Destroyed the 86
12-30-2011, 06:37 PM
#1
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Destroyed the 86 [RESOLVED]
Spent all these years fixing and modifying this car and she's done.
Was driving home from TN to SC on the 23rd through Sparta to get on 40 in Crossville TN, about an hour north of where I work. Sparta is small and plenty of red lights, and zoomed past a late-model orange Dodge Challenger at one of them. He heard the open exhaust so he knew I had a big motor in it, but like most of you I just paid little attention to it other than seeing it was a nice car.
As you leave town you head up a hill towards the Cumberlands where the limit goes up to 55. I got up to cruising speed of about 60, and he was stuck behind some other car. He got around them and laid back a hundred yards. Further down the road you head up on the plateau, and I got behind an 18 wheeler so 4-5 cars caught up behind me, with him right behind.
As the 18 wheeler turned, we all had to stop, and when he turned I zoomed back up to speed. The Dodge was right on me then, mere feet from my back bumper. He wanted to race. He'd lay back and zoom up, then lay back again. There are few passing zones in there and when he got to one he gunned it but ran out of room before a double yellow. When he did, he got back behind me and as we got over a hill, must've nudged my back bumper, and after that I just started spinning. I tried to correct and couldnt, and she spun the other way. Road was just wet enough to be wet, no standing water. Just too much speed I guess.
I spun twice that i recall, slid about 50 yards backwards down an embankment, then rammed the rear pass. side right through a tree at about 30-40mph. Whole back half of the car is shot to hell. Glass all blew out the back, smoke top obliterated in my face. Strangely enough the windshield and side windows remained in one piece. Frame is bent inwards on that side, but bowed outwards 6 inches on driver's side. One rear wheel completely destroyed, other almost. If it wasn't bent all the way through the midsection of the car, you could cut the back half off and put a new rear clip on because the front half of her is almost scratchless. Rear axle/suspension looks cracked up in places.
I only had a stiff neck and two big bruises for christmas. The side bolstering of the C4 seats held me completely in place while I was thrown around. C5 seats would not have done so.
The guy in the Challenger peeled over to watch me slide through a tree, but then sped off and left the scene. Two witnesses said that they thought he bumped me to make me spin, and the first cop that showed up knew the Challenger and went to find him, brought him back as they were pulling the car out, where he said that "he had passed a white vette but saw no accident".
Insurance thinks she's totaled as a first guess, and I do too.
Challenger driver has been charged with several things, witnesses said he did it and saw him speed off away from the scene.
----------------------New post ---------
It only took 9 months
but its resolved.
Cliff notes: the guy who hit me offered to settle out of court, and paid the number I gave his lawyer. I can start looking for another C4 corvette again, and looked at one tonight.
Now I'll give you the long story.
So the cop called me after christmas, since the wreck happened on the 23rd, and said that he had not yet gone to pick up the man who ran me off. We asked for the report, and he said his boss had it and it would take some time to get one. Now in SC, and in LA before, I never had this issue. They always have something for you to give your insurance within a day or two. My insurance wanted it and the State Trooper could not send to them direct.
Well he goes and confronts the guy at work, tells him to admit to it and if he didnt, he'd be going to jail. As the cop told me, he started crying and said it had bothered him over the holidays and he did admit to it.
But they never told me anything about his court date, or I'd have gone. They didnt have the police report either, and I never got the report until 3 weeks later, AFTER he pled guilty to 3 charges.
Now since the Trooper didn't inform me when the date was, even after I asked, and didn't let me know that he wasn't going to put any restitution on the case for the DA, they just let him plea and pay a big fine.
My insurance got the report, took my statement, took the witnesses' statements, and then told me to send all my receipts for all the work I've done on the car, which numbered over $25,000 spread over the last 6-7 years. I'd just put the 398 motor in it last June, which cost well over $10K for everything.
