My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: Washington
I had one accident in my car in January of 2007 where I was completely at fault. I was a new and inexperienced driver and rear ended someone. My insurance repaired my car and for three renewals since that accident my rates have gone up every time which I can understand.
Sunday afternoon, I was slowing down on the freeway to under the speed limit (was not speeding) and something went wrong with my car brakes. I lost temporary control of my car and swerved. I regained control of my car but was then rear ended hard with a direct center impact to my car before I had a chance to regain speed. The officer at the scene determine that there was fault on both ends but that because she had not been watching her speed or paying attention and hit me there was more fault on her end then mine. I was given a ticket for the swerving (improper lane travel) that occured before the accident. I don't know about the other driver or whether she was ticketed or not. Despite the ticket for me the police said the driver who hit me shared the blame.
My insurance says that the other driver is at least partially liable because she hit me but then I got a call yesterday afternoon from the other person's insurance who says she is not at fault nor liable for hitting me in anyway shape or form. Her insurance says 100% of the fault for her hitting me is mine and that my insurance is responsible for paying for both cars etc.
This is a nightmare. Both cars were damage so severely that they will have to be totalled. She hit me dead on center in the back of my car. Not on the side but straight on in the center of my rear end. My car was not sideways or in the other lane when I got hit. I had gotten it straight again and was trying to regain speed. I can accept being partly at fault but 100%? This is my worst nightmare come true. Everyone at the scene said she was more at fault because she hit me but her insurance has decided that this is a completely no fault accident for her.
I haven't heard back from my insurance company since this call. My life really feels like it's over at this point. To pay my insurance deductible and the ticket will empty out my savings account. If I am found to be completely at fault for being rear ended, my insurance company will probably cancel me for having a second at fault accident. I had Gap coverage on the car so I'm not worried about the amount still owed so much as I'll probably never drive again. No one is ever going to insure me because of this second accident. I just graduated from college and am working at the low paying job I worked at through school. I don't have money and this ruins my job search since my field is social work and 99.9% of jobs in my field require a car with a good driving record. My first accident was scary enough but this time it's just a nightmare. People keep telling me that things will be alright and that my life isn't over but I don't really see a way out other than never driving again. I am officially the world's worst driver if I can get 100% blame for someone else rear ending me and have two significant accidents in such a small amount of time. A friend pointed out to me that people commit vehicular homicide and can still get insurnace and that if I got an older car than what I had I could still afford to insure myself but all I see right now is a mess with no way out.
I'm praying my insurance company can work this out. The police report says there was shared fault. How can her insurance company say this was a no fault accident for her and that my insurance has to pay for her as well as me? No one was hurt luckily. I missed Monday and am now missing Tuesday at work because I'm sore but plan to return tomorrow. I just wish this was all a bad dream and I could wake up from it.
What generally happens in such cases? What can I do? She had to have been quite aways behind me otherwise she would have hit me sideways and not straight on after I had gotten my car straight again. This was a significant delay. Is it really possible for her to not get any blame or fault for this?

