GTOGreg

Hello All,

So, I was happily driving home from work yesterday afternoon and enjoying the light traffic due to the MLK holiday. I merged onto the freeway I was amazed to see that traffic was so light that I was able to get all the way over into the fast lane (far left lane) with no problems.

So there I was traveling along at 65 mph, Metallica was playing on the CD player, weather was nice and clear, it was warm enough to have the window down, and all was right with the world, and then it happened….

I saw that I was closing in on some slower traffic, there was a 4-5 car length gap between me and the car in front, in the rear view I noticed a truck coming up in the HOV lane on my left, and there were several cars traveling along in the lane to my right. Just then I saw what looked like a large piece of cardboard or something fly up from under the car in front of me. In the split second I that I was able to see the object rising up in front of me, I noticed that there were (4) round holes in the object. Then BANG….

Well, it turns out that the object that was launched up in front of me was the top of a stove that some negligent a$$hole had not properly secured before getting onto the freeway, and I hit it straight on at 65 mph with the front bumper on the passenger side. After I hit it, I could hear and feel it going under the car, and then I saw it shoot out like a Frisbee on the driver’s side, just missing the truck in the HOV lane.

Now thankfully nobody was hurt however, a$$holes lost stove top has caused some significant damage to the front of my car, and at this point it is hard to tell what damage it has done to the underside (the car sits pretty low and I am unable to crawl underneath to fully inspect for damage). The car still drove OK, so I went ahead and drove home. When I got home I called my insurance company, but as luck would have it, I was unable to speak to anyone (I am assuming this was due to the MLK holiday).

This morning I started looking around on the internet because I was interested to see if it was possible to file a claim with the city, or state, and have them pay for the damages vs. filing a claim through my insurance company, because if I file a claim through the insurance company, I will still have to pay the deductable, plus the insurance company will undoubtedly raise my premiums.

I looking around at various websites, I noticed quite a few articles that say that “nobody is at fault if you hit debris in the road” and “if there are damages to the underside of your car, an insurance company will determine that the debris was avoidable, so the damages are your fault”. This means hitting the debris in the road will count as an accident, and the insurance company will then be obligated to assess penalties against you, and raise your premiums.

Can anyone confirm this?

AzPete

This was dealing with State Farm...a couple years ago my then 18 yr old grandson was druving his moms Mustang. He hit a chunk of truck tire on I 75 in Florida. Cops came, no ticket, front of car messed up good but drivable.

State Farm paid in full with no accident against my grandson or daughter.

Only your insurance company will have a true answer.

GTOGreg

Thanks, AzPete, I appreciate your response and fortunately it looks like it will go basically the same way for me here in AZ as it did for you in FL. I finally spoke with the adjuster for the insurance company yesterday, and I have an appointment this morning to take the car to a local repair shop so they can assess what the damages are.

In speaking with the adjuster, it looks as though the damages will be covered under my policy, so my car will be repaired, and it will not count against me as an accident, which is good, although I still feel like I am getting screwed when I step back and look at the whole situation.

Sorry, in advance, but I can feel a rant coming…

All things considered, it really seems pretty pointless to have to pay for insurance because at the end of the day I am going to end up taking the full financial hit for someone else’s negligence anyway. I will have to pay at least $500.00 right away to cover the deductible, and then pay for the remaining costs over time because the insurance company has confirmed that my insurance premiums will go up as a result of filing this claim.

Adding insult to injury, the insurance company also confirmed that I am covered for a rental car while my car is being repaired which on the surface sounds great, but then tells me rental costs are limited to $20.00/day! You can’t even rent a car for $20.00/day, so I’m not sure where they even came up with that limit.

This is where I quickly begin to lose my patience because insurance is now mandatory, and I am forced by the state to carry insurance. So I signed up for coverage, and I assume that paying a monthly premium insures that should my car be damaged, the damages will be taken care of, because that’s how they advertise and sell it to you. But as soon as you file a claim, they raise your monthly premium to cover the cost of your repairs. So if I end up paying the full price for repairs through higher premiums anyway, why should I have to pay the monthly premium when my car is not broken?

And on top of that, if you offer me the option of choosing to have a rental car included as part of my policy, and then I pay a higher premium each month because the rental car is included, my expectation is to have a rental car paid for by the insurance company should I need a rental car because my car has been damaged. There was no mention of this $20.00/day limit when the rental car option was included as part of my policy!! Had I known the rental car option was really going to be a $20.00/day allowance, I would have elected not to include it, because when it comes down to it, if the rental car costs more than $20.00/day then the f#$()*ng rental car is not really covered.

What a raw deal!! Back in the day, the mafia used to do the same thing that Insurance companies are doing today, and it was called Racketeering!! All of this BS because someone else’s negligence.

drummer829

I would of followed that guy and got his plate #'s. Unfortunately with stuff like that, the insurance companies will ream you. I hit a deer that just ran out in front of my car and I got stuck paying for a deductible to fix my bumper. My girlfriend also had a semi fling a decent sized rock at her windshield and cracked it, but she still had to pay for some of her new windshield. She was going to take him to court to fix it, but we had absolutely no evidence to say it was that specific truck on that specific day/time.

Sometimes it's like, what the hell is the point of insurance?

GTOGreg

Hello Drummer829,

Nope, as angry as I am about the damages to my car, I really can’t fault the guy in front of me because didn’t drop the debris in the first place. Judging from how the debris shot out from under his car, that guy is likely dealing with some damages to his car as well. However, if there was such a thing as karma, I can only hope that the individual who neglected to properly secure his load before getting on the freeway, dropped huge chunks of debris in the roadway, and then made the decision to just keep going, is choking on a dick right now.

As far as the insurance thing goes, I have been paying for insurance since I started driving 20+ years ago, and I have yet to see any benefit from it. They are your best friend as long as you keep paying your premiums, but as soon as you file a claim they start talking about “acts of god”, or start reciting obscure fine print that you never knew was included in your policy, and behind the scenes they have a “crack team” of experts working around the clock trying to find loopholes in your policy that will relieve them from their obligations.

With insurance mandated by the state, there is no incentive for them to treat you fairly, or to even try to do a good job. Their customer base is all but guaranteed, so they can get by just fine by doing the bare minimum. It is ridiculous, insurance companies are making record profits, and from my perspective, if an insurance company is profiting but can somehow justify raising your premiums to cover their costs when you file a claim, then by all rights if you don’t file a claim, at the end of the year you should get all of your premiums back.

Anyway, I took my car to the insurance companies appointed service outlet so they could inspect the car for damages. The guy at the service outlet was all attitude, and came off as bit of an ***, like I was bothering him. Again with a guaranteed customer base, there is no need to waste time and money on customer service. The appointment was at 9:00a but it took them several hours before they even got around to inspecting my car. After about 15-20 minutes, the tech returns and hands me a several sheets of paper that had a bunch of boilerplate legal stuff, and at the end had an estimate of @ $1,200 for the repairs. As I scanned through the itemized list of damages, I see that the estimate states they will not use OEM replacement parts. I tell the tech that my insurance policy states that OEM parts are covered, and I wanted the costs for OEM parts included. I called my insurance company and confirmed OEM parts would be covered, and tell the tech that I want OEM parts, and he refuses. I also asked him if he found any damage under the car, and he tells me he did not look there. I call my insurance agent and tell him I want to take my car to the dealership, and he tells me it is more expensive, so he can’t cover it. So this is what I get for @ $300/mo for insurance?? What a joke!!