Just a quick comment about seeing a doctor.
About 10 years ago I was in an accident where an idiot trashed my mint
condition 81 RX7. Didn't think I took that hard of a hit... went to the ER
and had a doc say... "your fine... might be sore... good luck."

Waited a couple of weeks and settled with the insurance for my vehicle.
One month later while getting ready to head out to work, my hand started
going numb. Then my arm.. then shoulder, face, etc;.

Turns out , I had a small bleed on the brain . (Subdural Hematoma )

Ended up costing me a week in the Neuro ward of our local hospital, and about $5000 out of pocket.

Now if I'm in an accident I gladly settle vehicle damage fairly quickly.
I just wait 6 months or so to settle the medical part of my claim.

May not be any issue with your wreck. Could apply to someone else though.

Good Luck.

 

That's a good point, GPWV.

Another thing I always tell my non-attorney-repped claimants is that you don't want to settle with us on your BI claim until you are certain you are fully recovered from the accident-related injuries. Because once you settle, it *is* a full and final settlement.

Most people seek the medical care they need and ONLY the care they need. Then there are those 15 to 20 percent that are not injured at all and just want to see how much they can squeeze out of the insurance company (and the general public). Then, believe it or not, I come across a few people every week that say, "my neck and back are a bit sore but I'm just going to wait it out to see if it goes away on it's own". I even had one lady who was a Baptist Minister down in Tennessee and she refused to allow us to reimburse her for two doctor visits and pain & suffering. After finally convincing her we owe it to her, she said she would just donate it to her church. There are all kinds of people in our world.

Sorry to hear you had such complications from your accident.

 

The bleed was minor.. No surgery or the like needed, it just scared me half to death <g>. Plus the timing wasn't the best. Seven days after I was hospitalized I was scheduled for a job interview with the Post Office. No way I would have gotten the job if I went to it with my head bandaged from minor brain surgery <g>. Told the doctor to do what you can with drugs, cause a shaved head wasn't in my immediate future <g>.

I agree with you about abusing the system... but another problem with my case was both I and the scumbag that hit me were represented by State Farm. I felt that I was given less than professional service by the company, since they were basically going after themselves.

(I changed companies shortly thereafter , and am still looking for a good insurer/agent. Not real happy with my current insurer either. They are real good about sending out their bill... but severely lacking when an insured needs something, IMHO.)

 

GPWV,

I can assure you, I handle dozens of claims every week that are, what we call "Double With" where both parties involved are insured with State Farm.

We handle those exactly like every other claim. One SF team handles one of the parties, and another team handles the other. The "opposing" teams are prohibited from going into the file of the other party unless that party has given explicit permission.

When it comes time to settle the claim, under our team environment, it's very possible, and even likely, that the person evaluating the claim is not even aware that the liable party was also insured with State Farm.

I'm sure your perspective is based on your one incident and the fact that you didn't feel you were treated fairly. And I can understand why you would have that perspective. But trust me, there's no collusion going on behind the scenes.

The way I was trained as a claim rep is to treat every claimant fairly. SF claimants or ones insured with our competitors because we'd love to steal them away from the competition through good claim service.

How long has it been since you were with State Farm ?

 

I've been away from them for approx. 9 years. Here in WV they are a major insurer and before this accident I had had very limited dealings with them.

(Hail damage which they handled fairly , windshields etc Both my wife and I had been with them for years, which is part of the reason that accident left such a bad taste in my mouth. It's hard to remember the particulars of the claim process , but I seem to remember them treating it kind of like a no fault accident. My policy took care of me... his took care of his... with no rate increases either way. It may have been something completely different, but that's how I remember it.

The accident was rather simple. While stopped 10 cars back at a red light, I was hit by a jacked up Pickup truck and driven into a telephone pole on my right side. The guy crossed two lanes to hit me, and was actually turning in to the state police Driver's testing parking lot to renew his license at the time <g>. I was driving a little RX7... and he said he didn't see me.

I've considered contacting State Farm again, but haven't been able to bring myself to do it.

