Damage caused by uninsured, unlicensed driver - Edited March 13, 2007

Up until 8:55am this morning, I was driving a 3/4 ton Chevy Silverado Pickup with extended cab. I was stopped in traffic behind a 1 Ton Chevy pickup just East of 15th Avenue and Thomas, I got rear-ended by a lady driving someone else's van. The lady has no insurance and no license.

This license plate was on my front bumper:



The driver's seat now permanently reclines and is bent to the driver's right:

   And:  


The impact from behind was hard enough to not only rattle everything loose around the inside of the truck and deposit my glasses I'd been wearing in the backseat, but the bezel on the front of the dashboard popped loose:



A couple front shots:

  


And a couple of the rear... notice the receiver hitch now points downwards:

  



On the plus side, nobody was hurt and damage to the truck ahead of me was minimal.

The city took immediate ownership of the vehicle that hit me, and she walked.

Thank God for 3/4 ton pickups.

Edited March 13, 2007---

They ended up totalling the Silverado. $7900 worth of damage, and seeing the hood open, the only reason the front wasn't worse is because, oh yeah... there's an engine in there! Everything was crammed tightly against whatevertheheck is in front on top, I think the A/C pump... so who knows what all else is wrong.

In looking through the truck when I took off the plate, I found the ashtray door and insert snapped off in the impact ... how hard do you have to be hit to cause that?

Anyway, I did the last rights on the Chevy, and am now driving a Ford F250 superduty, long-bed, extended cab. My one commenter notwithstanding, I'll take the big iron as protection thank you:


 

posted @ Thursday, March 1, 2007 9:02 PM
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# re: Damage caused by uninsured, unlicensed driver

Left by Steve at 3/2/2007 2:41 AM
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Glad Your OK but not sure you should be thanking God for those pickups that burn so much fuel its killing the planet and in turn the life he created.
Food for thought?!?!

# re: Damage caused by uninsured, unlicensed driver

Left by Lou at 3/2/2007 4:53 AM
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Glad to hear you're OK - I'm a big fan of big trucks too...my wife was nearly 8 months pregnant when she was broadsided and as a result of that impact crashed into a telephone pole. Thankfully she was in our 2004 Toyota Tundra - I'll post the pictures of the truck on my blog, but the whole front end was wrecked...bad...thankfully she walked out of that with no injuries and after being hooked up to a fetal monitor all day they determined our son was "ok" too...ironically enough 10 days later he was born premature by over 4 weeks and spent some time in the NICU but he's doing great now.

If my wife had been driving our other car (at the time a '93 Dodge Dynasty) I don't think she would have been as well protected...althuogh the entire front end of the truck was hosed, and the side where the impact was had the wheel bent in, there was no damage inside the main cabin area.

Now you just get to wade through the muck of getting all the insurance stuff settled. Good luck!

# re: Damage caused by uninsured, unlicensed driver

Left by Dave at 3/2/2007 6:01 AM
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Thanks Lou... I'm glad you're wife and son were fine!

I'll make you a deal, Steve...

You get all the irresponsible drivers off the road and I'll stop using big iron as a defense against stupidity.

That's MY food for thought!

# re: Damage caused by uninsured, unlicensed driver

Left by Jennifer (Niece) at 3/2/2007 9:05 AM
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I am glad to hear that you were able to walk away from this in one piece. Thank God for Steel and mans creativity to use it to protect God's children.
I must also compliment you on how clean your truck is.

# Some brain-damaged drivers should be jailed

Left by Lorin Thwaits at 3/2/2007 10:42 AM
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Wow, not the news I wanted to hear happen to my favorite WPF/E expert. Let me know if you need anything. (Rides, etc.)

# re: Damage caused by uninsured, unlicensed driver - Edited March 13, 2007

Left by Dave at 1/4/2008 1:29 PM
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Thanks,

But looking at the videos and crash info about 5mph crashes and buffering of < 5mph.

I was sitting still and got hit about 45 mph. I'm not so sure that buffering it down to 43 mph would have helped much in my case.

With the hood pried open, I saw that everything North of the block was crammed snug against it, so who knows what all damage was caused inside the engine.

And uninsured motorist insurance doesn't cover what *anyone* outside the insurance community thinks it does... call your insurance company and get the straight scoop.

-Dave

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