Sucks to be me

Well, most of you know how much I love my car. Solaris, you love your t bird, and youve been in the same situation, so I think that you will have the most sympathy for me. Well... My car has been totaled. I was on my way down to South Carolina from Ohio, I had completed 670 miles out of the 680 mile trip when a woman in a 2004 Impala decided that she would try to make a left turn in front of me across a 2 lane 45 mph road, while it was raining, and she only had about 1 1/2 seconds to do it. Needless to say, she didnt make it. I tried to avoid her by turning into the right side lane, but instead of using any judgement and deciding to stop, she just kept on going, and I slammed right into her. Luckily I was going under the speed limit, 42 to be exact. (but in this case, my safe driving couldnt help me) So after skidding across the intersection I probably only hit her at about 35 mph. The air bags both deployed... it was VERY fast. Before I even knew it actually. The first thing I could say was.... "BITCH".. well, I had to start the car and drive it out of the intersection, then I couldnt open my door because the side of my car slammed into her rear bumper, and it was crushed shut. Then I was like.. okay I'll get out the passenger door, but it wouldnt open either. The passenger side fender was pushed backwards and was preventing the door from opening. So I was like alright Ill crawl out my window. Well since my door was F'd up the window wouldnt roll down, so I was like, alright, Ill climb out the passenger window. Luckily the passenger window rolled down, and I had to climb out of it. I stood there and cried for a few minutes (It was like losing a child for me).. then I walked across the street to the parking lot the other lady pulled into and I asked her if she was okay. She said yeah, then blew me off and kept talking on her cell phone. She didnt even apologize. She ruined my car, gave me whiplash, made me crawl out of my passenger window, ruined my weekend and next few weeks... and she didnt even apologize. Then she had the nerve to tell the officer that she thinks I was speeding. And to top it all off, I just ordered a dashmat for my car 3 days ago and havent even got it yet. And can I sell the dashmat to another T Bird owner?... well yeah sure if they want it to say "Ricks 96" on it. So basically, NO. My car is an ugly piece of shit now. I bought a camera from the gas station I pulled into, and took pictures of the car, and then I took a couple pictures of her car too. I will get a digital disc of them and I will post a thread when I have uploaded them all. Ive told a zillion people a zillion times that I would never in a million years even consider accepting the blue book value for my car. It seems now I will be forced to. Its just not fair. It would have taken over ten thousand dollars to buy that car off of me. Meaning it would have never happened. Do you think I'll get over 10,000 for it from insurance? Hell no. Its just not fair. My car was in immaculate condition, I took amazing care of it. It was in better condition last week than it was when I bought it in 02. I will never get over this, I wanted to keep my car forever. Another shitty thing is that Im out of state, and I only have a week that I am off work. So I need to get a lawyer, and stay for a while. I have gone to ER, had to pay 30$ for a co payment, I had to pay 45$ to tow the car, 9$ for medicine, and plus I have been to a chiropractor, who says that I got whiplash, and I got it pretty good. My lower back is swelling, my neck and shoulders are inflamed and sore, and I got bruises on my arms, and my right knee is sore too. I have to keep going to a chiropractor for several weeks to keep my bones in place during the healing process. More about the accident, she's lucky that I reacted the way I did, because for about the first half second, I was thinking, "turn right and avoid her" instead of "keep going because it'll be her fault", but after that half second I realized she wasnt going to stop and we were gonna crash, and then I was thinking, "DO ANYTHING TO SOFTEN THE IMPACT", so I pushed the brakes as hard as possible and turned more to the right (the car was sliding, so it didnt go any more to the right, it just rotated) so as to avoid a full force direct hit. I hit her passenger door at just about my driver side headlight, then my car spun and my drivers side smacked into her car too. It all happened so fast, I barely felt anything. I didnt even realize that my drivers side was messed up until I tried to open the door. I didnt even realize that it was impacted. I think it will take the jaws of life to open it now. This really sucks. After the thousands of hours I put into that car, and the new paint job I just did on my dash, and just installed the tweeters, built speaker mounts for the rear deck, just got a liscense plate that says RICKS 96, and just ordered a dashmat that also says Rick's 96... now its all down the drain. I personally think she should have to pay for the registration of my next car, she should have to pay for my custom liscense plate that I only had for a few weeks, she should pay for the dashmat that I havent even gotten yet, and she should pay me for all the time Ive put into it, and she should pay me for the mental anguish. I am going to get a lawyer and try to get what I deserve. If she tried to place any blame on me for this, she will most certainly lose. I forgot to mention that she almost hit my aunt who was driving in front of me, then she pulled out and hit me... I think she must have been on drugs or drunk or on the cell phone or something, to have such AWFUL judgement. Oh and by the way, out of all the witnesses, and people who were around, nobody asked me if I needed help, and nobody stuck around to be a witness. I cant believe that. What happened to being a good samaritan? Woe is me. I cant believe this. My poor poor car. I hope I can get another 96 that is gold, with the exact same interior, so I can make it exactly the same. (I know... it probably wont happen) But even then, it wont BE the same because it wont be my first car, that I took care of with all my heart, had shipped from hawaii... I HAD IT SHIPPED FROM HAWAII.. its got at least its blue book value in sentimental value alone. Life is a bitch. I better get compensated for this. Anyways, thats all I had to say. My car is ruined. I will post pics when I can.

