There I was, sitting at the traffic light (about 6:45AM). The light turns green. I start through the intersection. Then I catch some movement to the left out of the corner of my eye. Here comes some yahoo at me as if the light was still green for him! So I lays on the stoppers and get stopped right in the middle of the intersection. And the truck keeps a-comin'. He (sorta) swerves at the last second and the rear corner of his truck, it's a dually pickup with a utility bed, catches my front bumper. He just cruises right on through the intersection and finally slows down next to a gas station. Everybody else has stopped, including the other guy he almost hit, so I turn and get behind him. We both go into the gas station lot and he gets out and the first thing he said was, "Did you hit me? I thought I had a flat." Huh? This joker just ran a red light and hit ME!
He walks back into the intersection a couple of times, almost getting run over, to pick up the door that came off the back corner of his ute bed and the bigger items that fell out while he was fishtailing out of the intersection.
Just so happens the intersection is a couple hundred yards from the company that owns the truck. While we wait for the state trooper (took about an hour since there were no injuries), a few guys from the guy's company drop by to see if he's alright and to coach him for the interview with Smokey. They all scatter when they spot the trooper waiting at the traffic light.
The trooper arrives and first asks the other guy what happened. He says "I realized I didn't have time to get stopped for the yellow light. I don't know how this gentleman got into the middle of the intersection when he had the red. I tried to miss him, but he didn't stop for me and hit me in the rear area of my truck."
Trooper then gets my side of the story. He also cites the other guy for failure to stop for a red light. When we get out of the trooper's car, the other guy says, "Shouldn't cost you too much to get your ride fixed. Just buff out the paint from my truck and you'll be good as new. I gotta go to work."
No skin off his nose. He goes on to work. It isn't his ride that got torn up. Isn't his insurance that has to pay for the damage. His company will pay the fine. And will pay for his lawyer to dispute the citation in court.
I lost the job I was on my way to start because "you have some transportation issues to work out and we need someone who can commit right now."
Cosmetically, his truck is worse off than the Mo. He's missing a door. I have paint from his truck on the bumper. And a hole where the skin got pinched and grabbed as his door broke off. The bumper is shifted a bit to the left and so is the grille, I'm hoping due to the bumper being pushed over a bit (about 1/8").
So I call my agent. Then call his agent. Turns out the insurance listed on his registration expired about a year ago. So I call the trucking company. They give me the insurance company name and the number of the policy that expired the first of this month and another number that "may or may not be the policy number that is in effect now", and the number for their agent.
I call their agent who gives me a toll-free number for the insurance company's claims department and tells me an adjuster will call in about 24 hours but, since it's Friday, they probably won't call until sometime next week.
Subrogation is looking better and better....
He walks back into the intersection a couple of times, almost getting run over, to pick up the door that came off the back corner of his ute bed and the bigger items that fell out while he was fishtailing out of the intersection.
Just so happens the intersection is a couple hundred yards from the company that owns the truck. While we wait for the state trooper (took about an hour since there were no injuries), a few guys from the guy's company drop by to see if he's alright and to coach him for the interview with Smokey. They all scatter when they spot the trooper waiting at the traffic light.
The trooper arrives and first asks the other guy what happened. He says "I realized I didn't have time to get stopped for the yellow light. I don't know how this gentleman got into the middle of the intersection when he had the red. I tried to miss him, but he didn't stop for me and hit me in the rear area of my truck."
Trooper then gets my side of the story. He also cites the other guy for failure to stop for a red light. When we get out of the trooper's car, the other guy says, "Shouldn't cost you too much to get your ride fixed. Just buff out the paint from my truck and you'll be good as new. I gotta go to work."
No skin off his nose. He goes on to work. It isn't his ride that got torn up. Isn't his insurance that has to pay for the damage. His company will pay the fine. And will pay for his lawyer to dispute the citation in court.
I lost the job I was on my way to start because "you have some transportation issues to work out and we need someone who can commit right now."
Cosmetically, his truck is worse off than the Mo. He's missing a door. I have paint from his truck on the bumper. And a hole where the skin got pinched and grabbed as his door broke off. The bumper is shifted a bit to the left and so is the grille, I'm hoping due to the bumper being pushed over a bit (about 1/8").
So I call my agent. Then call his agent. Turns out the insurance listed on his registration expired about a year ago. So I call the trucking company. They give me the insurance company name and the number of the policy that expired the first of this month and another number that "may or may not be the policy number that is in effect now", and the number for their agent.
I call their agent who gives me a toll-free number for the insurance company's claims department and tells me an adjuster will call in about 24 hours but, since it's Friday, they probably won't call until sometime next week.
Subrogation is looking better and better....