Totaled my Taco, need to vent

Hey OP you mentioned he said she said. Did the driver deny running the red light and make an attempt to blame you?

I recently witnessed an auto accident in front of me causing great bodily harm to one of the people involved. The at fault party made an attempt to blame the injured driver in the middle of the incident while the young woman’s arm looked like a conduit with offsets. People are shitty.

 

Damn...glad you were able to walk away from that. I have a dash cam on my truck as well. $100 bucks seem hefty, but the footage that you can obtain in an accident like this will be worth 10000X more than the camera.

 

That sucks! Hopefully you don’t have anything seriously wrong but I bet you will be hurting tomorrow. I love my dashcam and now I’m thinking about getting a rear one as well. Good luck finding a great replacement taco.

 

My wife had a similar incident a few years back, and did not have a dash cam at the time. Lawyer up, and DO NOT accept any settlements from the insurance company that don’t make you whole. We were given this same advice after her accident and didn’t follow,it, which turned out to be a $20K mistake.

 

I see a large cash settlement in your future..... and probably another Taco?

 

I was in a serious accident 3 years ago, he went against a red arrow, I tboned him hard at about 40mph. He claimed his light turned green. Lucky for me a witness stepped up who was behind him, said the light didn’t turn green. I spent the night in the hospital, severely bruised chest and a permanent hole in my shin from the takata air bag, about 6 weeks out of work.

A mistake I made was to leave my totaled vehicle in impound thinking the insurance was handling junking it, cost me about a grand.

I felt pretty bad my 96 Nissan pick up was totaled. That’s what put me in a Tacoma. But hearing he’s elderly, and his wife broke 5 ribs was absolutely horrible.

Honestly, the scariest part was having to take a bunch of pain killers for a long time, in the middle of it seeing “this drug will kill you” come on cable. I can see how people get hooked. I was given very few pills at once, 3, 7, 10, 7. Made no sense. Then when I was getting close to no longer needing them they gave me 30.

Sorry for your loss.

 

My advice is like the others. You need to get a lawyer to fight the lawyers from the insurance company. My son accidentally T-boned a police transport van a couple years ago. Police officer driving got a concussion and $100,000. The other police officer had soft tissue injuries and probably got 25 to 35 thousand. Both police officers were not wearing seatbelts. The person in the back seat belt unbuckled broke his ankle and got 6,000. Fight and fight and fight until you are made whole. Good luck and I'm glad you're okay.

 

@Rj42

Yeah, I know its really easy to "what if" these types of situations. Problem is the review/analysis/learning....needs to be kept in the context of the accident situation.

I believe your alert action of hitting the brakes and turning right did avoid a T-bone on the driver's door. Likely avoiding serious injury to you.

Human reaction time is a complex beast. First, the danger needs to be seen, then recognized, the action determined, then tell the body the actions. Amazingly, this time is fairly short, about 0.3 seconds. At 40 mph, you will travel roughly 18 feet before you actuate the brakes. There is nothing you can do to shorten the reaction time. In context, 18 feet is nearly the length of your truck.

I think you managed to avoid a serious T-bone on your driver's door.

Glad you are not seriously hurt. Please don't take this as chastising. Just a discussion about the incident.

Burn the dash cam video onto a couple of CDs. Send to your insurance adjuster and the other driver's insurance, along with copies of the police report. Keep copies yourself. Be wise. Protect yourself with the dash cam vid.

Your truck....is likely scrap metal. Although, I sustained damage from a rear end collision, I was number 4 in a 5 car pile up. My GMC Sierra 2500HD had a little over $10,000 damage. It was repaired.

 

Sucks to see this type of accident, but I’m glad you’re relatively OK. Obviously, it could’ve been much worse.

Your video just convinced me to pick up a dash cam for myself.

 

Whew, that was a brutal hit. Suck man, hope you end up alright!

 

Most DashCams do continuous recording. Mine in 3min files. Loops back and records over the oldest once memory card gets full. Most have G force sensor built in. Senses a crash locks that file so it not recorded over. You can also manual lock a file while driving. Some will send video to your phone via WiFi. I remove my memory card and connect to laptop to download, edit etc.

 

So how many three minute files does the cam hold before recording over one?

 

I have a 64g memory card. I get about 5 hours of 3 min files. So about 100.

 

Ouch. Rest up and get back in the saddle when you're ready.

 

Goddamn right. That's why I have a dash cam too. Had to order a new memory card though, hoping I get it fast before anything happens.

Glad everyone ok though. That's quite a hit.

 

Damn man sorry to hear about your truck but at least you're still in one (albeit bruised up) piece. If she tries playing hardball and saying it was your fault I hope you, your dash cam, and your lawyer take her to the cleaners so you can get back into another tacoma.

 

Holy shit man she almost flipped you at impact. Full speed and didn’t even touch her brakes.

 

Glad you're ok.

I have to repeat what everyone else is saying and make sure you lawyer up. When I was in an accident, my lawyer advised me to keep a journal on everything that happened and is happening. (missed work, any pain etc) Keep all your receipts!!!!!!!!!!!!

Expect A LOT of calls from companies looking into your insurance claims, this is a way where they can get the most amount of money on their side and will be less money for you. This is when you tell them to call your lawyer.

 

get a lawyer been there...

 

Lots of counterfeit memory cards out there. When you get your card. Go up the manufacturer website with the serial number on the card and most will tell you if the card is fake.