Well, there I was, sitting at the stoplight on a minor road that intersects main street with my left turn signal blinking. The light turns green, and I have to wait for until the other cars coming across are clear, so I hold tight. When the first car (a 2004 Toyota-blue) had just passed the center line of the 4 lane road coming towards me, some moron in a 90ish grey Chebbie Celebrity comes flying down main street at about 40 and runs the redlight, clipping the blue yota in the process in the gas cap area, spinning her 270* and into me. The front half of the celebrity was ripped off, and the yota's rear wheel broke off when it hit me, and was only held on by the shock. My radio flew out of my dash, ripped my newly installed battery tray out of the inner fender(I had 1/2" bolts and 1 1/2" fender washers holding it down) and my clutch linkage came apart and broke the return spring-not sure how that happened, but it did, and the truck was in neutral with the clutch out.... the *perfect* 69 grill is long gone, my *perfect* chrome bumper is even farther gone, and my 2 week old hood is messed up enough to warrent replacement, and my rust-free drivers side fender is damaged beyond repair, and we had to hook a chain up to it and hook up to a buddies jeep to bend it out enough to clear my fat tires. My knees hurt, my back hurts, and my wrists hurt. I climbed under the truck and reattached the clutch and moved outta the road (into the church I was headed to) So what happens now? I dont know what insurance company they had, and I didnt have photos of the truck before it was hit. My dad says they might try to total it out, but we dont want that. Any suggestions? I am really mad now, and ws even madder when it happened. I got out of the truck and ripped the busted trim off of the fender and threw it in the bed.

 

Feel bad for you, I hate idiot drivers more then you can imagine...I'm glad your "ok" (I know you said your sore but...at least your here telling me your sore) on a happier note, you did say that a chebby AND a toyota got totalled from this? Nice of you to remove that junk from the world (the toyo they'll make more of but no more celebritys!)

As for insurance, I find it to be a scam...and when you make a claim it becomes a bigger scam. That's just my opinion. I'd just take a deep breath, dont look at it for a couple days then just start tearing into it little by little, its a big set back but hey...at least your around to fix it, if you were driving a civic or some other piece of crap you might of gotten hurt badley.

Chado

 

MTMD, in texas you can file a case in small claims court for ...up to 5,000 dollars. No lawyers necessary, a Justice of peace listens as both sides present their case and then they render a verdict. If i was you I would get estimates of parts and labor to fix and File a claim in small claims ct. If, the verdict is in your favor, you then take the document down to the ct. hse and file with the clerk. You file a lien against against all Real property along with interest accrual until the lien is paid off . You must file the written verdict in Every county in which the person owns real property so that when they try to sell the title Will NOT transfer until the lien has been paid........The insurance maynot help you at all. sk

 

wre the police there? if so, they file a report, the celebertys insurence will either total out your truck or pay for repairs. if they total it they do give you the option to keep the truck. usealy though they give you a little less but not much. hopefully you get enough the fix it all. good luck, sorry to hear that happen. glad you are ok.

 

thats what I am worried about texan. I am picking up the accident report today, then going to my insurance company. My agent is an honestly good man, and he will do his best to help me out. If they total it out, I was told that I might have to re-regester it and all AFTER it is fixed to "new" condition and pass a smog test-which is kinda hard to do without an exhaust system. Im just afraid that i wont get enough to fix my truck. If that happens, I will use the money and rebuild the motor and slowly bring the body back. I am just glad that I had not gone to get the ranger grill yet from a guy up the road! That would have resulted in some bloodshed.

 

Much - Sorry to hear about that. After I'm elected get me his name - I will confiscate all his property and banish him to California where his driving will not be noticed.
I had an experience last week. I was driving with my wife in her '01 Taurus in the middle lane of three with no one near front or back. An idiot stopped at a stop sigh to my right, then pulled in front of me like I wasn't there. By instinct, I threw the Taurus hard left to avoid him, then hard right to miss a high curb (if I had been in a lifted truck, I would still be rolling). The Taurus really responded well and a serious accident was avoided. I started breathing again about a block away.
Good luck with the restore.
Dono

 

Justice will be served. Dono style.

 

I'm real sorry to hear about your accident MTMD. I hope you make out okay. I work with insurance companies indirectly as the software I wrote for doctor's offices fills out the claims. I swear I think most insurance companies have 1 person processing the claims and about five thinking up reasons why they shouldn't pay it.

