Drunk Drivers! Somewhat OT, Firehawk 067

"Juan Polk" wrote in message news:oC4Fb.221014$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net... I have enjoyed posting to your newsgroup for the past few years, but recently a series of drunk drivers have put me on the sidelines maybe permanently. If any of you have had your vehicle "Totaled" by your insurance agency lately would you let me know if this is SOP for this procedure. I had my 1994 Pontiac Firebird Firehawk hit in the rear by a drunk driver in May. The car shut down at the time, and has not been successfully started with it's key since that time. I was hit in the rear three times by this driver who maybe had tried to ram me out of the way to drive off, but was stopped in traffic. Any way the situation is this the Police at the time came to the scene, and did a hasty investigation of the accident. They did not give me any information about the driver, and in tern let this driver drive away from the scene. I had to wait for 29 days to get, and read the accident report to find out the driver had no insurance, and license. The license, and address was completely falsified, and there is no way to find the driver since the cops did not take the license plate information from each vehicle. {Upper Darby Penna. Police Department} I contacted my carrier Allstate Insurance almost immediately after the accident, and reported the incident. The insurance company took my car to a prescribed body shop which did a horrible job on the body work, and absolutely no work on the damaged electrical system. They kept the car in the shop at the direction of Allstate for over 5 months. I just had the vehicle "towed" out of the shop two weeks ago after being in this shop since June of this year. The vehicle doesn't run, and I had taken it upon myself to repair it pending a lawsuit, but I have ran out of time, and money for the project. I am going to put her up for auction on E-Bay in January. Here is what I wanted to know: 1.. Did the police present you with the drivers information 2.. How long did it take you to get a Police Report 3.. Did your insurance company go after the driver at fault or did they only handle your vehicle 4.. Did they write off your vehicle for market value or lower compared to the Blue Book value of your car. If so what were you to do to make up the difference. 5.. If attempting to resolve your payment did they automatically value your 4Th. Gen as a "V-6" Minimum option vehicle. My 4Th. Gen SLP Firehawk is being remunerated as a 6 cylinder, 2 door coup. 6.. Would you recommend a good full service Insurance Company as opposed to Allstate Insurance Co. I just wanted to check out similarities between cases that may have been similar to my case between states. BTW If you have had better service from your Insurance Carrier what company would you rec.?. Mine was Allstate Insurance which I was on a "good driver" pgm for the last

12 years. BTW: The shitty body shop that did the so called work was Kenan@ Lumpkin Autobody 4536 Market Street, Philadelphia PA 19145 Stay out of there at all costs if you are ever in the area.

Have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all at alt.autos.camaro.firebird this has been Firehawk 067 signing off forever Dec. 20 2003.

On November 30th, I got t-boned by a drunk driver who ran a red light. I was turning left, and the other vehicle was going about fifty. I was in my Bronco, and the impact knocked me over one hundred feet. Fortunately, I gunned it at the last second and leaped forward enought that the major impact was at my rear wheel instead of the passenger door. Knocked the wheels off and most of the axle. Totaled it, for sure. The first policeman on the scene found out where the vehicle was that had hit me. He came back to me and said the driver had taken off running across the desert. He said there was probably no insurance. The tow truck driver asked where I wanted the vehicle taken. I told him to take it to my place. I had just had shocks, tires, and other suspension work completed, plus I had a two thousand dollar stereo system in the truck. I figured I could at least salvage those things. The tow driver then went over to the policeman. He came back to me and said they had the owner of the truck and she was fully insured. I went over to ask the officer about that. He nodded his head, but he strangely stayed between me and the owner. I asked him about the information and he said it would be in his report. Since the owner was insured, and the cop said the liability would fall back to the owner if he didn't locate the driver, I asked if I was covered. He nodded again. So I had my truck taken to the tow yard where the insurance could take care of it. Three weeks later, after the truck was already listed in a lien sale, and I had gotten nothing for minor injuries or the truck, I finally got the police report. It showed the owner had no insurance, and it listed the accident as a hit-and-run. Even though California is a mandatory uninsured motorist coverage state, somehow, my policy didn't have it. There was a place where I had signed that apparently waived that coverage. I didn't know that I had signed that off, but the fact is, in my rush to get the vehicle insured, I had. My bad. So, I'm sitting here with nothing to drive, and I'm going to get squat. My vehicle is going to be auctioned at a lien sale, and the stereo and whatever else was left is history because I can't afford to buy my own truck back. I doubt this has much priority for the police so it seems to me that neither the driver or the owner is going to lose much except the damage to their vehicle. Oh, yea, the driver didn't have a license either, so chances of finding her are about nil. What the policeman said to me isn't in his report, so I've got nothing there. All in all, I lost the whole works, and my insurance company wouldn't even talk to me. They are Harbor Insurance Company, part of Carnegie Insurance. I had to hire a lawyer (yuck) to even find out why they weren't giving me UM payment on it. That's when I found out I had waived it. That's my fault, but the accident sure wasn't. Ain't a damned thing I can see that I can do about it, either. I'm kicking my own ass, but I sure would like to be kicking someone else's, too.