Dude, sorry to hear about your car, glad you are alright. And just a tip, unless you've already told the cops in the report, don't admit to you sliding. It could be said that you lost control of your vehicle and you are both at fault for the accident. Just say you don't remember, or don't think so...

Man, sorry to hear this.. Another accident caused by a women driving-AND MOST LIKELY ON THE CELL PHONE.

Flewthecoupe is 100% correct about what he said. You have to make sure you say that she flew out in front of you-and you had no room or time to have a reaction. What's gonna happen with insurance is they will want to see WHO was at wrong here. For example, my insurance ruled my accident as a 100/0 affair. Me being 0% at fault-they payed out nearly $3k for my car being fixed.

Rain is the worst, i'm guessing she was on her phone, and simply mis-judged your speed, and drove right on-not realizing how fast you where approaching. Don't feel bad about yourself, you did ALL that you could to stop-or get out of the way. FEEL good that you saved her life-not t-boning her in her side, she'd be MIGHTY hurt with a 3500+ car slamming into her. If you can get a lawyer-you will have better chances of either suing her, or getting book value. Sorry to say, but i don't think the insurance company's will say she is 100% at fault, they look at accidents with ONE car having front damage-and the other with side damage, and usually want to question you as to what exactly happened-HOW DID YOU hit her while she was in front of you. MAKE SURE you ALWAYS STATE that "she drove right in front of me" etc.

As far as the car, man, i know how you feel-my tbird was/is the first GOOD (nice) car i've owned. 3 days before the old bitch hit me, i spent around $850 getting new speakers, cd player, subs and amps installed. LOL, i remember going to the body shop-and getting in my car saying MAN THIS SOUNDS GOOD..BUT I CAN'T DRIVE IT.. You will get another car EVEN BETTER then your gold tbird, this time, get like a 95/96 4.6 V8-wasn't your car the 3.8 v6..?

You can get a v8 95/96 bird in GREAT SHAPE..and with under 80K miles for under 6K EASILY. If you want to check, go to autotrader.com and look them up, the only bad thing is distance.. I recomend searching the NY area, but then again, you gotta get the car shipped-it's worth it. Thats the only way you can make peace about this situation, look for something better, and think of ALL the bad things about your old tbird, whether it be a leak, steering, suspension, a scratched rim etc.

Let us know what happens man.. Best of luck to you.

man i am sorry to hear this about your car i would have been furious. but if u want to sell your dash pieces i would gladly buy them off of u but i don't know how they would fit because of the cup holders. that is where my ashtray is. well i hope u get better from the accident and all works out well. remember one thing u can buy another car u can't buy another life

It sucks to lose something you have spent so much time and money on but be thankful you weren't seriously hurt. I'm sure you will find another "Bird" and will be back here soon asking more questions! Good luck!

Don't be in a hurry to buy another bird and if you find one long distance, get it checked out before you buy. Don't take the sellers word. Be careful of the NY cars, be careful of any car from any state that salts the roads in the winter. Be careful of cars from coastal towns, salty sea air is as bad as winter salt.

I t-boned a guy back in '94. No problems with the insurance company at all. It's how the police report is written as much as it is your side of the story when you talk to the lady's insurance company.

