Bump in the Road or Should I Say On The Side of the Truck

Home / Traveling / Bump in the Road or Should I Say On The Side of the Truck

P1020430We travel about 10,000 miles a year DSC06787and some of those travelled miles are on busy highways.  But it just takes one little side road on a city street to get that first bump in our truck.  An enjoyable evening at Amanda and Ron’s house in Richfield, MN ended with $3,000 worth of damage to the side of the truck.  As we were finishing our dinner we heard a loud crash which brought our attention to the street.  A young man travelling west on the street where our truck was parked crossed the center line and hit a car travelling east.  The east travelling car got pushed into the driver’s side of our truck.  Neither of the other two cars was drivable after the accident so we know they hit hard. The police were called and as it turned out the guy that caused the accident did not have an up-to-date insurance card in his vehicle.  He had 24 hrs to produce proof of insurance to the police and the police had 10 days to write up their accident report and they used almost all of those 10 days.  Thankfully, after seeing the police report, all parties had insurance and the guy who caused the accident was given a citation for crossing the center line.  Now it is just a waiting game for his insurance company to give us the go ahead to have the repairs done.

When we went full-time a little over two years ago we had to switch to an insurance company that covered full-timers so we, of course, were worried about how this would go with a company we have never heard of.  We have to say they were very helpful but of course they weren’t the company paying the claim. 

Joe and I have been very lucky to have not had any previous accidents but thought we knew what to do on the scene.    Of course we knew the police needed to be called and we were supposed to get all the insurance information from the other drivers.  Except the police officer told us it was easier for him to get all the information and then he would get us a copy of the police report.  We accepted this not knowing that the police have ten days to file that report.  So we learned a lesson and will pass that on – get everyone’s information no matter what the police tells you.  It sure did hold things up.  I had to make several calls to the Richfield Police Station before the report was done eight days after the accident.   I know they have better things to do than write reports but just the same you have people waiting for these reports.

Hopefully this week we can get our truck fixed and move on.  After all we have a new grandbaby coming this week (or so we hope) and we have better things to think about than fixing a truck.

We count our blessings everyday for even these little bumps because we always learn something from them and it helps us to remember that we are fortunate – things can always be worse.

Stay safe!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *