Another tacoma goes to the big mud hole in the sky

The bottom line is that your driving action caused a certain level of injury to the other passenger, and $ compensation will be based on that level of injury. The bumper likely won't even be brought up. On the flip side, there are many other factors that could increase the level of injury to the other passenger (such as prior injury or pre-existing medical condition), and likewise your lawyer will not be able to use them to reduce the $ compensation.

Illegal? I'm not aware of anyone here failing a state safety inspection for having a brushguard or plate bumper.

 

Damn, you had a one of a kind Taco

 

I'm not going to provide you with a summation of the law in all 50 states, merely an example.

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=169.73

"Subd. 3.Bumper restrictions.

No person shall operate a private passenger vehicle that: (a) was originally equipped with bumpers as standard equipment, unless the vehicle is equipped with bumpers equal to the original equipment; or (b) has a suspension system or body so modified that the height of the vehicle or any bumpers varies more than six inches from the original manufactured height for the vehicle."

Yes it is apparently illegal to install an offroad type bumper in MN on a passenger vehicle (ie Tacoma). I suspect if you did some research you would find that this is the case in multiple states.

I'm not in the legal profession, just a professional engineer. As an engineer however I have had to work very closely with legal, particularly in intellectual property law (where I learned that patents need not be novel, nonobvious, and/or useful despite what they tell you) . You will discover that basically anything fun is illegal somewhere, and whatever your interpretation of right and wrong is (on a particular matter) somewhere someone in the legal profession has ruled in opposition.

 

Are you concerned about higher levels of injury, or concerned the opposing lawyers would use it as leverage? There's a difference here. All I've written is that the opposing lawyers would likely not use it as leverage. As for the effect of a plate bumper on injury level, it's a moot point because there are several other factors that have greater effect on the injury level (size/weight of the other vehicle, safety features in the other vehicle, etc.), and they are beyond your control.

 

glad you are ok! I took a similar hit in my truck and the air bags didnt deploy either

 

Dang. Bad news .. wrecked Taco. Good news .. the used parts market just grew a little. Sorry to hear OP.

 

Y'all think I should try and get them to repair my truck?

 

I wouldn't artificially get them to fix it if it's close to totalled - I'd probably take the check and get something that had a clean record. I always worry about something not getting fixed right and lowering the lifespan of the vehicle. Plus that's a major blemish that will probably show up on CarFax if you ever try to sell it.

 

Take the check, and get a new truck.

 

It could be that your brush bar diverted the impact away from the airbag sensor....