So I Crashed A Car A While Ago And I Only Had A Permit. I Didn

Have you ever crashed your parents car?

Sort of. My mother was visiting us a while back, and parked halfway down the driveway. I got into my wife’s car and backed up to go somewhere, and nailed the front of her truck pretty good.My wife’s little G20 wasn’t too bad off, just a broken tailight and some shallow body dents around it, but the front of Mom’s truck was caved in to the front wheels. She had an ’06 Tacoma.I thought Toyota trucks were supposed to be tough.She did have a few scratches on her bumper that she wanted to have fixed before the accident. Insurance paid and the collision shop did a great job putting it back together.Well, Merry Christmas Ma!

What would happen if a valet driver crashed your car?

Oh boy! Many years ago I attended a reunion and asked my dad if I could borrow his new Mercedes to make a good impression. He said yes. I took it there at a brand new Sheraton Hotel and used the valet. I had a nice time, but at the end, picking up the car while my fellow reunion attendees watched me get in and drive away: Priceless.I drove the car back to my dad’s house, carefully parked it in his garage and got in my old VW and drove home.The next day my dad called me and asked me how the reunion went. I said fine and thanked him again. Long pause. “Isn’t there something else you want to tell me?” he asked.“No” I replied.“About the car?”“Oh boy, dad if there is a ding or scratch on the car, I swear it wasn’t me.”“A ding! Is that what you call it? I expect you to take care of this using your insurance!”So, I drove right over, and OMG the entire rear end above the bumper was smashed in about 8″! After some more arguing and my dad accusing me of trying to con him into thinking I wasn’t aware of the damage, I figured out it must have been the valet. So, we drove the car back to the Hotel and I confronted the manager of the valet service. He just laughed, saying that there was no way they could be responsible and anyway how come I didn’t say anything when I picked up the car? He said all of his drivers were honest and would have told him if something like that happened. He was adamant that they would fight any attempts I made to claim them responsible and they would win. My dad had had enough of my pretending to be innocent and wanted to leave.Luckily, I asked to see where they parked the cars and when we went there, a parking structure used solely by the hotel valet service, I noticed that they backed in the cars and at the back of some of the parking spots was the raw edge of the concrete slab of the cris-cross parking floor on the other side of the structure. This explained the strange diagonal impact on the back of the car. So I told the manager that I was going to find the exact parking spot that matched the impact marks, take pictures showing they matched and show it to the judge.The manager immediately promised to pay for the damage in full, about $4,000.Ever since then I avoid using valet service and when I have to I always walk completely around the car to check it out.

My fifteen year old daughter just stole our car and crashed it into the neighbors' fence after she'd been drinking. How do I deal with her?

When I was 16, I took my mother's car SEVERAL times, wrecking it the last time. I had taken driver's ed, but had not yet gotten my driver's license. I did not, of course, have permission to take the car.The final time, after I wrecked it, some boys who came along offered to get us back onto the road (I had slammed into an embankment) and we drove home, on the rims.My mother got home. To her credit, she kept her temper.First, she verified that I and my friend were fine.Then she sent me to my room, alone.She called my father. She initially planned to turn the claim in and report that it was myself driving. This was the truth, obviously.My father talked her out of it, explaining that I wouldn't be able to get my license, I would have received countless tickets and probably, be convicted of theft (in order for the insurance company claim to go forward), and that the accident would follow me for years, etc. He convinced her to lie about it to protect me- which was a HUGE deal. His reasoning, however, were to protect all of us.She did report that she had swerved to avoid hitting a dog.The car was $100 off from being considered a total loss.It was a HUGE deal.She came to my room and held me. She consoled me. She told me how much she loved me. Then she told me I was grounded for a month (it was June, right after my Freshman year of high school, I was so upset!). I had to pay her deductible (thank GOD it was only a $100) and I couldn't get my driver's license until she deemed it acceptable. She also told me that my Dad came to my defense and I better be grateful to him and my mother.OH MY GOD, I was.It was a very long month. I ran off with neighbor friends a few times during that month- it was extended (best friends since 5, we just went fishing in the neighborhood lake- nothing to horrible!). But, my mother was very kind. I could go places with her or my older sister. I could hang out with the above mentioned neighbors/friends as long as we stayed in the yard.... She even let me go to the city festival for the 4th of July. It wasn't all punishment all the time. But let me tell you, I learned a lesson! My parents are amazing people and honestly, I should be such a good parent!

What should I do if my car was hit while parked?

Not too long ago this happened to my wife twice within a short period of time.The first time was in Toronto, in a cramped parking lot. My wife came out of a store to find someone had driven into our car and then left. This store had cameras on the lot, and she convinced the store manager to review the video, and you could see someone drove into the lot, basically drove right into our car, backed up and left. But it was blurry and you couldn’t make out the car’s license plate, so even though we provided the video to police they couldn’t do anything with it. Because we didn’t have details on the other vehicle we had to pay our collision deductible, but it’s treated as a not-at-fault collision.The second time was in Charlottetown, someone probably making an illegal U-turn smashed into our parked car quite badly, and also left. This happened about a month after we just repaired the previous collision, and again we couldn’t identify the driver. We had to pay the deductible again for insurance to pay for the collision, and although it was still treated as a not-at-fault collision I got a letter from the insurance company not long after saying that although our rates were staying the same they were increasing our deductible. I don’t think they’re actually allowed to do that, but we were already in the process of changing insurance companies for unrelated reasons.In both cases (this applies to insurance in Ontario, Canada) as long as you report the collision to police within 24 hours, your insurance company will treat it as a not-at-fault collision although this is the odd case where you have to pay the deductible for a not-at-fault collision. My adjuster told me at the time that if they had enough information to follow up with the other driver’s insurance that they would waive the deductible, but we didn’t have that in either case. I don’t know what happens if you don’t report within 24 hours, but I expect it costs you a lot more.EDIT: spelling