The XMEN Clan Forums

Tuesday night my wife was in an accident on her way to pick up the kids from school. Her Accord was rearended and I have a strong feeling that the insurance company is going to total it. The back of the car literally is sitting where the trunk used to be. It drives as if something is wrong with the rear axle or the drive shaft. I don't know I'm not a mechanic but it doesn't drive the way it did the day before.

She is outwardly fine. No physical injuries to speak of, although I have a feeling she will have a nice bruise on her chest in the next few days. She was complaining of a head and neck ache last night as well as her back and chest hurting. We were up a lot of the night because she had shortness of breath, probably due to the preasure from the seatbelt on her chest.

Luckily the kids were not there. Looking at the accident site and listening to her and the guy that hit her it could have been way worse. She was stopped in the road waiting for the car in front of her to turn. The guy that hit her was in a full size quad cab GMC diesel truck. No break marks. He said he turned his head and looked at the floor board and then BAM! hit her. The truck actually pushed her into on coming traffic but the car in front of her had turned and the van that was coming toward her swerved and missed everyone. The truck had very minimal damage. The bumper shifted.

Talking with the guy driving the van, he said he missed the front of my wifes car by two feet. I can only imagine what would have happened if he would have hit her head on while she was being pushed forward by the truck. Actually, I really don't want to imagine it. I'm just glad she is ok.

Now, I am usually very quick to anger and would lash out in my younger days. But I think I have calmed much in my older age. But knowing that if they total my wifes car, we can't get her another one... makes me literally want to find him and beat him with the bumper of his truck. Enough of that.

Looking at the bumper from the inside, the actual bumber, is sitting about a foot and a half back farther than it's supposed to. Meaning it is actually under the trunk instead of behind it. Hard to take a picture of it cause you can only see it from underneath.

She went to the emergency room yesterday and took x-ray's. Nothing is broken or fractured, although they said that she definately strained, and pulled muscles in her neck with a possible tear. They have given her Valium and Lortab, all good drugs to knock you out. So until she gets better I'm solo-man-mom as she can't even pick the baby up without getting shooting pains in her neck and back.

Here is a link to the gallery of the car.

Wife's Accord

Sorry to hear that. Any accident is not a good thing. But by looking at the pictures, it doesnt appear they would total the car. If they did , i would take the money and get it fixed. The damage doesnt appear that bad.

Sounds like his insurance is going to have to pay for some pain and suffering. That should more than make up for the car.

I am glad she is ok.

WC, I feel for you. I hate wrecks anytime. I'm just glad your wife seems to be OK, but of course you guys need to pay close attention to the symptoms. I recommend getting checked out by your own physician, thoroughly, and over time. The guy's insurance should have to pay for all that since he's at-fault.

If the insurance company totals your car, they'll want what's left of the it before handing over the check, so fixing it in that case isn't really an option. There's not really much you can do about the loss on the car, however they are very sensitive to personal injury issues. So document all that doctor stuff.

Last time I had something like that happen, I had my insurance fix my car (comprehensive ins.) and then they had to settle it out with the other insurance co. It left me paying only my deductible, which the other guy's insurance should have paid but they ran out of money for the claim because of the OTHER victim involved.

Yeah, thus far everything medically is taken care of. The hospital, when we went to the emergency room was like, "Oh you were in an accident and it was someone elses fault? Well lets make sure we do every test on you since he is paying for it." That was a nice touch.

I have a 110% feeling they will total the car. My father in law looked at it yesterday and said the frame is bent and they would have to literally chop the entire back half of the car off and rebuild it to fix it. What you really can't see is the actual bumper, not the plastic bumper but the one underneath, is actually sitting a foot and a half inside the trunk. So the plastic bumper if you can tell distance, is sitting about two and a half feet into the trunk from it's original position, and the real bumper is sitting even further inside the trunk. Hard to tell without getting under the car and looking into the trunk with the lid open.

