Car got backed into, no witness...
 

Was going to work today, and was behind a chick with a green N turning left from a small street into a big street. She started going forward to make the turn, and saw that cars were coming and threw the car into reverse, oblivious that I was behind her, and backed right into me. I had honked her as soon as she started reversing to no avail. She came out and apologized right away, took a quick look, no major visible damage apart from my license plate being bent, but I exchanged info anyways as I know even low-speed impact can damage the bumper (impact was ~10km/h). I reported the claim to ICBC 10 minutes later when I arrive at work, and there is a small problem as there was no witness. Claims desk says that if she changes her story and says that I rear-ended her, I'm SOL. So I ask them if they can contact her right away before she has chance to talk to her friends/etc to convince her to change her mind. They say no, it's against policy to contact the other driver on the same day, I'm like WTF? :speechless: Anyways, made an appointment for them to look at the car, if I'm lucky, impact was small enough for no damage. But if the bumper is damaged, and the girl changes her story I'm SOL. I'm just wondering, when they are inspecting the car, is there anything I can look out for that might help show that she backed into me and not the other way around? (e.g. the way the license plate is bent, etc) or am I completely SOL? If I had recorded her apologizing, would that have helped at all?

No there is no way to tell from the vehicles itself to prove which vehicle was going forwards or backwards.

Should have made her sign/initial an agreement that she is at fault.

I imagine that the recording of her apologizing should be enough evidence for you.

^Unfortunately I didn't think ahead to do that...FML. Here's hoping to honesty and karma...

I've seen and heard so many of these situations happen. Just have to pray they are honest and won't change their mind
Posted via RS Mobile

This is a perfect example why we should all have running video cameras in our vehicles. I had an accident recently where a SUV drove out in front of me from a stop sign and I slid into her back bumper. $2800 damage to the front of my little car and a scratched bumper on her SUV. Luckily a witness behind me stopped and gave me his numbers, otherwise she could have said that I rear ended her.

Oh yeah, she gave me insurance papers from another SUV that didn't match the vehicle she was driving. Always check the vin and licence plate numbers.

Good luck with your claim, maybe she won't even bother reporting it if there's no damage.

to save you the trouble of possibly havin to pay her if she changes her mind..why report it ? you clearly state there was no damage apart from the license plate being bent, why risk it for just that ? Save yourself the trouble man, unless ofcourse you just want to take the chance then by all means pursue it and good luck to you!

^no major visible damage. Last accident I was in, it looked like no damage to the bumper except for some minor scratches, except it turns out some of the tabs were actually broken inside the bumper and they had to replace it. Took a look again at the car after work and the hood is not longer lined up with the bumper, but otherwise looks okay. Anyways, taking it to ICBC on Tuesday to see if there any damage or not!

have to maintain a car length from the person ahead so wouldn't you be partially at fault anyhow?

but yeah in this situation with no witness it's all on her unless you can find some security footage :/

Wife just went over the car with a flashlight (dark outside right now) and I actually missed a number of scrapes on the front bumper. And there is a noticeable gap between bumper and hood, so something is misaligned. Also, when my headlights are on, my passenger side beam is slightly higher than my driver's side...

I honked my horn as soon as she started backing up and she still hit me...anyways, I'll let ICBC take a look at it first and go from there. If she doesn't call in to ICBC at all to claim, and I end up making a claim against her. And she disputes at this point, will this work to my favour? (e.g. if I had actually rear-ended her, why didn't she make a claim?) Anyways, like I said, hoping for honesty and karma at this point!

Good luck to you !!

At the time, she asked me not to go to ICBC and would prefer to settle privately. If after seeing ICBC, and there is enough damage assessed, I'm wondering if I can call her and hopefully get her to admit fault over the phone and record it?

A car backed into me while lining up at the gas station, but luckily it was recorded on the gas station's CCTV. When I called into the gas station to ask the girl at the register check the recordings because I was afraid the lady might say it's my fault, the girl told me not to worry since it's on tape and that her brother backed into another car before and ICBC figured out it was his fault (from her description, it sounded like he tried to flip the blame or at least try to share the fault assessment...).

Hope it turns out OK!

i was actually in a similar situation, some huge truck decided to back up in the middle of the lane, and his reverse lights didn't work. I honked, and he reversed even faster! I was told the same story by icbc, which if the other person changes the story, i would be SOL. Good luck with your case! The dude that hit me was nice and didn't change the story luckily. My impact was worse though, he ran up my hood, cracked my bumper as well.

It is perfectly normal that the headlight on the driver side is aimed lower then your passenger side. It is so you don't blind oncoming traffic.

apologizing isn't enough to put her at fault, check out the Apology Act

Had the same situation happen to me back in April. I called ICBC right on the spot and when they asked if the other driver admitted fault, I asked the kid right away and hoped that confirmation over the phone was enough. Luckily, the he wasn't a douche, and admitted fault.

Hope for the best!

like others have said, there isn't really a way to tell from the physical evidence who hit who. the bigger concern here, besides who's going to pay to fix your car, is whether or not she's going to make an injury claim. on this front, because it was a low velocity impact, they'll go over the vehicle damage, her injury claim, and her medical record with a fine-toothed comb and then decide, by committee, whether to pay out her claim. if they do, then you're on the hook for her medical bills. take lots of notes of the accident before you forget.

good luck.

This is why you write down the person's address from their driver's license. If they start telling lies, you go kill their pets, kids, burn down house, etc.

What happens if I file a claim and she doesn't file a claim? When we were exchanging info, she asked me not to go through ICBC and wanted to settle privately, so I have a feeling she might not have even filed a claim with ICBC. Will ICBC call her to get her side of the story or will they assume since she has not filed a claim she is admits fault? I have an appointment with ICBC on Tuesday, so I will ask my adjuster more questions then, but I've only been in one other accident before where I was at 100% fault so I never really had to ask these questions before. If there is no damage inside the bumper, I probably won't even file a claim. I can live with the scratches and don't want to risk her suddenly changing her mind and filing a claim.

:inoutugh:

I had this samething happen to me before and the fucker called in and said I rear ended him. Waiting to turn left at a light I'm about the 4th car in line. He's in front of me and decides he's going to go straight and throws it into reverse so he can get out of the turn lane right into me.

I had a sick feeling I was going to get screwed and there was nobody behind me. I ran up to the guy in front of him and asked if he saw that and of course he didn't. I have no witness 100% my fault.

If this ever happens to me again I'll put up a sign and then get one of my friends to call ICBC saying they noticed the sign and watched the accident happen. I'm totally against fraud but if some guy is going to commit it against me I don't really have a problem with it to make myself whole.

Some people don't necessarily care about the damage on their car, so they often wont call in to get it fixed... especially if it's just minimal damage. When I rear ended someone, I caused about $5000 of damage on my front end (all cosmetic, but because I made the shop install OEM parts, the final bill was higher than normal), but the other car only had some scratches on the rear bumper. She never made a claim.

Either way, good luck with your claim! Hopefully this person does the right thing!

if there are no damages, ICBC won't even bother with it. Worst case is ICBC wants you to pay for her touch up paint. just get on with your life!

never thought i'd ever say this, but .Renn.Sport is right. you called it in to ICBC let them deal with it, it is what it is. don't stress out about "what if's".