What Should I Do in a Hit & Run Accident in California?
Hit-and-Run Accidents can be one of the most frustrating experiences a driver can have on the road and dealing with your insurance provider in the aftermath doesn't make it much easier either. Fortunately, there are steps you can take both before these accidents affect you and immediately after they happen to make sure you aren’t paying out of pocket for your vehicle damage and medical expenses.
The full post below will go into the details of:
what you need to know about Hit-and-Run’s,
the types of insurance coverage you will need to recover from them, and
the steps you should take at the before, during, and after the accident.
First, what is and is not a Hit-and-Run
In California, a Hit-and-Run accident is defined as an accident where a driver leaves the scene of the accident without leaving any identifying information and has caused property damage, bodily injury damage, or both with their vehicle.
“With their vehicle” is highlighted above because unless there’s contact with the perpetrator’s vehicle, the accident is not a Hit-and-Run. This sounds obvious but we’ve had would-be clients come to us about people who’ve caused them to crash without vehicle-to-vehicle contact.
If someone almost - but does not actually - hits you with their car, if someone throws an object at your car, or if someone shoots at you with a gun from their car, the resulting accident will not be considered a Hit-and-Run accident, at least in the eyes of your insurance provider, because there was no vehicle-to-vehicle contact. There needs to be contact with the other person’s car.
The types of insurance you’ll need to be covered in a Hit-and-Run accident
There are three types of insurance coverage that will determine whether and how much you can recover in a Hit-and-Run accident: 1. Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury, 2. Collision Coverage, and 3. Uninsured Motorist Property Damage. We’ll go over each of these briefly below:
Uninsured Motorist, Bodily Injury
Uninsured Motorist coverage for Bodily Injuries is a type of coverage that car insurance companies in California must offer to their customers when they first sign up and it covers the insureds (you and anybody else on your insurance plan) in situations where the persons at fault for an accident don’t have insurance or can’t be tracked down. For reasons we’ll cover in more depth in another post, we highly recommend you add this type of coverage to your plan.
Collision Coverage
Collision Coverage generally refers to the type of coverage that applies to Property Damage only and typically pays out regardless of who is at fault. Collision Coverage is also the most common type of coverage that gets used for repairs or replacements in Hit-and-Run accidents.
Uninsured Motorist, Property Damage
While rarer than Collision Coverage, Uninsured Motorist coverage for Property Damage is another type of coverage that you can use to cover the costs of repairs or replacement in Hit-and-Run accidents. However, to recover under your Uninsured Motorist Property Damage coverage, you must have either (a) the License Plate Number of the vehicle that hit you, or (b) the Driver’s License Number of the driver who hit you. Without either of these items, your insurance company will deny you coverage for the Hit-and-Run property damage.
The first and most important step to take if you’re a victim of a Hit-and-Run accident…
If you’ve just been hit by a Hit-and-Run driver, the very first thing you should do is call the police from the scene of the accident. Most Uninsured Motorist plans require you to either call the police to file a report or call your insurance within 24-48 hours of the accident happening. Waiting longer increases the risk that you will not be covered by your insurance.
Another reason why you should call the police as a first step in a Hit-and-Run accident is that if you were able to get the other car’s License Plate Number, either from memory or from a phone or dashcam, giving the police a statement and providing them with information about the other vehicle increases the chances of them actually finding the other person. A routine License Plate Number check will surface the address of the vehicle owner, and the police tend to check that address immediately, especially if you or anyone with you has been injured.
Steps you should take after you’ve called the police
If the only damage the Hit-and-Run driver caused is damage to your vehicle, you should go ahead and contact your insurance company to make a claim. Keep in mind that if you’re looking to recover under an Uninsured Motorist Property Damage plan, you’ll need to have the other car’s License Plate Number or the driver’s Driver’s License Number in order to make a successful claim. If you have Collision Coverage, you should be able to file a claim with your insurance to have them cover the costs of the damage to your vehicle, assuming you called them or the police within the required time window.
This next step should be obvious but it’s important to take care of your health if you’ve been injured so if you or any of your passengers were physically hurt in the accident, seek medical attention as soon as possible. Also, keep in mind that with some injuries you might not even realize you’re injured until you start feeling symptoms days after the accident; this is normal and you should absolutely still seek medical care when this happens.
Last but not least, if you or your passengers have been injured in a Hit-and-Run accident, you really should seek legal representation from experienced attorneys because even though your insurance company is supposed to be on your side, in a Hit-and-Run case you’re essentially suing your own insurance company to get the money you’re owed.
Dealing with adjusters and getting paid the full amount you’re entitled to is also easier said than done. To illustrate the point, here are a few of the things we at Liem H. Do & Associates help our Hit-and-Run clients with so that they don’t have to deal with the hassle of trying to take care of them themselves:
Filing the claim with the insurance company
Securing a rental car for clients with Rental Coverage
Backing the client in any disputes over liability
Scheduling an inspection of the vehicle for property damage estimates
Handling all communications with the insurance adjuster
Inventory and accounting for all medical bills and records
Negotiating pain and suffering damages that go beyond the basic medical bills
Securing extra money for the client for future medical expenses
Bonus Info: No, your insurance premium will not increase if you make an Uninsured Motorist claim!
While this isn’t a concrete step to take, it is a point that we make clear to our clients because we get asked about it so often. In California, Proposition 103 prohibits insurance companies from raising your premium on you for making an Uninsured Motorist claim. That doesn’t mean they won’t raise your rates for other reasons, but it does mean that making an Uninsured Motorist claim alone won’t be one of them.
Need help getting paid for your injuries and damages from a Hit-and-Run accident? Get in touch with us today and let’s talk!
Time is of the essence in all car accident cases, but especially so in Hit-and-Run’s as mentioned above. If you’ve been made a victim of a Hit-and-Run driver, head over to our Contact Page (this link will get you there) and send us a message. The consultation is free and if you become one of our clients, we’ll handle all of the annoying steps for you.
