Help!!

[Steve97365]

I've been to embarrased to post before, but last month I had an altercation with the back driver's side of my truck, and the front left rock guard as well as pushing in the front panel and the side panel a teeny bit. OK, if you have to know, I got into a spot where I was unable to pull forward because of a fence, and tried to back the AS that was already 90 degree jack-knifed....long story short, the backing damaged the trailer and broke my tail light. That's not the worst of it though...it was in the AS service lot. I should have just let them deal with it with their forklift. Anyway, I don't have pics, because the AS is in Arizona and I'm not. I did ask for an estimate, thinking it would be a couple of hundred dollars...not so! Three panels and the rock guard plus labor...$4500+. I'd turn it into the insurance company, but I just switched to USAA in May, and managed to total my wife's car and the Tacoma that hit us by pulling out into traffic and failing to see the guy coming at 55 MPH in the pillar blind spot, in July. I'm trying not to be long-winded, but I feel all the factors play a part.

We're fighting with the insurance company because they say that almost all of the treatment including C-scans and MRI's were medically un-necessary, and because of the BS... my wife has retained an attorney to sue me for her bills because I was the at-fault driver. I of course can't find a remedy because I was at-fault, and it was my fault.

So my question is...should I just live with the damage to the trailer, which isn't REALLY noticable unless you know it's there? Or should I turn in another claim for the trailer? We switched all our insurance to USAA after being with State Farm for almost 50 years, and I'm afraid that one claim might effect the other. Certainly my auto insurance rate will soar for a good while too.

Until this recent string of luck or bad driving decisions, I had never had an accident. Thanks.

[THEPILL]

Pictures would help.

But Relax, now it's broken in and you can relax.....LOL

Shane

[Dave Park]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

Pictures would help.

Bad taste joke about pictures of your wife self-censored. Well, mostly.

[Splitrock]

What do you have to loose by turning in the claim to the insurance company? If you don't turn it in, your costs will go up $4,500 in one year. If they pay the claim and raise your rates $1,000 a year, your break even point is four and a half years. That gives you 4 1/2 years to hit the lottery.

[Foiled Again]

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f381...r-61394-2.html

Several good ideas here to repair or reduce dents short of replacing a panel.


I don't want to be preachy, but we all hit a point where we need to reassess our driving skills. You went 50 years without an accident and now you have had two in a year or so. Something has changed.

I'm 62... not decrepit, but I can no longer do a 500 mile drive in one day, nor is my equite as acute.. and my reaction times are just a bit slower. I no longer listen to the radio while driving, because it's too darned easy to drive distracted.

I strongly advise that you GET YOUR EYES CHECKED... and if you've gotten new glasses lately, get your glasses checked. I recently got new glasses that didn't seem quite right. I insisted that the optician recheck the glasses - they insisted the glasses were made to the correct Rx. I went to another doctor and the glasses were wrong. Back I went and insisted that the lenses be re-made. Grudgingly they did redo them - and suddenly I can really see clearly.

Now I have two pairs; one "fashionable" and the other functional for driving - bigger lenses so my peripheral vision is less limited. A senior driving course is also a good idea - strategies to avoid problems such as slightly slower reaction time.

I take the senior discounts, I better do the senior safety stuff too.

Best always, Paula

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Steve97365

We're fighting with the insurance company because they say that almost all of the treatment including C-scans and MRI's were medically un-necessary, and because of the BS... my wife has retained an attorney to sue me for her bills because I was the at-fault driver. I of course can't find a remedy because I was at-fault, and it was my fault.

Hi, [maybe none of my business] I don't understand the part about your wife sueing you, unless she is an ex-wife. Husband and wife have shared assets, so she would be sueing herself too. What the heck, you have paid insurance for all these years, you might as well just turn in all of your claims. Also the treatments to your wife should have been deemed necessary to her doctor, therefore should be paid by the insurance company.

[Dave Park]

By suing him, she is in effect suing his insurance company. They may well take the view that a pay-out is cheaper than a defense.

[Steve97365]

Thanks all. Foiled, I've thought about a senior driving course. I didn't see the truck because of the pillar post blind-spot...I wasn't trying to beat him across the intersection. I was cited though...and it was my fault.

Robert, the auto insurance is fighting with my medical insurance as to who is responsible....In the meantime the bills are past due and several of the doctors who want to get paid recommended that my wife obtain legal counsel to get HER bills paid. I was the negligent driver, and therefore responsible for her pain and suffering as well as her medical bills....at least that's how it was explained to me. My wife and I are still on terrific terms, married for 42 years, and we both know that this is just a stupid game that the insurance companies play, hoping that the average citizen will eventually collapse and either pay the bills themselves, or switch companies so they are off the hook. I hate that we are REQUIRED to have and pay for auto and RV insurance, but the insurance companies are under no obligation to settle fairly or quickly without the threat of a trial.