Different situation- you locked up your brakes, which would cause the front of your car to dive down and go UNDER the back of the Jetta. In those situations, the car doing the rear-ending almost always sustains more damage. In bulldog's case, the two vehicles were barely moving, so no front-end dive to complicate things.

This is why I laugh at the thought of "5-MPH" bumpers. They work fine as long as both bumpers contact each other on a level surface. But in a chain-reaction accident, with everyone slamming on their brakes, the front bumper is going to slide under the rear bumper of the car ahead of it every single time, and every car gets damaged. Now it costs even more to fix all these complicated 5-mph bumpers in that situation than it did to fix a plain chrome one from 40 years ago.

 

From seeing how easily the Focus gets damaged in minor accidents and how the hood and front facia crumple, there is no way that amount of damage could be done to the Mazda and not have the Focus towed away.

 

originally posted by bulldog:
Out of curiostiy did you ask your daughter if she noticed the rear of the car before the collision because that would be a sure way to figure out if it was there before.

-aj

 

I think you have a great plan of attack; the mazda driver appears as though he's out to collect $ from previous damage and may have gone so far as to stage this *bump*. Since you have some cop buddies and assuming you have his drivers license #, why not ask one of your cop buddies to see how his driving record looks (including accidents if possible). Wouldn't it be nice to determine that he filed an accident report for a prior rear end job on that car and ideally not too long ago. Then ask him for documentation from the body shop that proves it was fixed . BTW, if you're on good terms with your insurance agent you should feel comfortable discussing this with him. You don't need to file a claim to just talk. Your agent just might be buddies with a claims adjuster and can thus garnish insight from a guy that sees numerous cars of all makes with damage.

 

i was in an 02 grand am stopped at backed up traffic at the top of a hill. a race edition dodge viper hit me at like 40 mph. his car was so low to the ground, he slid right under me. the impact pushed me back off of him...i had like 2000 $ worth of damage and all he had was a little scratch on his bumper...

 

If bumpers are required to withstand an impact up to 5mph, then my daughters Focus did not exceed 5mph....but, his bumper being dented in, had to be hit with a force greater than 5mph. Also, measureing the height of the Focus bumper, (unless Focus's can fly) there is no way there could be damage higher than the top of her bumper, which there was. There were also two half circle cuts in his bumper cover, which he claimed were caused my the hit from the Focus...problem is, the Focus bumper has NO protruding items to cause this....but, the marks sure look to be caused by tow hooks, like the ones you see on Chevy/GMC trucks. A body shop told him there was damage to the rear frame (twisted) and a quarter panel was pushed into the edge of the rear door of the Mazda.

If she hit him, and slid under his vehicle, then there should be damage to her hood (hood functions just fine and no marks what so ever on her hood), and no damage to the small grill insert between the bumper and hood, and the grill dam under her bumper or the plastic headlight covers, which are tight fitting to the bumper and hood. There was no damage at all to her vehicle. The mazda did have a cracked tail light cover, which is above the bumper...go back to the Focus bumper height. Also, his trunk was sprung, and marks/scratches/gouges were visible on the top of the bumper, which shows he had been opening and closing the trunk lid for some time.

I have satisfied myself to the fact the there is no way that the Focus did the damage to the Mazda. He WILL get an earfull from me, if and when contact is made between us.
Bulldog...

 

if there is no police report. was there really an accident???? if ya know what I mean

 

You know, if it comes down to fraud, get going now. An investigator can not only ask neighbors if they noticed previous damage, but, visit gas stations he frequents (people are creatures of habit) and get the station video tape of him filling up his damaged car before the accident.

It is always wonderful for it to proceed to court, then suddenly the defense pulls out the tape with his license plate, him, the damage he can see looking down at the filler neck, and the date mark on the tape. Then judge tells them to take him off in hand cuffs for at least perjury.

 

Not if he hit you at 40mph. Aint no way Jose.



I've T-boned a Taurus with our Windstar (Not my fault...she ran a stop sign) and totalled her car. The van ended up with a cracked headlight, grille, and mangled bumper. And this was at 20mph.