got rear ended today..., not serois but annoying! Options

[saleeka]

*edit yes i now notice i spelled serious in the title wrong...*

Well, today on my way to work on Highway 61 I got rear ended by this 30 year old lady in a saturn... I was following traffic as normal, and it was one lane, as anybody who lives in the twin cities knows that 61 right now is under the largest highway construction project the state has ever seen. So im driving along, and traffic ahead of me slows to a stop because of the stoplights ahead and such. after about 5 seconds of being completly stopped, I hear the sound of breaks locking up from behind me, and before I know it BAM! My body gets bounced and my car gets pushed slightly ahead. The first thing i did before i even pulled to the side of the road was turn around to see what hit me, and this lady in a sliver L series has this look of shock on her face as she is staring right back at me. My first reaction as I was pulling to the side was to freak out on her , but i kept my cool, walked up to her window, and said "i need your license, insurace card, and a pen..." As she was getting those things ready I turned to look at the damage my car got. To my amazement nothing was cracked, seeing as she hit me at like 10 mph, just some major deep scars from her license plate, and some scratch marks from her bumber onto mine. After further inspection, however, the right side of the bumper is sagging down, leaving a large gap between the tailight, and most of the license plate frame... so i get all her info, and said to her 'it dosent seem that serious, but im going to get an estimate and ill contact you after that"... we diddent call the police because in MN if its under $1000 in damage one isnt needed, and I wasnt quite ready to have it reported to my driving record that some unattentive b*tch hit me and made my rates jump 50 bucks a month. once I got to work i contacted my agent on advice as to what to do, and they said to go through her insurance seeing as its her fault. the only thing im sweating is how much the damamge will be because clearly the bumper will need repainting, and that can get pricey... sigh i just hate the hassle of having to get the estimates, then dealing with her insurance, and then the down time for fixing the car... and it will be even worse a headache if it turns out to be more than a G, because then im sure her insurance will try to fight it... BLAH i just needed to vent a little

This post has been edited by saleeka: May 25, 2004 - 11:56 PM

[saleeka]

estimated damage- $842 if there is inner bumper damage (they said likely), $450 if not... 3 shops have confirmed this, all were within 10 dollars of one annother...