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Daughter hit mailbox and rolled car , question
roswellnative
Member Posts: 10,158 ✭✭✭✭
she’s ok thank God.
here’s the background
Paid cash for car 15000
Thought she was responsible so I only had liability insurance. The repairs are going to be at least 12,000. The car is pretty new and I’m really kicking myself for not having comprehensive insurance but I’m here now.
should I pay to get it fixed or just junk it and put 12000 into a older , higher miles (unwrecked ) car ?
Ros
Although always described as a cowboy, Roswellnative generally acts as a righter of wrongs or bodyguard of some sort, where he excels thanks to his resourcefulness and incredible gun prowesses.
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Comments
If it was my daughter I would d do the second choice. Then make darn sure she had it insured.
I don't see how she managed to do that. Was it a slow speed wreck or faster?
Joe
Relative had an accident and the estimate was for 8k- went up to 11k, the way the supply chain is look at 15k in repairs. Toss up, but like low mile cars that have been maintained. Was a nice looking ride. (Any texting while driving )?
Give her the Mercedes.
Seriously, glad she's OK. Looks like the mail box pedestal was made of stone.
What the heck kind of mailbox bid she hit to do that?
Forgemonkey should be along soon, he can will flip the car upright, and make everything good again.😉
I'm so glad she is ok.
Its amazing how easy it is to roll a car. I've seen it happen with my daughter and my mother....both times were relatively minor events, but they managed to flip over.
The air bag being deployed is almost always an indication the vehicle will be totalled.
I wouldn't bother pouring money into it.....once a car is wrecked it seems it is non stop issues.
You'll be kicking yourself if you spend all of that money to get it worked on and the repairs never end.
Flip it back on its wheels check fluids and drive it until it expires.
Glad she’s not hurt. Offload (the car!) and move on.
Glad she is OK
I also say sell the car and just buy another
Also you may want to check I know there is laws about mail boxes and the supports because of such things and damage if hit there suppose to snap or break off to avoid such damage as your daughter's
Not saying it's the property owners fault well maybe but something you could look into if the mail box was built too strong which looks to be the case they may be lybal for the damage to the car
For a moment, thought I was looking at neighbor's yard. Two teen girls took the curve too fast 3 days ago. went into ditch, flipped car end for end, taking mailbox. Both OK.
Am retired from insurance company. Our rule of thumb- if repairs equal 75% of blue book, it's a total. When you start teardown, there WILL be other damage you did not see at first. I would say aloha to car, contact a salvage company like Car Parts, replace car. Comprehensive would not have covered that- collision would.
Dump that car.
Trust me, She is beating herself up real good, right about now. The metal can be replaced, but your daughter cannot. I'm so glad she is okay. At this point, I would buy her another vehicle.
Don't feel bad, I bought our son a brand new expedition for his HS graduation present. He went against my rule about taking it back in the woods. Ended up driving it into a lake and destroying the motor. I replaced the motor and he paid me back for it. I never said one word to Chris about it, because I could see he was madder at himself, then I could ever be. These are called life lessons.
If it were a son, you, him and his buds could just hammer it out and let him drive it. Lots of Bondo.
Since it's a daughter, she already feels bad. Get her another nice reliable, safe vec and move on. Some things she just will never forget.
Thanks god that she is Ok.
File a claim against the home owners insurance where the mailbox was located.
Those big stone mailboxes are hazards and should not be allowed.
Glad she is okay! That side airbag looks to have been very helpful.
As someone else mentioned, if you can, flip it, do the bare minimum to make it legal/drivable….. and let her drive it. Forget the body work. Doesn’t really matter what it looks like. If that big stone mailbox managed to jump out in front of her, something else is likely to do so again. A dent on top of a dent is a lot easier to stomach.
Also, if you’re updating insurance, it’s COLLISION you want to add. Comprehensive is for other non-collision stuff (falling trees, hail, stuff like that).
Whoa. Glad she is OK, that coulda been a lot worse.