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies, I appreciate the concern. I did not tell the cop I was sliding, and I guess I wont since it could be misconstrued that I lost control of the car, even though I was just trying to make a softer impact.. but I will just leave that out. The officer was not very thorough in his report. I had to go to the other lady's car where she was at, and tell the officer I needed her insurance info. They had already put her on a stretcher and put a neck brace on her, but when I walked over to ask if she was okay, she rolled her window down, turned her head, and said yeah, then turned her head back and kept talking on the phone... acting normal like it was all good. Well, back to the point, I was asking for her insurance information.. the emt was like.. I asked him for his info, but hes more worried about her insurance.. SO WHAT.. thats valuable information when a lady just caused me to total my car and im 700 miles from home... plus I knew she wasnt in any pain, because I talked to her... anyways.. I told the officer, "I NEED HER INSURANCE", and he was like, alright sir, just hang on shes not going anywhere yet, I'll have the information when I meet you at your car to get your information from you and give you the paperwork. Well, I give him my info, he does the paperwork, then he comes to me and gives me the paper, and says, this is the paper you need to give to your insurance company, it has her information on there and blah blah blah. I tell him thank you, and blah blah blah, and he leaves. Im still shook up, but then my uncle looks at the paper, and there was NO INSURANCE INFO in her information. Mine was on there though! It did say that she was at fault, and I was NOT, but I still needed her insurance information for a rental car, and to give to my insurance company.. well, he couldnt get to her glove box is what he told me when I called to ask why I didnt get it. I guess he couldn't ASK HER before they took her to the hospital. I STILL dont have her insurance info. and I still dont have a rental car. Its like I have been blown off and I dont appreciate it. I am talking to a lawyer in the morning, and I am going to try to get at LEAST 15,000 total. She totaled my car, she ruined my weekend, ruined my planned trip to florida to see my sister, I had to take muscle relaxers before my cousins wedding so I had blurry vision and I was falling asleep through it, MEDICAL BILLS, mental anguish (YES, Mental Anguish.. seriously, im so pissed about this) compensation for not being able to work for however long the chiropractor says, plus I will have to stay in south carolina until I am able to sit in a car long enough to drive to Florida and then back home. Because I believe she should have to pay for all the time off work that it takes before I am capable of visiting my sister, and then returning home, even if its longer than it takes for me to be able to return to work, because I still want to go see my sister. I am not the type to take advantage of people, so that is NOT what I am doing here, I just feel that I am a victim of her bad driving, and I should be compensated for everything it takes to make this right. Do you guys think Im being fair? Or am I being selfish? I understand that sometimes its possible to go overboard when in a situation like this, but I am really thinking about what is fair to me. Do you all agree? anyways, I have to get to bed, I have things to do in the morning, thanks again for all of the concern, I really appreciate it.

Rick Murta

well bud i believe u are in the right to ask for what u are asking for but they won't give it to u. they will say that u didn''t need to go to florida and they will try to prove that u could go back to work so just watch out that u don't do anything that could show u can do stuff like work.

sorry to hear of your loss, and i believe that you are 100% in the right about this. j_ros isnt totally wrong about them not giving you your due, but if you have everything documented, it really should not be a problem to get all youre asking for. on a side not, i bet a dollar to a donut that she didnt even look before pulling out. just earlier tonight some lady cut across a freeway offramp right in front of me, which i avoided because i need more problems with my body like i need another hole in my ass. makes me glad i'm driving an F250 diesel here, and left my bird in the garage at home.

Thanks guys, its good to hear that you agree. It makes me a little more confident in trying to fight this, knowing that other people feel that what I want is justified. I do fully understand that I most likely will not get what I want out of this, especially compensation for the loss of my car. They will not understand that my car was worth about three times the blue book value TO ME, which is what should count, but doesn't. I spoke to my lawyer today, and I am a little concerned because he did a lot of talking, and never asked to hear what it is that I want. I am considering calling another lawyer and scheduling another consultation. I am honestly concerned that maybe my lawyer and chiropractor are in kahootz. They are right next door to each other, and I was referred to the lawyer by my chiropractor, who had only great things to say about them. I hope that this is just my skeptical side taking over. I did some car shopping today and test drove 2 96 t birds, and I will post a new thread about that since its off topic, and I have a few questions.

