Hey all, I wanted to share my experience and get some thoughts from others who’ve dealt with insurance and CHP in similar situations.
Accident Summary:
On July 15th, I was driving southbound on I-280 in San Francisco with my 6-year-old son in the backseat. A 2002 Chevy Silverado in the lane to my left abruptly merged into my lane without enough clearance. I slightly accelerated and veered right to avoid a direct collision, but didn’t make a full lane change — my left tires stayed in my original lane.
The driver then drifted back toward their original lane, so I began gently correcting back into my lane. At that exact moment, they suddenly came back into my lane again and hit my rear-left quarter panel.
I have dashcam footage that clearly shows this entire sequence, including the unsafe merge, my limited evasive move, and the impact.
The problem:
Despite the footage, my insurance is putting 100% of the fault on me, saying I was speeding (~5 mph over the limit) and changed lanes. CHP (San Francisco, downtown office) refused to take any meaningful action. The receptionist dismissed my case, helped other Spanish-speaking individuals before and after me, and made me feel like I was wasting their time for asking them to do basic paperwork. She even took a call from the other driver (also Spanish-speaking) and helped him more thoroughly than me — while I was standing right there with my child waiting.
CHP told me since I didn’t call 911 at the scene, all they could do now was a basic write-up and couldn’t assign fault. They even acknowledged that if I had called then, the other driver probably would’ve been found at fault. But now that I showed up with video after the fact, they wouldn’t help further because of “paperwork.”
So now I’m stuck:
Insurance is blaming me
CHP won’t do anything
I’m sitting on dashcam proof
And the other driver’s getting repairs while I get penalized
Has anyone appealed an insurance decision successfully? Or had CHP re-open something like this?
Any tips, legal angles, or insight would be appreciated. This feels totally backwards and unjust, and I’m not ready to just accept it.
Location: California
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