First accident : what to do ?

[meerkat]

Well, it had to happen sooner or later in Bangalore!

This morning around 7:15am I stopped at the light at
Bellary road - CBI Rd. intersection on my way to
office. (It was another matter that no cop was there
and almost nobody else cared to stop at the red light)!

I was in the left-most "lane" and had just started
to move on green when this Swaraz Mazda came from
right and took a left turn onto CBI Rd., smashing
the front right panel of my 4-month old Baleno !

I was able to yell the van down, park my car and
take down the van no. (VTPL, KA02, C1202; with a tag
"hp 133, Hebbal" pasted on), the driver's and his
supervisor's name and mobile no. The driver was
aparently shaken up too. Not knowing what else
to do, I let the guy go, and went to the nearby
police station. They told me to come back after
9:30am when the concerned officer would be present.
But "it would take a day to file the complaint,
have the RTO people come down and inspect, and ...".

I don't know at this point how best to proceed
with the issue. Could I claim with the Van's
insurance ? If so, how do I go about it ? I
don't have an estimate of the damage yet. The front
right panel is smashed, may be the right turn light
and the right mirror are also damaged somewhat.
I don't know what else. The internal equipment may
be okay, since the accident happened at low speed.
Any suggestions from experienced TBHP members would
be most welcome. Thanks.

[Buffetfan]

I know how a first accident feels....forget chasing the Van...use your own insurance ....call the workshop and they will guide you thru the process...

Abt the car..it will again look as good as new...repair work in Maruti is generally very good

[Surprise]

4 months old car got a hit for no mistake of yours, that's horrible. Do not try to file an FIR. It's waste of time.

As mentioned earlier, I had claimed insurance for lots of cars without filing FIR until it’s a major accident.

Leave your car to the workshop, asks the insurance surveyor to inspect the car and generate a quote. Proceed with the works.

In parallel find out the owner of the van and ask him to bear the difference in cost that needs to be paid after the insurance pay out. Try to get this in writing. This needs to be done immediately. Give him this option, if he is hesitant; tell him that you will file a case. Most of them would agree, as running around the PS will affect their business.

[tsk1979]

Agree on the FIR part surprise, but i have had an expirience similar to the one stated in bangalore. If you register FIR, the police will keep your vehicle for inspection. this time may be in days. So your car may not be the same when you get it back. Most people in bangalore know this. So all you can do is pray that the cost diffrential is not too much if the LCV guy is not relenting. We once got hit by a guy who was dead drunk and did not have a DL. The police told us not to lodge a complaint as we would have to park the car for "days". That guy ran off. The police did not even borther that he may be endangering public safety. The officer was mroe concerned in getting some chai pani for lending his precious ears to us,

[manaa45]

meerkat, i know how it feels when somebody bangs ur new car but with my experience, i would suggest, just ask the PS to take down a complaint but dont lodge a FIR as it involves lot of issues.

as far as insurance is concerned, take it to the maruti workshop, they would not need an FIR copy or so for insurance. just ask them to prepare an estimate, call ur insurace office, report about the accident, most of this will be done by the workshop itself as they have their contacts. once the surveyor is appointed they will manage the rest.

as you have taken the phone nos of the mazda fellow, tell him that you have lodge a complaint with the police station, ask him to pay the difference amount wihich may be the 50% depreciation for the right indicator light and the mirror those being the plastic parts and there wont be much depreciation for other damages as your car is only 4 months old so the depreciation should be around 5 to 10% depending on the rules of the insurance company. try to get some damages from the owner of mazda atleast.

i hope this helps you and one last point describe the situation properly in the claim from and this might just solve half the problems.

shubbhi

[satan_crazy]

sad dude :(
after reading some of the responses to my earlier post on my first fiasco, and being in the heat of the things, i got a bit wiser and here are my 2 paise (cents?) ... firstly what not to do - forget the cops, no point ... at the end u'll end up paying them for writing a complaint (not forgetting the time you spend at the police station).

apparently, a person does not need an FIR or a complaint for claiming the insurance. you can just say that you had parked the car and some guy banged into the car and you found the car in that condition; and btw, you only get 50% of the claim for the plastics, lights, mirrors etc ... so you should try and recover the money from the driver/supervisor (atleast threaten them about the FIR etc)

to give a perspective of the cost, the front right panel of my baleno had a small scratch ... probably around 5 cm long, and the cost came out to be 5k inr, which i feel is kinda expensive. anyways, i'm not going to worry about the no-claim bonus ... its just been a month and am sure, there will be a lot more - especially in bangalore.

[tabrez02]

Relax dude,

What ever has happened its bad, but dont worry everythings gonna be just fine. as you car is in the first year. you will get almost all the insurance money. If u have the Maruti Insurance then you are more safe as u dont have to run around. just leave your car at the Maruti Autho Service and rest they will take care.

[meerkat]

Thanks a lot guys. These are very useful suggestions for
everybody, and I've saved these for future use.

My personal experience has been a little different from usual, and
I'm reporting it just for information. I was able to contact the call
centre travel agency (VTPL), and they agreed to get the damage
fixed in there own workshop (and not at any Maruti workshop). I
did agree on a friend's suggestion, with a written promise on their
part (for whatever it was worth) that if they couldn't fix it to my
satisfaction, they'd get it fixed by Maruti. My friend convinced me
that Maruti outsourced such jobs to third parties like these anyway!

Anyway, after leaving the car for two days at their workshop I finally
got it back in a condition which I figured was good enough to be
accepted (although the paint job etc. was not quite up to par).
Luckily the lamps weren't damaged except for scratches on the
plastic lens on the turn signal which, of course, couldn't be fixed) .
I figured I'd probably keep on getting banged on Bangalore streets,
and couldn't hope to keep the car looking like new anyway.

[iceman91]

those scratches can be fixed. and the headlights can be made brand new...check at J C road.

[hrag]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Do not try to file an FIR. It's waste of time.

I'm very surprised to hear this. I had an accident on the Tidel Park Road in November 2003 when a drunkard on a Splendor "flew" onto my car after hitting an auto coming in the oppposite direction.

8:45 am - accident happens
9:00 am - Police arrive
9:15 am - all statements taken from involved people and I was ked to come to the police station at 11 am to collect my police certificate for insurance
11:00 am - I reach police station after taking photocopies of all documents and clearing junk from the car since its going to the workshop
12:10 pm - I get my certificate. No requests or hints for anything resembling a bribe. The 1 hour delay was because of some other guy arguing with the inspector about a case. My case takes exactly 10 minutes.
12:30 - I leave my car at Concorde and file the claim with TATA AIG
12:45 - End of incident

The only funny thing about the whole experience was the inspector telling me at 9:15 am - Sir, you go to your office (my car was driveable), finish all your work for the day and come to the station at 11

Everybody at the station was so polite and so helpful!

Incidentally, the other guy who delayed me was arguing that he wasn't in town on a particular date. Somebody else had filed an accident report claiming that this guy's car had hit theirs.

If you don't report your accident to the police, how can you be sure the other party is not going to do something similar - file a report saying you hit them and you were at fault?

[Sush]

Originally Posted by hrag

If you don't report your accident to the police, how can you be sure the other party is not going to do something similar - file a report saying you hit them and you were at fault?

Man this is bangalore....city of the 4th most corrupt state of India. The police, RTO and all public departments will drive a person crazy if one has to deal with them. Driving in bangalore is always a horrifying experience. I think its good enough if a person escapes any injuries. No point in chasing people or fighting with them as it will lead to more trouble.