Gordon, I totally understand where you're coming from,
and that the whole mess has been a big inconvenience,
and changed your routine in the short term. A real
bummer, and not your fault. I agree that your car
should be put 100% right, and that any medical costs
be covered. I further agree that if there were an
ongoing medical problem caused by this (God forbid!)
that just compensation is certainly due.
But.....this pain & suffering stuff that attorneys
love so much, comes with a big price. Insurance
should be there to cover losses. Catastrophic stuff
has to be covered, but personally I have high
deductibles on all my insurance to keep my costs down.
I'll suffer some loss to keep the insurance
affordable. The reason we all pay high rates is that
some (attorneys in the business particularly) get
greedy. The well is not bottomless, no matter what
they would have us believe, and the cost of those
settlements is passed right back to all insurance
consumers.
We are all inconvenienced by accidents, that's life.
If I cut myself with the hedge trimmers, I do not sue
the manufacturer, (even though the design could have
been better). If this was really just an accident,
I'd suffer the inconvenience. If they were grossly
negligent however, then there should be a price for
being negligent. My 2 cents.
I thought your composure at the accident site was
admirable. (and probably much better than mine would
have been)
Hope everything works out OK, and I was real sorry to
hear that such a beautiful roadster (and such a nice
guy) were roughed up. Glad it was not worse.
Mike Harper
Charleston SC
--- Gordon Glasgow <gsglasgow@attbi.com> wrote:
> Okay, time for an update. Geico came up with an
> estimate of $5223, which was
> based on $44/hr labor rate (which everyone tells
me
> is too low by about
> $10-20/hr for this area) and parts from several
> vendors. The estimate is pretty
> detailed, even listing who they talked to at
which
> vendor for each part. Maybe
> this is common - I don't know. When the adjuster
> brought me the check, he said,
> "Yeah, everywhere we called about parts, they
said
> 'Oh, this must be for
> Gordon's car.'" Ah, the power of the
Internet.
>
> They assured me that accepting the check did not
> close the claim, it was just to
> make sure I had some money to get the repair
process
> started. However, the fine
> print requires that any further damage that is
found
> by the body shop needs to
> be documented with photographs, etc. Probably not
> unreasonable to prevent
> blatant ripoffs. So, not too bad so far.
Inspected
> on Tuesday, check in hand by
> Friday with no whining. I could have had the
check
> on Thursday if we could have
> made connections.
>
> On Wednesday "my" bodyman, Jay Newberry,
came by to
> look at the car and
> confirmed most of what the adjusters had said.
Jay
> did find a bit more damage
> that they hadn't spotted, but not necessarily a
lot.
>
> Now comes the difficult part. Jay isn't actually
in
> the auto body business at
> the moment, so he doesn't have a business
license,
> thus he can't do formal
> estimates that Geico will recognize (probably).
> We're trying to see if he can
> subcontract through a body shop in his area so
that
> he can do the work and still
> get Geico to listen to him. I really want Jay to
do
> the work if possible because
> he already knows the car and the custom mods we
did
> on it, he's local so I can
> help work on it, and he's a great craftsman. I
know
> both Ross and Les would do
> an equally great job on my car, but I want to
keep
> the car close enough that I
> can actively participate in the process. If all
goes
> well, I'm going to make a
> few more mods that I've been thinking about.
>
> Today another adjuster from Geico called me to
see
> about the medical claim (I'm
> still sore). He wants to get a statement for the
> record. I may just direct him
> to my doctor.
>
> I also encountered somewhat of a "crisis of
> conscience" if you will. On the
> advice of my doctor, I consulted a lawyer, just
to
> see if I needed one. She was
> pleased with the way things were going on the
damage
> claim, and said she didn't
> need to get in the middle of that. And they know
my
> doctor, so they know he
> knows how to handle the insurance claims. Then
she
> said, "So that leaves pain
> and suffering." (Of course, this is how they
make
> their 30%).
>
> That gave me a problem. I'm tired of hearing
about
> people making bonehead moves
> that hurt themselves and then sueing everyone in
> sight. It's like they think
> they just won the lottery or something. A few
years
> ago, Joanne totalled our
> Sentra SE-R in an accident with a Volvo (her
fault).
> She got some bruising from
> the seatbelt and the woman driving the Volvo
broke a
> couple of fingernails.
> Joanne went to the hospital to get checked out;
the
> Volvo driver didn't. The
> insurance process got started, and then we were
> notified that the other party
> was sueing us for over $100,000!
>
> Our insurance company investigated and found out
> this woman was taking 5
> different mood-enhancing prescription drugs from
4
> different doctors, none of
> whom knew about the others. In addition, she and
her
> husband had had several
> failed business ventures and filed for bankruptcy
> twice. After our insurance
> company presented this information to their
lawyer,
> they settled out of court
> for some amount (we never found out how much)
that
> I'm sure was less than $100
> large.
>
> So when my lawyer mentioned "pain and
suffering," I
> had kind of a negative
> reaction. My reply was "I haven't had
any." She
> said, "Yes, you have." and
> proceeded to point out all the things I was
having
> to go through as a result of
> this accident which wasn't my fault. I thought
about
> it over the weekend and
> decided that she had a point. Here's the stuff
I'm
> dealing with:
>
> Every time I have to go to the chiropractor, I
have
> to drive to work instead of
> taking the bus (subsidised by my company). That's
30
> miles plus $8 for parking.
> Same situation if I have to go meet the
adjusters,
> etc.
>
> I am having to leave work early frequently to
deal
> with all this, because
> businesses, doctors, lawyers and body shops keep
> daytime hours. This doesn't
> look real great at work, because I'm still new at
> this company, we have a very
> aggressive software release schedule and most of
the
> other people are working
> overtime. So when I come home, I have to get on
the
> computer and do some more
> work from here (instead of enjoying the evening
with
> my wife).
>
> Driving the roadster is done for this year.
Summer
> is short enough up here as it
> is and we were just getting into the good part of
> it. And that's still my hobby.
> I love just taking the car out for a drive in the
> evening or going out with the
> club for a tour. No more this year.
>
> I'm still stiff and sore, which is keeping me
from
> doing any work on the car
> (not to mention any number of other things). I
had
> projects I wanted to do, but
> now they're going to have to wait until I get all
> this damage fixed, both to me
> and the car.
>
> The bottom line is, yes, my life has been
negatively
> impacted in a fairly
> significant way. I didn't see it that way until I
> really started to list all
> these things, and I still can't put a dollar
value
> on it, but I guess that's the
> only way we have in this society to "even the
> balance." So I told her to go
> ahead, although I didn't give her a number.
Besides,
> like she said, "If you
> really feel that strongly about it, take the
money
> and give it to your favorite
> charity."
>
> It's been an interesting week.
>
> Gordon Glasgow
> Renton, WA
>
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> application/ms-tnef which had a name of
winmail.dat]
>
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