About a weekend ago, my hubby was driving home and stopped at a red turn signal. It was icy, bad conditions. He waited until the turn signal turned green and started into the intersection when he saw a snow-plow come into view, so he stopped for a few seconds to make sure the guy was going to slow down (the guy had a red light.) The guy slowed down, so my hubby thought it was clear and pulled to go through, but the guy DIDN’T stop and plowed into him. My hubby tried to speed up but with the ice he couldn’t get clear.
The plow showed no damage. My hubby’s car (our family car) had the rear passenger door slammed into place (we can’t open it), the gas-cap slammed into place (we can’t open it), and the front door slammed into (we can open it, but it creaks and pops when we do.) Because it was early in the morning, there were no witnesses.
Because there were no witnesses, the other guy is claiming my hubby ran the red light, not him, and that it was completely his fault. Since there are no witnesses, the other guy’s insurance company is claiming no liability, meaning that we aren’t going to get anything to try and fix our car. They did not look at our car to even try and determine how it was hit or whether that could tell them anything.
My husband has never had so much as a speeding ticket. He has never run a red light (even when I was giving birth) and has been driving for 14 years without ever having an accident.
The other company said that at this point we contact our insurance agent and let them argue back and forth, but I’m starting to think we should get a lawyer, one that deals in stuff like this, and let him handle it.
Do you think we have a case? What sort of lawyer should I look for?
The thing is, it costs nothing to talk to a lawyer and a lawyer who is experienced in this sort of thing would be able to tell us if we have a case or not. Also, there’s a statute of limitation that after so many weeks after an accident, you can’t GET a lawyer, so that worries me too.
I see your point. I still disagree that it was my husband’s fault. We don’t have collision insurance, so this is going to be hard to handle.
As for why he didn’t stop… the fact is he did. He was pulled into the intersection (ie, he was not safely to the side) and saw the truck coming up the hill. He knew the truck had a red light, but he stopped anyway to make sure the truck was under control. So he started his turn, and then stopped to assess the approaching vehicle. It appeared to slow down, so he assumed it was stopping and continued with his turn. If he had stopped and let the truck run the light, his car wouldn’t have been hit… but he would have been in danger of another car hitting him if it had come over the hill because his nose was sticking into the intersection.
When the other driver saw him already turning at the intersection, he should have stopped (besides having a red light.) But, there are no witnesses. Makes you wish every car had a dash-camera.
