At-fault driver ghosted my sister after promising to pay out of pocket — now his insurance is stonewalling
Really frustrated and need some outside perspectives here.
My sister got rear-ended at a stoplight about three weeks ago. Pretty clear-cut situation — the guy behind her wasn't paying attention and hit her hard enough to push her into the intersection. Thankfully she wasn't seriously hurt, but her car has real damage and her neck has been stiff and sore ever since.
At the scene, the other driver was super apologetic and actually talked her out of filing a claim. He said something like "let's keep insurance out of this, I'll cover everything, just send me the repair estimate and I'll pay you directly." She felt bad for him — he seemed genuinely stressed about his rates going up — so she agreed.
She texted him the body shop estimate two days later. He left her on read. She tried calling — straight to voicemail every time. After a week of nothing, she finally went ahead and called his insurance company herself.
That was almost two weeks ago. Now the insurance company is telling her they can't process the claim because they haven't been able to reach their own policyholder to confirm the incident. So the claim is basically just... sitting there? In limbo?
She has:
- Photos from the scene
- Both of their contact info exchange
- The texts she sent him (with no reply)
- A witness who stopped and gave her their number
What can she actually do here? Does she have to just wait forever for this guy to magically pick up the phone? Can she file with her own insurance in the meantime? Will she be penalized for that?
She's already paid one chiropractic visit out of pocket and the car is just sitting unrepaired. Any advice from people who've been through something similar would mean a lot.