Sunday, January 25, 2009

The car drama is finally over

I finally got my car back not on the Monday that I had hoped, but on Tuesday. She looks great and they even fixed a dent I had in the back that I done to the car myself. I didn't have the heart to tell them not to. Maybe the following drama was my Karma for not telling them to ignore the dent.

I was feeling pretty alright having to pay the $250 deductible since the repairs were so costly. This was until I arrived home and found a Subpoena in my mailbox. I was asked to appear in court because the kid who hit me was fighting the citation he received for failure to control! I lost my shit when I saw that! Luckily I received the subpoena about 2 days after the court date. I had to call the attorney the next day to make sure I wasn't in contempt of court for not appearing, which I wasn't.

Now, let's think about this for a minute. I drive about 20 miles to work one way. That night I drove home from work and drove down side roads, a 4 lane highway, a 2 lane highway, and about 4 secondary roads. I managed to control my car the whole fucking time. This kid slams on his breaks, loses control, and hits me. What exactly was he contesting? Clearly he lost control of his car. There is nothing to argue there.

Let's calculate some things here. For me, we have the 2-3 hours of standing in the freezing cold waiting for things to be cleared up the night of the accident. I can't ignore the stress and panic of the whole night, lost sleep, upset it caused my Dad who was on the phone with me, and the time Tamra and Brian took out of their lives to keep my calm and take care of me that night. Let's add onto that the 4 hours of work I missed the next day because I had to set up a rental, tow and deal with insurance issues. Also the $40 I paid for a trakphone because my cell service was down that day. I am going to add the extra day of rental fee's that insurance wouldn't cover because my car was done at 2pm on Tuesday but I was at work and couldn't pick it up. I am going to include lost sleep from the 3 calls of chiropractor offices and 2 calls from body shops I got the day my accident became public record. If I had to appear in court with this fucking subpoena, I would also have lost 8 hours of work (hmm? $13/hr versus the $14 dollars for the whole day I would have been paid to appear).

This adds up to a good $2-300 more in addition to the $25o deductible that I had to pay. This punk was expecting me to appear in court so he could fight a $35 citation? Not a ticket, a citation. I had every intention to take advantage of one of the 9 advertisements I received for law offices in one day to sue his ass for at least the deductible. I am not a mean person, and I was very lucky to walk away from the accident with no injuries and a car that could be fixed. However, I am a logical person in an illogical world. Why should I have to pay so much money because someone else couldn't control their vehicle? It doesn't make sense. I do think the stress of suing him would be more than it is worth, however I will be contacting my insurance company to see if his insurance (if he has any) will cover my deductible. This is not fair.

3 comments:

Jeff! Road Rage Therapist and Moderator said...

Don't you just love American justice sometimes, honey???

Jennifer McKenzie said...

Um, yeah. I got nothing.
When I had my accident, I was shaken, scared, absolutely stunned. I was going the speed limit (for once), I had slowed down when one car pulled in front of me to turn left. When they were through the intersection, I proceeded...and the car BEHIND the first one pulled out in front of me. I STOOD on my breaks, no where to go to escape. She gassed the car and, with my massive tire squealing, I only clipped her.
Guess what?
I asked the highway patrol how fault would be determined. I was told "Your insurance company will determine that."
I'm stupid. I believed him.
Without a police report of the accident (which they didn't investigate) my insurance company wanted me to take a "No fault". I refused.
Instead, she turned out to be driving without a license and no insurance.
They still raised my rates like it was my fault.
I'm sorry you had to go through that. What a pain.

Lothian said...

Jeff: I wouldn't expect anything less.

Jen: I am sorry you had to go through all that drama too! It just doesn't seem right, any of it.