What do I do if I get into a car accident with a rental car?

I was involved in a car accident where the other driver hit me in a rental car. The catch being was that the driver was from Australia, therefore, had no local contact information I could get. However, he gave me all the information of his Hertz rental car. I file a claim with Hertz's claim management and they get back to me saying they are going to deny my claim based on the fact that they could not obtain a statement from the driver, stating his side of the story. Now, I'm stuck taking this to small claims court. I'm in a weird position because the driver of the car basically left the country and I have no way getting a statement from him and Hertz won't release his home mailing address. Any advice?

Duh!!!

I hate to tell you this, but your fight is with the person that hit you, and not Hertz. Hertz is not responsible for the damage to your car, even though it was their car that hit you.

Now what Hertz can do, since their car was damaged, is contact the driver that hit you for his statement. They are going to seek his side of the story, and especially if he didn't take their insurance, they will be charging him for the damage to their vehicle. But usually when foreigners come over, they do take the rental agencies' insurance.

P.S. Was there a police report done on this damage? That would have given you ground to stand on as well.

Good luck with that one.

Howard L

Apparently you don't have full coverage or you would have simply let your insurance company fix your car and fight over who was at fault with Hertz.

At any rate at this point if you don't have full coverage I think you are correct in assuming you need to sue Hertz to get his contact information, then you will have to sue him in small claims court to get fault assigned. If he had full coverage through Hertz you will then need to sue Hertz. If he didn't have full coverage you will get a judgment against him you can't collect because the other party is not in the US.

Not a criticism but something a lot of people overlook in deciding not to carry full coverage on an older car they can afford to lose their car. You insurance company is a powerful ally if you get into a situation like yours or any other situation where the other driver can't be found or is uninsured.

adribowens

Hertz is responsible for paying. In order to rent a car you have to either a) show proof that you carry full coverage insurance on your personal vehicle or b) buy insurance through them (hertz).
Sue Hertz....

Becca

Did the driver who hit you purchase the rental coverage? Almost the SAME thing happened to me, only the driver was from Dubai. I was rearended on the freeway, I was at a complete stop and the other driver was going probably 50 mph. My car was totalled, I suffered severe whiplash and other complications. I had a hard time even getting Hertz claims on the phone because they didn't return my messages and I couldn't get through to a real person for THREE WEEKS.

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