Comment Re:Insurance companies suffer? (Score 1) 389
If your car is in an accident that is clearly not your fault (e.g. it was parked), then your premiums likely won't go up, because the insurance company won't see you as a higher risk (you were just unlucky). Even if they do try to raise your premiums, there should be plenty of other more rational companies willing to give you a good rate.
Hardly, it's more likely that your "accident" will contribute the increased estimated loss potential in your insurance pool, and result in increases for you in the long run. Just because it isn't your fault doesn't mean that your premium won't go up (just not relative to others).
FWIW, because of recent auto-insurance reforms in many states, insurance companies are no longer allowed to directly charge the risk premium to their customer (because some factors they used like geography/zip code and gender/marital status and age were deemed too discriminatory). As a result, they are forced to pump the allowed factors and temper the restricted factors to spread out the premium charges.
For example, in California the spread for restricted factors must be limited to be a smaller than the lowest weight given to safety record, mileage and experience the insurance premium computation. So even if the accident isn't your fault, it may be scored as "no-fault" and the other party may be in your insurance pool.