Why You Should Not Post Your Accident News On Social Media?

"Baat Bigdi Hai Is Qadar..Dil Hain Toota, Toote Hain Hum...Aur Ab Gaadi Bhi Toot Gaya".....LOL!!!

Yes, I was driving. No, I was not drunk or under any sort of influence. I am not even suicidal. Anyone who has driven under stress knows that missing a blind spot is common. Because of this many drivers can encounter terrible accidents on road causing risks to their own lives and the lives of other people. Something similar happened in my case a couple of weeks ago. I hit a concrete pillar. While nothing happened to the pillar, my car got smashed. Was I speeding? No, but it's concrete versus metal, you see. Luckily the car's automatic brakes managed to get me a complete stop but by then the damage was already done.

Why I didn't post this incident on social media?

Medical posts generate conversations. They don’t entertain or amuse or even educate or inform others. They’re simply a sign of desperation, a need for attention, a craving for people to comment with “Get well soon!!!” or “OMG, what happened?” and that is extremely annoying. Over the years I’ve had medical procedures — but I have never posted about any of them. I didn’t even post a photo of myself on the hospital bed. I have real friends who care. People I can reach out to in a message/call, if need be, so I don’t need to post images or tales of medical woes online in a sad and desperate plea to get attention and to feel “loved". Any sympathy post that has me tagged on it, I delete it.

Secondly, reporting an accident on social media doesn’t just damage your reputation – it could wreck your ability to collect damages in your insurance claim. This was advised by my attorney and is applicable for any incident that involves claims. Under the law, both the insurance company and defense counsel have the right to demand access to your social media accounts to gather any evidence that is relevant to the case. To avoid jeopardizing your auto accident claim, it is crucial to keep all details of the accident away from any type of social forum. Here's how social media can ruin your accident claim:

1. Your activities can me interpreted as your injuries are not as bad as you claim- even if your social media post has you smiling in your garden or just hanging out in your backyard. The insurance company may try to argue that the accident did not affect you therefore you do not deserve compensation for emotional trauma. Your post will be used against you.
2. "I was not attentive".."I didn't see it coming".."It was my fault"..these statements implies admitting fault by the opposing attorneys and the insurance adjusters even if you may not be legally responsible for the accident.
3. Because accidents involve sensitive medical, financial and insurance information, it is best to keep it up to yourself.
4. Bad mouthing the insurance company or the body repair shop may be read as a sign of bad faith- therefore the insurance adjuster may not be willing to negotiate with you out of good faith. 

How should you handle social media?

It’s naive to believe that anything you post on social media is strictly private. Private does not mean invisible. Anything posted online can be seen by almost anyone, even with a strict privacy setting. Even if you have  'only me' or 'friends only',  settings on Facebook, Twitter, IG , etc. anything you post to these sites can become public – and to be seen by insurance adjusters or other people in a position to use this information to deny your claim. Yes, you heard it right, defense attorney can subpoena information on your social media accounts. Getting access to your deleted posts is also possible and if you delete a post it will be considered as 'tampering with evidence'. So, it is best that you do not post any accident news on social media. Wait till you receive your entire claim. Do not add any new friends or followers as they may be the insurance adjusters or defense attorney. Warn friends to not post anything about your accident on social media or tag you on such posts. 

Immediate next steps after the accident

Call 911 if you are seriously injured or have caused injury to someone or damaged something other than your car. As long as you are in your senses,

1. Please note the time of the accident.
2. Survey the damage of your car or any other car/person/object involved in the accident.
3. Take photos of the accident scene,  your car or any other car/person/object involved in the accident. 
4. In case you have hit a living being or have damaged property, exchange your insurance information with the parties involved with you in the accident. Luckily, in my case, since I alone and did injure any other living being or damage any property, there was no 911 or FIR involved.
5. For mild to moderate injuries, go to the ER or call for help to take you to the ER. For serious injuries, 911 will do the needful. Medical bills are yet to come. Will update the post once the claims are settled.

