Drove 3 hours on Thanksgiving only to be rear-ended turning into the driveway of my destination!!!

was in in same situation not to long ago, first time in an accident where I WASNT AT FAULT woohooo, old man stops in middle of road, no left no right, so what does he do, whips it into reverse at 20-30 mph, f'd up my 350z front end.

i call my agent and ask her what to do, she says she'll handle it im like ok, so i go down to police station and file a report, i get a call from her and says you will hear from them with in the next hour. no call for a day and a half, finnaly i called them and was like wtf is up i called my agent and she said id hear from you guys 2 days ago, oh sorry sir we didnt get the claim nubmer, im like how did you not get the claim number you already talked to my agent. gives me some retarded answer as the agent went to vacation or something im like ok w/e lady lets get this going.

another freakin day passes, mind you i dont have a rental car yet and have to work the next day (happend before a weekend luckily) i call his agent AGAIN and Leave another mesage hi this is so and so i talked to you guys the other day its been 4 days now whats going on. still nothing, so i called my agent again and said can you handle this they arent getting back to me she says sure no prob, finnaly i get a call back from her and says you will hear from them in an hour, ok sweat i say thanx, 2 hours go by and finnaly im just $%^&**( so i call wait for live person and chewed the # out of them for a good 20 mins until she put me on with an agent and my claim number.

so i get an agent i said id like to make a claim, on your person blah blah blah, i tell her the story and exactly what happend, she says she has to wait for his testimony blahblah blah, didnt want to hear anything or start anything. im like wtf is this everytime ive cause an acceident within hours i get a call from my agent saying a claim has been requested against you. its now 4 freakin days later WTF!!!!!! i have no rental and my car is still not being fixed.

before we hang up she asks me, oh was there any witness's i think for a second and im like oh yah there was a auto repair place right at scene of accident, and the mechanic asked me to pull in after we were done talking so he could check out the damages because he liked 350z and said it was a shame it happend. ( to be honest i have no clue if he saw it or not but did come out after he heard the noise). so i said" he said he saw it and then quoted me a price"( i lied on that part ^^ accept the price part) we hang up, no less than 5 mins later i get the origianl agent of his and says good news weve accepted the claim and we can continue forward.

on top of that i had to continually call them back to ge the rental car twice missing them because of holiday hours and having to pay for car out of pocket. not to mention i had to keep calling my mechanic and then having to call them to confirm it, wth i thought they had the claim number, shouldnt they have just aske dthe mechanic how long and at least put that amount in instead of week by week wtf is that? on top of that his policy was crap, i shoulda just gone through mine and went with most expensive car and had my insurance sue them.

lesson of the story , just skipp all the BS and say i have a witness right up front whether you do or dont lol. insurance companies are scumbags.

reply to post by ~widowmaker~

I totally feel your pain. What do they do, send their agents to the School of Stupid?
Yeah, 4 different people told me "Give me your number, I have to talk to so-and-so and I'll call you right back." Needless to say, not a one of them did. Well, I take that back. Tonight the guy that set up the rental car and towing called me to apologize about the mix-up causing my car to STILL be stranded six days after the accident. (Thank God I have the rental!)

He's the one who got it OK'd to be towed further than they usually allow. This was Friday night. Towing company calls Monday to make sure I left a key, and tells me they plan to tow it that day. Today the appraiser calls and asks me where my car is.

I call the towing company and they say they are waiting for the Insurance company to approve the extended distance. I tell them I got a verbal on that Friday, but they say have to wait for Direct to call and confirm. I call Direct and get ANOTHER person (5th person I've talked to) and ask how can it be that you have contacted the towing company, who has contacted me, but they can't tow it because they are waiting on a phone call from you to confirm it is approved. She agrees it doesn't make sense, sifts thru the notes and says "Yeah, you're right. It's written right here just as you said." (I take good notes.) Then tells me she needs to touch base with a couple of people and she'll call me right back. (Yeah right... I've heard that song-and-dance 4 times at least!)

Well, she doesn't call me back, but Craig (we're on a 1st name basis now, lol) calls me to apologize for the mix-up, because it WAS already approved. Says he's glad I called to straighten it out, gives me his extension number, and he's going to call the rental car place and extend it for as long as I need it. My car will be at the shop tomorrow afternoon. I HOPE!!!

