I need to vent...

[SleeplessinSoCal]

I took a gig singing in a funeral for $100. It went well enough as funerals go. Then on my way home to my hubby (who hates being left alone) I was stuck in hellish traffic owing to a crash at an interchange. That caused much stopping, lane changing, inability to see what's ahead, UNLESS you're in a big rig. After 45 minutes of what normally takes 5 minutes I arrived at the scene of the accident. Many police cars, wrecked vehicles and cones. Still one couldn't really see what was happening ahead from the dashboard of my Prius. I just knew I wasn't going to allow any more big rigs cut in front of me. So as I try to have no daylight between my car and the car ahead of me, a big rig is suddenly on top of me and I'm being scraped by that thing on the driver's side of our little Prius. A highway patrol guy tells me I was in his lane. But there were no lanes!!! And I was ahead of him! We were just in a creeping stream of cars trying not to lose our minds.

After assessing the "ding", I'm guessing $600 of body work. So much for an extra $100. Anybody know if this kind of dent can be taken care of cheaply?

[pandr32]

1. Sounds like a bad day.

I hope it improves.
Sending some love your way.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

3. Thank you so much.

If I had just let him by it wouldn't have happened. It's possible he couldn't see me, being way up there. The transmition (?) seemed off afterwards. Fingers crossed it was temporary. I need to head back to that church tomorrow.

[pandr32]

6. Those big trucks can't see us.

I remember one day traveling the snowy Snoqualmie Pass and almost getting crushed by a truck, but hitting the gas hard and barely squeezing out in front. The driver did not see us. He looked completely shocked.
I hope you can get your vehicle fixed without problems.

[Mr.Bill]

2. I'm afraid you are looking at

quite a bit more than $600 there. From my experience with body shops fixing something like that may be more like $1,500-2,000.

[Beakybird]

4. Whoa! Even my backyard mechanic would probably charge more than $2000.

I'm thinking junk yard or aftermarket replacement parts. You might get prepainted body parts - they're sometimes pretty cheap, but I've heard they don't match perfectly.

Hopefully, the funeral gave you a sanguine perspective on things.

So sorry. I'm a professional musician too.

[NJCher]

5. was there an accident report?

If the cop said you were in his lane, you have to get that corrected. Take pics. Strenuously complain. Make them change it.

This should be covered by insurance, right? And you have the truck driver info?

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. the truck driver took off right after hitting me.

I don't think they have it in mind to report it. But it sounded like a boys' club blame game. I think you can see from where he hit me that my car was in front of his rig going for the same space ahead. I was forced to stop. There were no exact lanes as it was where the crash took place. There is no way I would try to crowd him out if he was ahead of me. Maybe he just didn't see me.

I have insurance through Mercury. No traffic tickets in the 25 years we've been here.

[NJCher]

8. It kinda' boils down to how much you want to fight for yourself

It is about 99% certain that the truck company's insurance requires them to report it, regardless of who they think caused the accident. The crucial thing is do you have the truck driver's license plate #? Even the company name.

If you don't have that, you can still possibly track it down but I won't get into how to do this at this point.

Even if you don't, it's still going to fall under no-fault (I would assume CA is no-fault).

However, based on what I am telling you in the first paragraph, you can get this driver in a world of hurt if you have a way of contacting the truck company but especially getting the insurance company name. You want to make sure he takes the blame for what he did because you don't want to be stuck paying your own deductible. Even if he didn't see you, it doesn't matter. It's still his fault.

I know this not only from personal experience (had nearly the same thing happen to me) but also because I used to have a nonprofit legal association and we saw a lot of this "boys' club blame game" thing happen.

You have to be very assertive with your insurance company that you were not at fault. Insurance companies can be odd to deal with in this regard. You would think they would fight for their client, but I have seen them sell out their clients. They just want to get the thing taken care of and raise prices to cover their loss. That is, unless you are a PITA customer (like me).

They will know what happened when they see the pics. This is not a strange accident. They see this stuff every day, day in, day out.


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re your second sentence:

I think you can see from where he hit me that my car was in front of his rig going for the same space ahead.

Your insurance company, if you can convince them you are not at fault, will have access to accident reconstruction people who can tell at a glance what happened in your situation. You should insist they run the pictures past them, along with telling them your story.

Your problem is going to be that this is small potatoes to them. They won't want to spend the time or effort on you, so you have to be very assertive. It's nice if you have a friend who is a lawyer, but you really can't afford to hire one for a case of this size. Insurance companies are more careful with you when they know you know the law or when they know you have access to an attorney.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. Now that you say all this...

I wonder if the highway patrol guy was helping our the trucker. He was telling me I pulled into his lane, yet there there no lane. So while he was arguing with me the truck took off. I was practically on top of the car in front of me trying to prevent any more vehicles cutting in front of me. I always allow vehicles who need to cut in front alternately. It always seems polite to alternate. But this guy was huge. And counted as 3 cars.

I swear if I wasn't so upset by the relentlessness of this stall and lane changing around me I'd be calm and more giving. I got in the lane I needed and stayed there. Everyone else seemed to be jumping from lane to lane.

I fear the insurance company is going to say this was my fault. Yet I was trying so hard to be calm, cool and collected. A lot of good that did me.

[question everything]

10. I am sorry for that. You should at least complain to your local police department

they should have the accident report, perhaps even the name of the highway patrol guy and then let whoever is in charge of them know. Just to have a report filed someplace.

Just say that there were no lanes, and complain that the truck just walked away.

Good luck

[SleeplessinSoCal]

11. Thanks.

I had so much time to peruse my surroundings until I was hit. Then it was a mad dash to an open highway. The church is 40 minutes [usually) from my home. This was in Diamond Bar, CA. I'll check with the Highway Patrol on Monday. Bad timing too. Even my mechanic closed just as I got home at 2:00 pm.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

12. Update:

I spoke to the insurance rep and have a claim going. Supposedly I'll pay the $100 deductible and Mercury will pay for the rest. And they'll provide $30 a day for a rental. Question is what is needed for the body shop work. "Short on supply" could postpone work needed.

Fortunately our car is still driving smoothly. We love our 2007 Prius. And hopefully it will be back to its old self soon. Additionally, my vanity was stroked by the agent who thought I sounded much younger than my 75 years.