My '04 Tacoma totaled....insurance advice?

I wish you the best of luck. Some things just aren't fair. You likely won't be able to find an equal truck to replace that one.

On a related topic, when will our country ever get serious about drunk drivers? It likely wasn't the first time that drunk drove. If your whiplash turns out OK, great. But, there could have been deaths. I think we should cut the allowable blood alcohol level to .04, make the first drunk driving offense without an injury or death a month in jail, and the second a year in jail. A serious injury on the first offense is a year in jail, and a death is 50 years in jail. The partiers will take notice, and the real drunks will find a different way home.

Ken

Get some values; Edmunds, Kelly, Auto trader. My 04 Taco is 3200 miles, v-6. sr5, 4wd, purchased July 04, $25.5 sticker for $23.5 b4 tax and license. I ran edmunds, and it says 22.3 private party and 25.3 retail. Get a rental while the dust and paperwork settles, and go get a replacement truck. It will cost you some cash, but at least you had insurance. Let your insurance duke it out with the other guys insurance. You shoould be ok.

Or make me a deal and maybe I'll get a 06 myself.

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 07:43:17 -0800, Ken Shelton found these unused words floating about:

Yep ... THAT's what they said when they last lowered the BA level. THAT's what they said when 'ride home' was inaugurated. THAT's what they said when DUI checkpoints were instituted.

The ONLY 'cure' would be some form of breath analysis for the driver AFTER he/she/it is seated, buckled up and before the engine is started. Engine turns OFF if the buckle is undone and/or the driver lifts off the seat for more than 10 seconds.

Or driving without insurance. Some serious jail time and repairation should be in store for this driver. Along with prison there should be some community work involving replacement or repair of property. Civil irresponsibilty is running amuck in this country. I wish I had some good news for ya pal, but i'd say, hire a good lawyer and take this guy down, if possible. We realy don't have a way to control drunk driving. Just one drink can impare your driving and reaction time. Many people drink wine with their meal or margaritas. As much as we would like to see some serious penalty time on the books for drink related accidents, we would all be one step away from prison if we drank at a meal and drove home. I've changed my driving habits so that I am not on the road during peek hours that drunks drive home from the bar or parties. When I do, I drive with one eye ahead and on in the mirror.

Yes, I ask ask the same question. Here, in south central PA, drunk driving is rampant. I never saw anything like it. For the small amount of population here, we have numerous vehicle crashes due to excess speed and drunk driving. I am originally from the Boston area, and when someone got seriously injured or died from a drunk driver, there was major concentration on the case from the news media, police and the citizens. Here, it seems to be over-looked or look the other way. No one admits there is a problem here. Police patrols are sporadic and we mostly rely on volunteer fire and ambulance crews because the public school systems eat up 70% of the property taxes with their campus style schools and their obsession with enlarging their administrative and extra curriculum departments.They constantly whine for more money. In the meantime students don't know who our Vice President is or where Alabama is on the map. When drunks know there is no police effort they drink more and drive more. Happy New Year.

concentration

I agree with you about the drunk driving, but I also think they need to overhaul the whole driving system, and get back to behind the wheel testing every time a license comes up for renewal instead of just extending licenses year after year. Out here in CA, the very elderly population is a huge problem as well.

Cheri

What do you mean by "suspect that the drunk didn't have insurance"??? Didn't the cop check his papers and tell you? Call back the cop who should've done that.

It might change if there were more district attorneys with a little imagination. A few years back, some drunk woman got on route 390 (south of Rochester NY) going the wrong way, with no lights on. She hit a car and killed both occupants. The DA charged her with first degree murder, and the grand jury went along with it - it went to trial that way. His argument was that after 10-20-whatever years of anti-DWI advertising, she *had* to know the results of her actions before she began drinking. Since she knew, it was premeditated. She intended to kill. The DA was aiming for life in prison.

It didn't work, but I think the DA knew it wouldn't. She plea bargained, but still got more prison time than if she'd been charged with vehicular manslaughter, and bargained down from there. IIRC, she got 20 years.

I don't know about other places, but around here, a lot of people realize that the next DA could be successful with a murder charge, and you could be the one on trial.

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:53:29 -0800, "Cheri" found these unused words floating about:

Not to mention womern with screaming children chatting gossip on their cell phones ...

....and morons in 45mph bumper to bumper rush hour traffic, reading the newspaper. I see this regularly.

The drunk had a small scalp cut at the hairline so they took him away in an ambulance. I'll find out from the police report soon. It has to go through channels and the holidays are dragging it out. When he got out of his truck he wanted to talk about his trip to New Orleans, no sorry ,,nothing. He did say that he was talking on the phone to his girlfriend and didn't see me...kind of like it was my fault for being there.

Take two Coronas, and call us again in the morning.

Your insurance carrier will try to set the value of your loss at what you could SELL your truck for. This can be thousands of dollars below what you owe, which will be painful indeed. You need to do yoru homework today. Gather up ads of other trucks like yours that are for sale. The value of these sales will help to define the value of your loss.

It's amazing - people are robbed, or get into accidents, and the information you need afterward somehow vanishes into the sky. Then, you receive the 11th carbon copy of a report written in scribble with a soft pencil, by a cop who couldn't write the word "Help" in 10 foot high letters on beach sand, if his life depended on it.

On Sat, 31 Dec 2005 15:34:13 GMT, "Doug Kanter" found these unused words floating about:

Hope your state has a 'seizure law' applicable for uninsured drivers. House, other cars, etc.

Check it out on the web at kellybluebook.com Good Luck... =AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC= =AC=AC=AC=AC=AC=AC

I have no idea. Is a lawyer something that comes out of the end of a gun when you pull the trigger? Is a "seizure" the end result?