Procedure for the insurance claim

A family member called up our auto insurance provider, to ask about the next steps for filing an insurance claim and repairing the car. Our insurance provider wanted to speak to me directly to verify if the accident information provided to them was correct. Questions asked:

1. What was the date and time of the accident
2. Were you alone or was there anyone else in the car with you? 
3. Was anyone injured in the accident other than yourself? 
4. Was any property damaged?
5. What is the make and model of the car that you were driving?
6. What is the damage to your car?
7. Have you used this vehicle for any commercial purpose such as Uber or Lyft?
8. Please verify your name, address, and contact number.

They reported the accident as "driver at fault" and gave us two options: Either we take the car to an independent body repair shop or choose from their list of repair facilities. The advantages of going through their authorized body repair shop are:

1. The process was much faster- If we went through an independent body repair shop then they would have to drive by the accident spot, take photos, submit the claim for approval, etc- which would involve a lot of back and forth between them and the insurance company.
2. We thought the chances of the estimates getting approved are higher.
3. We just had to drop the car to the repair shop and they took care of everything else from there.
4. We didn't have to make an appointment for the repair, the rental car is arranged on our behalf. 
5. Our insurance provider and the repair facility has guaranteed the repair as long as we own this car.

Repairing the car and how much did it cost?

Damage to the car: The door and the support panel that holds the door were crumpled and crushed, so they had to be replaced. The impact pushed the door which in turn pushed the rear wheel so the entire back panel had to be replaced. Here's a breakdown of the estimate:

Somehow the final bill climbed to another $6k from the initial estimate. Because of our comprehensive coverage plan, we only had to pay $1k deductible and the balance $26k was paid by our insurance company. The body shop estimated that once they received all the parts, it would take 3-4 weeks (business days) to repair the vehicle. What we didn’t know here was the biggest issue would be actually getting the parts. Initially, it was estimated that it would take up to 2 weeks to get the parts, since some of the parts were back ordered, like the door. 

A family member took the car to the body repair shop, signed a few papers, left the car there, and came home with the rental car. We made sure that photos of the rental car were taken so that at the time of the return we are not blamed for any damages that we not caused by us.  

Handling post-accident trauma

Of course, I felt terrible for my car. In my 20 years of driving (both left and right hand),  I never had any accidents. Mental pain is more than physical pain. I almost made up my mind to never drive again but my family convinced me that I should drive more to overcome the trauma. I also figured that discussing it only increases the trauma symptoms. So, it's best to keep the news limited to your closed family members and friends and stay away from social media. My family had imposed Parental Controls and Screen Time on my mobile phone so that I stay away from social media. Smule was uninstalled. Instagram account was disabled. Plus, hospitals don't allow cell phones. It doesn't reduce the pain or let you forget the reason you feel stressed in the first place, but it does let you do productive things. For instance, I have started writing for my blog again. 

Why am I writing about it now?

I have received a claim from my auto insurance provider and as you can see from the above photo, my car has been repaired. So there is nothing to worry about from a legal point of view. Also, it doesn't matter who comes to know about it and who doesn't. The sympathy window is gone. People who do not want to stay in touch with you, such news won't bring them back. Neither should anyone use such incidents as a bait to reconnect with people.

Lesson learnt: It is best to not do any high-risk activities/chores when you are mentally disturbed or depressed. Secondly, that day I was very stressed, to begin with. To make things worse, my car was also not starting. It is keyless and every time I tried to start it, it was giving this error message on the dashboard screen- "Depress the brake pedal and push the power switch to start". Despite all efforts, the car didn't start and I was almost going to take Uber and come back home. But somehow the car started and I canceled the Uber ride. After the accident, I realized that the car was not starting because the key battery had died. I knew that the battery was causing an issue for a long time but kept ignoring it. That $5 battery cost me $1k of expense. That's one way to look at it. Another assessment of the incident could be that the delay in start saved me from dying.

At the end of the day, no one else was hurt and my car is back, looking just like it did the day I brought her home. 

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Song courtesy: Kabir Singh.