Dealing With Parking Lot Auto Body Accidents
Unfortunately, parking lot accidents are a part of life. According to the National Safety Council, one in five accidents happen in the parking lot. The most common of these accidents is when two cars back up into each other. Today we will look at how to deal with a parking lot auto body accident that caused damage to your car or when you hit someone else’s car.
Contact the Owner
If you hit someone’s car, it’s best to talk to them in person. You can explain the situation and swap insurance information. It might help to go into the store. They should be able to put out an announcement to help you locate the other driver.
If you can’t find them, you should leave a detailed note explaining what happened. Make sure to include the following: your name, address, insurance information, and license plate number. This will ensure that the other driver will be able to fill out an insurance claim so they don’t have to pay out of pocket to fix the auto body damage.
If your car was hit, but the other driver didn’t leave a note, you should contact the police. This counts as a hit-and-run. They might be able to look through CCTV footage to help you find the culprit. You can also try to look around for witnesses to see whether anyone saw what happened. They might be able to help you identify the other driver.
Take Pictures of the Auto Body Damage
It’s a good idea to make sure that you are taking plenty of pictures at the scene of the accident of the auto body damage. There are a few things you must document. Take plenty of pictures to show how your vehicle was positioned. If the other car is there, take pictures of where it is located. It can help to take pictures of the license plates of both vehicles.
Next, you need to show the auto body damage to your vehicle. This will come in essential when you are filing an insurance claim. If you are using a smartphone, turn on the timestamp feature. This helps verify when the images were taken, which your insurer will want to know.
Filing an Insurance Claim
It’s often best to call the insurance company from the scene of the accident. They will be able to send out an assessor to look over the damage. This can help your claim progress faster.
It should be noted that as long as you parked the car legally in the car space, you aren’t liable for any damage that occurred.
Repairing the Damage
Once you’ve reported the accident correctly, it’s time to get the auto damage repaired. More often than not it will be bumper damage.
How you approach this will depend on how severe the damage was. If it was relatively minor, you might be able to wait to book the repair for a time that is convenient for you. If it was more severe, you might need to take the vehicle to be repaired immediately. You don’t want vehicle damage to compromise your safety on the road.
Learn more about repairing a bumper!
Conclusion
Parking lot accidents tend to be fairly minor. But even a fender bender can leave a nasty dent. The good news is that honest auto body shops like Quality Assured Collision Center can get your vehicle back on the road looking like new. Stop driving around with that bumper that is dented, scratched, or hanging off the body. Quality Assured Collision Center is one of Yelp’s highest rated auto body shops in the Long Beach area. To-date we have over 200 honest reviews from real customers. Many of our reviews offer real pictures from real customers. These people were not just satisfied, they were so happy they wanted others to see for themselves. You can check out our reviews for yourself here.