The bad thing, his insurance will only pay what the book value is worth, she has a lot of negative equity in it so they wont pay that. The good part, she has GAP insurance, a little known thing that dealers neglect to tell you when you purchase a car that pretty much says that if the car is totaled, they are obligated to pay off the amount owed on the car. It's like $80.00 a month but well worth it.

I've already talked to her about trying to get money out of him but she wont, because she knows the family. Ironically two of his brothers have died in the past year in auto accidents, all their fault. So she said she won't sue on grounds that she wouldn't want someone to do that to her. I love her, but she is far to nice in my opinion.

Example
When her grandmother passed away, she left everything to my wife. Two houses, $50,000 and a few other things worth a little bit of money. She agreed to sign it over to the husband, not her real grandfather, so he could pay off some of the bills on the condition that the houses and the money would be given back to her. As soon as he got the papers signed, he changed his Will to give everything to his daughter. It's sad that nice people get treated like that.

Thank you for the kind words though. I've had a few clanmates call my house to speak to my wife and she was like... and you are? It's funny. But thanks for the words of encouragement.

Glad to hear that your wife got no life threatening injuries. I hope the insurence company just has the back end rebuilt or repliced since, from the pictures, the main cabin and engine compartments are in good condition. If there is structual damage beyond the back seat and into the cabin structure then it would have to be trashed but I doubt the frame was damaged beyond the trunk.

If the frame is bent in front of the back wheels at all, it'd never drive right.

In this case, the GAP insurance was definitely worth it! I was going to mention that but most people never heard of it and obviously it's too late for you now. Normally I wouldn't get it myself though since I hate to ever have negative equity, especially on a car. I'd apply that $80 (or whatever) to the principal to pay it down faster.

I'm very sorry to hear that, but very glad that your wife seems to be okay.

For the car, it's a Honda. They're not designed to withstand an impact. They're made to crumple in just like it did, so that most of the energy of the impact goes into bending the steel and aluminum parts. If your wife had been in a car that was mostly steel (and thus stiff) she'd probably have broken several bones and had bruises and muscle tears. It sucks, but it's safer.

If it's the other guy's fault, his insurance will cover it, and your insurance company will get the money out of them. Your wife's personal injury stuff needs to be documented (EVERYTHING that the hospital sends you, the insurance stuff, xrays, pictures of bruises, etc). That way, if it's needed, your wife and you can take them to court (if the insurance checks don't cover her medical costs), and you'll be able to make up the difference. Most personal injury lawyers (the good ones anyways) will take on the case for free and charge between 25% and 33% of any settlements. But the personal injury lawyers are probably the most efficient way to handle anything like that.

If they total the car, make sure that you have got it in your mind what it will cost to replace the car. Things like the value of similar cars in your area, how much similar cars are going for at the dealerships in your area, what the Kelly Blue Book value is, and so on. I only say that because State Farm Ins tried to undercut me for the value of my car when I totaled it in 99. Once I pointed out those things, they readjusted their numbers and gave me the right amount. Or I should say the fair amount.

It's a pain, but you gotta watch for people taking advantage of you in situations like that.

I just hope that your wife recovers completely. I've heard of people's necks and backs and the muscles in them bother people for years after accidents. Stay vigilant my man. It will all work out in the end.

Yeah thanks for the advice. Pretty much all of it is what is already known to me. I'm lucky in that I have experience with Georgia Law Enforcement laws, which his insurance is out of, so I know what they can and can't do. They already tried to snowball us once and I called them on it. Now they are trying to get the claims adjuster by the house without us there and not telling us. I put a stop to that real quick as well.

Her insurance company has been very good thus far. They have called her every day to see if she is alright, not to just ask about the claims.

The GAP insurance thing I complained about when she got it, but in this case it worked out. We have options if they total the car, I wish they would now simply because we need a bigger vehicle with our two kids.

And about the crumple zones... my car is designed to drop the entire engine and transmission should I be hit head on or rear-ended. Pretty much totally the car no matter what, but it ensures that no part of either of those parts come through the car and injure anyone inside.