I hear ya, I once was debating something insurance related with a friend of mine about 12 years ago, I contacted my insurance company at the time for some info to settle the debate, stupidly I gave my name then received a bill for a claim, my fee's went up, so I thought "nah, no way, not happy and I'll be dropping this mob", but when I attempted to sign up with a different insurance company I discovered that I had been black listed and most companies would not sign me up, some even just hung up on me once they received my details, I haven't had any insurance since and couldn't be happier. The few issues that have occurred since then have all been resolved on the spot or negotiated over the phone, it's a lot cheaper though you run the risk of dealing with the occasional ahole and as long as you have correct details, police action or the threat of can always achieve similar results as insurance.

You cant trust any one who makes money from people's suffering and fear mongering, it will just leave you vulnerable and helpless in a time of need.

Originally posted by Mobidinc
I hear ya, I once was debating something insurance related with a friend of mine about 12 years ago, I contacted my insurance company at the time for some info to settle the debate, stupidly I gave my name then received a bill for a claim, my fee's went up, so I thought "nah, no way, not happy and I'll be dropping this mob", but when I attempted to sign up with a different insurance company I discovered that I had been black listed and most companies would not sign me up, some even just hung up on me once they received my details, I haven't had any insurance since and couldn't be happier. The few issues that have occurred since then have all been resolved on the spot or negotiated over the phone, it's a lot cheaper though you run the risk of dealing with the occasional ahole and as long as you have correct details, police action or the threat of can always achieve similar results as insurance.

You cant trust any one who makes money from people's suffering and fear mongering, it will just leave you vulnerable and helpless in a time of need.

Woah, that's messed up-- billed you for a claim for asking a question?! The more I hear, the more I loathe this whole concept of 'insurance.' The only thing we seemed to be ensured of is being ripped off and taken to the cleaners!!!

Originally posted by pheonix358

Originally posted by pacifier2012
And I bet you were not indicating for at least 3 seconds before you put your brakes on to turn?

Sure it's the other cars fault, but if you had done that they would have had warning. Two things were at play here.

1. Car follows too closely and can't stop in time but is not expecting someone to stop suddenly as they are not indicating.
2. Car no indicating and slowly slowly instead of breaking hard to frighten the cars following... ( come on, we all know we do it)

Sorry but quite clearly, the brake lights tell you the car is stopping. See break lights, slow down. It does not matter what else happens! Two cars following way too close or not paying attention, sounds like it runs in the family.

P

The indicating thing is to give people warning that you're about to do something. If you just hit the brakes, theyre not getting any warning. Yes its wise to leave enough room to react to someone doing that, but no its not your fault if they didn't indicate for the required time before slowing down to turn/etc. Nobody EVER indicates long enough, I've known a number of people who've been done for this just because they say things like 'nobody bothers doing that though'

reply to post by cartesia

The indicating thing is to give people warning that you're about to do something. If you just hit the brakes, theyre not getting any warning. Yes its wise to leave enough room to react to someone doing that, but no its not your fault if they didn't indicate for the required time before slowing down to turn/etc.

Sorry but I beg to differ. Have you ever clipped the top of a hill on an Interstate and had to slam on brakes because traffic had come to a stand-still? I have. You HAVE to leave room in front of you to account for the unexpected. If you hit someone from behind, you are following too closely.

P.S. By the way, I did signal. They hit me anyway.

Wow that sucks. Your insurance sounds horrible. I just got progressive about 5 months ago and I have to say they are pretty good though a bit pricey, I think. Use to be on a family plan until I grew out of it, oh the pain...

But Progressive is pretty cool. I got into an accident not long ago and they took care of it pretty quickly, so did the other person's insurance. I think they had triple A.

Was at a red light, turn lane when I watched the car behind me get closer and closer but never slowing down. I knew it was coming, and had one of those, "damn I'm going to have to deal with this now" moments lol, and I wet noodled seconds before impact. Insurance was pretty cool though (never thought I'd say that).

What was not cool was when I called the police to report it, they told me to go to the gas station and fill out an accident report and then turn that into the police station. I could see the police station from where I was at lol, and I saw 3 cops drive by afterwards ticketing speeders. Oh well, at least the other dude didn't get a ticket so I suppose that was cool.

Major bummer on your insurance, at least you weren't connected to someone in another country, though that might have been faster if they had done that.

Originally posted by Lostmymarbles
Wow that sucks. Your insurance sounds horrible. I just got progressive about 5 months ago and I have to say they are pretty good though a bit pricey, I think. Use to be on a family plan until I grew out of it, oh the pain...

But Progressive is pretty cool. I got into an accident not long ago and they took care of it pretty quickly, so did the other person's insurance. I think they had triple A.

Was at a red light, turn lane when I watched the car behind me get closer and closer but never slowing down. I knew it was coming, and had one of those, "damn I'm going to have to deal with this now" moments lol, and I wet noodled seconds before impact. Insurance was pretty cool though (never thought I'd say that).

