What to do in this situation with insurance?

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I have a car  purchased in April 2011. I was in an accident that was a hit and run where the other driver was at fault, damages where she hit the rear wheel and everything around it (hard enough that airbags deployed). The person was caught, fined, etc. Their insurance paid for initial repairs at my location which was Dealer recommended. The work was done and took 1 month of running around changing rentals. It's been 4 months since the accident and I am having issues in the same area i was hit but the issue is they never did anything to the suspension during repairs. I don't know if it was either not looked at or ignored. But the person hit me directly on that wheel hard but surprisingly nothing was found and all they did was replace the wheel. I am having issues in the area and dealership looked at it as suspension issues and the total cost of repairs are $2500+ including labor. I contacted the body shop and they could not do much as they never worked on the suspension, only the area [the insurance company] advisers looked at (Feel like they missed this area). The car is not drivable right now as issues came up out of nowhere with no new accident or any type of damage as only I drive the car.

I complained  and the person who handled my initial estimate was rude and hung up, so I contacted the supervisor and they contacted the dealership and will be sending someone to check damages and see if its accident related and if they will pay. I know this damage is related to the accident since its coming from the same area i was hit and only that area!

My issue is what do I do if  [the insurance company] denies payments? Who do I go after ? Sorry for this long story but i have nowhere to turn. The damages are expensive and this should of been dealt with when they first repaired it and I am positive the damages are related to the accident.

Description of accident -

I was driving on a 2 lane road with a green light ahead of me, lady pulls out trying to exit through a dunkin donuts entrance to cut through 2 lanes and double solid yellow lines to go in the opposite direction. Hits me directly on the rear wheel head first. The picture is I was vertical going north, she was horizantal going west and hit directly on wheel damaging surrounding area with my airbags deploying due to speed of impact. She continued to press gas to get around me and take off, she was caught by police soon after and admitted to the accident and was placed at fault.

Njzkish:

My issue is what do I do if [the insurance company] denies payments?

Contact your insurance.  If need be, have the repairs done by your insurance company and then they can go after the other driver's insurance.

Njzkish:

My issue is what do I do if [the insurance company] denies payments? Who do I go after ?

That's easy.

You go after (sue) the driver that hit you.

Once you serve the lawsuit on the driver, [their insurance company]  will have to decide to hire an attorney and defend the driver or reconsider its position.

Much of your post is irrelevant and you appear to be anticipating trouble where there might not be any. [The insurance company] has agreed to revisit the damage so wait and see how that goes. Then come back to this thread if you need more help.

Meantime, what's the year of your car and how many miles were on it at the time of the accident?

You might have a valid claim an additional amount of money for Diminished Value. Read about it at:

http://www.princeandportnoi.com/articles/being-made-whole/DV%20Article%20-%205-2009.pdf

The car is 2008 was a certified preowned [one] with only 35k miles when purchased and about 38k when the car was hit. The car was already looked over before purchased by [manufacturer's] tech as I wanted more information on it and it checked out. But after the accident it hasn't been the same.

the damages came out to be around $9k in body and interior damage due to air bags deploying.

If I contact my insurance it will be an even bigger mess as we would pay deductable and worry about increased rates.

This site is very helpful and I thank everyone who has taken time to read and reply. I will update it once [the insurance company] goes to the location to check the car.

The positive side of this the dealership service managers are doing the best to support me and will work with me to get [the insurance company] to pay for it and they listened to my side of the story of the accident. The only excuse [the insurance company] has is that the car passed alignment after repairs and intital adjuster that handled the car during the accident that I contacted said Its my fault and hung up. The supervisor was contacted and she decided to dig deeper and send someone out.

The [car], particularly the all will drive version has a somewhat complicated rear link suspension.  Typically, a thrust angle alignment check will tell if the components are functioning as advertised.  You didn't elaborate as to the particulars of your current problem, but I doubt that anyone who monitors this thread would understand the nuances of your car's rear suspension system.

