I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada so any advice that comes in can hopefully apply to my local laws and insurance codes etc. I was involved in an accident 2 days ago. I was travelling around 55-60km when a vehicle came through an intersection and a red light and crossed right in front of me from the right. As I was on a bridge going over a freeway I was running parallel to a guard rail and thus couldn't scan then intersection as I usually do for red light runners. Needless to say I barely was able to brake before impact. I turned my wheel left to avoid hitting the guy on his driver door and likely severely hurting him or killing him and thus nailed his front quarter panel and wheel. He spun and on the rebound also hit my rear quarter panel passenger side. My air bags didnt go off (likely due to no passenger weight and impact on passenger side) and my crash response didnt go off either. I had to push the emergency button manually. While I have a shoulder/neck injury (soft tissue damages legally restricted to 4,000 in Alberta by law) my bigger concern is that to my estimation, my damages are around 10-$15,000. The front passenger quarter panel is demolished, my lower facia, lights, grill, radiator front passenger wheel almost torn off and slight to medium rear quarter panel damage and to my recollection, no hood or windshield damage. It would seem that I need the damage to be around $19,000 to write this thing off. There could be frame damage or cracked engine block if i'm lucky. I am a fussy guy when it comes to mechanical things. I keep my vehicles meticulous so when I sell them I get best price possible and someone gets a way above average used vehicle. I absolutely dont want the Equinox back (Twilight blue2011 with 17,000km). I have a clause for guaranteed purchase price if its written off. I know it will never be the same as far as paint, squeaks and rattles etc despite what the GM body shop says about genuine parts and blah blah blah. Secondly, when I go to sell it anyone can see that its been in an accident from car fax records and instead of getting 18,000 for it (hypothetically in 4 years) I'll only get 13 or $14,000 for it because no one wants a vehicle thats been in an accident. I told my insurance company, who has yet to send an appraiser, that I dont want it back but they say if its not a write off youre getting it back repaired. End of story. I dont know if I should get a lawyer because the red light incident plus the driver was alone and only had a learners permit or if I should just leave things to fate and let insurance deal with it. Bear in mind, in Alberta I cant legally get more than 4,000 for my injuries. Plus lawyers tend to make you live like an invalid for 3 years while they try to prove a point and put your work life on hold just to maybe get you 30,000 after 3 years of fighting and then they take 10,000 of it. :<( Anyway, sorry this is so long. I just want my vehicle written off so if any of you have insight....please reply. I realize that once a dealer actually starts to tear apart the car, they can find more problems than initially spotted by an appraiser. I just hope its written off before that so I can buy another one.