What was not cool was when I called the police to report it, they told me to go to the gas station and fill out an accident report and then turn that into the police station. I could see the police station from where I was at lol, and I saw 3 cops drive by afterwards ticketing speeders. Oh well, at least the other dude didn't get a ticket so I suppose that was cool.

Major bummer on your insurance, at least you weren't connected to someone in another country, though that might have been faster if they had done that.

LoL, 'wet noodled' --does that mean you consciously relaxed your muscles so you wouldn't strain anything on impact?

Your insurance treated you right, the way it should be! The cops-- not so much, eh? Couldn't be bothered to respond to an accident right on their doorstep basically!

I'm thankful that the other two people had the same insurance. I can just see 2 separate insurance companies dragging it out, trying to blame the other driver, because neither wants to pay out to fix my car.

Never had an accident, but i owe money on my car so have to have full coverage. Had an "accident" last year in the company truck. No damage to the vehicle im in, infact, i didnt do anything, but lost in court. Insurance #ing doubled.

# the insurance. So i just went without for a year. im not paying 300 a month for a 1000 dollar deductible.

Originally posted by pacifier2012
And I bet you were not indicating for at least 3 seconds before you put your brakes on to turn?

Sure it's the other cars fault, but if you had done that they would have had warning. Two things were at play here.

1. Car follows too closely and can't stop in time but is not expecting someone to stop suddenly as they are not indicating.
2. Car no indicating and slowly slowly instead of breaking hard to frighten the cars following... ( come on, we all know we do it)

It's not anyone's job to drive the car behind them.

If you don't assume that every other driver on the road is a drunken fool and drive accordingly anything that happens is on you, as such, you can only control how far you follow, not how far others follow.

I'll give my brakes a good slam any time someone starts tailgating me. F* them; they can follow from a safe distance, or pass me when they believe I'm crazy.

Sorry for your inconvenience. Sorry, I had to laugh because we are doing some insurance loss inspections and I was looking at the scopes (work to be completed) and was thinking about how bad the contractors and customers are being screwed by the insurance companies who are not only setting prices but a 10 percent profit margin for the contractor.

One place was an entire home rebuild for less that $60K ..... HA HA HA we know who is getting screwed here....

Insurance is a racket ... period!

Originally posted by phroziac
Never had an accident, but i owe money on my car so have to have full coverage. Had an "accident" last year in the company truck. No damage to the vehicle im in, infact, i didnt do anything, but lost in court. Insurance #ing doubled.

# the insurance. So i just went without for a year. im not paying 300 a month for a 1000 dollar deductible.

I hear ya, man.
That's about the long and the short of it. Pay wads of money along the way, then when something happens and you need to call on that insurance... pay wads MORE money!

Is there such of a thing as an Insurance Co-Op? Would that even work?

Originally posted by eNumbra

Originally posted by pacifier2012
And I bet you were not indicating for at least 3 seconds before you put your brakes on to turn?

Sure it's the other cars fault, but if you had done that they would have had warning. Two things were at play here.

1. Car follows too closely and can't stop in time but is not expecting someone to stop suddenly as they are not indicating.
2. Car no indicating and slowly slowly instead of breaking hard to frighten the cars following... ( come on, we all know we do it)

"...you can only control how far you follow, not how far others follow."

That's the darn truth! I have even saved myself from being rear-ended on the Interstate in heavy traffic, by leaving a large enough space ahead of me to take of the slack of the tail-gating moron behind me when the traffic ahead suddenly slowed to a crawl. I've inched up another foot or so and averted being bumped more than a few times. It's not really my responsibility to bail him out in that way, but I'll avoid the hassle (and potential danger) of even the slightest fender-bender if at all possible.

In fact, had I known then, what I know now... I would have missed my perfectly legal right-hand turn and somehow gotten away from those people, to turn around and go back to my destination. I knew they were behind me. I just didn't know they weren't paying attention!

reply to post by new_here


Yes on the "wet noodle". I just went limp and rode the wave .

Read a long time ago that most injuries are caused when people brace for the impact. One of the reasons why drunk drivers are the few to be able to walk away from crashes.

reply to post by new_here


Glad it all worked out for you. I'm hoping mine will for me. On 09/21/2010 my son and I were stopped at a red light when a drunk driver .18 drove his F-150 through my Nissan Altima. I was knock out from 930pm till about 4 am while his car parked in my passenger seat. Luckily my 2yr son sat behind me with not even a scratch. When I woke up in the hospital my memory was wiped clean the entire day of the 21st till about noon the 22nd. Few broken ribs sever concussion issues with my lumber and severe mental issues from it anxiety diagnosed with PTSD.

