You cannot believe it. You are sitting at a stop light. Your vehicle is rear-ended by another vehicle. You look in your rear-view mirror and you see the driver of the car that hit you back up his car, speed around you and leave the scene of the accident. You are in shock! What do you do?
Well, what to do depends on what you saw. If you were able to get the license plate number of the vehicle which struck you, great! Call the police and make a police report. The police will be able to track down that car very easily. If you did not get the license plate number or a good description of the vehicle, see if anyone witnessed the accident and find out if they can give you a license plate number and description of the vehicle. But whatever you do--call the police immediately.
If you cannot get good identifying information about the vehicle which struck you, then you should still call the police and make a police report. You should also call your own auto insurance agent and make a claim under your own policy. All policies in Missouri have coverage known as uninsured motorist coverage. This coverage is intended to compensate you for bodily injury you receive from the driver of an uninsured motor vehicle. A hit-and-run vehicle, or a vehicle that cannot be identified, is usually covered as an uninsured motor vehicle. Unfortunately, uninsured motorist coverage only covers bodily injury and does not cover property damage. If you have collision coverage on your policy, you will have to make a claim for your property damage under the collision coverage (and you will probably have to pay your deductible). If you do not have collision coverage, you may have a difficult time getting reimbursed for your automobile damage unless you learn the identity of the other driver.
There may be several requirements under your insurance policy that you must follow in order to make an uninsured motorist claim. Look at your policy shortly after the accident to make sure you fulfill all the requirements under your policy.
If you learn the identity of the other driver at a later date, you may want to file a Missouri Motor Vehicle Accident report. This report form will be beneficial to you in helping you learn whether the other driver has insurance. Here is a link to the Missouri Form 1140 Motor Vehicle Accident Report.
