Personally I say do NOT turn it into your insurance company. (yet)
Go here:
https://www.idfpr.com/DOI/default2.asp
Call them and let them tell you what to do.
Here is why:
Two years ago I had a problem with my truck being in an accident. I came home one night after teaching scuba diving and there was some dork parked in my spot with his truck running. So, I waited a few minutes to see if the guy would leave, I prefer to park in my spot. The apartment manager painted my spot larger then the rest since I have rather large truck. After some time I parked in the empty spot beside my spot. I noted in my head the license plate of the Toyota truck in spot. I thought it was best to remember his plate since he was parked at an angle in my spot. As I was walking up the stairs to my apartment The dork came around the corner jumped in his truck and quickly back out of the space. And managed to scrap his rear tube bumper down the side of my truck removing my rear light assembly. He got out of his truck and I said I would be right back, I was going to get a paper and pen. As I came out of the apartment he took off in a hurry.
Now, what should I do? My gut feeling said chase his butt down. There is no way his early 90s 6 cylinder truck could out run my Hemi truck. But, I am an adult and I should call the cops. What a mistake this was. The cops showed up and took a report. Two cops in a single car, a rookie and a training officer. I was given a business card and was told my report would be ready in 4-5 days. After 5 days I called to get the report and was told it was not ready yet. It took 20 days to get the report the supervisor of the rookie cop kept sending back to the rookie for more info. I am still not upset and did not have a problem waiting. However, when I finally got the report it mentioned the owner of the Toyota lived in another county and the other county wanted proof the register owner was the driver.
So, I went to DMV with my police report and paid the few bucks to pull the info on the owner of the Toyota. I was going to pull his address and go confirm the driver was the guy who hit my truck and call the cops. This was on a Thursday. Well, I Friday night while driving home from a night out with the wife in her SUV I was rudely cut off by a red 91 Toyota with license plate 910-PYH. So, I call the non-emergency dispatch and give the dispatch person the plate number and my report number. I had the report number memorized now after calling daily to get a copy of it. As I am giving directions to the dispatch I was told "You are now out of our jurisdiction, you will need to call highway patrol. What? I was in the middle of town, but I guess the main highway in the middle of town was out of jurisdiction. So, I call highway patrol. Guess what, not 30 seconds into the call the driver pulls into a mobile home park. I am now out of jurisdiction again. However, the dispatch girl gets the info and is going to call the local police.
So, now I am down the street watching this guy stand out at the end of the small drive way with a friend holding base ball bats. He had noticed I was following him. 10 minutes later I get a call from the cops, they can't find the street I am on. It turns out the mobile home park is private property, and as such street name are not on file with the local cops. I tell the cops how to get there and met the officer just out of sight of the guys holding the bats. I tell the officer what is going on and give him a copy of my police report which I had a copy of. The cop drive around the corner and sees them with the bats and calls for back up. In no time at all there were 5 officers there. The two guys with the bat see the first cop car and put the bats away.
The officer then talks with the owner of the truck and came back to tell me he says he was not in accident. I told the officer he would have white paint transfer on the passenger bumper. And, sure enough he did. The officer would not ticket home since he did not handle the original case and did not witness it, but gave me his insurance info.
I called his insurance and got the ball rolling. This took over 60 days before I went to my insurance company. The guy did not responded to his insurance company for 28 days. Then it took his insurance company another month to have an appraiser look at his truck. Guess what? There was not damage or evidence his vehicle was in a accident. So, they were giving me a hard time about paying. So, I turned it into my insurance and got stuck with the $500 deductible.
14 months later I got a check from my insurance company for $500. My insurance company took his to court and won. The $500 was to reimburse me for my deductible. Now, I am even more upset. It was proven in court he was at fault, but what did I get for the pain in ass time I worked on this. I left work early twice and took half days to go get the police report. Did I get reimbursed? Did I get paid for lost work time? Nope, I did not.
Months later, I had my hayabusa hit in a hit-and-run. A witness wrote down the guys plate number and called the cops. So, the next day I called the officer got the info and started the ball rolling. I was told by his insurance company after 20 days they have not been able to contact their customer and could not make a decision. That I would need to wait up to 60 days. By law they have 30 days to reach their customer and 30 to make a decision. That was just not going to work for me. So I called the state insurance commission.
I talked with a really nice guy. Was all to eager to proof how much weight he had when if came to insurance companies. He had me fill out a complaint. Once he sends the company to the insurance company they have only 48 hours to respond with a detailed explanation why they are delaying settlement. The guy told me both the individual and insurance company have a obligations by law to keep the costs related to a accident to a minimum. This included my costs related to fuel since I could not drive my bike and had to drive my truck which requires more fuel. The insurance company responded to them that they were still researching the accident. Of which, he responded if it was not settled in 24 hours the state would start mediation due do the insurance company not fulfilling their obligations to keep my costs and their costs to a minimum. My case was settled the next day.
I got just what I was after, the amount for the bike. I was not trying to work the insurance company over by any means. It took 14 months with my truck to get the money back and I got nothing for all the time and effort I put into it. With my bike it was settled quickly. I suggest you call your state insurance commission. Let them tell you how to proceed.
If you go to your insurance company will they pay you anything for the pain you had?
