When to repair after hit and run?

[slash007]

I had someone run into my my Ryko Foam Brite IBA a couple of days ago. They drove in way crooked and right into the left side of the machine damaging some metal and photo eyes on the bottom. The machine actually started and during the wash they moved again and damaged the track on one side. I did get video of the whole thing and since he paid with a credit card, I have his name and license #. Question is, should I expect that his insurance will pay for sure assuming he has it? It was a nice car. Also, can I repair the damage right away and just save the invoice, or do I need to wait to find out from his insurance? It was a hit and run and I might not hear back from the police for 2 weeks. I got the machine running again, but wanted to go ahead and fix everything properly.

 

[MEP001]

Had almost the same thing happen except we didn't catch the guy who did it, our insurance sent an agent out to look at it and just said "Send us a bill." I don't know what they would or could have done if I'd just repaired it and sent them receipts for the parts, but as easy as they were to work with they probably would have just cut a check.

In your case, since I would assume your insurance will go after his insurance, I'd suggest calling your company to find how they want you to proceed.

 

[rph9168]

I think you need to contact the guy that ran into it. Maybe he will pay or give you his insurance info. If he doesn't contact your insurance company and give him the guy's information.

 

[slash007]

I have his name and car etc, but haven't been able to find a phone number for him. Figured the detectives would give it to me, but that might take a couple of weeks. In the mean time I am having Ryko come out and give me a quote to fix everything and also to make sure there wasn't additional damage that I can't see. I did find out that he is a pastor at a church and and an article saying that 6 years ago his wife died by being pinned with an SUV against her house. Makes me wonder if he did it...

 

[rph9168]

Not exactly a good sign that he is a pastor yet does not report the accident to you. Any way to find out what church? Maybe someone on this site can say if the insurance company could find the contact information for the guy if they have the license plate number. I know in some states you can get contact info from the state but not in all.

 

[slash007]

Honestly I don't know if he even realizes that he damaged the machine. It is obvious that he ran into it, but the machine still washed his car and did a good job lol so maybe he thinks that nothing happened. The way the metal was bent though, unless his tires did it then he has to have scratches at least on his rims or car. I did an exhaustive Google search and came back with an address, so maybe I'll stop by and pay him a visit if the police don't call me soon. I did call every # that showed up online and they were disconnected. The church is just a small church and no one answered when I called there. I really just want to know if he has insurance.

 

[pgrzes]

Just had a similar incident. A woman leaving my automatic hit the left dryer ear, ripping off her mirror and creasing her door and pulling the dryer stand lags out of the concrete. She screamed at me how it was my fault!!! Called her insuracnce company, who called me!! As soon as I told them I have a video of the incident and need to have the floor in the bay repaired and the dryer stand resecured where do I send the bill?? They accepted responsibility and sent out an adjuster. Problem is the correct repair is $7000 and she only has $5000 in property damage???? How is this possible??? So if she rips out my high velocity and causes $50k in damage, I get paid $5000 max?????? I dont understand how even if you have state minimum the damage YOU caused to someone elses property is not covered. Anyway video is everything. I have 2-16 camera systems in my facility, one I watch constantly, and one that is close cameras that I get tags coming and going so I can identify pretty much any angle.

 

[boywonder]

Had a lady idle into my exit door during the wash, bent it out pretty good. She did not realize what she did. Went my other automatic and got another wash. Thank god she used a credit card, also had video. Called the cops, gave them her name and did a search for her address and gave that to them as well. Told the cop it was like $600 to fix. Cop went to the address at 6am the next morning. Found the car in the driveway with damage. Went to the door and her husband answered, there was a lot of explaining to do. Had a estimate ready for the cop when he came back. My door got fixed.

 

[mjwalsh]

Had a lady idle into my exit door during the wash, bent it out pretty good. She did not realize what she did. Went my other automatic and got another wash. Thank god she used a credit card, also had video. Called the cops, gave them her name and did a search for her address and gave that to them as well. Told the cop it was like $600 to fix. Cop went to the address at 6am the next morning. Found the car in the driveway with damage. Went to the door and her husband answered, there was a lot of explaining to do. Had a estimate ready for the cop when he came back. My door got fixed.