Your story sounds like something for "Shame on You" on the Local News Station.

If nothing else, you'll get some satisfaction and embarrass a few people who should have known better.

The cop should have told you what you were signing and what it meant.

Joe--ASE Certified Parts Specialist & 10th Ann.Club Tech Director '80 Carousel Red Turbo T/A, 26k orig. '79 "Y89" 400/4 speed 10th Ann. T/A, 57k orig '84 Olds 88 Royale Bgm 2 dr, 307 "Rocket" (lol), 141k and still going.... '80 T/A project car...

"Bigjfig" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m05.aol.com...

I had to hire a lawyer (yuck) to even find out why they weren't

Hi Joe. If your response is to me, I'm in complete agreement that finding out I had waived the UM part of the insurance is "Shame on Me." Even more, I don't think a cop or an insurance agent should have to tell me what I'm signing or what it means. I'm a grown up who takes responsibility for my own gaffes. I didn't know I had waived it, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't have known. I can read. I just didn't take the time, or something else was vying for my attention. I'm taking the loss, but at the same time, in a state where insurance is mandatory, I find a little anger in the fact that one can still be smacked by someone uninsured who can get away with that. I have to pay additional amounts for my insurance because some people won't take responsibility for what might happen if they hit someone. The UM insurance is to cover us from those people who think their actions will not affect other people. I find that irresponsible, at best. Most of us have had an accident, and we know that once the thing is in motion, nothing can stop it. In my case, being prepared for someone else's horrible driving as well as the damage they cause means bearing my duty as well as their's, and even if I am bearing mine I can still get screwed by not carrying them, too. In Firehawk's case, not only does he find information on the other person almost impossible to get, but then he has to deal with an inept or incompetent or just plainly criminal repair job that doesn't fix the problem that was not his fault to begin with. Some accidents are accidental, and some are the result of what we each experienced: someone drinking and driving and being doubly irresponsible by not being covered by insurance. Yes, it's a tough world, and no one will take care of us so we have to take care of ourself, but some people seem to go out of their way to make it even tougher than it has to be. Firehawk is down because, through no fault of his own, he has lost his car, his investment, and has no way of recovering that. I'm down for the same reason. Even if I had UM insurance, it only covers $3,500 and that's after a huge deductible. I guess the deal is, just like most things in life, when it happens to you, it wakes you up to how fleeting some things are. Anything from property to life can be gone in a second. I think it resides on us all to take our share of the load for things, and one way to do that is to have insurance so you don't leave the other guy suffering the effects of what you created.

i found a car stuck in the ditch once and i went to help. When I got to the car the man was so pissed he could barely walk !!! i told him his car doesn't seem to be getting him enough power to get out of the slippery ditch and the stupid bastard bought it and let me under the hood with my tool box.

wire cuttered the injectors wires, battery cables,abs etc. pretty much any wire i could find under the hood. i left a few minutes later with a hell of a big smile ! knowing how much his drink and driving just cost him and he couldn't kill someone.there was no way he could get it going before he sobered up it would have to be towed

bet he wishes he took a cab that time !!!

Amen to that... too many dumbasses and morons get behind the wheel drunk in canada or the US.

wire cuttered the injectors wires, battery cables,abs etc. pretty much any wire i could find under the hood. i left a few minutes later with a hell of a big smile ! knowing how much his drink and driving just cost him and he couldn't kill someone.there was no way he could get it going before he sobered up it would have to be towed

bet he wishes he took a cab that time !!!

Thanks for your response Big. Ironically I also have a 1986 Ford Bronco that I am riding around on right now. It too was hit by a hit & run driver before the WTC Bombing, and was used in some rescue work right after. I do not believe that this is happening, but I see it is typical. I am formulating a letter to be sent to the News Papers, and to the Governor's, and State Attorney General's Office in the State Of New Jersey. This is BS at its maximum. I hope that you have a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.