Can I ask that driver to be responsible for breaking my wide shied glass?

Question

Last week, there was a few very big chunk of ice snow flow up into the air from a car in front of me on Hwy7 in Richmond hill. One of ice snow block fell on the left corner of my wideshield with a big loud "bam" sound. I worried it might break my glass but I could not see it since the widesheild were dirty, plus I had to focus on the traffic on the road. I was thinking to stop that car, but I was hurry going back home to look after my sick toddler (he got vomitting). So I wrote down his plate number. In the next following days, I really forgot this. But this morning, I found it did break and the line is about 3-4 inches.
Can I still hold that driver responsible for this? Where I should go through it? through police or insurance company? If I call insurance company, will my premium goes up?
Could anybody who works in insurance or who has similar experience give me some advice?
Thanks in advance.

By the way, I forget to mention. The ice snow blew off from his car, not from the road side by his car.

Answer 1

This is insane.
How exactly was the motorist in front of you suppose to control ice and snow from the road hitting your windshield?
You have a better chance getting a hold of God or mother nature and asking them to pay.
If you have full coverage insurance call the company and they will take care of it, most likely after you pay your deductable. If you have liability only then you suck up the cost.

Answer 2

Well, it shouldn't be the daycare's responsibility because I've been a bus driver and I know that the bus is not offiliated with the day care. The bus driver is hired by the school district and works out of a bus station. So if you don't want to take responsibility, you need to call the bus station, not the daycare. But I don't think the bus driver should be held responsible with a bus load of kids, how could the driver possibly do anything about it to prevent it or do anything about it afterwards when the driver's main responsibility is to drive?????? Since your son is 5, then this happened on an am or pm run, and that most likely means the bus was packed with kids, I doubt very seriously the driver would even be able to see your son playing with the other kids glasses, all the driver can see is the top of their heads and only obvious misbehavior gets noticed like standing, and walking on the bus, throwing things, obvious stuff like that. Although there are cameras on the bus so you can call the station, they will watch the video and see if it was even possible to see your son playing with the glasses and see how the driver responded or didn't respond. But leave the daycare out of it because the daycare is not responsible for anything regarding the bus except when loading and unloading when the daycare attendant is standing at the bus, but sometimes that isn't how it's done, sometimes the driver or assistant (if there is an assistant, and rarely there is) will walk the children into the daycare, or the kids simply walk themselves and only 4 yr olds require supervision at bus stops like parent present for pickup or driver or assistant walking a child, but here in Texas, 5 yr olds can walk themselves. I don't think 5 yr olds should walk unattended, but it's not law here in Tx, so most of the time 5 yr olds walk themselves. Therefore, daycare not responsible...... If my info is wrong, then the laws must be different where you are and so just look into how things are done regarding behavior on bus and who's responsible.

Answer 3

Legally, the other driver can not be held responsible for debrief in the road, just like you wouldn’t like to be held responsible of braking someone’s glass because your car touched a piece of ice or a small rock in the floor and went flying.

It could only work out that way if you were able to stop right when it happened and the other driver did too and agree it was his/her fault.

In your case, there is absolutely nothing you can do about the other driver, as it has been many days since the accident and was never reported.

The only thing left now is to call your insurance and explain to them what happened, give the tag number of the other vehicle, and wait for them to process your claim. If you have full insurance, it should cover this, but be aware: the deductible could be more than the actual price of the repair!

I would suggest getting a couple of estimates from a local shop, and comparing them with your actual deductible. If is more, then go ahead with the claim, otherwise, is not worth it as you will have not only to pay more than the actual cost of the repair, but you will probably get your premiums increased from your insurance because you are not a “safe driver” (I disagree with this and they can go to hell, but that is the way it works anyways).

Good luck.

Answer 4

My experience has been the other driver's insurance will not pay (even if you had made your claim as soon as the incident happened). Especially since you would be reporting this several days after the fact. But, it never hurts to try. First thing you need to do is make a Police Report. Then call the other insurance company.

Answer 5

You can not hold the driver responsible since they will look at you and say that that chunk of ice could have come from any vehicle in front of you, you ....

1) have no witnesses,
2) can't control nature,
3) can't force a person to clean off their car before pulling out of the drive...most state laws say as long as all windows allow maximum visibility, the state of the rest of the car is optional except in cases of it being piled over 3 inches on the top and he/she is pulled over by a traffic cop and asked to clean it off.

Answer 6

Normally the other driver is responsible for anything that falls off their car, ice included. I would go immediately to the police and file a report.

The longer you wait the less the chance of getting any type of reimbursement.

Answer 7

Think about what you are saying. If you get his insurance information his insurance company will say how do we know it came from him. If you didn't stop right then, it comes down to your word against him and you are going to have a hard time proving it was from his car. This is an accident just like getting a door dent from a cart in a parking lot.

You can try, but don't think the police will pay much attention and its just worth getting fix and contacting your insurance company

Answer 8

There's no need to pursue this with the other driver.

Glass replacement usually falls under comprehensive coverage, not collision. Your policy might also have details specific to windshields.

Your premium shouldn't go up because of this. Most of your premium goes towards collision coverage. This is a claim against your coverage for things like auto theft or a tree falling on your car.

Answer 9

what you are describing is very hard to prove in court or to the insurance companys, its basically your word against theirs. Not to mention all the time you are going to waste. i went to thruway muffler told them I did not want to go through insurance and they did it for me for 240.00 cash Just shop around.

Answer 10

Call the police, get a report taken and then call your ins. co. let them worry about it...That's why you pay for ins.