# Lessons Learned From an Uber Accident



## EaglesFan (Mar 10, 2015)

Already posted this in the Philadelphia forum (my market) but I figured this might be useful to drivers in other cities too. I am posting this to give drivers an idea what to expect and advice I would give in case you find yourself in a similar situation. I'll try to keep this short but the story is complicated.

*What happened*

A couple months ago I was ubering with passengers in the car when I was hit by a very old probably senile driver. I was stopped waiting for a traffic light to change when I was hit by an SUV coming out of a gas station to my right. He hit with a lot of force and continued across traffic, then ran over some bushes and ended up at the bottom of a ravine. He was not injured but one of my 2 passengers suffered whiplash and seemed to be in pain but declined going by ambulance to the hospital. Police officers coincidentally were nearby at the time and heard the accident and arrived before anyone had a chance to call the cops.

Before I go any further a little background info which is relevant to this story. I am a part time Uber driver. I'm basically a computer programmer but I don't want a 9 to 5 at the moment so I do some freelance stuff and when I'm not busy with that I make money driving Uber/Lyft or playing poker (I'm a long term winning player). The car I was driving was 2016 Mazda 3 I had bought for $11k (close to $12k after taxes and fees) . It was a used rental car I had bought from Hertz. I had owned it for less than a month and had put less than 1k miles on it. I had not yet sold my old car a 2005 Sonata (which turned out to be fortunate). My reason for replacing it was that it had had some expensive maintenance the last few years and needed the timing belt replaced and the AC was busted so I decided it was time to move on rather than fixing the AC and everything else. My insurance and my car loan were through USAA. Uber uses multiple insurers but mine was Farmers. And the driver at fault was State Farm. Before I started driving rideshare and got the car loan I had checked and made sure USAA allowed Uber/Lyft and they did with the exception of UberEats (which I don't do).

At the scene I asked the police officer how this should be handled. He gave me his card and said to get the police report through him and that all I needed. I therefore assumed I didn't need to get the other driver's insurance since he had already gotten it (mistake), however I did take pictures of the accident on my phone. I reported the accident including pictures through the Uber app and got a message back saying an insurance person would contact me soon from Farmers. They also stated that due to the damage I could not drive for them till it was repaired and I send pictures of the repairs. This was fine with me since I had no intent of driving it in the condition it was in. It may surprise some of you but nobody from Uber has every called me and as far as I know no investigation was done. However, with where the damage was on my car it would basically be impossible for me to be at fault and if they bothered to get the police report it exonerates me.

I was contacted by the Farmers agent who told me that it normally takes 2 weeks to get a police report in Pennsylvania and suggested that it be subrogated through them to speed things up. Basically what this means is that Farmers would pay for the repairs (minus the $1k deductible) and once the insurer of the other driver was determined they would reimburse Farmers and me for the deductible. At the time I thought the car had thousands of dollars in damages but I did not expect it to be totaled so I agreed thinking my car could be repaired soon and I would be able drive in May before the summer slow period hits and also be able to sell my old car sooner. Worth noting Uber/Farmer's policy has a $1k deductible and does NOT include a loaner car.

The repair shop required me to sign some papers including one saying it was OK to use aftermarket parts to repair my vehicle. I wasn't crazy about this since I planned to own the vehicle for a long time but I didn't want to hold things up and they said this was a requirement of Farmers so I signed it. After about a 1-1.5 weeks they were done assessing the damage and I was called by a different agent from Farmers informing me that they were going to total my car. They then proceeded to insult my intelligence by saying the value of my car was about $2.5k below the kbb private sale value and about $1.5 below what I paid for it a month earlier (I had done my homework and gotten a really good deal on this car most places were selling it for a few thousand more). I knew the value of my car since I had just bought it and when they sent me documents on it amazingly all 10 example cars they sent me were all from the same dealer (cause it was the cheapest) and had the same features and all had price tags way above what they were saying my car was worth! Next to these values they then had an "adjusted value" for my car. When I asked where this adjusted value came from they suddenly "discovered" that they had made a "mistake" and my car had more features than they originally thought and now put the value $1k higher but still $500 short what I paid for it. After this was more tortured logic and ridiculous arguments for why my car wasn't worth what I paid let alone the kbb value which was $1k higher. I pointed out that there was no where in the entire Philly area I could buy an equivalent car for the amount they were offering me and they said that didn't matter only the formulas they had invented to value cars! After arguing with these scum bags for some time they eventually said they weren't going any higher and were ready to send me the check when they discovered the title was still in Hertz name not mine.