Why does everyone think they have to buy cars for their kids? I bought my first car, a '67 Pontiac, with my own hard-earned money and if anything went wrong I paid for it.
But, when my kids got to 16 I bought each a $2000 car (old Mercury Grand Marquis, my favorite car) and they learned with them. At one time I had 6 Mercury Grand Marquis licensed and insured. Still have one, a 2009 which will still be running after I am not!
I agree, kannoneer, but $2000 cars are a thing of the past.
You made the choice to not insure the car and this is the result. Education is expensive. I'd suggest not even trying to fix the wreck.
Start over for $12,000.
If it were my infamous neighbor The Stock Contractor he would be driving it lol
"Independence Now, Independence Forever."
John Adams
I also paid for my first car with money I had saved from 6 years of throwing a paper route.
Jesus dude can build a mailbox. IMHO Cars not worth repairing, I’m afraid you’ll be chasing alignment after transmission after goblin keeps popping up but close
thought comprehensive was expensive before, now it’s going to be worse. I think a $5k car might be a good fit
Best Regards - AQH
I don't like that style of mail box support. I once did, but I changed my position.
Such a structure is a good defense against vandals playing mailbox baseball, and they can be made quite attractive, but that's where their utility ends.
In 1995 I moved to an address on a highway maintained by TXDOT. TXDOT will not allow such mailbox posts/structures on their right-of-way. Instead, they install a simple mild steel post, not pretty but eminently practical.
One night, in a heavy rainstorm, a vehicle ran off the roadway and hit the mail boxes of my neighbor and myself. The posts performed as designed; they just bent over level with the ground, causing very little damage to the vehicle, and no injury to the occupants. I "got" it then.
Since then, my boxes were hit again, with the same result. I was able to convince TXDOT to move the posts to a point behind the apex of the curve, and the boxes have been safe since then. When anyone runs off the road now, they do so after they have passed the boxes.
The brick mailboxes are pretty, but not safe.
I lost a very good childhood friend back in 1980 who was a passenger in another friends brand new corvette that hit a multiple mailbox cluster. All the boxes were for an apartment complex and were housed together in a fancy brickwork structure placed along a busy going out of town highway with a fairly wide shoulder. The set up was very quickly replaced with the boxes being moved within the entrance drive of the apartments.
I'm very glad your daughter was not injured in this accident!
Get a lawyer on this at once. Here in Minnesota if you have an obstruction like that stone mailbox, you are liable for any damages to a vehicle if it hits it. You have to remove heavy objects on a boulevard and cannot have large stones for decoration. Do this at once as the homeowner may file a suit at you to fix his mailbox, and your suit would only go against his homeowners policy, otherwise your inaction will cost you 12 grand. I hope this helps but get legal help right away and don't blame your daughter. If it was a wood post and she hit it would only be a minor damage, not 12K.
You know, You are 100% right. I did my son no favors by buying him this new truck. In a way, he kind of earned it. He made straight A's, finished number 1 in his graduating class, while achieving hid black belt in Karate and working a part time job, saving for a car. He paid for his insurance and did pay me back for the motor. I guess what it comes down to is, I had to work for everything and my parents didn't help me one bit. I wanted him to start off college on the right foot, and not be worried about having good transportation and payments. In reality, I should have made him buy a cheap car and know what it is like to have to work hard for everything, So I see your point in this comment. 😉🙂
You know, mailboxes (stone or otherwise) don’t damage cars that stay in the roadway. When consequences are inconvenient, it’s real easy to pretend like the problem is someone else’s fault.
And….just because a suit would go against the person’s homeowner’s policy (which would still negatively affect them), it doesn’t make it right to turn the situation on them.
If in this situation personally, I’d have my daughter at their door assuring them of mailbox replacement, not demanding they pay for her mistake.
