QuestionMy daughter and 11 month old granddaughter were hit head on in my daughter's 2003 Toyota Camry a month ago. My daughter was in a left hand turn lane and had just started her turn on a green light when the light turned yellow. She says she would have had time to complete her turn but the driver coming in the other direction speeded up to try to run the yellow light and hit my daughter's car nearly head on. Both front airbags deployed and the impact pushed my daughter's car backwards and both cars ended up out of the intersection. My daughter was cited and found to be totally at fault because she was turning left. Both my daughter and granddaughter had exams by physicians shortly after the accident with no findings of serious injury. My daughter had several bruises, her face was burned by the airbag and she had ear pain and complained of back and foot and ankle pain for a couple of weeks. Shortly before the accident she had been diagnosed by an ER doctor based on an x-ray with bilateral pars fractures of one of her lumbar vertebrae and the ER doctor had recommended that she have an MRI if the pain increased or persisted. She complained that her back pain was worse the first two weeks after the accident, didn't want to seek medical care, but says the pain has now resolved. So her physical symptoms seem to have resolved now but she is still having lots anxiety symptoms, nightmares, reliving seeing the other car coming toward her and hearing the sounds that occurred during the collision and she has fear of riding in a car or driving. She is also much more irritable and easily upset than before, and anxious about intruders coming into the house and is frequently checking to make sure the doors are locked. She expresses that she is upset that her daughter could have been injured or killed in the accident. She has not been wanting to deal with the insurance company about the claim, so I have had to do almost all of that which has been a nightmare because the insurance company has been very difficult. My granddaughter was in the back seat in a rear facing safety seat. She was awake crying most of the night of the accident but seemed back to her usual cheerful self the next day and has appeared fine since. The insurance company is paying for my daughter's visit to Urgent Care on the day of the accident and my granddaughter's exam by her pediatrician. It does not appear either of them is going to need any additional medical care for physical injury but I am concerned that my daughter may be suffering from PTSD signs and symptoms and may need care for that if it doesn't resolve soon since it is interfering with her sleep and daytime functioning. I don't know if the Personal Injury Protection benefits should cover care for PTSD or not. And my daughter is not wanting care right now. Should our Personal Injury Protection cover care for the emotional and psychological trauma she seems to be experiencing? And if so, should she be covered in the future if her signs and symptoms don't resolve and she decides she wants to go for care? The insurance company hasn't notified us that the PIP claim is closed. However, I have been in a big dispute with them about the total loss valuation they proposed. They made a total loss offer which is $5,000 less than the price we purchased the Camry for 10 months ago. All my research has indicated a Camry should not have depreciated that much in 10 months. It is a Toyota Certified vehicle and was in excellent condition before the accident. I asked the insurance company about repairing the vehicle instead of a total loss settlement and they gave me and our collision repair shop owner a huge run around and no real answer to that request. Last week I got a letter saying we needed to sign the power of attorney and turn over the vehicle to Safeco and accept their $10,000 settlement amount or they would subtract the salvage amount and pay $6,201 to the lienholder and assume we were going to keep the vehicle. I consulted our attorney who stated we did not have to meet their arbitrary deadline date and wrote to them to advise them we were still going to submit documentation to support our claim that the actual cash value needed to be more and I instructed them not to pay the lienholder. I got back a letter stating they were closing the property damage portion of our claim because a month was more than enough time to send supporting documentation. That might have been the case if I could have taken more time off work (I have already worked on this for probably 50-60 hours) and had not been dealing with a very emotionally traumatized daughter. I did take a lot of time off work to try to pursue having the car repaired which led to a dead end with Safeco and then gave up on trying to get it repaired and recently started focusing on my disagreement of the amount they determined for a total loss settlement. Safeco did state in their letter that they would reopen the claim when they receive my documentation. I read many of your old questions and answers which I found very helpful and encouraging and read information on the State Insurance Commissioners website and called their hotline for advice and hope I have been doing the right things in trying to resolve our claim. I am currently communicating with several Toyota dealers to get some actual sales prices on a comparable vehicle and also a letter from our collision shop owner regarding the items they included in devaluing our car which should not have been included. I would certainly be very appreciative if you have any advice or suggestions as to how to proceed at this point. And thank you for so kindly offering this service to those of us who do not have any experience with dealing with an accident!
AnswerDear Valerie,
It is hard to see our family members undergo such suffering. Let¡¦s hope things work out for your daughter. You are doing well in helping out here.
With regard to your questions, you have been doing A SUPER JOB on everything so far! Let¡¦s look at the topics you present, one at a time.
#1. Property Damage. This is not the most important one, but I took it first because you are working on it NOW. You are documenting the actual cash value, and you will submit that and argue for a higher value. That is about all you can do, unless you can get the lienholder to agree to let you repair the vehicle with used and/or non-Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM) parts. If you can get your auto body owner to give an estimate that way, it will be within the repair limits of the adjuster. The only problem will be getting the lienholder to agree. So you might start with a call to the auto body owner and the lienholder and go from there.
#2. You have looked at the site of the Insurance Commissioner, so you are well ahead on that topic. You will need that complaint form soon, however, depending upon how the next step comes out.
#3. Get some doctor to diagnose a mental problem due to the accident. Have her make a referral. Then, fill out the complaint form, but do not file it. Sent a copy to the supervisor telling her that your daughter¡¦s mental problems are the direct and ineluctable result of the trauma she suffered, and as such they need to be addressed with care of a psychologist.
#4. DO NOT TAKE "NO" FOR AN ANSWER FROM EITHER YOUR DAUGHTER (regarding her not wanting to go for mental health care) OR FROM THE PIP ADJUSTER. This is a most important long term problem. It might also be post-concussive syndrome. It is likely that she had enough head trauma to cause even a brief loss of consciousness. Google that post concussive syndrome to see how similar the symptoms are to what your daughter is displaying. THIS IS AN EXPENSE DIRECTLY CAUSED BY THE ACCIDENT, AND PIP MUST PAY FOR THE PSYCHOLOGIST.
#5. GET A NEW ATTORNEY.
(a) Your attorney should have told you about all of this. Especially she should have told you that PIP needs to cover treatment for mental problems caused by the accident.
(b) Also, any good attorney should have told you that your grandchild HAS A CLAIM FOR NEGLIGENCE against both drivers. http://www.settlementcentral.com/page8017.htm
Neither you nor your daughter have the authority to just forget the injuries to the child. If there is no lasting injury, then at the least the child has a $1,000 claim for trauma and pain and suffering. That money, money will be invested to earn interest until the child is 18.
(c) Finally, if your daughter¡¦s injuries are significant, then it pays to fight liability. The police citation IS NOT ADMISSIBLE IN EVIDENCE. It is NOT proof of anything. It is his hearsay opinion, since he was not a witness. Thus, this is a "clear" [ever notice how we use that word when things are not really clear :-)] case of comparative negligence on BOTH SIDES. He had the last clear chance to avoid the accident, and it was negligence for him to speed up and try to race the light.
The evidence of excessive speed on his part is that the cars were flung backwards. That alone will show that he was far in excess of the speed limit, and is proof of his negligent attempt to beat the light, instead of looking to see what was right in front of him.
I also wonder about settling too soon in the event your daughter¡¦s trauma manifests itself in a ¡§light up¡¨ of her previously asymptomatic condition.
I guess that is enough to chew on for now. Keep on doing this good work for your family, and especially insist upon her seeing a psychologist.
Best Wishes,
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
Http://www.SettlementCentral.Com
