What happens when a snow plow sideswipes your car?

BOSTON — As soon as the snowfall began to taper off Monday morning, Erin Coffey got busy shoveling out her car.

It didn't take long to find the gnarly dent above her left rear tire.

"I see this big gash in my car and I knew right away it was a plow," Coffey, a Southie resident, said.

Coffey was parked on William J. Day Boulevard, near N Street in South Boston. And she wasn't the only one who woke up to find damage. The owner of a truck that was also parked on Day Boulevard near N street told Boston 25 News the dents and scrapes on his car will cost around $10,000 to fix.

"Yes, it does. Accidents happen but it's one of those things, you know when you hit something, pull over leave a note," Coffey said.

Southie is full of narrow roads, but Day Boulevard is not one of them. The owners of the two cars damaged this week said they were both parked along the wide street, which is two ways and has room for parking on both sides.

Coffey said she filed a police report. The road is maintained by the state, but Coffey doesn't know if it was a city plow or a state plow that hit her car. %

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"Obviously, I'm not a plow driver, I don't know what it's like, but would I be upset if my car got hit, absolutely," another Southie resident, Andrew Horton, told Boston 25 News.

If this ever happens to you, a New England law firm recommends you take pictures to document the damage, then contact police to fill out a report. Next, file a claim with your insurance company. Then submit a claim with your city or town if you think the plow is contracted by the government.%

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Erin Coffey just wishes the driver had done the decent thing and left a note.

"If you are someone in this situation where you do hit someone, or you're a plow, just leave a note, for convenience," she said.

Cox Media Group