Let's look at it another way.......the daughter could have been seriously injured by an illegal obstruction planted there by the homeowner, the car rolled from that stone mailbox. Accidents happen and this one was compounded by the homeowners stone mailbox, a wood or metal post would not have rolled the car. How about she was driving down the road and swerved to avoid hitting a dog or kid that ran out in front of her, Your thinking would be to hit the kid or dog to avoid going off the road. These boulevard obstructions cause unjust damage and the homeowner needs to be the responsible party in this accident.
Disagree completely! The mailbox was on private property and a stationary object, the vehicle was supposed to be under the control of a living person, no matter what other circumstances the mailbox and it's owners were not the cause of the accident. I'm glad the OP daughter is OK, but no way was the mailbox or home owner at fault. Those of you saying different, do you also blame the gun in a shooting?
The mailbox was not on private property; it was on the public right-of-way. Easy to check. In the city records, look up the legal description of that street. It will state how wide the right-of-way is. Suppose the legal right of way is 40 feet, for example. From the center of the street, measure 20 feet in either direction, and there is the limit of the public right-of-way.
I do not own the property on which my mailbox sets; the State of Texas does.
As previously stated, I cannot legally put up such a mailbox support, so one might want to check local codes and see if that mailbox support was legally built.
No one said the mailbox caused the accident, and NO one believes that guns cause shootings. That's all just hyperbole like the media LOVES to use.
The poster stated facts! The mailbox is MOST likely NOT on private property, the mailbox is MOST likely illegal due to its construction, and the mailbox DID absolutely make the accident SUBSTANTIAL worse than it would have otherwise been.
It's up to the OP if they want to pursue that avenue, but the fact is........he would probably get the insurance to cover the cost of the EXTRA damage caused by the stone mailbox.
I live on a state road and they will MAKE you remove anything like that mailbox. Anything bigger or stronger than a 4x4 post is illegal here.
Just sayin'
@nunn OK I'll give you that it probably was in a right of way easement and not really on private property, but that doesn't mean anybody can drive on to it and blame the home owner for their accident. I have an older wood post for my mailbox and it has seen better days and I feel the type of box in this example is a waste of money but they are very popular in this part of the country (Wise county, TX) and I still say it was not the mailbox or the owners fault and unless having that type of mailbox is against the law (as it may well be in other places) the individual driving is at fault and not the homeowner.
I miss the good old days when lawyers were scarce, welfare was short-duration, and people accepted setbacks with a stiff upper lip and heightened resolve.
@mike55 "The poster stated facts! The mailbox is MOST likely NOT on private property, the mailbox is MOST likely illegal due to its construction, and the mailbox DID absolutely make the accident SUBSTANTIAL worse than it would have otherwise been."
Actually the OP never stated what caused the accident, he was asking what to do about the car.
Others went to the blame the mailbox, homeowners, get a lawyer, right of way, illegality of it etc...
It's his daughter, his choice what to do, I am just amazed at why so many think of blaming someone else or an object that may or may not be against the law depending upon where they live... If a law was broken, fine go after the law breaker, but he never said that in his post, all he asked was should he get car fixed or not...
Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail.......
@Ruger4me ..... I never said OP! I said the poster, meaning the one that you disagreed with! @thorhammer
I also said..... "It's up to the OP if they want to pursue that avenue, but the fact is........he would probably get the insurance to cover the cost of the EXTRA damage caused by the stone mailbox."
Seems there is a LOT of selective reading/quoting going on here! LOL
The people posted so that the OP would know his options!
AGAIN, NO ONE BLAMED THE MAILBOX......it's a simple FACT that the stone mailbox caused WAY more damage than a 4x4 or metal post would have caused, probably $10,000 more! THAT is why it is illegal in most places.
Just sayin'
All accidents with a mailbox are expensive. My wife hit a MB about a month ago, it was just a normal mail box. It took out the passenger side mirror, dented the front quarter panel and broke lens on the headlight.
Had to get a new mirror and headlight, can't just replace the lens it is all one part. Just those two items where $1,600.
Very unfortunate. Glad she is ok! I wouldn't keep the car, personally.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain