I had just bought a new drink holder from autozone ( it was a adjustable one) i screwed it in and it looked sturdy. I went to taco and ordered a 32 oz baja blast. I put the cup in the cup holder, and put a piece of paper around it make it more secure. IT looked secure enough so i turn into an alley and then turn into a street. THe very first turn I make the entire contents of the cup spill into my lap as I am turning, my attention is brieftly taken away by what has happened, and wham I hit a parked car.

worst of all I just sold my old car and bought and registered this car this friday, but i hadnt had the chance to call my insurance company asking them to swicth the insurance over. what am I supposed to do , theres about $1000 in damage to both cars. I traded information with the other person but I really dont know what to do its like a horrible nightmare

Can I sue the drinkholder people ? Should i report it and possibly not be covered ? Or should I just find a way to fix the other person's car and see what happens.

First off, I don't see how it could have been "the very first turn" as every Taco Bell I have ever seen, I have had to turn to get into and out of.

Secondly, (and your state may be different) it is generally illegal to operate a motor vehicle without insurance. Usually you have to prove insurance before a registration will be granted.

"Can I sue the drinkholder people ?" Yes, you can try. Should you, probably not.

It is sad in this age that the first question asked when things go wrong is "Who can I sue?". Where has personal responsiblity gone?

Ed

I don't know. Theoretically it sounds like you could have a claim, but it would be time consuming and costly relative to your loss.

If you can figure out how to get your case filed in county court, you might be able to get the manufacturer to settle. I'd give it a shot personally, but then again I sued someone for $100 last week so I'm not exactly the most litigation-averse guy around.

One thing I can say is that you aren't going to find an attorney to help.

well here is the map, the taco bell and the three possible exits to it.

Exit one would have put me onto bundy, exit two onto pico and exit three was a little alley behind taco bell with no name.

as you can see her car was on the opposite end of the street right out of the alley, so it was the first and last turn I took with the cup

http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~epyon/incident.jpg

here is my interior and a picture of the notorious cup holder, I showed it to my engineering friend ( dont know i assume hes good with theese kinds of things) and he said its a piece of &hit cup holder. The main thing wrong is that there is no lateral support.

http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~epyon/spill1.jpg

Your exhibits are pretty good. Based on what I've seen, and if you could throw in an engineer as an expert witness, you've got a damn good case going.

You might try to see an attorney, though they may not take the case. It wouldn't be a bad idea at this point to send a letter and copies of your evidence to the company and notify them of the incident. Tell them you sue if they don't settle.

Heck, why not sue Taco Bell while you are at it. They should have warned you that their drinks are wet. I am sure that there was no warning label for that.

You could sue your pant's manufacturer for not making them more absorbant.
...or the city for making the turn too sharp.

There are a lot of pockets out there!

heres a run down of the accident and the aftermath



setup.

I needed to replace my brakes so I went to autozone to go buy them

I remember when I posted about the reason I didnt get a manual transmission was because I drive while holding a soda, or holding my cell phone.

I noticed that they had cup holders, which my car lacked at the moment,
so I said hey change is a good thing.

Being the geek that I am I didnt buy the regular cup holder but the
nifty 4.00 adjustable that stated "holds them all" showing a gatorade
bottle and a 64 oz seven eleven big gulp.

I buy the brakes and a hose ( was gonna do the usual weekend car wash)
and was out the door.

Feeling thirsty I decided to go to Taco Bell to get my favorite soda
in the world, Baja blast. I order it and in the parking lot I install
the cup holder and put the 32oz cup into it. I put it in, size it up
and lock the cup holder. It felt pretty sturdy.

Well i get out, and instead of going into the street I go down an alley
behind taco bell (because of the low body kit). I take a right turn.

Midway between the turn the entire contents of my drink spill on my lap.
and by lap i think the guy know what im talking about.

This happens as Im about 50% done with the turn, so i had yet to
start to straighten out. I am taken by surprise,distracted, look at
what happened, and in the next second I hit a parked car.

The neighboors come out first, contact the owner of the car, and they
come out irrate to the point of me being a bit scared (It was a womans
car with her boyfriend)

well we exchange information, and I am left with the decision of
reporting or having my premium go up.

Next day I spend 6-7 hours trying to make my car look drivable.
Using a dremel, zip ties and red krylon it was the best i could do.
I didnt have a mask so i just used a t-shirt... but my lungs kind
of hurt ( possibly from some fiberglass microdust)

In any case here are the pictures.

my car
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~epyon/initial.jpg

removing the junk to drive home
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~epyon/mycar.jpg

and after 7 hours of work
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~epyon/repair2.jpg

Like I said, you probably have an okay case. The only thing that might be working against you is the apparent lack of a police report...

Unfortunately, I am going to have to disagree with the majority on the strength of your case. Besides the common sense ethical issues that it poses, it's a losing battle that would not be very cost effective. You will have a very difficult time getting any real attorney to take an adverse case like that. You purchased the holder. You installed it. You would have to prove not only that the holder was defective (not your installation of the holder) but that it was the proximate cause of your losing control and striking a parked vehicle.

Besides it likely being pointless, It would be relatively expensive to hire an expert and get the case prepared. All this with very little payout potential and thats only in the unlikely event that you are successful. When you compare the best case payout to a reasonable expense budget on working this one up, you are in the negative.

Another option would be to call it in to your carrier. You said that you recently sold your old car, and purchased the car in question shortly afterwards. Insurance companies realize that purchasing and transferring ownership of a vehicle takes time, so they have a built in grace period for you to notify them of changes like that. For a "Replacement vehicle" (what you described), you should be allowed up to 30 days to notify your company of the change. I've seen some policies that allow up to 60 days. It's probably going to be covered.

I hope I helped.

you fail to get your car insured before driving it, install a cheap drink holder, and then look to sue anyone you can because you screwed up. First of all, be very happy that they didn't call the police. For that reason alone, you should just pay whatever it costs to repair their car and be quiet. If they had, your car would have been towed, you get a 500.00+ citation, points on your record, your current insurance would find out eventually and probably drop you because you didn't tell them. My god man. you messed up. Why doens't anyone just take responsibility anymore. It is no wonder that insurance rates are so expensive. If you do decide to sue, sue everyone. It will either cost you a fortune, or I will get the best laugh in my life from someone who won money for doing nothing more than screwing up...... :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Hopefully you called and transferred the insurance that day; otherwise I suggest that you contact an attorney for advice since there is privilege

I know when I replaced one vehicle for another without adding a policy, my insurance policy covered the new/used vehicle for 10 days after the purchase. I just had to call and let them know I traded. If it were an added vehicle it would not have been covered.