Insurance company.

So on Friday 11th September I was driving up to Mayo in Quebec to go camping for the weekend.

Between Buckingham and Mayo, for some unknown reason (because Quebec?) the left lane of the 2 lane section of highway 50 ends, so you have to merge into the right lane.

It looks like this on Google Maps:

 

and it's located here: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/45%C2%B033'39.8%22N+75%C2%B024'07.7%22W/@45.5609592,-75.4032494,198m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d45.5610548!4d-75.4021477

I had almost completed merging into the right lane, when I get rear ended. The guy who rear ends me proceeds to then steer around to the right, and then swerved back to the left, into the right side of my car.

This starts pushing the car sideways, and causing me to aim towards the barrier off the right side of the road. I steer to the left, but as it seems like the other driver is either accelerating, or at least not slowing, I'm unable to do much, and my car gets rammed off the road and into the barrier, being pinned there between it and his car.

The dashcam footage can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-75sJbQGiDg

A couple of seconds after everything comes to a stop, before I've had a chance to do anything, the rear window of my car shatters, and glass explodes all through the car, even ending up on the front dash.

I get out of the car to find out what is going on, to realise that the other driver has managed to exit his car and punch or hit my window causing it to explode, all in those couple of seconds.

After some yelling between us, while the guy yells that I "should have merged back there" while flailing his arms in the general direction of way back up the road (uh, no, that's not how zipper merging works), I walked away.

I asked my passenger to call 911, because I don't see this situation being resolved in any reasonable manner without the police being involved. I then sat back in the car, with the door open. This was my effort to de-escalate the situation.

Initially the 911 operator says that we "need to work it out". I'm about to work it out, I'll tell you. I respond via my passenger who's on the phone with them, and I said "no, the guy punched out my window. I need the police to respond to this call". Apparently they are now going to send some officers out.

I continue waiting in the car. Everyone else is just slowly navigating around the vehicles and continuing on their way. It's hard to tell the time that had passed, maybe 10 minutes? and eventually a single driver stops, and asks through their window if we're all OK, which I tell them we are, and they continued.

I walked around and looked at my car, and took a few photos to document where the vehicles ended up:

 

  

Another few minutes passed, and I heard a siren. A police vehicle arrived, and shortly after one of the officers came to speak to me. He told me that they had not been dispatched to this, they were on their way somewhere else, but they stopped to see what was going on.

I provided my vehicle paperwork, insurance, registration, ownership, drivers licence etc, which the officer took away to check.

At this point 2 ambulances arrived. The paramedics and one of the officers came to speak with us, and they told us to go and have our vital signs checked, and make sure we weren't injured.

I felt fine, since it was a fairly low speed collision, and the air bags didn't deploy or anything, but I agreed to be checked, mostly because I wanted to make sure that my passenger wasn't injured.

They took our blood pressure and heart rate etc, and had us just check we didn't have sore necks or anything. We both had high blood pressure (which apparently is normal for me anyway, as I had just had a physical examination the previous day as part of my drivers licence, as I have a class B licence in Ontario, and I measured with HBP, just as I do every single time I donate blood).

They wanted us to be transported to the hospital for further examination, but neither my passenger nor I felt that was necessary, so we accepted responsibility for ourselves, as they have audio recording on the monitor that's used to measure our heart rates and blood pressure, and then we climbed back out of the ambulance.

By this time the police officers which had been dispatched to deal with this had arrived. One of them came to speak with me as I was returning from the ambulance to my car.

He asked me for my phone number, and to see my health card and get my OHIP number. I was then handed a slip with the "Numero d'evenement (CRPQ)" on it.

The officer told me that his breaking my window was a criminal offence, and he asked if I wished to press charges against the driver for that. I briefly thought about it. I asked if the driver had been injured, and they told me that apparently he had injured his hand and/or arm, and also that he had refused assistance from the paramedics.

I told the officer that if they were willing to give him a serious warning for breaking the window, which the officer said the other officer was already doing, and taking into consideration that he was injured, which is probably fair punishment, that I would leave it, however I asked who was going to pay for the window to be replaced, and the officer told me that one of the insurance companies would pay for it, so at that point I said I would not press charges.

The officer also told me that I could change my mind at a later time, and that there is no limit on that.

The officers then asked if I felt that my car was drivable, or if I would need a tow truck. I said that I had no idea at this point, as it was still pinned against the barrier, and I couldn't see until the other driver moved his vehicle.

He did this, reversing over my hubcap which was on the ground behind his wheel in the process, breaking it, and then he left, as I guess he had been told he could leave.

The officers asked me to back up and to check my steering, to make sure everything was OK. I tried to start my car to reverse it away from the barrier to look at it, but it wouldn't start, as it had stalled when it hit the barrier, and I hadn't turned the ignition off, so it had probably been sitting there for an hour and a half at this point.

I had a booster pack, so I was able to jump start my car, and then checked around it, I kicked some of the glass away from the tyres, picked up my ruined hubcap off the road, along with another large piece of plastic (which later turned out to be part of some unknown other vehicle, since it was white, so I guess this section of road must be great for collisions..)

