Kids - Cars - Accidents

[bleedingheart]

Here is the situation...

My nephew was driving his brother and a friend around to run errands for his mom. The errands were related to his graduation party.

While he was sitting at a stop light (it was red) he was rear-ended by a guy in a pickup...my sister's car was really seriously damaged but drive-able...
The guy who hit him was driving on a suspended license and had no insurance but actually did pull over and tried to "iron out stuff" but the police were called when the guy's story about having insurance got a bit "weird"..

So to make a long story short...my sister says that her son is at fault and that he must fork over $500 to pay their deductible if the car can be fixed...

Now my nephew is a hardworking kid and he is working tons of jobs to pay out his workstudy so he has more time in college to study for his classes...and now his mother (my goofy sister) thinks he should pay this money to her for their stupid car.

Personally I am outraged...it wasn't his fault, he was running her stupid errands and now he is really bummed out and he is starting his first year of college in two months...with this weighing upon him...

[SW FL Dem]

1. Your sister is wrong. How can someone be at fault

while sitting at a stop light?

[bleedingheart]

2. I don't really know how he could be at fault

and the cherry on top is the fact that the guy who hit him had a suspended license...for crying out loud...he shouldn't have been driving at all.

[wildeyed]

3. She is being a butt.

Cut the kid some slack. He didn't do anything wrong, and he was doing her a favor.

[rbnyc]

4. There's some kind of law...

...that says that if he's doing her bidding, she's responsible for anything that happens. I'm not sure of the specifics, but my brother-in-law was driving me home at his father's request when we were in our accident, and this law gives us access to his father's insurance money.

I'm sure you don't want to bring lawyers into this, but maybe if you mentioned it to her it would help change her perspective...

[trotsky]

5. I had always thought that even in no-fault states, if you are rear-ended,

the other party is 100% at fault.

Here's wishing your nephew the best until he's fully independent and away from her. Yikes. Please tell him that things will get better.

[bleedingheart]

6. overall she is a great mom

but in this case I think she has completely lost her mind...and the poor kid has just been a wreck over it....

[blondeatlast]

7. Any insurance adjuster will tell you, regardless of the situation,

the person who did the rear-ending is at fault. This is even the case if someone slams on the brakes suddenly, as you are always supposed to leave enough room to stop safely.

If he was stopped at a red light, for crying out loud, how the hell is he supposed to "avoid" the situation?

Sis is wrong, wrong, wrong. My sister is an insurance adjuster, and she agrees with me.

[cally]

8. I think the nephew should not have to pay for this

I assume this is because your sister can't afford this. Maybe she can figure out another way to pay for this but her son needs a clean slate to enter college. He'll have enough expenses there and this wasn't his fault.