 

My medical insurance would pick up the bill, right? Why pay $5000 out of pocket?

 

That sucks, doesn't look to bad though. You should be up and running in no time.
chuck

 

At the time , I was working as a non career postal employee trying to get
my foot in the door. (Hence no insurance) Good news, it worked, and
I'm 9+ years in as a full time mail carrier.

(I had been in retail sales/management almost 20 years and needed to
get away from it before it killed me <g>)

Taking the temp position while waiting for the Postal service to reach my
test score gave them a chance to see how much I wanted the job. Made
my interview pretty much a formality.

 

If each policy paid out for their own damage, then they somehow determined you to have contributed to the accident. Sounds odd, given the info you've provided. Are you sure your policy didn't pay you and then receive reimbursement from the other guy's policy ?

I'm not sure if they were at the time (I was in the Air Force when you're accident occured) but now, WV is a "comparative negligence" state. That means you collect the percentage of your costs from the other policy that correlates to the percent they contributed negligence to the accident. So it's hard to believe they other policy didn't pay ANY of your costs.

Don't worry, I won't talk you into going back to State Farm. It's a personal decision and you have your reasons. Besides, we just started writing policies in WV after staying out of that State for several years due to the environment created by legislation and their judiciary system.

 

Wanted to mention to the original poster... I didn't mean to hijack
the thread... I just hate the thoughts of someone possibly settling
too quick on the medical side of a claim. Cars can be fixed... with
people it's sometimes harder <g>.

 

Depends on the State where you live.

In some States, health insurance will kick in after the auto policy's med coverage is exhausted. In some States (very few), it will pay from the beginning. In other States, health insurance won't pay a penny for injuries sustained in an auto accident, regardless of any coverage from the auto policy.

And keep in mind, not everyone had health insurance.

 

It may have been a reimbursement issue... I just remember how it was presented to me. Seems like things changed when they first noticed
he was a state farm customer as well.

As far as contributing... it was a lot like a monster truck rally. I was stopped, with my foot on the brake... and he proceeded to try to drive right over me <G>. Visibility was slightly reduced due to rain, maybe he thought I was just a speed bump going in to the parking lot.

I've got a feeling the 5k out of pocket may have colored my perception of the events. At the time I felt like I had been taken advantage of , whether that was the intention or not.

An expensive , but good lesson learned , I think. Wait a bit and be sure before signing off on medical.

 

Whatever you do, don't make the mistake I made. I took a big hit at the drivers door and spun, went backwards between a culvert and a tree into a parking lot (only one in the area!). Of course it totaled the Hertz Renault.

I had a disabled daughter who needed frequent orthopedic visits, so when I went in for her, I asked the doctor to check up on me. No question I had a bad whiplash--it was about 2 1/2 years before I could comfortably look into a microscope, which was a big part of my job description as a vet tech.

At any rate, my daughter's doctor never charged me, so I didn't have a handful of bills to present to the other guy, who was at fault. Dumb. Dumb Dumb.

 

How many treatments did your Chiro provide, Deb ?

 

Very good info for everyone. Thanks for posting.

I went this morning to see the doc and he prescribed some non-drowsy muscle relaxers (skelaxin) and anti-inflamatory (nabumetone) for the lower back pain. I'll have to lay off the Tae Kwon Do for a week or so to be sure I don't confuse the after effects of the crash with anything else. And I'll see him again in about a week. Under your advise, I'll be sure to hold off on telling Geico that the BI claim is closed for at least a month.

 

Lower back pain can be tricky. I would recommend at least 3 months. And I'm not saying that because GEICO is our main competitor.

 

Yep. My previous experience with back pain from 14 years ago is still an ongoing thing. Our only covered therapy for two years. After that we were abandoned. I believe it was State Farm back then.

 

That statue of limitations for an auto accident in nearly every State in the country is 3 years. No insurance company is going to pay you for 14 years of therapy for back pain.