Then they called me, basically accused me of wrecking it myself, came just short of cussing me out on the phone, and said that everything I'd done to the car was maintenance, and they wouldn't pay more than $4800 for the whole thing.
I'm sorry, what? A 176,000mi car is not 176,000 mi once you have redone the drivetrain (except the rear axle), all the accessories on the motor except PS, and upgraded the interior. Hell I even changed the glass. The only thing with 176K on it was the paint and the frame, gimme a break. I kept receipts for all of it, every penny other than routine things like oil, and you want to pay me $4800 for it?
I told the guy to go F himself, and then they raised my premiums on the single car i have, an old Ford Explorer, $500 for 6 mos. I dropped Harleysville on the spot. Don't ever buy Harleysville insurance.
So, let my case be a lesson to you, get agreed value coverage if you've done anything at all to the car. They had told me beforehand they would take all receipts into account and pay a fair value price for the car, then turned around and said all my mods were just maintenance of an old car.
I went to his insurance, Colonial Penn, and they appraised the car but said "We are not going to pay you anything, our client has reported no damage to his car, so we don't feel like we should pay you. We don't care what the police report says."
Say if you have someone veer into your lane, and they cause you to run off into a ditch and wreck. That does not mean that they are not at fault, just because they have no damage. This guy spun me and they are saying that since there was no damage to him, that they don't think he's on the hook to pay.
At this point you have to get a lawyer. I found one and we sent the subpeona, and it took the local Sherriff 2 months and they never found him. This is while he still works at the same hospital (i've even passed the same Challenger again 3x going home since), and lives at the same house. So, basically, podunk sherriff's are no use. I had to wait 2 weeks for them to bring us back the subpeona, and wait 2 weeks for the process server to come get it and go find the guy, and the first hearing was moved back. They didn't serve him within 15 days of the 2nd hearing, and it was moved back. Then he got a lawyer who begged for time, and it was moved to next week.
Last week we got a call asking for a number, and I gave it, and they refused to pay it. They offered considerably less. Here is what pissed me off: my lawyer called and said I should take their offer because it was fair. I told the idiot that either they can pay the number I want, or we go to court and he actually has to earn the retainer I paid him. He never did one damn thing for the retainer and he should be paying it back to me. Well 30 minutes later they called back and agreed to pay it. So that is that.
So another lesson, even if your case is not involving thousands in medical bills, and is fairly small compared to those, never pay a retainer. Lawyers won't do jack sh** if they arent going to win anything in court.
Was driving home from TN to SC on the 23rd through Sparta to get on 40 in Crossville TN, about an hour north of where I work. Sparta is small and plenty of red lights, and zoomed past a late-model orange Dodge Challenger at one of them. He heard the open exhaust so he knew I had a big motor in it, but like most of you I just paid little attention to it other than seeing it was a nice car.
As you leave town you head up a hill towards the Cumberlands where the limit goes up to 55. I got up to cruising speed of about 60, and he was stuck behind some other car. He got around them and laid back a hundred yards. Further down the road you head up on the plateau, and I got behind an 18 wheeler so 4-5 cars caught up behind me, with him right behind.
As the 18 wheeler turned, we all had to stop, and when he turned I zoomed back up to speed. The Dodge was right on me then, mere feet from my back bumper. He wanted to race. He'd lay back and zoom up, then lay back again. There are few passing zones in there and when he got to one he gunned it but ran out of room before a double yellow. When he did, he got back behind me and as we got over a hill, must've nudged my back bumper, and after that I just started spinning. I tried to correct and couldnt, and she spun the other way. Road was just wet enough to be wet, no standing water. Just too much speed I guess.
I spun twice that i recall, slid about 50 yards backwards down an embankment, then rammed the rear pass. side right through a tree at about 30-40mph. Whole back half of the car is shot to hell. Glass all blew out the back, smoke top obliterated in my face. Strangely enough the windshield and side windows remained in one piece. Frame is bent inwards on that side, but bowed outwards 6 inches on driver's side. One rear wheel completely destroyed, other almost. If it wasn't bent all the way through the midsection of the car, you could cut the back half off and put a new rear clip on because the front half of her is almost scratchless. Rear axle/suspension looks cracked up in places.