In reality, [the insurance company], the body repairer and the dealership all likely desire quick resolution of your repair problem.  Perhaps it is simple, but distant from the learning curve of the estimating or  the technicians involved.

$9K in repairs, especially including air bag replacement does not suggest a severe damage accident.

It is hindsight to your current situation, but I always recommend proceeding under your own collision coverage for complicated repairs.  Most major insurers will guarantee repairs if you utilize one of their preferred repair shops, but regardless you are always better positioned to deal with your insurer under policy contract terms, rather than a liability insurer who is positioned as an advisary .

Regardless, I agree with Adjuster Jack that you have taken the necessary steps to resolve the problems and you probably won't experience payment issues from the insurer if the problem can be logically related to accident causation.

Hang in there!

The issue with the car just for people to see is that i was told the control arm was bent and some damage to the arm knuckle/wheel carrier was found and said it all needed replacement along with wheel hub.

It happened a few days ago and in the morning the car ran fine until I decided to go out at night (it was really cold) and as soon as I switched from Park to Drive, the car bounced a by and leaned in the direction of the rear passanger wheel. Once I started to drive I heard the metal noise and only comes from that wheel (You can tap it and hear metal squeak)

While driving I started to hear loud clunking/clanking and metal popping sounds from the rear passanger tire where the accident happened. I can hear it when accelerating and especially when braking. The thing that boggles me is I have not been in any accident since the repairs, nor have I hit large/small potholes that could of done this or there would be damage to other areas too. Also I am the only one who drives the car.

Its a bit messy due to it being almost 4 months since repairs. Yes I am stressing about this because I cant seem to see the positive side after working hard to obtain the car and it being ruined by a stupid driver who should not even be allowed to drive anymore.

Heres a picture of where I was hit
http://i51.tinypic.com/fdhtdv.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/jpc0u9.jpg

Impact was directly on the wheel itself and was suprised nothing came up when they looked at it or if they just ignored it by replacing the wheel only.

Just looking at the photos, it's easy to imagine how the control arm could have been overlooked if all the body sheet metal was repaired without putting the car up in the air.

The damaged wheel comes off and the control arm is in the dark behind the disk brake rotor. If the disk brake rotor appeared undamaged there might not be any reason to look behind it.

It's also easy to imagine damage to the suspension with that kind of impact, but not the necessity of looking for it if nothing manifested itself at the time of repairs.

At the moment, all you can do is wait and see what happens.

At this point I am still waiting for the insurance company] to go to the location they said 24 - 48 hours about 2 days ago and heard nothing since. I don't know if I should call  again and see whats going on since the body shop told me not to say anything and let the dealership and geico work out the mess so I don't make things worse. Any advice from you guys keeping up with me so far? Should I just contact the Supervisor at [the insurance company] claims?

Njzkish:

At this point I am still waiting for [the insurance coampny] to go to the location they said 24 - 48 hours about 2 days ago and heard nothing since. I don't know if I should call again and see whats going on since the body shop told me not to say anything and let the dealership and geico work out the mess so I don't make things worse. Any advice from you guys keeping up with me so far? Should I just contact the Supervisor at [the insurance company[ claims?

Keep in mind that this is the holiday season between Christmas and New Years. The insurance industry practically shuts down. I wouldn't expect anything to happen until some time into the middle of next week.

Follow up with the dealership maybe next Wednesday and see if anything happened. If nothing by then, call.

I hope the answers you're receiving are helpful.

Please note that when you joined this site, you stated you had read and would post in keeping with its Rules, one of which says, "Please refrain from posting the names or contact information of other individuals or businesses."  I've removed names from every one of  your posts in this thread without you seeming to notice.  Please stop using names.

Thank you.

Still no word from the insurance company and they said it may take up to 5 days for someone to come out and look at the car. I have not had a car for 2 weeks and rentals would become pretty expensive by now for someone under 25 years of age.

Should I also contact my insurance company to see if they can get involved in this and see what they would do about it? Or should I continue to wait out to see what the other insurance company has to say. The original adjustor I talked to made a not for their insurance company that it was probably my fault over the phone without even looking at the car which kind of got me thinking they wont cover all this in the end.

