One-car accident insurance coverage
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There are a lot of reasons that a single car accident might occur. Your brakes could go out, you could try to avoid hitting an animal (although you should accelerate rather than swerving to avoid hitting an animal), you could lose control of your vehicle and more. Although single car accidents aren’t as common as multi car accidents, they are certainly common enough!
Not everyone, however, will have a rate increase if they have a single car accident. The bottom line is that liability insurance isn’t designed to protect your vehicle. Liability insurance is coverage for other vehicles that are damaged in an accident that you cause.
It is very important to understand this distinction because only collision insurance provides coverage for damage to your vehicle. If you hit an animal, or a tree, wall, flip your vehicle and so on, if you don’t have collision coverage, then you will be responsible for the costs.
Why will my insurance increase if no other vehicles were involved?
Many people make the mistake of thinking that their insurance goes up after an accident because they get a ticket or are found as “at fault’ in the accident. The truth is, however, that the insurance company will determine an increase based on what they have to pay out after an accident.
If you are in a single car accident and you dent your fender, then you don’t even need to make a claim. In fact, unless the damages far exceed the amount of your deductible, then you don’t want to make a claim. If you make a claim, even if the insurance company doesn’t have to pay you any money, you may see an increase in your premiums.
The increase should be minor if the insurance company doesn’t have to write a check, but expect an increase nonetheless. The reason for this is that, when you report you have had an accident, it goes in your record and it counts against you in terms of being a safe driver. Keep that in mind because in a single car accident, the insurance company can only assume you are responsible for the accident occurring.
Will I get into trouble if I don’t report a single car accident?
The answer to this depends on a couple of things. First of all, did you damage someone else’s property when you had the accident? If you hit a property fence, mailbox, or even a tree in someone’s yard, at the very least you need to talk to the owner about making restitution. If you hit a deer or other animal, you don’t have to call the police and report the accident, even if there are damages to your vehicle.
You should, however, call your insurance company immediately if you are sure that you are going to file a claim. Outside of that, if you aren’t making a claim and you haven’t harmed anyone else or damaged any personal or city property, then you don’t need to report the incident.
If you strike a road sign, you will be expected to make restitution. The truth is that the police aren’t likely to be breaking down your door in an effort to get money for the damages that you cause to a sign. However, if you are caught without having reported the incident, then you could be in much deeper trouble than just hitting a sign would cause.
There is one caveat, however. If you have a single car accident, you don’t report it to the insurance company and you don’t repair the damages and have another accident, the insurance company can refuse to pay for the damages on your vehicle. This isn’t common, but you do need to be aware of the possibility.
How long will my increase last if I make a claim?
Like with most auto accidents, it takes about 3 years for a claim to no longer affect your insurance premiums. The good news is that the smaller the claim is the less your premiums will be increased.
If you didn’t get a ticket for the accident, then you may want to consider switching car insurance companies. The reason for this is that if an insurance company didn’t have to pay your claim, they are more likely to give you a lower rate sooner than the company that had to pay the price for the accident.
via: carinsurancecomparison