I only had a stiff neck and two big bruises for christmas. The side bolstering of the C4 seats held me completely in place while I was thrown around. C5 seats would not have done so.
The guy in the Challenger peeled over to watch me slide through a tree, but then sped off and left the scene. Two witnesses said that they thought he bumped me to make me spin, and the first cop that showed up knew the Challenger and went to find him, brought him back as they were pulling the car out, where he said that "he had passed a white vette but saw no accident".
Insurance thinks she's totaled as a first guess, and I do too.
Challenger driver has been charged with several things, witnesses said he did it and saw him speed off away from the scene.
----------------------New post ---------
It only took 9 months
but its resolved. Cliff notes: the guy who hit me offered to settle out of court, and paid the number I gave his lawyer. I can start looking for another C4 corvette again, and looked at one tonight.
Now I'll give you the long story.
So the cop called me after christmas, since the wreck happened on the 23rd, and said that he had not yet gone to pick up the man who ran me off. We asked for the report, and he said his boss had it and it would take some time to get one. Now in SC, and in LA before, I never had this issue. They always have something for you to give your insurance within a day or two. My insurance wanted it and the State Trooper could not send to them direct.
Well he goes and confronts the guy at work, tells him to admit to it and if he didnt, he'd be going to jail. As the cop told me, he started crying and said it had bothered him over the holidays and he did admit to it.
But they never told me anything about his court date, or I'd have gone. They didnt have the police report either, and I never got the report until 3 weeks later, AFTER he pled guilty to 3 charges.
Now since the Trooper didn't inform me when the date was, even after I asked, and didn't let me know that he wasn't going to put any restitution on the case for the DA, they just let him plea and pay a big fine.
My insurance got the report, took my statement, took the witnesses' statements, and then told me to send all my receipts for all the work I've done on the car, which numbered over $25,000 spread over the last 6-7 years. I'd just put the 398 motor in it last June, which cost well over $10K for everything.
Then they called me, basically accused me of wrecking it myself, came just short of cussing me out on the phone, and said that everything I'd done to the car was maintenance, and they wouldn't pay more than $4800 for the whole thing.
I'm sorry, what? A 176,000mi car is not 176,000 mi once you have redone the drivetrain (except the rear axle), all the accessories on the motor except PS, and upgraded the interior. Hell I even changed the glass. The only thing with 176K on it was the paint and the frame, gimme a break. I kept receipts for all of it, every penny other than routine things like oil, and you want to pay me $4800 for it?
I told the guy to go F himself, and then they raised my premiums on the single car i have, an old Ford Explorer, $500 for 6 mos. I dropped Harleysville on the spot. Don't ever buy Harleysville insurance.
So, let my case be a lesson to you, get agreed value coverage if you've done anything at all to the car. They had told me beforehand they would take all receipts into account and pay a fair value price for the car, then turned around and said all my mods were just maintenance of an old car.
I went to his insurance, Colonial Penn, and they appraised the car but said "We are not going to pay you anything, our client has reported no damage to his car, so we don't feel like we should pay you. We don't care what the police report says."
Say if you have someone veer into your lane, and they cause you to run off into a ditch and wreck. That does not mean that they are not at fault, just because they have no damage. This guy spun me and they are saying that since there was no damage to him, that they don't think he's on the hook to pay.
At this point you have to get a lawyer. I found one and we sent the subpeona, and it took the local Sherriff 2 months and they never found him. This is while he still works at the same hospital (i've even passed the same Challenger again 3x going home since), and lives at the same house. So, basically, podunk sherriff's are no use. I had to wait 2 weeks for them to bring us back the subpeona, and wait 2 weeks for the process server to come get it and go find the guy, and the first hearing was moved back. They didn't serve him within 15 days of the 2nd hearing, and it was moved back. Then he got a lawyer who begged for time, and it was moved to next week.
