Kind of like the topic title says I had a recent incident where I hit a dog with my car on the highway. The dog ran out front of my car on the highway and I hit it. It caused quite a bit of damage to my vehicle. The police report states that the homeowner is at fault for not having his dog secured. But now my problem is that the homeowner is refusing to give me any insurance info or anything really. What can I do? I have a 2013 Subaru imprezza that cost about 36,000. Also, the dog did die. Which I feel terrible about since I am a dog owner and lover.
Tell your insurance company where the owners live. They'll take care of it and get the information they need. Sorry to hear you hit a dog and are broken up about it, though. It sucks.
Yeah, if the homeowner is refusing to cooperate, let your insurance company handle it. If they can't get the info from him, they'll sic their attorneys on him.
Trust me, if I could bring the dog back I would. And I feel bad for having to go after this person . But they have already made it clear they don't intend to pay anything. Even when the police report says it's their fault. Thank you for all the replies... We'll most...
I generally dislike dogs too(might have something to do with one mauling my leg as a child), but I braked hard as I could when my neighbor's dog ran in front of my car and was relieved I didn't kill it. So yeah, not liking dogs or being a cat lover doesn't excuse the comment. But to the OP, if a police report was filed, I'm surprised they didn't require the homeowner hand over relevant insurance info right away. If your insurance company won't take care of it(they really should), you might give your local PD a call and see if there is a route you can take with them.
That's a shame. I'm a dog lover, too, and it's sad when any pet is killed, but you need to keep in mind that it wasn't your fault. I'd follow Robert Maxwell's advice and talk to the insurance company, they'll know what to do.
Yes, but they weren't being responsible dog owners. The dog wasn't able to understand the dangers of the road.
About the only worthwhile advice. ^ Plus talk to an attorney on your own. Push comes to shove, and he's uninsured or his policies don't cover what happen you might be able to get a lien on his bank account or his home till he pays up. Couple years ago, my mother (with me, the wife, and the kids) was hit by a horse that had deliberately been let out of it's coral by the owner. (long story short: He didn't want the horse anymore, and rather than sell it or give it away, he let it go free). He denied, denied, denied, and then claimed my mother had been drinking and ran into the coral (which was a mile and a bit and up a hill from the accident and false to begin with), then claimed it was the fault of his kid, then the neighbor, then it was "he was out of town and the horse jumped must of have jumped the fence". Took our insurance company and my mother's lawyer to get the fucker into court after nearly a year of him dodging phone calls, certified letters, and process servers. He even went as far as trying to get a job in another state to avoid being served.
Doesn't matter. Leash laws would mean the dog should have been restrained and they're responsible for the damage to the car.
It shouldn't be. If they had been responsible about controlling their animal the car wouldn't be damaged and the poor dog would be alive.
Agreed. The insurance company has the resources to deal with them and would definitely want to get reimbursed if they've paid out. What he said.
Sometimes you have to make a call: dodge an animal in the road or hit it. There's situations, be it weather, traffic, road conditions, that make the safer of the two options being to hit the animal. And you can't say "well it's just a car". It can be your life, or the life of someone else on the road, or the life of the people in the car with you. If you can avoid hitting the animal safely, that's the default action, but when it endangers others around adn with you have to make the hard choice. Yeah, I've had to hit a dog that ran out into the road. On an ice covered road in the middle of the night with steep drops off one side and next to zero time to react, I had to make a choice. Dit it tear me up? Fuck ya'. sometimes you have no choice.