 

dad was working at watts bar in TN, and had a rent-a-car from enterprise, cause TVA's fleet of impalas or what ever they have now were all being used, it was a new jeep liberty , he had his cruise control set between 45-48 mph. and was tooling down the highway, when some idiot ran a stop sign. dad fliped 2 1/2 or 3 1-2 times before landing upside down and unconcious. (woke up a few sec. later) they had to get him out of the car and haul him to the hospital, anyways the first thing the jerk says when the police get there is "HE WAS SPEEDING". well luckily for us dad is ok, sore as crap and we now know he has a broke rib but is thats it, he went back to work today on light duty.( wreck was last friday)
the other guy wasnt hurt, drove away and only got a ticket for running the stop sign.

like i've said b4, "people get more stupid every day"

 

Red light runners + light jumpers = the innocent guy getting screwed.

We have such a bad situation here in ND with that combo. They don't care about running red lights until they nail that minivan full of kids and kill half of them. Then when they're sitting in prison for man-slaughter they're thinking: "maybe I should have obeyed the laws." . . . . . idiots, for sure.

 

How about the parking lot speeders? Anyone been hit by one of them? I had a honda civic slam on the brakes and screech his tires before almost driving partway under my truck. The best part was how smooth I kept it (even though he scared the crap outta me) I just smiled at the ghost driving it and continued to proceed around him (I was coming into the parking lot and then was making a left in the parking lot (hard to explain have to see it to know exactly what I mean) he was going about 40km/h coming through the parking lot and almost hit me.

It was pretty funny because had he of actually hit me I dont think I would of been in much trouble from a lowered honda civic...would of been really mad though I've only bought two sets of tires in my life (I'm only 20) and the first set got ruined 2 weeks after I had them from a dump trucks metal crap that fell of the back...this would of been 2/2...not good.

Chado


But as I said before...I hope whatever you want is what happens. Me I wouldn't make a claim I'd of not even told them and just gone about fixing it as I could...but I noticed US insurance is ALOT better then canadian insurance (I have a few articles for anyone who doesn't know why to read...I got them off of www.sccoa.com ontario chapter...cbc and toronto star links etc

 

An update- My step mother works for the insurance company that will be paying, and she advised me to try and get an estimate or 2 to help bargain with the company, and to get up all of my recipts for the hood, grill and bumper and other little things i have done to show that it was slowly being restored. Noone in town would give me an estimate, they said that progressive would send someone to look at it. I doubt that progressive wouldhire professional body workers, and I was told by about 4 bodyshops that I will have to watch them, as they will do their best to deny any damage they can- like saying that my *perfect* grill was not so perfect and therefore worth less. But I am gonna kick and scream the whole way. Im not out to make some quick cash off of these people, I just want my truck back to its former condition, and will do the work myself. Wish me luck as I fight the system, and keep them from toatling my truck.

 

go get estimates without saying any insureance is paying, tell them you are paying to get it fixed. they will charge a little more (better to bargan with progressive) and give you an estimate, i had to do it that way because i did the same thing and they said progresive would send someone so the shop wouldn't give me an estimate. good luck man, hope things go your way.

 

about 2 weeks ago a guy i have met twice backed his mazda truck into mine. it was about 10 pm and me and the wife were watching "malibu's most wanted"(horrible movie, she wanted to see it). so i hear the metal crash sound, run out on the balcony, see a truck in the back of mine, and say what the !!!!. so he drives off, cops come, he comes back, starts denying he did it, then i notice his tailgate is in a taco shell shape and also the paint scraped off where he flattened my taillight trim ring. anyways, the progressive lady tells me he couldnt have bent my axle by pushing it against the curb(a lady who saw the whole thing said he had to of been going 35-40 mph) and that my truck is covered in bondo. i asked her where there was bondo and challenged her to point it out and she said and i quote" i dont know where it is but it is obviously there" i took my $845 and ran. come to find out the guy is now in jail for rape so i guess he got what was coming to him.

 

Gee. This is the second story on here that reported that Progressive won't settle claims fairly. Sounds like anyone with Progressive is just asking to be hosed. Maybe that's why they advertise that they have low rates. I could advertise low rates too if I wasn't planning on fixing any damage.