boywonder,

What kind of process was involved to find out the name of the person based on the credit card use? I am assuming that you only see four of the digits etc. I am pretty sure that I would have no problem for those who use our PayPal Here phone swipe. But at a PCI compliant device such as our ATM or via CryptoPay or whatever... I am not sure on level of difficulty of tracking based on the few numbers seen off the credit card. I know law enforcement can rise to that situation but they can be selective when it comes to heavy investigation to find identities etc. Depending on the officer ... if there is a number or a letter not shown on a camera footage ... from experience ... they might or might not choose to help.

mike

 

[slash007]

I also got the name off of the credit card. The data shows the last 4 numbers, but also the name. I use Unitec Portal units. With Cryptopay you can also see the name. This is the 2nd time that I got a name from a credit card for someone that caused damage. I also have a picture of his face from my Entry unit bullet camera so there is no denying that he was driving either.

 

[boywonder]

I didn't even need the cc number. You should still get a cardholder name with the credit card charge. Did a search for the name. The police station is a couple blocks away. Called the cops, printed a picture of the vehicle, did the address search, cops showed up. 10 minutes tops. Don't over-complicate things, remember they damaged your stuff. They do the same thing if it was the other way around.

 

[mrfixit]

An oversized vehicle tore our ryko ohd down the tracks and damaged the arm.. Luckily it was a brand new vehicle and it's first wash so the customer called the police right away to file report for insurance. We shut the wash down a few days, documented damages with photos and got ryko out right away to give a written estimate. A decision was made to wait until the adjuster showed up to make sure we got paid for 6g in damages.. I don't think it was necessary... State Farm I believe, and they also paid for our down time based off average car count the last month. Issued check no problem with estimate from ryko. And car count info.

If your worried about the insurance company and they cant get adjuster out right away ask them if they will pay all lost revenue.. If not they will give you go ahead for repairs. It's really no different than the insured hitting a car.. Once they have police report and estimate from reputable shop, ryko, that's all they should need. I would go for lost revenue for the amount of time the machine was down anyway.

Being you have it recorded they have no recourse.

If Insurance doesn't pay full cost of repairs the burden falls on the person liable for damages..

 

[slash007]

Luckily I wasn't down more than a couple hours. I called the police right away and had the officer look at the damage and gave him the video. It's been a week and I haven't heard back yet, but they told me to call if I haven't heard anything in two weeks. I was able to bend the main parts back in place and after grinding off some bolts and adjusting, I was able to get it to work. I am still waiting on an estimate from Ryko for a full replacement. He also bent one of my track pieces, which is only 3 weeks old! It was a newer looking truck, so hopefully he has insurance. I am just waiting to confirm that before fixing anything else.

 

[Randy]

Sami, you’re pretty much on your own on this. The police will probably not do much to help you because the incident happen on private property. You’re going to have to track down the pickup truck that did the damage and try to get his insurance information. Don’t contact your insurance company because the claim will go against you. The longer you wait the harder it’s going to be to collect anything.

 

[slash007]

I not worried about criminal charges, just want to know if he has insurance. Police report is now ready for pickup. Would that have that information on it? I'm not sure, but I think in the past I picked one up and it said that they didn't have insurance, so it looks like they checked. I did give them the name and license plate. I think I found an address as well. Looks like I might have to drive down and see if hes home.

 

[Randy]

I not worried about criminal charges, just want to know if he has insurance. Police report is now ready for pickup. Would that have that information on it? I'm not sure, but I think in the past I picked one up and it said that they didn't have insurance, so it looks like they checked. I did give them the name and license plate. I think I found an address as well. Looks like I might have to drive down and see if hes home.

Sami, I highly doubt that you’re going to get much information from the police report. The last ones we’ve gotten all the goo info was blacked out. In the state of Washington it’s a class “C” felony for the policemen the give out someone’s information, even if they’ve been involved in a crime. No insurance, take them to small claims court and ruin their credit.

 

[slash007]

Well, I'm 3 for 3 now on FB damage. I've caught all 3, but all 3 had no insurance. Just picked up the police report and it's a 68 year old male with no insurance. Truck looked new, but it's a 2004. I'm guessing he's retired and doesn't have a paying job. I do have his home address so I'll be paying him a visit, but probably a waste of time. Luckily the damage wasn't intensive.

 

[Randy]

No insurance. We’d take them to small claims court. They probably won’t pay but that’s when the fun starts. Since you’ve got a judgment against them you can really mess with their credit. Someday they might want to buy something on credit and it will show up that they have a judgment against them.