Njzkish:

Should I also contact my insurance company to see if they can get involved in this and see what they would do about it? Or should I continue to wait out to see what the other insurance company has to say.

You'll have to decide that for yourself.

But it's likely that your own insurance company will also give you a hard time since it's 4 months since the repairs were done.

And it will also take your own company several days to arrange to inspect the car.

So here is the deal, the other persons insurance company has been taking its time. The paperwork was pushed through by dealership and was told 24 - 48 hours for someone to come out and check the vehicle (Which was tuesday). I constantly contacted the insurance company for answers but I would be transfered to supervisors that never picked up.

I ended up contacting my insurance and one of the adjustors or investegators helped me out by calling the other insurance company along with me on the line telling them a dobi complaint will be made if no one helps me and finally we were put through to the adjustor that will be looking at my car. The issue is that the person we talked to was also rude (even my insurance investigator noticed that) and said he will be out to look at the car on monday so thats 6 days total to get someone out and 2 weeks without a car. But the guy was pretty rude and seemed to be against my claim and tried to act smart. My guess is the insurance company will do all it can to not pay for this. Is there anything else I can do? or do I even have a case here if I make a complaint? I still have all the police report and initial estimate, etc. Took 4 days for the report to come in and my car to get into the shop when the accident happened and I do not understand how the wheel carrier/arm knuckle as well as control arm could be damaged. Also I still have all the pictures of the accident since I was hit head first in the area.

Njzkish:

The issue is that the person we talked to was also rude (even my insurance investigator noticed that) and said he will be out to look at the car on monday so thats 6 days total to get someone out and 2 weeks without a car. But the guy was pretty rude and seemed to be against my claim and tried to act smart. My guess is the insurance company will do all it can to not pay for this. Is there anything else I can do? or do I even have a case here if I make a complaint?

Please understand that filing a complaint with the state dept of insurance will get you nowhere because the other driver's insurance company is not your insurance company and owes you nothing unless and until a court of law finds the other driver responsible and says how much. That means that the other driver's insurance company is doing exactly what it's contractually obligated to do: defend it's policyholder against a disputable claim. Since the company paid for repairs 4 months ago it's no surprise that it's responding to your additional claim on it's own time.

The FASTEST way to get your car back is to pay for the repairs yourself, right now, make sure the damage is well documented, and then sue the other driver after you get the car back and try to convince a judge that the suspension damage was caused by the accident.

Anything else you do with either of the insurance companies is going to take some time and there's really no way around it.

If you absolutely have to rent a car, go rent it and try to collect later. Otherwise, if you don't want to take that chance and can manage without a rental, then do without it.

There is never anything convenient about being damaged in an accident and some inconveniences are worse than others. I know. I've been a claimant more times than I'd care to remember.

Report back after the adjuster goes out Monday.

Njzkish:

I do not understand how the wheel carrier/arm knuckle as well as control arm could be damaged.

It's actually easy to understand how an impact could affect the rear suspension causing it to fail months later.

Check out this typical diagram. There are numerous vulnerable places where a bent rod or damaged bushing could hang on for months before there is enough abnormal wear on a connection to result in failure.

http://www.geraldstires.com/Services/Front_End/FWD%20Suspension.gif

thanks jack for the info, it was really helpful and I may have to go through my insurance company and go back against the driver since the damages are pretty great at $2500, seems to be the quicker method if they decline to pay. But I dont know if the dealership could be exaggerating on the damages as I went in for the metal noise and clanking which mainly related to the Control arm which would not be expensive to replace. But they threw in issues for wheel carrier and wheel hub, etc.

also about the damages I didn't understand how it could come up due to a pothole as the other insurance company adjuster tried to claim. I did suspect it was from the car accident itself due to the impact. But I have no idea how to prove it. The body shop did claim they did not look further in on the suspension due to it passing allignment at the time of repair but that was the other insurances choice I believe.