I backed my car up, and I go out and looked, I couldn't see any damage to the wheel, it looks like it was contained to the bumper cover.

I reversed the car up while steering, and went forwards, it seemed fine. The police asked me to do it again, they thought it looked fine, and it felt to me, so they said I was free to go.

They also said that if I drove for a minute and decided that it wasn't driving correctly, that I could call them back, and they come back to us, and get a tow truck.

After confirming where we were going, they suggested I take the back roads rather than the highway, and so we drove the 20 minutes to our destination.

Thankfully one of the guys at the campsite had a vacuum in his car (and I thought I brought stupid things camping!), and I had my 1800W inverter (see previous point), so I was able to use his vacuum to clean up some of the glass, which was literally everywhere.

Pieces of glass had managed to end up in the bags of food I had bought for the camping trip, and had also managed to pierce a hole in a can of beer, causing it to leak all over the back seat of the car.

Let's play "find the glass" in all the food before you can eat it..

I used a garbage bag to tape up the window in case it rained, which apparently is going to be my window for the rest of time..

On Saturday I called my insurance company, and provided them with all the details of what happened. Annoyingly, even though I provided my policy number, I had to give them a bunch of details which they should have already had, such as my name and address, and the details of my car..

On Tuesday, they called me again, and asked all the same questions to get all the same details yet again, before then telling me that because I only have liability insurance on my car that they aren't going to pay for anything.

You know why I only have liability insurance? Because insurance companies are the most useless scammers I've ever come across, and I am not going to give you one single cent more than I am absolutely required by law to. What other industry spends more money on lawyers fighting to avoid paying out their customers, to whom it would cost them less to do so? Evil.

I also asked about the window, and apparently since that didn't happen as part of the collision, neither insurance company is responsible (not that my insurance company would apparently have paid for it anyway), and so I'm going to need to sue the other driver through small claims court to get him to pay for the window.

I guess I will also need to press charges then, so that I can use his criminal conviction for the damage as part of my claim against him. I have better things to do with the next several years of my life. Sigh.

So at this point I got pretty frustrated, and I asked what the point of this conversation is at this point, which is apparently nothing, so I said goodbye and hung up.

Later in the day I found that Gmail had conveniently flagged the email from the insurance agent as spam and shoved it in the spam folder..

Dear Simon,

I am sorry that I was not able to assist with regard to damages on your auto.  Regretfully with no collision coverage I am unable to advance with any repairs.

I realize it is frustrating for you as the other party did not allow you entrance into their lane and further punched your window once you had both pulled over.

 I do not have the other party information, would you be able to provide name, who they are insured with and their insurance company? 

I will be happy to contact them and discuss this situation with them asking they contact you with regard to their client punching your window.

As we discussed the Ontario rules of the road stipulate under fault determination the person changing lanes is responsible when the other driver is established in this lane.  I wish I could make that change, however I am obligated to use these rules.

Under section 10.4

    (4)  If the incident occurs when automobile “B” is changing lanes, the driver of automobile “A” is not at fault and the driver of automobile “B” is 100 per cent at fault for the incident.

I do not always like these decisions however I am bound to enforce these regulations.  Therefore you would be at fault as vehicle B in the above diagram.

If you have any  questions on your policy, please reach out to your local Financial Services and they can answer any policy questions or discuss if this would have any impact to your policy in any way.

I apologize the decision made is not in your favor. 

Thank you,

[redacted]

Personal Line Client Care Expert

Moncton Reporting Center| The Co-operators

10 Record St, Moncton, NB, E1C 8N9

Toll Free: 1-877-682-5246 extension XXXXXX

Toll Free fax: 1-888-853-1318

I later found that that image has been sourced from "Insurance Act R.R.O. 1990, REGULATION 668 FAULT DETERMINATION RULES", here: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900668

My reply:

Hello [name],

I sincerely apologise for the curt ending to our phone call regarding this matter. I was very frustrated, as you can imagine.

Perhaps I was not explaining the way the incident occurred sufficiently, which is causing you to think that I am at fault in this collision, when I do not believe that to be the case.

The initial collision was between the other vehicle, and the rear of my vehicle, towards the right rear corner, while I was at least 2/3 of the way into the right lane, if not further towards completing my lane change. I feel this would be described as that he "rear ended" me.

He then proceeded to drive around to my right, before he steered to the left, and into the right side of my car, into the right rear passenger door, pushing my car to the left, causing my car to skid sideways to the left, and causing me to head towards the barrier on the right side of the road. I steered to the left to attempt to avoid hitting the barrier, but I was unable to, as the other driver seemed to accelerate as he was pushing my vehicle.

Once my vehicle hit the barrier, both vehicles stopped, with his vehicle pinning mine against the barrier, and within a couple of seconds he had exited his vehicle, and proceeded to hit or punch my rear window with his hand, causing it to explode and spray glass through the car.

The diagrams from section 10.4 you have included do not illustrate what happened. I have attached a few diagrams of my own, to show how the collision occurred. Please find these attached. The black angled line indicates the lane ending, and the line on the right in the last image is the barrier my car was pushed into.