Besides, at what point would we be able to tell when the pain from the auto accident ended and pain from some other activity started ? Me... I've had back pain on and off for the better part of 25 years. I can't blame it all on the time I lifted my 225 lb roomate and threw him to the ground when I was 19... even though that was what started my back pains.

 

I definitely wouldn't have expected them to cover 14 years, and honestly it has been on and off since then, aggravated by many things, some of which would have caused their own series of back problems had the first never happened.

But at the time we were cut off from further help, it felt pretty unfair since there was still some real pain. I've learned a lot about back pain since then and a lot of it isn't always physical, even though the pain is very real.

 

Yeah, never settle a BI claim until you are pain-free for at least 3 months (or until the statute of limitations runs out). But in my time handling BI claims, I've yet to have anyone say they had pain 3 years later. Not that it's completely impossible, of course.

 

Hah! Nadda. Zip. Nothing, Zero. Nil. (I could probably find more adjectives...)

I didn't have another crash until 20+ years later. Uninsured tree. My health insurance plan is still trying to collect from it, 3 years later. Broke my back. I killed it.

 

My lesson on car insurance issues ended with this: call the cops in all cases. When I was a poor college student I drove my date home to her condo turning left into the complex and a Caddy looking at the mailboxes (for a pizza delivery) backs into my driver door, BAM. He says he's at fault, sorry, we exchange ins info and I go to the SF office the next day to see when I can get it fixed (the door won't open). They ask for "my version of the accident". I fill out the form (his backend paint is on my doorside). They say they'll get back to me. I get an appraisal and contact them. They say "our insured's version of the accident differs from yours so we won't pay anything, contact you carrier" (who was my friend who owned his own agency). I ask for a copy of his version. No, they say. I ask them to at least look at my car and they say no, contact your carrier. I confront the dude who hit me at his pizza shop and he says I slid sideways into the back end of his stationary Caddy out of control and caused the damage (he didn't claim any damage). My roomate's dad was regional VP of SF at the time and I talked to him about it. The result was I got paid and he got cancelled. But without a police report of the incident I think I would have lost if I didn't know the VP.

 

Yeah, you *can* call the cops in all accidents but be advised... in most, if not all States, you will sometimes hear these words in reply: "we're not coming".

If it's on private property, and/OR if there are no injuries involved, the police will not come. They'll tell you to exchange insurance info and be on your way.

Ps. In all the thousands of claims I handle, I would estimate in only about 10 percent do we even wait for a police report to make our liability decision.

 

Back to our reason for this thread in the first place.....sorry, the Insurance claims could be talked about on there own for ever. If Ya know what I mean!

This quoted statement does get under my skin. Whenever I hear it, it makes me nutty in the head, so forgive me if I ramble on....

First and foremost, this type of damage is almost nothing more then superficial. The bumper cover and its absorber,impact bar will probably all be replaced with new parts, simply because the car itself is so new. Any rear body panel damage will be repaired and put back to preaccident condition.

As for devaluing the car,a CARFAX report, if turned in by the proper authority, will state the type of damage and the value of the repairs. If you decide to sale on your own, it would be up to the buyer to obtain this report (if they bother at all) then they can decide whether to buy or not. Of course, communication with or by the seller is important at this point.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Lets get the car fixed first. I probably sound like I'm the one actually fixing it. Believe, I'm not. But this is what I've done for a living for nearly 32 years now, and nothing has changed when it comes to this type of comment.

Has anyone here ever bought a brand new car, only to find out later that it's not as "NEW" as you think. It happens all the time. My point? It didn't efect your opinion of the car or the price, did it?

Good luck getting your MINI repaired and send in some snaps when it's all done. Then we can start picking on the body shops

 

You seem really honest. If I didn't have USAA I'd definately go
with State Farm.

I got burned on the OK OK no police needed thing.
I still have the broken license plate bracket on my CRX too.
(gas tank has to be taken out to weld in new bracket
it's just too big of a job for a minor improvement)

Some might take this wrong I just thought it is funny
also I've had a lot of caffiene this morning.

"If the police don't come just shoot the person that
hit you in the stomach, they'll come then"