Last week we got a call asking for a number, and I gave it, and they refused to pay it. They offered considerably less. Here is what pissed me off: my lawyer called and said I should take their offer because it was fair. I told the idiot that either they can pay the number I want, or we go to court and he actually has to earn the retainer I paid him. He never did one damn thing for the retainer and he should be paying it back to me. Well 30 minutes later they called back and agreed to pay it. So that is that.
So another lesson, even if your case is not involving thousands in medical bills, and is fairly small compared to those, never pay a retainer. Lawyers won't do jack sh** if they arent going to win anything in court.
Last edited by vader86; 09-14-2012 at 09:10 PM.
12-30-2011, 07:02 PM
#3
Race Director
Wow what a nightmare that whole thing must have been. Glad your ok but real sorry about your car. Let us know how this story unfolds in the days ahead and what happens to the jackass that caused this mess.
12-30-2011, 07:02 PM
#5
Le Mans Master
Wow what a mess, im sorry for your car , but im happy for you, thank god you are alive and OK , let's see what happens hope you get good money from insurance and hope the Challenger guy pay for what he did !
12-30-2011, 07:07 PM
#7
Race Director
You may only have a stiff neck now, but may be a problem later, so get it checked and on the record. Jackass should be held responsible for all of your troubles. Sorry to hear that. I know that piece of Tenn. and been through there many times on my way to Clinton (just north of Knoxville). Beautiful but deadly roads there. Glad you're not in a box now. Maybe you'll be in another Vette soon though.
This may take a while, but I'd like to know the final outcome, even if you have to open another thread later.
This may take a while, but I'd like to know the final outcome, even if you have to open another thread later.
12-30-2011, 07:11 PM
#8
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Oct 2000
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Cruise-In V Veteran
Wow - You are lucky to be alive.
Do you have classic insurance?
Remember - new year - new car - experience in fixing and modding it right - do not give up the fun!!!!
Do you have classic insurance?
Remember - new year - new car - experience in fixing and modding it right - do not give up the fun!!!!
12-30-2011, 07:19 PM
#9
Glad to hear you're okay after what reads like a horrific crash! And wasn't it nice that there are witnesses, and the butt-hole who caused the mess was identified! Make him pay mightily if you can, and do get checked out for injuries you may not realize are there yet. Some things don't show up for days!
12-30-2011, 07:36 PM
#10
Safety Car
First off, thank God your ok, and the idiot got caught.
If I where you given you have so much into your 86. Find another and salvage what you can from your crashed 86. I bet the engine and things are still ok. Best of luck and make sure your ok, don't want anything popping up health wise down the road.
If I where you given you have so much into your 86. Find another and salvage what you can from your crashed 86. I bet the engine and things are still ok. Best of luck and make sure your ok, don't want anything popping up health wise down the road.
12-30-2011, 08:06 PM
#13
Safety Car
It's outstanding that they caught him. I'd hope that there is some paint transfer to link it up for sure.
It's also great that the witnesses stuck around. You'll need them later. If you're damn lucky his insurance will attempt to settle quickly to avoid a court battle. If you can do it without a lawyer you'll save yourself a boatload of cash.
If you have a stiff neck and bruises then you need to go to an ER asap. If you wait very long, the other side will claim that you injured yourself in the time between the accident and treatment.
Take pictures of those bruises. I had a wreck years ago where I was spun. I thought I was ok. It took about 3 days for my back to not untighten. 12 years later it still hurts as 2 of my discs were damaged. If I would have just toughed it out, the case would have been over by the time my problem really developed.
It's also great that the witnesses stuck around. You'll need them later. If you're damn lucky his insurance will attempt to settle quickly to avoid a court battle. If you can do it without a lawyer you'll save yourself a boatload of cash.
If you have a stiff neck and bruises then you need to go to an ER asap. If you wait very long, the other side will claim that you injured yourself in the time between the accident and treatment.