The closest diagram you sent, the first one, is basically what happened as the second impact; with the other driver as vehicle B, as he steered around to my right, seemingly trying to undertake my vehicle, and then he swerved back to the left, into the right rear passenger door of my vehicle, which is why I believe him to be at fault, and what your diagram would also show to be the case.

I have a dashcam in my car, which I did not previously mention as it has not been working properly for a while, and I actually forgot about it as I didn't expect it to have anything useful on it, however it does, and I have uploaded the video to youtube which can be viewed here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-75sJbQGiDg

I do not have any details of the other driver. After he smashed my window I exited my vehicle to find out what his deal was, and after some brief yelling between the both of us, I walked back to my door and proceeded to ask my passenger to call 911, and I sat back in my car with the door open, as a way to de-escalate the situation until the police arrived. I had no further interaction with the other driver. Two police cars arrived and mediated the situation, (as well as two ambulances, which took my and my passenger's vital signs). The police recorded all my details, and presumably his, and they just provided me with the slip with the CRPQ number on it, being XXXXX.

At no point did the police ask me for a statement of how the collision occurred. They only asked me if I wished to press charges against the other driver, as his smashing my window is a criminal offence, however I told them that I did not wish to at this point, as apparently he had injured his hand or arm in the process, and I said that I felt dealing with his injury would be punishment enough. The police informed me that I could change my mind, and it now seems like I will need to press charges against him, and then attempt to sue him through small claims court for the cost of replacing my window, since apparently neither insurance company is going to cover it.

The GPS tags on the photos I took show that the collision occurred at near Buckingham, and the stretch of road, and where the lane ends, can be seen there on Google Maps: https://www.google.ca/maps/place/45%C2%B033'39.8%22N+75%C2%B024'07.7%22W/@45.5610561,-75.4028003,334m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d45.5610548!4d-75.4021477

This collision occurred in Quebec, rather than Ontario, however I suspect that doesn't make any difference to the rules of the road, nor your policies which are applied, I mention this primarily for the purposes for data accuracy.

Please also see the photos I took of how/where the vehicles ended up, here: [google drive URL]

I would highly appreciate it if you could review the whole scenario, taking into consideration my written description of the incident, my diagrams, dash cam video, and photos.

Regards,

Simon

These are the diagrams which I made up and provided:

My email got an auto reply, saying "Please be advised I am out of office and returning Sept 16th at 9:00 Atlantic time".

 

Meanwhile, on Thursday I decided to clean all the broken glass out of the car, since apparently it's going to be me that ends up fixing it. This was a fun exercise which only required dismantling half the car in order to get into all the places where glass had managed to end up, and since I don't really want to be driving around with a half smashed window behind me, I went about getting what was rest of the glass off the door, which also required removing the entire door, since a bunch of the glass had ended up inside it, and there's no other way to get it out..

I still couldn't manage to get all the glass out of the door, as much as I tipped it upside and shook it all over the place, so forever more I'm going to get to hear chunks of glass rattle around whenever the door is opened or closed.

A week passes. I have heard nothing from the insurance company.

I replied "It has been a week since I replied to your email, can I please have an update on this matter?"

Frustrated, I move on to the next issue, the window. In order to sue the other driver, I'm pretty sure I'll need to know some details about him, like perhaps his name and address? I don't have anything except the police event number, since the officers were the only ones who spoke with him.

I find the Quebec Police website, contact us has 911 or 310-4141 as the contact numbers. Pretty sure I don't need to call 911, but I'm also pretty sure that other number isn't going to work..

What a surprise. I get a big long message in French, followed by the English version, that "this toll free number is not available from your calling area. Hang up and call back on 514 598 4141".

So I do that, and I end up at a phone menu which is only in French. Zero doesn't work, and neither does 1 or 2 or anything else I try to enter, and I have no idea what it's saying, other than something about "invalid option". Argh.

OK, let's go back to dealing with the insurance company again, since I'm now frustrated with something else instead.

I look up how to make a complaint about the service, apparently each company has their own complaints department you need to contact first. I'm sure that process works really well. So I email them:

I am currently quite unimpressed with the service that I have "received", after a collision which occurred on Friday 11th September.

On Saturday 12th I called and provided all the details of the collision, including the fact that I was rear ended, before the guy who rear ended me then drove into the side of my vehicle, and proceeded to ram me off the road and into the barrier, before he got out of his car and proceeded to punch my window and explode glass all through my car, which the police informed me is a criminal offence.

On Monday 14th [oops, it was Tuesday, but whatever..] I was called, to have to provide all of the information and details all over again for some reason, only to be told that apparently it's my fault that I was rear ended and rammed off the road, and that you're not going to pay for any of the repairs to my vehicle.

I then replied and included dash cam footage showing that I was rear ended and pit manoeuvred and rammed off the road, including photos, and diagrams to show what happened, and the Quebec Police event number, to receive the reply of.. nothing.

Hello? Can I please have some sort of reply to all of the evidence I have provided which shows that I am not at fault for this collision which occurred?

Your assistance with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

So at this point.. I've got an insurance company that's ignoring me, no back window, no details on the guy who's supposed to be paying for the window, and no way to get the details of the guy who's supposed to pay for the window.

Serenity Now!