RMMC'S BLOG
May I Have a Boring Life, Please?
Friday, February 16, 2007 11:37 PM
Ah, the fun just keeps coming. I was in an accident this morning. I was on my way in to work, shortly after 5am, and got a very nasty surprise of finding an entire wheel from a semi-truck partially in my lane. As the wheel was the same color as the asphalt on the highway (did I mention I was on an Interstate highway?) so as large as the sucker was, I couldn’t see it until it was about 10-15 feet from me, which is an insufficient amount of breaking time when one is doing about 65-70 MPH.I clipped it, fishtailed and stopped at the side of the road. Shortly after, I was joined by another car, two SUV’s and a flatbed truck. Fortunately none of us were injured and only one vehicle was drivable afterward (one of the SUVs).
We got to wait for over an hour for the state troopers to come (only the state cops can write up accident reports on state roads) but had two ambulances for company. However, it was also about zero Fahrenheit with a wind chill of about -10. Fun, fun, fun.
I couldn’t find my road service card, but fortunately did have all the other necessities for the trooper. He was kind enough to arrange towing for me and gave me a ride to work. I found out why it took so long for him to get there. There had been a large rash of accidents over night in the county, so we had ended up with low priority as there were no injuries and had to wait for the day shift to come on at 6am.
I called my insurance agent when they opened and had a very stressful and bizarre conversation with the woman I spoke to. First she told me that they couldn’t waive the $500.00 deductible as I should have been able to avoid an object in the road. Then she encourages me to lie to the adjustor and say it came off a vehicle directly in front of me. About the only helpful thing she had to tell me was of a collision shop that would furnish me with a virtually rental while they worked on the car, and that the collision shop would bill the insurance company directly.
So, after this I really began to stress out as I don’t have $500.00 unless I don’t pay…my utilities, the car payment or the insurance for the car and my apartment. (Oh, yeah, I still owe about 2 grand on this car.) Then I call the collision shop. Yes, they offer very cheap rentals for people who are having their cars worked on. That’s if the car is repairable. But, since things were jumping last night in the entire tri-county area, it took them until 4pm this evening to get the car there from the towing yard, so nobody can look it over until Monday.
About this time I begin to worry about if I’m gonna get hit with towing costs and how much that’ll be. This was when I began to have a meltdown. Then one of the bosses called me into her office for a chat. She reminded me that, if necessary, it’s possible to borrow from my retirement account and pay it back through auto-deductions from my paycheck and then she gave me the phone number for the reps from there.
This helped a bit as I remember I have enough to buy a new vehicle and then some, but really hate the idea of doing this, but at least I have a viable option that doesn’t involve borrowing from family and friends.
One of my co-workers was kind enough to go hugely out of her way and drive me home today. I can’t say enough good things about her.
I got home, and had a message from the insurance adjustor and called. She, unlike the lady in the agent’s office, was wonderful and extremely helpful. I explained what happened, and she immediately waived the deductible. She also told me not to hesitate to call if I get any medical issues that crop up from this.
Then I made the really fun call…to Mom. Yep, freaked her out pretty well. (We’ve all been a bit touchy about auto accidents after my sister was killed in one a number of years ago.) So, just the sort of news she didn’t need right now. Isn’t it just lovely?
The collision shop called while I was typing this. They didn’t get the car there until after 4pm, so it’ll wait to Monday.
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