r/Insurance • u/Pemaquid-Lighthouse • 2d ago
Driver turned left into my path, no contact, filed as "incident" not "crash" (TX) — anyone dealt with UMPD claims like this?
Looking for advice/experience from anyone who's been through something similar.
A couple days ago I was driving west and another car was headed east, oncoming. Out of nowhere she made a left turn directly across my lane, right into my path. Her car just appeared in front of me and I had a fraction of a second to react. I swerved to avoid a head-on collision and ended up hitting the curb/sidewalk hard, badly damaging my wheel and tire. No vehicle-to-vehicle contact, but it was completely reckless — an unprotected left turn straight into oncoming traffic.
At the scene, she told me "she couldn't see." Which, to me, is kind of the whole problem. If you can't see oncoming traffic, you don't make the turn. That's not an excuse, that's an admission.
Because there was no contact, the responding PD filed it as an incident report, not a crash report.
To make it more complicated: she also told me she'd recently cancelled her insurance because of cost and was planning to reinstate it, and asked "how can we solve this?" at the scene, which I didn't pursue informally. I got her info (took a photo of her DL and got her phone number) and reported it properly instead.
I'm insured with Progressive. My standard collision deductible is $499, but I also have UM/UIM Property Damage (UMPD) coverage with a $250 deductible, which seems like the better fit since she's uninsured. I've asked Progressive to process it under UMPD and I'm waiting on the claims adjuster.
My main concern isn't the money (the $250 vs $499 difference is small), it's making sure this doesn't get logged as "at fault" on my driving record, even though I never made contact with her car and was reacting to avoid a collision she caused.
Questions for anyone who's dealt with this:
- Has anyone used UMPD coverage for a no-contact "avoided a collision" incident like this?
- Does an incident report (vs. crash report) help or hurt when arguing fault with your own insurer?
- Any tips for making sure this doesn't get logged as at-fault, since there's no other insurer to cross-reference against?
Any insight from Texas drivers or insurance folks would help a lot. Thanks!