Expert: Rob Painter, Ase, CFEI, CAFATE - 11/6/2008

Question
I have a complicated situation and think I am not being treated fairly by the at fault driver's insurance.   
Long story short... my husband was driving our family van and saw two deer crossing the road so he slowed down to avoid an accident.... once they crossed he let off the brake to resume driving when another deer hopped out ...he put on brakes and was unable to avoid hitting the deer... at the same time the car behind us rear ended us.   

The accident was 3 weeks ago this upcoming Friday... the other driver was assigned fault(for the rear end damage)... his company (Allstate) provided us with a rental car right away and had the car moved to a repair facility.   They called a few days later and said it was totaled and would be moved to their evaluation center for them to determine the value and what they would pay.   Almost 2 weeks later now yesterday my husband called and was told no one had looked at it and they would call today.  The person called today and said that because of the "old" damage in the front they would only cover the difference between the value of the car and the "old" damage (the damage from the deer).    
My car was a 2000 model Ford Windstar with high mileage... but it was reliable and paid for and nicely maintained.   If we had just hit the deer my husband would have repaired the damage mostly himself (he is a skilled mechanic) and had anything he couldn't handle repaired elsewhere which would not cost what their estimate is(their estimate was $2000 roughly).  Basically from my conversation they sounded as though they were estimating repairs based on replacing all the damaged parts (not repairing).   

So basically my car would not be totaled if not for the rear end damage done by the Allstate customer... I would not have to purchase a new car... so they are offering me about $1100 for my totaled van and somehow it doesn't seem quite fair to me!    I have not involved my insurance because I was told the van was totaled from the damage from the Allstate Customer and I would have to file a comprehensive claim with my company to recoup the difference.    I may be totally off base but it just seems like I am screwed and the Allstate folks walk away unscathed.   I have not been told what the total of the damage done to the back of the vehicle was but it was the cause of the vehicle being totaled not the front end damage.  Do I have any recourse or are they just off scott free because I happened to drive an older car and have hit a deer as they were crashing into the back of my van???

Thanks!
Lisa

Answer
Hi Lisa,

I normally won't render my personal opinion on such situations. I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advise. I do not work for an insurance company and I do not live in a no fault state. These are the caveats. I can tell you things I have seen in this industry though based on repairing vehicles for insurance companies for 20 years.
These situations are not what people would feel to be fair, but it is what it is.
In this case, Allstate is paying for what they feel they owe based on their insured's negligence. I can't see how they would be responsible for the deer.
In northern WI, we have a real bad deer/car problem. Such damage is covered under comprehensive and not collision.
In other words, you have two separate incidents here. You have the rear end crash which Allstate was responsible for. Generally, they are allowed to figure the damage any way they want. It is my experience that insurance companies usually figure used parts, but maybe they could not find any at the time of the estimate. We don't know why they did what they did, but I doubt if anything would change.
When estimating the damage from the rearend crash, to them the vehicle has pre-existing damage they are not responsible for--(your deer collision.)
You then must go back to your company and make that claim as well as pay your comprehensive deductible.

I understand your point, but I look at it in an unbiased manner and I do not see any wrong doing on the part of Allstate.

There are many things we just don't have control of and we feel cheated.

I was following a semi at 65 last June when it blew a tire. The insurance company considered my front end damage as a collision and not comp. A big difference in deductibles. I never repaired it and if I would not have had an inset in the grille, the radiator and A/c condenser would have been damaged.

I hope my answer is not too callous, but it is based on the repair of over 10,000 insured vehicles.
You may want to confirm your situation with your comprehensive carrier.

Good luck.

Rob