim she would call me first (told her to do so as a favor to me) Number 3: Does anybody know the standard operating procedure for insurance companies? For example, do you know how soon they would contact me if she did in fact make a claim? Four: Do you think if she has not already called me then i am off the hook seeing as it was 5 o'clock yesterday. Thanks for all the input its really helping me out.

Also, did i mention she said that she didn't think she needed to call the insurance companies and because what i did was "not a big deal in her words" i dunno i am still real scared.

im sure it will all blow over man, take a few bong ripps and smoke a blunt it will all be better in the morning

Nothing's gonna happen, dude. She won't make a claim for such minor damage because if she does, her insurance rates will go up, and that isn't worth it for the amount of damage done. The shoe's not gonna drop, breathe easy.

But next time, be sure you get all the relevant information. I suspect pretty much everyone goes through this at one time or another.

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Originally Posted by sensimilia47

Thanks for the help. I am still going over four issues in my mind though. Number 1: should i tell my paretns and risk getting in a lot of trouble. Number 2: Do you think if she was gonna file a claim she would call me first (told her to do so as a favor to me) Number 3: Does anybody know the standard operating procedure for insurance companies? For example, do you know how soon they would contact me if she did in fact make a claim? Four: Do you think if she has not already called me then i am off the hook seeing as it was 5 o'clock yesterday. Thanks for all the input its really helping me out.

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1. I think you should tell your parents simply so you'll quit worrying so much. That will relieve your fears in a big way, and Tootsie was wise to make that recommendation. If they're reasonable people, they'll know it was not a big deal and will not give you any grief. And since they've had your sister to compare car incidents with, I suspect they won't sweat this. Parents know how things happen with teenagers and cars. It's expected. This, in the scheme of car incidents, was a tiny matter.

2. No, I don't think she'd call you first. That's not how people behave once they've left the scene. You're like someone she might have to interact with on a business level. She'll simply call and make a report and, possibly, a claim. (And Jamstigator, since he tapped her car and is the one at fault, she'd be making a claim on his insurance company, not her own.)

3. Time limits vary from state to state according to insurance regulations, but generally people have 72 hours to make an initial report of an accident or injury to their insurance company. And they have a period of weeks, usually six, after that in which to work through the small claims process. If she's going to make a report, she'll do it fairly quickly, which is why the 72-hour policy stands. People need to report claims while they can still recall what happened. You'd be contacted by her insurance company within three weeks, I imagine, and probably within one week or less so they could hear your statement while the incident's still fresh in your mind.

It's time to go fess up to your parents. Like Tootsie said, go talk to whichever one you're most comfortable with and who'll be the least critical. They will probably be very proud of you for unburdening yourself and telling them the truth.

Sorry, I missed question 4. No, I don't think you're quite off the hook yet since we don't know if she's made a report or a claim. Refer to the time limits in question 3.

yeah the old "my neck kinda hurts" thing. if she seemed like a nice lady she probably wont call. i hope she doesnt. good luck

once i got ina multi car accident cause some old guy decided not to stop on the highway, rammed me into the car inf ront of me into the car in front of her. The woman tried to sue me and the guy that caused the accident because apparently she couldn't have sex with her husband, totally got thrown out and ignored. point being, any bs claims usualyl just go away

Well, I got in line at a drive-thru one night, behind this guy in a monsterously large truck. I was driving a Corolla. The guy in the truck was a bit drunk, and the line was kinda long, and I guess he didn't see me since my car was a lot lower than his huge truck. He decided to back out of the line, so he put his truck in reverse and gunned it, and slammed into my car, hard. My insurance company made a claim against his, of course...but MY insurance rates still went up, for about a year or two. His probably did too, I dunno, but ours definitely did. In that case, there was no choice but to file a claim though, as the damage was about four thousand dollars, and even though my rates went up some, they didn't go up anywhere near four thousand dollars worth. I was a nice guy and didn't mention that the guy was a bit drunk, which probably saved HIM a lot of hassle.

If it had been my fault, I'm sure my rates would have gone up way more than they did, but insurance companies are statistics freaks, and if you drive around getting into accidents, even if they're not your fault, well, I guess they don't like that. At least my insurance company didn't!

That experience kinda taught me not to make claims unless absolutely necessary. A $100 fender bender? Even if it's someone else's fault, I'd let that go, because my rate increase would exceed that. I'd ask whoever did the damage for the $100 though, maybe even threaten to file a claim if they were a prick about it...but I wouldn't do it. You get a discount if you drive "accident-free" for enough years. That's probably why my rates went up: I was no longer accident-free...even though I had zero fault in causing that accident.

yeah making claims for little stupid crap is so stupid. years back i was pulling out onto a highway when the lady in front of me decided to come to a full stop and i ended up giving her a little love tap. she gets out and is liek YOU JUST HIT ME YOU JUST RAN INTO ME.. like bugging out. So i'm like yeah no shit why the fuck you stop? Long story short we are talking to teh officer that came to the "accident" and he basically tells her she is a mroon if she wants to fill out a report, only thing that happened really was some chips of paint from my bumper came off on her's, which we flicked off. Then the moron fills a report and also makes a claim to insurance, fucked her own damn self, not like my insurance could go any higher!!

If she wants her car repaired, and does not claim injuries, can't you just pay the bill for the auto repairs out-of-pocket? It seems like that would make things a whole lot easier for everybody involved.

not sure about where other people live, but where I live ur fucked if ya don't report the accident and file a police report makes it hard to screw with people later

yo redlocks where do you live?

jersey, home of the nations highest insurance rates!

chill out dude, dont have a heart attack.

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Originally Posted by sensimilia47

yeah but the thing is the complaint of "pain in her neck" that is the classic bullshit story of figuratively fucking another person in the ass thorugh insurance prices

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That was my first thought.

I wouldn't even worry about this man, and if does sue, she won't get very far without legit doctors reports of her injuries, and if she didn't reprt to the hospital right after the accident, say, she went a week later, then her chances are decreased. If she doesn't have a legit doctors report of her severe injuries, and she doesn't go to a doctor right away, then she is obviously trying to screw you over.

Don't worry about it. Worry gets you no where but in a tangle of mess.

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Originally Posted by Nochowderforyou

That was my first thought.

I wouldn't even worry about this man, and if does sue, she won't get very far without legit doctors reports of her injuries, and if she didn't reprt to the hospital right after the accident, say, she went a week later, then her chances are decreased. If she doesn't have a legit doctors report of her severe injuries, and she doesn't go to a doctor right away, then she is obviously trying to screw you over.

Don't worry about it. Worry gets you no where but in a tangle of mess.

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Wise words as ususal.