In Which A Car Wreck Teaches Me More About Honesty and Corporate Ethics Than I Really Wanted to Know

Well here we are at the last Sunday of June already, the start of a new week - one that I hope will be a whole lot better for me than the one we just finished.  

I was in an auto accident Monday about noon in which the car I was driving and the one that hit me were both totaled.  A third vehicle that was parked in the intersection had some very minor bumper damage to it.  The driver who hit me was speeding through a red light about three or four seconds after it had changed, and since there is a slight curve at the intersection I never saw him until he was about twenty feet from me.  Anyway, as I said, both cars were totaled.  

Big problem.  I was driving a loaner car from the dealership at which I had just dropped off my wife's car for some work.  That loaner was a 2015 Acura with 980 miles on it...and it is totaled.  The car that hit me was a two-year-old Nissan Altima...and it is totaled.  The third vehicle has about a thousand dollars worth of paint damage to its bumper.  

And then comes the topper.  The driver of the truck told me at the scene of the accident that he could not tell which color the light was in the direction from which the speeding car came through the intersection.  All he knew was that his own light was still red, but that does not mean necessarily that the opposite side was still green.  We agreed, and that's what he told the investigating officer.  The other driver, of course, claims his light was green.  The officer declined to find fault since no witnesses remained at the scene to tell what they had seen.

Now I find out that both the truck and the Nissan are covered by the same insurance company.  And, get this...the driver of the truck has somehow decided that he could see the light on the opposite side and that it was green when I was hit by the Nissan driver.  Meaning...you guessed it...that my insurance company will be left holding the bag on this one.  Meaning, also, that I will be out-of-pocket several thousand dollars because the damage to the three vehicles involved exceeds my coverage for a single accident.

I am cynical by nature, and always have been.  But this whole thing really leaves a bitter taste in my mouth because I believe that if the other two drivers had had separate insurance carriers, the truck driver would have never changed his story.  Call me naive, but this really blindsided me.  Never saw it coming.

So now I'm left with a horrible screeching sound in both ears (as a result of the noise level reached when three airbags in my car detonated), daily headaches, doctors to see, and the knowledge that my auto insurance rate is about to skyrocket...if the policy is not canceled outright on me when it comes time for renewal.  

Yes, this is almost certain to be a better week than the last one.