MikePA
Super Moderator
Here's my 'good news' insurance incident which happened just last month.
A car swerved to miss a deer on the highway behind our house. He hit the deer anyway. He crashed through;
Parked directly on the other side of the fourth fence was our 16 foot gooseneck trailer. He hit right at the corner of the trailer, any farther to the right and he would have hit the hitch and probably been decapitated as the hitch tore the roof off his 2003 Pontiac Sunbird. As it was, the impact spun the trailer around and into our barn. His car spun around and ended up looking like it was parked in front of our barn. The total distance from where he left the road to where the car came to rest was 250 yards. No evidence of braking. The trooper thought he probably hit the accelerator instead of the brake. Although, that probably would have torn the yard up more. The trooper told me the kid replied, "About 50 - 55." when asked about how fast he was going. When the trooper said, "Don't make me get out my tape to measure the skid marks." the kid fessed up to going 70 - 80.
This happened around 9:00 pm, 11/16/2009. There was no evidence of braking, the 20 year old driver and his 16 year old girlfriend were not wearing seatbelts, however the car had airbags, which saved them. He had a bloody nose and a split lip, she complained of a sore knee. They were treated at the scene. The state trooper estimated they were going 70 - 80 mph when they swerved to miss the deer. Exactly three weeks from the accident, I received the check for the trailer (it was totaled). State Farm, my homeowners carrier, reimbursed me for the work I did to perform temporary repairs to the fences plus money to repair the barn. I picked who I wanted to do the repairs. Fortunately, I had all the supplies on hand and the horses were back in the pastures the next night. I charged them for both the supplies I used and my labor ($20/hour). Progressive Insurance (the insurance carrier of the driver's dad) gave me a check for the $500 deductible on my State Farm policy and a check for the trailer which ended up being 97% of what we paid for it 11 years ago. The place who made it and where we bought it has gone out of business and they had no easy way of estimating repairs.
I gave the Progressive adjuster a copy of our original trailer invoice which listed all the options (I blacked out the prices) plus 5 print outs from the Internet showing the going price for similar trailers. His response was, "Great, you did my work for me.". They ended up tossing out the high price and low price and averaging the middle three. State Farm will be going after Progressive.
Contractor has started and completed the fence repair with 5 new posts and many new rails plus reframing the damaged stall. The steel arrived this week and he should finish next week. The horses were out in the pasture the night this happened. Had they been inside, one of them would have been in the damaged stall. Also fortunate the horses came to my wife when she called them. They could have gotten out, not directly on the highway, but they could have gotten into our back yard and out and about from there. Even though the fences were damaged, I had electric tape at the top of the fences and it stayed intact even though the car broke the posts out.
Dealing with State Farm and Progressive was surprisingly easy and 3 weeks from accident to checks, which included the Thanksgiving holiday, was amazing.
Attached is the 'final result' of this off road excursion.
After spending 2 hours at our barn, the trooper went up to where the accident started. The deer (a good sized doe) wasn't dead. He had to shoot her, twice, to kill her. I could tell he probably was not a hunter as his first shot went through her stomach
, while the second went into her skull. Still, a guy from work came and got her the next morning since the temps were in the upper 30s.
A car swerved to miss a deer on the highway behind our house. He hit the deer anyway. He crashed through;
- Our perimeter fence.
- A second fence
- Across our backyard
- Through a third fence
- Across a small pasture.
- Through a fourth fence
Parked directly on the other side of the fourth fence was our 16 foot gooseneck trailer. He hit right at the corner of the trailer, any farther to the right and he would have hit the hitch and probably been decapitated as the hitch tore the roof off his 2003 Pontiac Sunbird. As it was, the impact spun the trailer around and into our barn. His car spun around and ended up looking like it was parked in front of our barn. The total distance from where he left the road to where the car came to rest was 250 yards. No evidence of braking. The trooper thought he probably hit the accelerator instead of the brake. Although, that probably would have torn the yard up more. The trooper told me the kid replied, "About 50 - 55." when asked about how fast he was going. When the trooper said, "Don't make me get out my tape to measure the skid marks." the kid fessed up to going 70 - 80.
This happened around 9:00 pm, 11/16/2009. There was no evidence of braking, the 20 year old driver and his 16 year old girlfriend were not wearing seatbelts, however the car had airbags, which saved them. He had a bloody nose and a split lip, she complained of a sore knee. They were treated at the scene. The state trooper estimated they were going 70 - 80 mph when they swerved to miss the deer. Exactly three weeks from the accident, I received the check for the trailer (it was totaled). State Farm, my homeowners carrier, reimbursed me for the work I did to perform temporary repairs to the fences plus money to repair the barn. I picked who I wanted to do the repairs. Fortunately, I had all the supplies on hand and the horses were back in the pastures the next night. I charged them for both the supplies I used and my labor ($20/hour). Progressive Insurance (the insurance carrier of the driver's dad) gave me a check for the $500 deductible on my State Farm policy and a check for the trailer which ended up being 97% of what we paid for it 11 years ago. The place who made it and where we bought it has gone out of business and they had no easy way of estimating repairs.
I gave the Progressive adjuster a copy of our original trailer invoice which listed all the options (I blacked out the prices) plus 5 print outs from the Internet showing the going price for similar trailers. His response was, "Great, you did my work for me.". They ended up tossing out the high price and low price and averaging the middle three. State Farm will be going after Progressive.
Contractor has started and completed the fence repair with 5 new posts and many new rails plus reframing the damaged stall. The steel arrived this week and he should finish next week. The horses were out in the pasture the night this happened. Had they been inside, one of them would have been in the damaged stall. Also fortunate the horses came to my wife when she called them. They could have gotten out, not directly on the highway, but they could have gotten into our back yard and out and about from there. Even though the fences were damaged, I had electric tape at the top of the fences and it stayed intact even though the car broke the posts out.
Dealing with State Farm and Progressive was surprisingly easy and 3 weeks from accident to checks, which included the Thanksgiving holiday, was amazing.
Attached is the 'final result' of this off road excursion.
After spending 2 hours at our barn, the trooper went up to where the accident started. The deer (a good sized doe) wasn't dead. He had to shoot her, twice, to kill her. I could tell he probably was not a hunter as his first shot went through her stomach
, while the second went into her skull. Still, a guy from work came and got her the next morning since the temps were in the upper 30s.
