Even if a driver who hits your car is insured, you could be stuck with the bill

Common sense dictates that the insurance company of the driver who causes an accident should pay for the damage.

In Texas, if the driver who caused the accident disappears without a trace, the company can refuse to pay. Then guess who picks up the tab? The unlucky person who got hit — or his or her own insurance company.

Philip Stonecipher was driving in Grapevine in August when his car was struck from behind. The other driver asked whether he was hurt, then shared her insurance information. Stonecipher didn’t get her address and phone number, figuring her insurance company would have that.

But when Stonecipher tried to make a claim with her company, United Automobile Insurance Services, the company turned him away.

The reason given was that the person listed on the insurance policy, Itzi Saray Bernal, 33, never told United Auto about the accident. She didn’t respond to letters or phone calls. A company investigator reported being unable to find her at her apartment complex.

United Auto claims supervisor Keith Reindl, who denied payment to Stonecipher, explained: "We can’t make a determination of liability until we speak to all parties. Every Texas driver has a duty to call their insurance agent when there’s a loss.  . . .  We exhausted a reasonable effort."

Can an insured driver disappear and leave the other driver out on a limb? Apparently so. The state has a new database system — TexasSure — that allows law enforcement officers to check personal auto insurance records of drivers to verify they carry insurance, as the law requires.

But no database tracks information such as when people go AWOL on their insurance company or don’t report accidents.

The insurance industry does share a database that shows claims opened by drivers and any payments made, says Mark Hanna of the Insurance Council of Texas. But in this instance, there’s no claim, so no information would be available.

Stonecipher, whose car requires $900 worth of repairs, worked almost 20 years in the insurance business. Based on his experience, he says the other driver’s carrier should have paid his claim.

When United Auto refused, he filed a complaint with the Texas Department of Insurance.

Department officials said they are investigating United Automobile Insurance Services and its related company, Old American County Mutual, for "a pattern of problems." That’s all they would say.

The department’s Web site shows that Old American County Mutual, which is the insurance company for whom United Auto writes policies, has received more complaints than any other automobile insurer in Texas.

About one-fifth of all complaints the department receives about auto policies concern Old American, even though other companies write many more policies.

United Auto officials say that only part of the complaints related to Old American are about United Auto. Old American County works with other managing agencies in the state, too.

Nevertheless, in recent days, United Auto apparently had a change of heart. Reindl alerted state regulators and Stonecipher that "in a spirit of compromise, and to show good faith in settling this matter," United Auto officials would reopen the case and assign a private investigator to search for the policyholder.

If they don’t settle with him, the next step for Stonecipher would be to file an uninsured-motorist claim with his company and let it investigate. If his company can find the driver, it can toss it back to United Auto to seek payment.

Otherwise, his company pays.

Stonecipher could also get a refund if state investigators find that United Auto acted improperly.

Or he could seek a lawyer to help him in the courts, but with such a low claim amount, that doesn’t make sense.

Stonecipher hesitates to file a claim on his policy. Generally, drivers are not penalized on their own policies if they have no more than one uninsured-motorist claim a year, state officials say. (If a carrier does raise rates because of that, the insurance department says it wants to know about it.)

But Stonecipher doesn’t want to file a claim because he has an insurance plan that refunds him money at the end of the year if he goes accident-free. Under his plan, he says, he may also have to pay higher premiums if he turns in any claims.

Stonecipher might have been able to avoid this if he had copied information from the other driver’s license and insurance card, noted the license plate and filed a police report.

All information is helpful. In this instance, United Auto listed Stonecipher’s lack of witnesses or a police report as part of its reasons for rejection.

Stonecipher says he didn’t file a police report because it was a minor accident with no injuries. Remember, though, that drivers can call police departments after an accident and give a report over the phone and get an incident report number. That adds credibility, because filing a false police report is illegal.

Stonecipher says no witnesses could be identified because other drivers didn’t stop. Drivers involved in accidents can ask onlookers for contact information, and eyewitnesses can offer their names and numbers for contact, too.

But the best bet is a camera. The Watchdog was in an accident 20 years ago in which the other driver accepted blame at the scene but later told his insurance company otherwise.

Because of that, I carry a disposable digital camera in my glove compartment. Point and click, especially in situations such as this.

News researcher Cathy Belcher contributed to this report.

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