Well, I driving along last night and I see this lady with a black F150 in the left lane going 5mph with someone honking behind her. I thought "oh, good, another drunk" and move along, stopping at the next light. I'm minding my own business then my head smacks the headrest and I space out a few seconds and get my bearings right. Turns out a black F150 hit me in the rear.

I get out of the car, ask the other lady if she is OK. Her words "I'm sorry, I'm just soooo tiredddd" come out. I ask her if she's drunk or high, and of course she's like "no way." I figure she's fine, so I start snapping pics with my camera phone (if someone PMs me to upload I'll send them).

She hit me in the rear, a little to the left. the left rear quarter is GONE, the right rear is buckled. The left door is damaged, too. The guy at the body shop says it is likely over $10K in damage. Oh, it'll need a new top, too. I have a feeling it is totalled. It'll need an entire new rear end. I have a feeling the diff and axles are damaged, too.

Turns out the lady was taking percocet for "and old shoulder injury" (if that's not a pill popper, I don't know what is) and she had taken sleeping pills 2 hours before. The police officer in the hospital said she would likely be declared DUI pending their drug expert's opinion. Since I'm a kidney patient on blood thinners, I had to get myself checked out. I was restrained on a backboard for almost 2 hours before they could get to me. My head still hurts and I have a good bruise on the back of my head, too.

I am PISSED with this lady. Her insurance had better kiss my ass. My car blue books at $20.8, without the honda body kit and my Nvidia exhaust (I will insist on $22K). That should be enough for a 2002. If the car is not totalled, do you think it can be repaired? It's going to need a new rear floor section, so it's a lot of work.

 

I'm really sorry to hear about your incident. Make sure you get checked out medically before anything else. The car can be replaced, but medical problems can plague you for a long time. Whiplash often doesn't get noticed until the next day. If your neck hurts, make sure you make some noise. This happened to my wife years ago.

From your description, it sounds like your car will be totalled. If you have any input, you should try to get it declared totalled because such extensive damage will likely plague you with problems and lower residual value if they rebuild it.

Good luck!!

 

yea, i had xrays and a ct scan, all OK. my head does hurt, and the muscles in my neck are aching a little now, though.

 

Glad to hear you're okay, sorry to hear about your car though!

Chances are the car will probably be totalled. It sounds pretty bad.

Push as hard as you can for it to be written off, there is no way that car will be repaired to work as good as it did when new. Good luck!

 

Posting Pictures for steven975:

 

Guys...if it's her fault they CAN"T total the car(unless you want them too)...they have to pay to fix it in the exact condition that it was in when the accident happened. Now you can choose to accept a cash settlement, but you don't have to. This isn't like you wrecking you car. In those cases your contract with your insurer says that they can total the car if they cover the damages. If the other person is at fault then you can demand that they return your car to the condition that it was when it got hit.

 

wow that sucks. I'm pretty sure it's a total loss with that kind of damage since based on the buckling the frame got jacked too and it's not practical to start messing with the frame out back like that, if it was the front then maybe but hopefully they just total it and you can get a new one. Good luck, glad to hear you're alright.

 

Anything can be fixed, for a price.

My car is a daily driver and track car, and it went through a $26000 repair job. Probably would have been totaled except that by the time all the repairs were finally identified the insurance company was already well into the repair bill.

Anyway, it's still my daily driver and track car.

 

I wish our insurance system worked like that. In NJ/PA, the insurance company decides when the car is totalled. My friend's CR-V was just rear-ended, and had damage that cost 80% of the car's value to fix, so they totalled it.

 

Freaking oversized SUVs and trucks. Bumpers are worthless if they don't match up. Looks like her front bumper was over the top of your rear bumper... so much damage could be avoided if cars were remotely similar in size....

Sorry for your loss. Hope they give you a 2002! Give her insurance company hell and they'll "settle" for pain and suffering to keep you from suing.

A few years back some dumba$$ was walking across the middle of a street when I was making a perfectly legal 3-point turn. While deemed not to be my fault by my insurance and rates didn't increase, I later found out they gave her $5k to keep her placated. What a tool. Sounds like a racket.