Damn. I go away for a couple days, and your wife gets in an accident... Not good at all. I feel your wifes' pain man. I was in an accident in June '04, and I'm still fighting with insurance companies (through my attorney of course) because of the Personal Injury Protection, claim, and we'll be seeking money from the other guy's insurance company as well, for my herniated disc from the accident.

Keep track of everything, and if she's not better in a couple days, I'd really start to think about going to a specialist, and hiring an attorney.

Lucky for us her mother is the office manager to Remax International here in Hilton Head, the owner being one of the well to do's on the island pretty much gets what he wants. He already said that if he needed to 'step in' he would. So thats good to know.

It's crazy to think I was lieterally on the phone not five minutes prior to the accident. I don't know what I would have done had I heard it over the phone.

Asha's nailed it on the advice, WC.

As for your insurance situation, I can commiserate. When The General (my 91' Buick LeSabre) got totaled in a parking lot, I went through similar things. Freakin' drunk-ass fool rammed it hard enough to bend the frame and twist the passenger compartment about five degrees out of true. Shoved it about ten feet over and up over a curb by about five feet. Considering LeSabres at the time were all-steel construction (3500 lb curb weight! rawwr!), it was pretty nasty.

All I can say is be vigilant with the insurance people. They want to pay as little as possible.

This may sound weird as advice... but clean the inside of the car before the inspector looks at it. They'll knock off points if it looks dirty--happened to me. Very annoying.

Well, the claims adjuster came by today and looked the car over. Oddly enough, I had my son clena the car before reading your thread... funny how it worked out.

They will not total it out. Total damage cost was approximately $6500.00 which includes estimated parts and labor. The good part about it, they said we can take it where ever we want to have it fixed and for them to send the insurance company a detailed estimate and a comprehensive list of what they are fixing and they will send us a check. Right now the guy said the car only has 45% damage done, they can not total it unless it reaches 75%. I asked if I could kick the car in a few places but he just smiled and said no.

Wife is at doctors right now getting looked at. She has been getting increasingly dizzy which really worries me. I wont let her hold the baby because she almost dropped her the this weekend because she got a sharp pain in her back. Which only irritates her.

I'm so tired at this point I've made myself sick. I can't eat or sleep and I'm coming down with the flu or something, my whole body is cold and achy. I'm up all night with Kim because she can't get in and out of bed to go to the bathroom by herself, and the pills she is taking make her thirsty so she drinks all night, perpetuating the bathroom cycle. I also do this so she doesn't fall and hurt herself. She fell two nights ago in the bathroom and hit her head on the door. Not sure if it is due to the pills or the accident. She has fallena few times without taking the pills so I'm leaning toward the accident.

The baby knows that something is wrong with her mom and is irritable because of it. Kim can't hold her or bath her so she want's her mom and can't have her. To top it off, she has an ear infection. Which makes her get up a lot, much to my tired aggrivation. I didn't even get into bed last night until 2:15am because her ears are bothering her... then back up again at 4:00am for another round of Daddy Knockout. Got the baby to sleep at about 5:00am and had to get up to get ready for work at 6:00am. I am walking in a haze of tiredness right now. Im to the point I'm so tired I can't sleep. If that makes sence.

She is going to call me and let me know what the doctor says when she gets out. We are lucky that her boss is understandable, she took Kim to the doctor today at my request since I can't take any time off from work.

To top all this off... it is our Anniversary this monday. Nice way to remember and have your first wedding anniversary huh!

Well Kim just called me. Not good news.

She has a MRI scheduled to take place tomorrow. The doctor put her through some tests and she passed out on one of them, luckily he caught her.

The doctor said that he wants to do an MRI on her because he has a feeling that she may have some bleeding in her brain. Not what I wanted to hear. God, will anything go right for us?

Not sure what to do from here on out. I will be at work still unless they need me to take her to Charleston for surgery if in fact this is the case. If it isn't then she has to go to a Neuro surgeon to find out whats wrong.

Ack!

Sounds like a fairly big concussion to me, from the symptoms you've described. Here's to hoping that the docs can get her patched up, WC. Many good wishes goin' your way!