Rick

Sorry to hear it man good luck. I myself am on my second bird due to someone woman pulling out in front of me. I hope you get what you want.

If the report said SHE was at fault, and no you-like you stated, FEEL BETTER MAN. Cause that right there SAVES alot of time in discussing WHO was at fault.

When the cops where speaking to me, at my accident, they told me they could tell WHO was at fault-somehow they can :-) And they noted that on the report.

Sounds to me that you will AND SHOULD get a pretty penny, #1 for your med bills, and #2 for another car. Lets say you get like $12-15K, thats gonna be a HOT TBIRD my friend. I don't know how much the med bills are-probably under 1K i'm guessing, but you should get more the just book value.

Mental anguish...man do i know. You tell everyone, and they're like "oh it's just a car...you'll get something else to drive".. THATS HORSESH*T. But anyway, 2 months from now, you'll be looking back at this moment-and sitting in your 4.6 V8 tbird :-)

Alright so, blah blah blah, yada yada yada, I got her insurance, gave a statement, blah blah.. I went to my lawyers office to give a statement to her insurance lawyer over the phone. It went well. HAHA bitches, you cant fool me! ...sorry... Anyways, now she wants an appraiser to look at my car. So Im like... great, holla back... then she says, okay we need to take the car to a shop and have them look at it and give an estimate. So Im like, uhhhhh the car cant be driven and it was totaled. She asks, did you have somebody give you an official statement that it was totaled. NO, but I SAW IT. Its trashed... no way to fix it for under 3400 dollars, AND replace the airbags.. shes like.. well its hard for an appraiser to tell by just looking at the car if its on the ground. WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF!!!!!! WTF!!!... Bitches... damn... guuhhhh... so, now they are going to send a tow truck to pick up my car, take it to a shop, tell them within 1 second that.. "that car is fuckin totaled"... and then tow it back, and THEENNNNN make an appointment for an appraiser to come look at it AFTER the shop says... its totaled... one word comes to mind.. FUCKHEADS... the more they piss me off the more Im suing for. All this bullshit they put me through is gonna cost them. ANYWAYS.. I just got myself pissed off again, so Im gonna get off here and bitch and moan about it some more.. later....

Rick

lol at rick. don't worry about it. when u get into an accident and get hurt u are talking about big bucks anyways. so like solaris said plenty more than u will need

You can settle on the car now and settle on the medical part later. Trust me. I was accordianed between 2 pickups 3 1/2 years ago and am still seeing a 2 Dr's and a message therapist. Haven't settled the medical claim yet. Take your time and don't be in a hurry.

Hey rick , I hear ya man, I had a 94 tbird...loved that thing, was my first car. Nice midnight blue.

I was going down the highway at about 50 and some asshole cuts off the car in front of me, she slams on her brakes, hydroplanes into him and i try to stop, but i hydroplane and slam into her at about 45 after sliding a good distance. Only part on my front end not completely destroyed was the front bumper because it went under her car...it just had a massive crack down the center... I have pics of the aftermath, links are below... :(

http://img148.exs.cx/img148/4766/car13mp.jpg

http://img148.exs.cx/img148/6803/car29jh.jpg


poor thing...

I hope you have receipts of all the "extra's" you put into your car. If so, show them to your lawyer and insurance company to show you have more then book value into your car. This is the only way you might get more then book value for your car. Normal wear and tear items don't apply. The only other way to get more then book value for a car involved in an accident is to insure it for what you think it is worth. Some companies will do this but it's going to cost you more money!!! I don't believe in what J ROC told you. If you are able to work and don't then you are just one of the slimes that make everyone else's insurance costs go up.

I agree with you 97bird, but at the advice of my chiropractor, I will not be working. It is possible that I may feel better, but if I strain myself at work for 35 hours a week too soon, I may aggrevate my injuries, and then have to go back to the chiropractor, at my own expense... NOT courtesy of Mrs Bad Driver's insurance. But I am still getting a very stiff neck and sore back, and I think 3 weeks may be cutting it kinda close. thats only about another 2 weeks left plus a few days, but at this rate, that will be just about the exact time I feel okay. If my chiropractor says I can work, I will take his advice. Im not the back expert.