You make the call!

ZT - sorry to hear that here as well. It is a very sad thing to hear of someone injured or killed in a car accident. I do thank my lucky stars that Mrs |ce was uninjured, most especially in the tiny car she was in - disposable, Korean engineered for cheap price.

Zaggy - We can't get it fixed until the insurance comes forth, however in situations where there is provable fault, the insurance company is required to provide a rental car to the 'victim', or if it's in question, all storage charges, rental car fees (real or reimbursement for a loaner car like in our case), etc. must be paid once fault is proven. Our issue is that it'll be hell to prove in court. It's not a 'he said she said' situation - at least 2 employees of the business Mrs |ce was leaving saw the wreck occur. I haven't had much chance to look into either of their stories yet - that's my next step along with a brief interview to see how easily their credibility could be destroyed by an attorney. We've been gearing for a court battle from the moment of the accident, so we have the information short of sworn testimony.

A question to you, however, being in the body business - This Kia is a unibody car. I know that from a side-impact collision such as this even at a low speed the frame can easily be damaged. Is this a possibility in this situation, and how can I check for it? The estimate from which SAFECO is basing their settlement offer is only for door replacement and paint. Secondly, if the frame is damaged, how easily is it fixed, if at all?

Looks like your insurance company's lawyers will be having a steel cage match with their insurance company's lawyers. I'll put my money on Geico.....the gecko doing the robot will distract the other lawyers and allow Geico's lawyers to do an atomic knee drop followed by a super suflex that will end the match in the first round.

It is unlikely that frame damage will occur. On a unibody vehicle the entire vehicle is the frame. One panel and structure is dependant upon the other for structure and impact zones. A side impact will cause damage to the door, possibly the rocker panel and one of the three pillars, "A" pillar being the windshield pillar which the front door is hinged to, "B" pillar is the center pillar that the rear door hinges to and the front door latchs onto, "C" pillar is the rear pillar that the quarter panel is welded to. Underneath the vehicle there is 2 frame rails that the floor is welded onto, the vehicle is designed to collapse in certain ways to absorb the impact to protect the passengers. What a repair shop should do, is check that the vehicle is square from all angles. There are specs that are measured in mm's (here in Canada they are in mm's, I'm not sure about in the US). They should check the rocker and the floor where they weld to the pillars. On a Kia the entire side body assembly is one piece, meaning all the pillars are one and were welded on as one piece from the factory. This is not to say there are not proper sectioning guidelines. You should check that the doors align and open and close properly once repaired, and that there is no rubbing of the doors on any of the pillars. No wind noises and no unusual gaps from the top, sides and bottoms of the doors, check underneath the rocker panel and make sure there is not a lot of undercoating, some is required, alot is hiding something. Once I am at work tomorrow, I will save a picture of the side body assembly from my specification software and post it so you can see the areas that should be addressed as possible concerns.

If I can be of any further help let me know.

I can't see your wife being at fault. If she was in 1st gear to drive off then she must have been stationary so could not be reversing at the same time as the SUV.
Also she is almost perpendicular to the SUV and has reversed out of her spot adn is not reversing.
The SUV has reversed into her.

I think all insurance companies tell their customers to never admit fault at the scene of an accident. The Hubby of Mrs SUV was probably trying to intimidate your wife into admitting fault.

I drove in the US for the first time last year, scared the crap out of me. I thought the speed limit was usually 55 not 85. We had a Crysler 2.4l Turbo, what a joke, slowest thing I've ever driven handled like a russian tank. My diesel Renault Clio felt like a sports car when I got home. I couldn't see the point of the 'Super sized' SUVs I really couldn't.

In Virginia if two cars are backing and hit its automatically 50/50 regardless of angle and who did what first. Just their way of mitigating half of the damages. Sorry to hear about all of that and good luck with the case.

I was recently in an accident here in Texas and it was totally the other guy's fault because he pulled across all lanes of traffic and cut me off... well the insurance company at first tried to find someway to blame me even though it wasnt my fault at all but eventually he sholdered all the blame. so the insurance companies will try and blame u if they can but from what im seeing its not your wife's fault. goodluck.

I took a guess on the year and make of your Kia, I guessed a Rio. My bad the side does not come as an assembly, but it does come in parts. In the pictures with the floor and rockers, number 12 is the inner rocker panels, number 13 are the floor reinforcements (frame rails). The pictures with the side assemblies the center pillar is number 6, the "C" pillar is attached to the outer quarter panel. These are the areas of structure to focus on. Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

The second attachement.

Hit the nail on the head again, you did. It's an 01 Rio. Still waiting on further response from both insurance companies after placing calls to them this morning.