I was recentally in an accident caused by an inattentive driver. Some people crashed in front of my house. My father and I took it upon ourselfs to help them. It was a two lane road with the truck in the ditch on the right side of the road. They had a winch attached to their truck and it was with this that they were attempting to pull themselves out with. The winch was stretched across the road to a tree as the anchor, which is not illegal. When traffic would come through we would stop them, lower the winch line to the ground, and they would slowly pass over. However, a semi driven by a young farm boy drove through with no regards to the people around him. His windows were down and people were screaming at him to stop but he wouldn't. He appeared to be in a situation he was not prepared for. He ran over the lowered winch line and his tires kicked up the line which was then caught on the trailer step. He was driving about 20 miles per hour and it should be noted that the crashed pickup was partly on the right road and another pickup was parked on the left side fully on the road. The road speed limit was posted at 25 mph, but it was icy on the road and there were the two pickups as well as the attending people. In Idaho it is required by law to drive for your conditions. The line pulled the truck out of the ditch and struck me and my father. It threw me through the air and in the process destroyed my left hand. I fractured ever single bone in my entire hand besides my pinky. In the accident my index finger was partially severed and never found. In my resulting three surgeries I lost half my middle finger as well and was diagnosed with a dislocated wrist, fractured right tibia, and a hairline fracture in the left elbow. My hand specialist has said that he had never seen such a horrific hand accident and that in the beginning, he thought I would lose it. The boy was said by friends of the family to be 16, however the cop on scene reported him as 19. Its been nearly one month since my injury and I owe over 100,000 dollars in medical bills so far....and I'm not even close to stopping the spending streak. I have not been contacted by the cops and the insurance company for the semi claims that there driver remains at no fault of the incident, I'm 19 and have lost motor funtion of my left hand for my life, as well as my ability to play guitar, piano and saxophone. My father also recieved a fracture back bone as well. Will we get compensation? Is there a chance that I'm screwed for life and just have to suffer with it with no compensation? Please help...all knowledge and experiance is appriciated.
Answer by lucy
I am so sorry for the horrific injuries that you sustained due to this incident. I have read your question several times and confused to how many vehicles were involved in the original crash, if only 1 truck that lost control due to the ice and went into the ditch that started the process where you and your father took it upon yourselves to help get the truck out of the ditch. Or if 2 vehicles were involved in an accident and 1 ended up in the ditch as the result of the accident. All the people out there and trucks on either side of the road and icy conditions make for a really bad outcome which you found out. It appears there were no police/fire trucks around when you were hit, since if there were, they would have been numerous lights from the police/fire warning anyone coming through to either turn around or proceed with caution and they would have been directing traffic.
As for the police contacting after the accident may not happen, since they usually write their reports and that is it. Most insurance companies will get a copy of the police report for their accident investigation for details of the accident, damages/witnesses etc. The police report will show the names of the drivers, owner of the vehicles, insurance policy details and a statement of the accident.
If there was only 1 crash of the truck losing control going into the ditch and he did not have collision coverage to pay for repairs, he would have not filed a claim with his insurance company. If there were 2 vehicles involved in the original crash, then the guy who caused the truck to go into the ditch should have a claim from the guy getting pushed into the ditch. Now the insurance company even if they know you were injured by trying to get the one guys truck out of the ditch may feel that since you were not involved in the original crash has no responsibility, which you believe there were not, but many adjusters might still call you for what you know, but since you did not witness the accident, might not.
As for the semi, I am really confused, since you state a farm boy driving? Is this some kind of semi used on a farm, or is this a semi driven on the road owned by a business? IF there is no damages to the semi, they may have never filed a claim with their insurance company. If this semi is owned by a business, could be that the driver never reported the incident to his company of this accident. Believe it or not, unless someone knows what happened, no one will call you period.
Who has paid for your medical bills? Do you have health insurance that paid? If so, I guarantee at some point they will want to know if they go after someone to reimburse them for the amount they paid and for $ 100,000 and counting they will be interested.
1st off, get a copy of the police report of this incident. There is a possibility there maybe 2 reports filed. 1 for the original crash and the 2nd for your accident. The original report, there maybe no mention of your accident, but might state see supplemental crash report # . Each police report should list all parties involved so that you can get on the phone and report this to them.
2nd, if no luck with the insurance companies, then you need to talk to a lawyer about your legal rights.
I can't tell you if you are owed any compensation for this accident, since it will be what the negligence laws are in the state of Idaho. Only a insurance claim adjuster who could be handling this claim can tell you after they do a full investigation. But I suspect if you have not received a phone call or a letter from an insurance company, believe it or not, they do not know who you are and that is the reason for getting copies of the police report/s to find out who to call and report your injuries.
good luck
Add your own answer in the comments!
Orignal From: I was injured and insurance is ignoring me?
Post a Comment