Now the horror story. Luckily my car was paid for and he did have insurance. It took me one month to actually receive a check for my vehicle from his insurance o wait we both had farmers and they wanted to run me through there hoops. My agent did a great job, but farmers gave me all kinds of a run around. That part wasn't too bad my agent got a rental all set up for me and everything taken care of. The true horror story is even though he was drunk, and speeding farmers is trying to take me to court saying because I have no memory of the whole situation I don't know if I contributed at all. There are still 5 total witnesses and I have about 70,000k in medical bills and farmers wants to say it's both our faults cause I don't know what had happened. I know when it's all said and done it will work out with all the witnesses and him pleading guilty to a DUI with intent to injure. Just makes me angry MY insurance company only cares about their self cause I was hit so hard I can't remember they see it as a loop whole to not have and cover my medical bills.

reply to post by Johncarter12345

OMG... I am speechless.
Wait. No I'm not... I just found my voice when I picked my chin up off the floor.

Now you listen to me. You've got it coming to you, and you know that's a fact. Otherwise, they would NOT have paid for your car & a rental. They're trying to get one over on you, and of course you know that-- you said so in your post. I am just reeling in outrage, is all.

The way I see it, you've got three options.

1. Do nothing and let it play out. (Lengthy beyond reason, and no guarantee anyway.)
2. Hire a lawyer. (Not fair for you to pay for what is rightfully yours.)
3. Magically REMEMBER. Here's how that works... You concentrate on the other eye witnesses stories every day. Imagine them. Have someone recount them to you verbally. It is a well known fact that people can hear something over and over again (like a family story) to the point where they mistakenly think they were there. I've had it happen to me about an event from my childhood, and I've laughed at it happening to other people. It is the power of suggestion-- and it IS powerful. That is precisely why they do not want an investigator to 'lead the witness' with questioning that may plant memories, and also why they do not want eye witnesses discussing their accounts before they officially quote them for the record. Their own memories of how it happened become tainted/altered by another person's version of the event they witnessed.

In this case, you HAVE no memory of it. That is just the same as someone hearing a story over and over until they think it happened to them-- or they 'remember' being in the room, when actually they were no where near.

If you focus on visualizing other people's memories of the accident, there WILL be a moment when you THINK you are remembering, but you're just not sure. Seize that moment. Accept the memory. Call the insurance company and tell them your memory is coming back, now that the trauma of the accident is further behind you.

Listen, you may never remember. People lock away painful memories to protect themselves. Or head trauma may have prevented you from storing it in your long term memory. Either way, they are taking advantage of your suffering and you have the power to undo that, without even lying. Memory is very malleable. Just put yourself in the situation to have that memory shaped, so that you will be treated justly by them sooner rather than later!

Of course the choice is yours. I know my post sounds bossy and directive. Please know it is only coming from the outrage I feel for your plight.

Peace & Love to you...

Originally posted by Lostmymarbles
reply to post by new_here

 

Yes on the "wet noodle". I just went limp and rode the wave

.

That has GOT to be difficult to do. The fear factor alone would just make me tense up if I saw it coming! Also, what about your neck. I mean, you really don't just let it go all floppy on impact, do you? (I'm laughing at how that sounds but it IS a serious question.)

Read a long time ago that most injuries are caused when people brace for the impact. One of the reasons why drunk drivers are the few to be able to walk away from crashes.

Yeah, no kidding... how fair is that when they undoubtedly caused the wreck BECAUSE of being drunk.

reply to post by new_here


Oh and I almost forgot, they didn't send the appraiser for like a week, so nothing even got started till almost a week and half later, driving some piece of crap car lol with like 80 horsepower. Big change from 300 hp lol. Come on betsy come on betsy get around the mactruck. I thought not being the one responsible for the accident was going to be a better feel all around and yet I still got hosed. And to boot. The shop did a terrible job fixing my car but at this point IM just like F it ill look for some 16 yr old that wants a 350z cheap lol.

reply to post by Johncarter12345


like a good neighbor. ^^

reply to post by ~widowmaker~


LoL on the C'mon Betsy...

I guess I really got on their nerves and they were about ready to do anything to shut me up. Towed 177 miles on a flat bed truck to my hometown and my choice of place to fix it. Well, you know, it's a 2009 Camry and didn't have a thing wrong with it. I do want it back the way it was. I guess I will also get a new paint job for my trouble. Not gonna argue about it.