EMT's quickly found my blood glucose level to be 55, and administered liquid glucose orally...My senses began to return then, and I could see my truck had stopped against a concrete bridge abutment...No one, including myself, was injured, and no other vehicles, property or people were involved...Since it occurred on the freeway feeder road, I'm sure my speed was at or under the posted limit of 45MPH considering that I habitually prefer staying within the speed limits anywhere...I figure if I needed to be in a bigger hurry, I should have left the house sooner...
An ambulance ride to the ER was mandatory, and all tests performed there indicated no injuries...The only physical pain since then was in my chest due to the sudden stop against the seat belt...No airbags deployed...As a result, no citation was issued by law enforcement, and after arriving at home, I reported the incident to my insurance carrier, Traveler's...Thereafter the real pain began...The non-consent tow to a local storage yard was performed by a neanderthal who the next day demonstrated his lack of grasp on tow and store laws...He thought he was going to keep the truck until I personally paid him his ransom in cash, but he was forced to release the truck to the tow company of my choice by someone with more active brain cells than he possessed (which didn't involve much effort)...
The Traveler's company's hiring standards for adjusters and appraisers is at best questionable to the layman, but I suppose if alienating and frustrating their clients works for them they're welcome to it...The language barrier is a difficult one to cross, especially when dealing with one whose accent in her second language, English, is further distorted by the affliction known as tinnitus, which visits some of us after many years of exposure to noise at high decibel levels...This is compounded by a perceived attitude of indifference and arrogance transmitted by the person who was ostensibly hired to put the client at ease, and assure him his claim will be settled in a fair and timely manner...The adjuster tipped her hand, revealing her disdain for customer satisfaction when she denied my coverage for medical treatment under the "personal injury" clause of my insurance policy, saying this was her "area of expertise" in insurance, and that I should accept her decision as absolute...
Until that point I did not even realize I had medical coverage on my auto policy, having told the people in attendance at the hospital that Medicare was my only insurance carrier...This oversight on my part will rear its head later...I then suggested it might be wise to transfer my claim to someone with a better understanding of my policy (and hopefully a more advanced command of the English language)...
Apparently it takes a while to locate someone with those qualifications within the Travelers hierarchy, but eventually a lady was found who did assure me that my required medical care would be paid up to the limit shown in my policy...Seeing that the wind would be blowing from numerous directions from this company, I asked that her determination be confirmed via email for the record...She complied, and this method proved useful in the subsequent dealings with others who involved themselves in my claim...As I write this, all ensuing medical bills were paid, although some bottlenecks occurred at the provider, and the medical adjuster at Traveler's cooperated fully...
My truck had hence been towed to my chosen repair facility, Kustom Werx Auto Body & Paint, where it had been repaired and completely restored the previous year (another Traveler's experience)...The initial adjuster had insisted that the truck had been totaled, and must be towed to Copart (a wrecking yard in Houston where vehicles go to die)...She had made this determination without having seen the truck, or even pictures of it, apparently believing herself omniscient...The adjuster I was handed off to in this shell game also claimed the truck was a total loss (again without seeing either the truck or pictures of it, relying solely on the verbal account of the knuckle-dragging tow truck driver who obviously by now wished to retain my truck for himself), insisting that it had rolled over before coming to a stop...By this time I had examined it myself at Kustom Werx, verifying that no rollover had occurred, and already getting my own estimate from Kustom Werx owner, Cory Scott, indicating the truck was indeed reparable...
The sticking point in the negotiations rested on Traveler's new insistence that the truck was a total loss due to a bent frame horn where the front bumper was attached...Their contention that the entire frame had to be replaced was argued against by my own trusted frame and body repairman, a man of impeccable credentials and experience, who stated the damage to the frame was easily reparable without replacement...Indeed, I could have accepted an amount from the insurance company which would have covered all repairs, but I would have had to accept a new "salvage" title for the truck, rendering it not only uninsurable, but practically unsalable to any future buyers...It is now obvious that they merely wanted a 15 year old truck, which they considered over-valued, off the roads regardless of the fact that it was a better quality truck than anything that could be purchased new...
By now I had been handed off once more to the first of a series of "appraisers," who again verified the incompetence of those within the Traveler's organization...This is apparently a well rehearsed act for Traveler's (and in all probability, all other insurers) in their attempts to wear down the insured, hoping to discourage him from seeking a fair and honest settlement by passing him along a chain of successively thick-headed and obstinate "appraisers"...The last of these was, to his credit, comfortable with the English language, although verifiably unable to decipher a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) correctly...He insisted my truck was a lower-priced SLT model instead of the top-of-the-line Laramie model I knew to be, since I had bought it new and still had all original paperwork from the sale...After obtaining for myself a complete breakdown of all the VIN details from an authorized dealer, and presenting them to the technology-challenged adjuster, he was forced to accept my truck's higher valuation...
But the real stone wall was thrown up in the adjuster's insistence that the additional coverage for $7,500.00 to cover replacement of the custom equipment for which I had been paying for many years, did not apply to my truck because I was not repairing it, instead accepting an amount to replace the entire truck...My argument that to restore a replacement truck to mine's original glory would involve replacing the lost equipment also fell on deaf ears...My alternative at this point was to find justice in a court of law, a process which might consume more time than I have allotted to me in this life, and at the expense of competent legal assistance, or to cut my losses and accept the offer of the bare truck's retail value (an amount which was finally acceptable with their acknowledgement of the VIN deciphering)...
I reluctantly opted for the check as I'd like to see some value from the transaction, and I draw some satisfaction in the knowledge that Traveler's was forced to cough up an additional $2,100.00 in storage fees for the time they wasted in their mule-headed interpretation of my policy...I also gained some value in now knowing the worthlessness of add-on "coverage" which will be eventually denied by an unscrupulous business entity...
Further insult was added to the injuries when the Texas Department of Public Safety notified me of their demand to see proof that my diabetes was not a further menace to the motoring public...I had already been in contact with my endocrinologist who adjusted my medications, and verified the effectiveness of the change with a follow-up visit...The result of dealing with yet another layer of bureaucracy is yet to be determined...In addition, the kind folks at Medicare involved themselves, demanding repayment of the EMT and hospital bills which they had already paid...I turned this over to the only courteous and knowledgeable person I had encountered at Traveler's who assured me she would pay the bills...She later confirmed that her company had indeed settled all medical accounts...
Truckman's quest for another truck to replace his fallen steed has begun, but will be time-consuming as my standards are high, but my expectations low...A pictorial supplement to this article will be offered in Truckman's photo blog as soon as time can be found to process the pictures...
EDIT: A trip to court was required to extricate myself from the claws of the Texas Department of Public Safety who had sued me to force the revocation of my driver's license...Without any testing or interview of any kind, they had determined, in writing, that I was "incapable of operating a motor vehicle," and demanded that I give up my license, forcing me to walk anywhere I needed to go - a veritable death sentence in Texas...I appeared in court as required by the summons, and presented my case to the judge, along with statements of testing from my endocrinologist...The DPS did not even bother to send a representative to argue their non-existent case, a clear indication that knew it had no value...The judge found in my favor, and I walked out of court retaining my driver's license...
As the late, lamented Paul Harvey used to say, the "rest of the story" can be found in the following links, and the pictorial articles are in my photo blog...
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