Take pictures of those bruises. I had a wreck years ago where I was spun. I thought I was ok. It took about 3 days for my back to not untighten. 12 years later it still hurts as 2 of my discs were damaged. If I would have just toughed it out, the case would have been over by the time my problem really developed.
12-30-2011, 08:33 PM
#14
Racer
Sorry to hear about the accident mate. Most important is that you are OK.
Next most important take a breather work out what you want to do going forward.
Thirdly and I have been in this situation before, keep your passion alive. Its easy to give it all up in the midst of a disaster (all that effort, blood sweat and tears you put into your car) but sometimes from something like this one comes back stronger and better. Again probably not something you want to even think about now but definitely down the track.
Next most important take a breather work out what you want to do going forward.
Thirdly and I have been in this situation before, keep your passion alive. Its easy to give it all up in the midst of a disaster (all that effort, blood sweat and tears you put into your car) but sometimes from something like this one comes back stronger and better. Again probably not something you want to even think about now but definitely down the track.
12-30-2011, 09:00 PM
#16
Team Owner
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C7 of the Year - Unmodified Finalist 2021
C4 of Year Finalist (performance mods) 2019
Thanks guys
The neck stiffness was muscular, felt like a pull on one side, nothing at the back with the bones. Its gone now and no issues with range of motion. One of the bruises still hurts but its not black anymore. I did take pics of them though.
We could not get the hood open since its jammed on one side, not without tools. I got under it with the camera and the oil pan is not dented and saw no leaks of any kind. It just has some mud on it. Headers look good, even the mufflers look ok but muddy. One pipe is bent but otherwise looks like the frame, passenger floorboard, and rear panels caught all the damage, and that is what broke some of the rear suspension. C5 brakes look salvageable.
I was just about to paint her and finish restoring the exterior this summer.
Depending on what insurance gives, I could be looking at buying it back and disassembling it for another C4 later, or buying a C5 or used C6.
And I have receipts for almost every interior piece, engine part, and other work done on the car for 10 years, so insurance wont get off cheap.
The neck stiffness was muscular, felt like a pull on one side, nothing at the back with the bones. Its gone now and no issues with range of motion. One of the bruises still hurts but its not black anymore. I did take pics of them though.
We could not get the hood open since its jammed on one side, not without tools. I got under it with the camera and the oil pan is not dented and saw no leaks of any kind. It just has some mud on it. Headers look good, even the mufflers look ok but muddy. One pipe is bent but otherwise looks like the frame, passenger floorboard, and rear panels caught all the damage, and that is what broke some of the rear suspension. C5 brakes look salvageable.
I was just about to paint her and finish restoring the exterior this summer.
Depending on what insurance gives, I could be looking at buying it back and disassembling it for another C4 later, or buying a C5 or used C6.
And I have receipts for almost every interior piece, engine part, and other work done on the car for 10 years, so insurance wont get off cheap.
12-30-2011, 09:24 PM
#17
Burning Brakes
Member Since: Aug 2005
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Vader,
I read alot of your posts because I learn plenty from them. Glad your OK, and I know you put numerous hours into that baby of yours!! Good luck with your future plans on your next one!
I read alot of your posts because I learn plenty from them. Glad your OK, and I know you put numerous hours into that baby of yours!! Good luck with your future plans on your next one!
12-30-2011, 10:12 PM
#19
Le Mans Master
Member Since: Jan 2006
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Glad you are OK, but still think you should have your DR check you out. In a case like this, and with you having two witnesses, the other guy's insurance company should already know they are in trouble. Don't let them off easy.
12-30-2011, 10:14 PM
#20
Drifting
Man, sorry to hear this. I'm glad the witnesses stepped up for you. If the Law Enforcement recognizes the car, then this guy must be a real tool. Sorry for the loss of your car, but the main thing is your still here and you can always get another vette, the VADER can't be replaced.