Claims against auto makers and insurance companies

[nnnslogan]

About ten years ago (probably too long ago to file a claim now I guess) I was hit from the side by someone in a rental car. I was trying to get into a center turn lane from a side street, and the gap I was trying to pull into closed, so I was stuck in the lane. I ended up being hit by someone who, as far as I could tell, didn't even try to stop at all. I bet he wasn't even paying attention to the road. I think he and his wife had kids in the car. Apparently they were driving a rental car. At first the wife started squawking at me, but I was disoriented. I reached up and felt that my head was wet, and pulled a plastic shard out of my hair. Then I looked and saw blood on my hand. That thing on the side that was holding my shoulder strap in place looked like a pad of some kind, but that's just a clever illusion. It's actually a plastic shell covering a bolt, no padding whatsoever, so I was essentially banged in the head with a metal bolt. The cop asked me how many fingers I was holding up, and I could see fine. Then he asked me if I was driving "kind of slow" and I nodded yes. The EMS guys gave me a quick once over, then asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I didn't think I could afford it, so I declined. I could walk and talk, so I figured I was alright. I walked to a nearby store and called a friend to come pick me up.

In the weeks that followed I had strange tingling sensations in my neck and spinal column, which I read somewhere was fairly typical of injuries in auto accidents. Years later I had a problem with my spine at one point and I was numb from the waist down.

The part that really sucked was that the people who hit me and I had the same insurance company, and my car was totally smashed up, so I got nothing and had to drive that wreck for years after with a smashed in side. I had to get in on the passenger side, and couldn't roll down the window. Eventually when I got it looked at by Fix-A-Wreck in Austin they said it would cost thousands to get it fixed, so I just left it there. I couldn't afford to get it fixed at the time, and really the only good thing about that Volkwagen Quantum was that it was a fuel-injected 5-cylinder engine. Later the people who hit me tried to file a claim against me for medical damages, and believe me, they weren't hurt AT ALL. They jumped up and were walking around like nothing happened, while I was bleeding and disoriented. I think that after they realized the insurance company was siding with them, they wanted some free money. I wrote a letter back to the insurance company saying that I wouldn't stand for that, and I'd testify against them in court.

So, I wonder what I could have done, and how long I had to do it. Could I have sued the insurance company? What about Volkswagen for that damned death bolt that hit me in the head?

 

[spawn_x]

1. You were not denied the claim because you have the same insurance, you were denied the claim because your husband is at fault.

2. Sue the manufacturer for what? Putting a bolt into a vehicle?

You have no case.

 

[nnnslogan]

1. You were not denied the claim because you have the same insurance, you were denied the claim because your husband is at fault.

2. Sue the manufacturer for what? Putting a bolt into a vehicle?

You have no case.

1. I don't have a husband. I don't know what you were reading when you posted this. I am a MAN. Hello! I was DRIVING.

2. The bolt is right at head level, so that if the car is hit from the side it is almost 100% assured that your head will hit this bolt, cleverly concealed by a piece of plastic that instantly turns into shards. There is no reason for this kind of design flaw. There are plenty of other places to mount a shoulder strap, like a few inches higher or further back, not right at head level, and the cover over the bolt was pretty clearly designed to look like a fake pad, as if it was a protective element, which it wasn't. From my point of view as a professional designer, it looks like a negligent design flaw. No current automobile designs that I know of implement this archaic design, which is a pretty good indication that auto manufacturers at some point determined that it was a hazard, probably due to previous accidents.

I thought this was a forum for professional lawyers who have dealth with auto accident cases. I guess I was mistaken about that.

 

[spawn_x]

1. Is it the manufacturer's fault you got into the accident? No.

2. Sorry about the confusion, I thought it was a female asking for her husband, was confused with another thread I guess.

3. Again, you have no case.