Ever have one of those moments where you want so badly to just wake up, because you think you're dreaming when something bad happens?

I had one of those this morning at 5:45AM after dropping my girlfriend off at the airport. I was driving home and got lost in Philadelphia. I did the same thing any normal person would do. Pulled over and got out my GPS. I pulled into a Gulf gas station, turned my GPS on and was ready to go. Here I go, just about there to pulling out of the parking lot when I hear a crunch sound come from my undercarriage.

Apparently there used to be a sign on this platform of concrete and for whatever ****ed up reason, they felt it wouldn't be necessary to remove. I ended up driving up it and my car was stuck on the platform with a metal spike at the end of it. I ended up puncturing something under the car and it starting leaking oil all over.

At this point I'm freaking out and don't know what to do. I tried reversing. Nope, that didn't work. After making some phone calls and talking to my girlfriend and trying to figure out what I'm going to do, some guy with a tow truck pulls up and asks if I'm stuck. Cool, it's like someone had a 6th sense for a stuck Mini Cooper S on some horseshit platform that shouldn't be there.

He didn't have the correct tow to get me out so, he called someone for me and they pretty much had to ruin my bumper to get it off the platform. Probably the least of my worries though because, if I cracked my engine, then I'm in a real heap of ****. I get it towed to a local body shop. The people are really nice and want to help me out. I decide to open an insurance claim and see what happens.

Here's the problem, my deductible is $1000. One thousand ****ing dollars. So obviously, if the damage is over a grand, it's totally worth the deductible, because who doesn't like paying less?

Anyhow, I'm upset as hell for damaging my car. I love my car. I just hope everything gets put back to normal but, I have no idea how I'm going to pay $1000 to get the work done.

The worst part is, now I'm stuck driving around this goofy ****ing Prius until it's fixed.

I hate my life, sometimes.

 

That is one rotten day. I'm sure the MINI will be as good as new after the repairs but yeah, that sucks.

And thanks for the reminder to people to check their Declaration Page of their policy every now and again and not to carry any deductible their not prepared to pay.

Always amazes me when I call someone about their claim, go over their coverages with them, and they're surprised they have "X" decuctible, or they don't carry rental coverage. Some don't even know their liability limits. Really ??

Anyway... good luck with the repairs !

 

Thanks for the reply, it means a lot. I'm just really upset I damaged the car. I love my car a lot. Somehow I'll manage to pay the deductible but, I'll be changing that RIGHT away, because this absolutely sucks.

 

Aww man, sorry to hear about your troubles today. I know exactly how you must of felt being lost in Philly. I totally get lost there as well, every time I'm in that city.

I hate when stuff like this happens. Ever pull into a parking spot where the stupid SUV in front of it didn't pull up far enough to make sure his stupid trailer hitch in the rear cleared the parking spot behind it? You pull in thinking everything is fine, and BAM you run your bumper right into this stupid metal ball that's too low to see. I was so furious that day, I wanted to take a sledgehammer to that thing and knock it and the bumper off (I didn't, but I was cursing like a sailor for 30 straight minutes driving home that day).

Anyway, it was out of your control, nothing you could have done. Hopefully everything will be fixed quickly and good as new, and you'll be back motoring soon. Good luck!

 

Before I became a Claims Adjuster, I used to carry $1K ded on my Collision coverage too. I just see too many claims where people end up paying their deductible for things that are out of their control... lane change accidents where the other driver denied coming into your lane, hit-and-run accidents, other insurance company denies liability, etc.

I reduced mine to $500. Good balance of keeping your premiums in check and not being stuck with a huge bill for damages.

Again, sorry for your accident but the MINI will fine after the repairs... modern autobody shops do incredible work.

 

Thanks a lot for the reply. Yeah I'm just afraid that once I get it back it won't ever be the same again. I'm sure I'm just over-reacting but, I'm never the kind of person that breeds good luck.

Did you ever get the bumper replaced? If so, how much did it end up costing you?

 

Yeah I took it to a body shop in Philadelphia. The people were very nice and the gentleman I spoke to said he actually owns or owned (I forget which one) a 64 Cooper. I'm sure I'm in good hands, I'm just worried.

 

Luckily I wasn't in my MINI, but in my previous car, a Mazda. Also luckily (or with foresight as suggested by CR&PW&JB) I had/have a $100 deductible on my insurance. The actual bill was about $400 I believe.

I'm sure your MINI will be fine, your MINI's in good hands. Plus you didn't deserve for this to happen to you, karma's got your back.

 

Hmmmmm, what I'm reading here are at least two people who weren't paying attention to what they were doing, and somehow it's the other guys fault.....how's that work?

In the OP's case it's the cities fault for leaving a sign base in the concrete on a platform?????

And the second writer says it's the fault of the SUV owner for having a trailer hitch ball on his vehicle that he didn't see?

I don't know folks, seems to me we all just need to get off the phone and pay more attention to what we're doing. And if we don't, accept the fact that it's our fault, not someone else's. A little personal responsability would be a good thing all around......

Hope everyone gets their car fixed up and they're motoring again soon....

 

You may be able to get reimbursement from the property owner.