I contacted Hertz and Penndot to find out why the title had not transferred. Penndot told me that the paper work had been rejected and then resubmitted. Hertz couldn't tell me why cause the title transfer paperwork was done in a different office than the dealership. Normally it takes 1 month to transfer a title in PA but because of this screw up it took 2 months. This held up getting paid out by a month.

After we got the police report we found out that the driver responsible had State Farm. I sent a letter to them requested they reimburse me the amount I was cheated by the mother ****ers at Farmers as well as some money for the lost income due to my limited driving due to not being to use the newer vehicle with a working AC. When I sent the letter I wrote a long explanation of how I came up with these numbers and documentation to back it up and asked for exactly what I thought I lost and not a penny more or less. I was expecting another fight like I had Farmers. But to my surprise the agent called me up and thanked me for being honest and thorough and told me people normally make ridiculous claims with no explanation or documentation which makes his job difficult. He thanked me and said he was sending me a check for exactly what I asked for. Kudos to State Farm for being an honest company.

*Advice for Other Drivers
*
Some of this is obvious but I'm sure not everyone is doing this

*Make sure you're legal - *Make sure your insurance company and car loan company (if you have one) are OK with you driving rideshare. If they're not then get different insurance. Don't think you can avoid all accidents just by driving safely. You can't control the other driver and some accidents like mine are unavoidable. Fortunately I had done this with my personal insurer (USAA) and have not had any problems and I even called them after the accident to see if I needed to report anything to them so they do know about it. Also some insurers like mine (USAA) treat ubereats differently.

*Have an emergency fund -* You should have this even if you're not an Uber driver but it's especially important with this. At any time your vehicle could be in an accident, break down, or a passenger could make up a story about you and lose your income without warning. In addition the uber policy has a $1k deductible and does NOT include a loaner car so even if you're part time this might be an issue if you don't have money saved.
*Do your own research when the insurance company offers you a total loss settlement* *- *They might be trying to cheat you.
*In my case at least Farmers is dishonest and State Farm is an honest company -* I've also heard similar things from other people. I got the impression that the games Farmers played with me were corporate policy not the result of a rogue agent. Also must add I did not milk anything when I requested reimbursement from State Farm. Had I made an inflated claim without documentation I doubt I would have gotten such a positive response. Sometimes it does pay to be honest.

*Get the other drivers insurance even if the cops already have -* In some states like Pennsylvania it takes some time to get the police report.
*Don't subrogate through Farmers if you can help it -* This is why I recommend 5. Farmers will probably try to undervalue your vehicle if it gets totaled or play other games.


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## Uber's Guber (Oct 22, 2017)

I quit reading at the part where you said you said you either Uber or play poker.


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

Uber's Guber said:


> I quit reading at the part where you said you said you either Uber or play poker.


I quit after I saw the name SHEaglesFan. You deserve all the misery!!!

I kid, I was rear ended by a Geico driver. I was also a Geico driver. They had me fixed up and back on the road in 2 days without paying a dime or any hassle whatsoever. I like Geico.

An officer showed up eventually as we were on the side of the road. He took down our information and printed a sheet with both driver information on it on the spot. I think that was considered the accident report, at least a brief summary enough to get the claim started.


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## EaglesFan (Mar 10, 2015)

Uber's Guber said:


> I quit reading at the part where you said you said you either Uber or play poker.


Lol. Believe it or not poker can get boring when you play too much and Uber is kinda fun when you're not doing it 9 to 5. Also uber money is a little more predictable.



steveK2016 said:


> I quit after I saw the name SHEaglesFan. You deserve all the misery!!!


Haha. You guys are just mad cause you can't use the "never won a Superbowl" line anymore.


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## whensthefunstart (Jul 27, 2018)

I have the Lions here. Talk about never seeing a Super Bowl, playoff wins, or even making the playoffs.


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

EaglesFan said:


> Lol. Believe it or not poker can get boring when you play too much and Uber is kinda fun when you're not doing it 9 to 5. Also uber money is a little more predictable.
> 
> Haha. You guys are just mad cause you can't use the "never won a Superbowl" line anymore.


That's EXACTLY why I'm mad!


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## mikes424 (May 22, 2016)

steveK2016 said:


> I kid, I was rear ended by a Geico driver. I was also a Geico driver. They had me fixed up and back on the road in 2 days without paying a dime or any hassle whatsoever. I like Geico.


I believe most insurance companies waive deductibles if all cars involved have the same insurance company.

As a side point, if your car gets totalled and they pay you for it make sure they include all costs. Expenses like sales tax, registration should be reimbursed.


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