OY: rear ended the other day, pick-em-up trucks are the greatest! Options

[Sammy]

I got tagged in the rear a couple days ago on the 5 fwy (as if I didn't have enough things to worry about).
Traffic was very heavy, I was going around 10 mph when WAM!
We pulled over to the side and I first say the toyota small car that hit me, darn near totalled. Big hole in the bumper where my hitch went through, bumper smashed in, hood and fenders buckled, windshield cracked etc.

I took a long look at the back of my Toyota tundra pick-em-up, nope, nothing. Not a scratch, dent, ding anywhere. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
Evidently the trailer hitch and reciever took the whole hit and transfered all the energy to my frame.
I'm gonna get it on a rack to check for frame straightness and alignment, but that's it. I doubt they'll find anything wrong.

Iffn I was in a modern small car It'd be smashed.
Crumple zones my butt, give me a daily driver with a big strong frame behind me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[Pnambic]

Scott, I feel your pain. Very similar thing happened to my wife 5 years ago. She was literally driven over (while in her car of course) by a 24' box truck. (But he said it was her fault cause he had his non-functioning blinker on.) In addition to all the cuts and bruises and emotional strain, she had a ruptured disk and several other vertebrae out of alignment and tried all kinds of therapy. As a last choice before surgery, she went to a chiropracter. We thought all chiropracters were quacks, but I'll be damned if he didn't make the difference. Today, she can go days without feeling the aftereffects, but she still freaks when she's next to a truck. The other guy's insurance screwed us royally. They "didn't recognize the costs of the chiropracter" as being legitimate. Had she had surgery which would have cost more, they would have paid. We tried to sue and got nowhere and then found out after the fact that the guy representing us was close personal friends with the lawyer representing the insurance company.

There are a lot of people in Florida right now who are thanking their lucky stars for their insurance company. But no company stays in business if it can't make money. There is risk in the insurance business. Try 4 HUGE hurricanes in 6 weeks. Have they even finished totaling the damage caused down there yet? Yikes.

Scott, definately document the time you're having to spend on this, both during normal work hours and after. Those are legitimate expenses that you should be able to recover. I'm glad your wife wasn't hurt.