My wife pulled into a parking lot near the bank she worked at.The parking spaces had the concrete stops at the end of each space.This one had a piece of rebar sticking out of the concrete block.She back the Corrolla into the space and the rebar caught the rear bumber spoiler.
She contacted the property owner he said to get a couple of estimates.
He paid the $600 repair bill!

 

I don't think either is completely denying fault. Otherwise, they wouldn't be talking about their Collision deductibles because someone else would be paying their damages.

Of course, there are varying shades of fault when you're involved in an accident. Some accidents are a result of blatant negligence. Some are a result of misfortune. Most lie somewhere in between.

 

I'm also so sorry about your accident and I know you feel sick inside.
It is what it is.
Thankfully it's fixable and no one was hurt.

We are so glad that we had changed our deductible to $500 when I backed into hubs car in the driveway. We had to pay 2 deductibles. The total damage was over $4k. So, the $1K was painful, but it could have so easily been $2K. Funny thing is that we changed the policy when our teenage son got his license. First thing son said was, "Wow Mom. I'm really glad you did that instead of me."

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. I'm in the auto insurance claims business as well. Been working the Philadelphia territory for 15 years. What body shop did you bring it to? As long as you brought it to a good shop, your car will be as good as it was before the accident, if not better.

Your insurance carrier will decide whether they want to try to subrogate against anyone for the damages. They have to decide if they want to pursue the property owner under their general liability coverage (from what I've read, it would be a tough argument) and/or the insurance coverage of the tow company.

 

Very hard to assess liability with so little information but doesn't sound like subrogation will be successful in this case. Maybe against the tow company but they'll very likely say the damage was caused by trying to remove the MINI from the concrete and re-bar.

But hey, they can do like one of our competitors and send EVERYthing to subrogation and see what happens.

 

That's right, it was completely the SUV owner's fault for not pulling his vehicle completely into his own parking spot, tow hitch trailer and all. The hitch was so low to the ground there was absolutely no way I can see, pulling into that spot, that a part of his vehicle was still in the spot I was pulling into. It wasn't my fault at all.

Also, you're not paying attention. Only one person had an incident here that currently needs to be fixed up. My incident happened a long time ago. Please do your due diligence and pay attention before you sling criticism around. Thanks.

 

Yep, I know of plenty of companies who send a ton of stuff to subro. Since they do it in house, they really have nothing to loose, especially in a pure comparative venue.

Drew,
Not to be a pain, but actually the loss would be considered 100% your liability. Regardless of whether the vehicle was pulled fully into the spot or not, you still struck a parked and stationary object. Your not seeing the low hitch would also be considered your liability for inattention to your surroundings. Again, not trying to sound "accusatory", but just giving it to you from the legal liability perspective. I have handled thousands of claims just like you describe both as an adjuster and as a claims manager. I'm also an arbitrator for disputes between insurance companies (i.e. when one company tries to collect from the other company who's driver they think is at fault). In cases like this, the liability always falls completely on the person who hit the parked object.

 

I took it to Alex's Auto Body. Seemed like a very clean shop. People were very nice, have you heard anything about it?

 

So sorry to hear about your horrible day. Had a few like that myself and believe me things will get better.
Best of luck to you and your MINI.

 

As someone who had a quite a few accidents in my younger days. Whether it's your fault or not it still just sucks. Just make sure you're happy with the quality of work they do. If something isn't right make sure they make it right.

I had my new countryman for less then a week and I already got a rock chip. Thankfully it was fixable but it too made me look at my policy and I'm considering lowering my deductibles from $500 to $250.

 

Absolutely understood . Still wasn't my fault though, regardless of the legalese. I'll reiterate -- there was absolutely no way I could have seen that object. I think more importantly, my point is -- my accident was NOT due to me not paying any attention. Regardless of the insurance viewpoint of it, I think you can agree that there are scenarios where as a driver you can be as attentive as you can possibly be and still be in that scenario where unfortunate events simply happen.

But I do understand how it works with insurance companies.

 

"I'm never the kind of person that breeds good luck."

You tend to get what you expect. Seriously.

 

So a little update on the car.

I spoke to the adjuster this morning. Apparently I have $8000 worth of damage to the car. It's almost insane to think of all the damage that was caused, was from one little concrete mound sticking out of the ground.

From what I was told I need a new bumper, I cracked my transmission, my oil pain is completely destroyed, my front suspension (something about the bar that connects the two together, not the axle) is cracked and I need a new exhaust.

At this point, I'm glad that I even had a $1000 dollar deductible. The adjuster told me they're getting me all OEM Factory parts except the front bumper cover? I was unsure of what he was talking about, but I'm assuming the black trim cover that covers the undercarriage parts and protects it from rocks and such.

He said I won't notice a difference between any of the parts and everything will be exactly how I had it before the accident.

 

So Glad things are getting resolved.
Best of luck to you.

 

Wow!
Glad things are moving along quickly and satisfactorily.
Good luck!

 

No... the bumper cover is what most people refer to as the bumper. It's the plastic shell that covers the reinforcement bar and it's purely cosmetic.

What the probably meant is they found a recycled bumper cover from a poor MINI that was totaled.

Yep, it's probably true that your MINI will be as good as it was by the time all the work is done.