Got hit with a hard tonno over tonight! Ugh

[blackbetty14]

Driving home from work following a new black f150 on the highway getting up to speed with a tractor trailer blocking most of the light. All of a sudden giant black hard tonno cover flying at me at 70mph. Took out my new custom grille, dented and bowed the chrome front bumper, scratched up the upper valiance above the bumper and under the headlights, took out my pass side new led fog light and looks like it pushed in my driver headlight a bit with some scratches. Popped one parking sensor out and a few of the others look wonky so I will have to get new ones and paint match? Rigid pods look to have survived but will see scratched tmrw I guess. Can’t see much else tonight but will check tmrw. Guy/kid forgot to lock down his hard tonno cover and it bent and ripped the rail near the tailgate (ford tough my ass) so the wind got under it and it just took off and I caught it on my dash cam coming right at me.

Not really happy about it of course bc the grille and fogs are basically less than 3 months old and the grille I customized. Headlight is a retrofitted stock sport headlight. Guy wants to cover the damages and no insurance which I’m fine with but I want a paint matched bumper, same grille paint matched, fogs etc. I guess I will get a quote from a body shop but want to source all the stuff myself. Problem is I don’t have any idea structurally what I’m getting into until I take it all apart. The damage isn’t bad but it’s cosmetically getting all replaced. I will get a paint matched rear bumper as well to finish off the look. I think the hood was spared and front fenders.

Def getting:

Front bumper steel paint matched
Fog lights aftermarket
Upper bumper valiance
Grille
Possible driver headlight (don’t really want to open them up again)

Where do I start? Due to the custom grille and modified headlights idk how I would price that out or how a shop would price that out. I will post pics tmrw and possibly the video.

Here’s the dash cam footage

November 28, 2022

youtu.be

Pics added. Lots of scratches on bumper and valance above bumper. Metal bumper looks buckled and I think it tweaked the support on the back side.

 

[Dodge 1500 4X4]

Do you have all of the receipts for your custom parts, I would present this guy with those and an estimate of body repair you need done from a body shop, the body shop is going to be a sizable amount of money!!!

 

[blackbetty14]

Yes, I have Amazon purchase orders for everything and the paint for the grille. I’m honestly expecting this to be 2k+ Honestly. A painted bumper is $550 my grill was like $300, $50 in color match paint, $30 in adhesion promoter. Fogs we’re $150 or so on Amazon. Not sure about parking sensors and all the other bits plus the valance and paint. Now I just need to find a body shop or two for quotes.

 

[gofishn]

Why would you even want to do any of that?

Had a guy try that with me, once.
He tried to turn it, 'foul', quickly.
No Problem, I got insurance, they will fix it and you can pay them afterwards

If the guy does not want his insurance involved, no problem.
doesn't mean you cannot deal with your insurance company and protect yourself from any BS.
Like doing all this footwork for some idiot, who damaged your truck.

That's why I have Insurance. So I do not have to 'deal' with any of this crap.
Here's my truck.
Here;s the receipts for what I added & where I bought the parts.
Where's my Rental?
Call me when it's done.

 

[blackbetty14]

Well I did get a report with case number so worst case is I will have my insurance deal with it if he try’s to bolt. I however won’t get my aftermarket parts reimbursed as I don’t think insurance works that way. I also don’t want to have my rates increase. And I don’t like people touching my vehicle. Cops also told me technically it’s called road debris’s once it leaves the vehicle as technically it was in flight when I got hit. They don’t do accident reports for debris. It’s one of those grey areas apparently. I still got s report which states the other drivers intentions and what happened. I also have video evidence.

 

[EdGs]

Hopefully you can get your aftermarket stuff replaced.

I got hit in a parking lot, dude had no insurance, etc. My aftermarket tube steps were damaged, and I got a new set. The new ones were more than the old, but the old style wasn't available.

Definately let insurance deal with it. Not your fault, and will bet other guy will make sure his **** is secure from here out. Could've been very ugly, couple feet higher and it's in your face. Very lucky you were.

Wishing you smooth and complete repairs.

 

[crash68]

I also have video evidence.

Having video of the tonneau cover coming off his truck will help if you end up having to take him to court.

Luckily for you it's just front end damage, watched a hard tonneau cover come off a truck that was loaded backwards on a flatbed tow truck. It caved in the windshield and A-pillars of the vehicle behind it on the freeway. It also damaged the cab of the truck being towed.

 

[gofishn]

Well I did get a report with case number so worst case is I will have my insurance deal with it if he try’s to bolt. I however won’t get my aftermarket parts reimbursed as I don’t think insurance works that way. I also don’t want to have my rates increase. And I don’t like people touching my vehicle. Cops also told me technically it’s called road debris’s once it leaves the vehicle as technically it was in flight when I got hit. They don’t do accident reports for debris. It’s one of those grey areas apparently. I still got s report which states the other drivers intentions and what happened. I also have video evidence.

Hope he got wrote up for improperly secured Item or load.

Not sure how your insurance works but mine has never gone up when I filed a claim and I had No Fault.
all my aftermarket parts have been replaced, when wrecked. It's my Property. I suffered a Property loss.
But could be insurance policies. I do know I have a really good one. Shopped prices, before. Had a competeing Agent tell me, after looking at the actually policy, so I could apples to apples quote, that I'd be a fool to switch, while I still lived in the same house.

Regardless, it;s you situation, do as you see fit. I sincerely hope everything works out, for you, and truck is even better, afterwards.

Good Luck

 

[Docwagon1776]

Well I did get a report with case number so worst case is I will have my insurance deal with it if he try’s to bolt. I however won’t get my aftermarket parts reimbursed as I don’t think insurance works that way. I also don’t want to have my rates increase. And I don’t like people touching my vehicle. Cops also told me technically it’s called road debris’s once it leaves the vehicle as technically it was in flight when I got hit. They don’t do accident reports for debris. It’s one of those grey areas apparently. I still got s report which states the other drivers intentions and what happened. I also have video evidence.

This will vary depending on where you are. It can be a matter of case law, software limitations*, and department policy. For us, if the item is still in motion from originally coming unsecured it's a crash. Once it stops the first time, it's road debris even if kicked back up and in motion again.

*crash reporting software is pretty widely adopted now, the days of hand-drawing crash diagrams and paper crash reports have gone the way of the call box and the cap and ball revolver. The benefit to the driver is they often upload automatically to the state repository and are available to your insurance company by the end of the officer's shift. The bad news is they are sometimes rigid and/or poorly programmed and can cause issues with correctly reporting unusual events. As an example, I live in a deer heavy state but our crash report system did not originally have a deer stencil/emblem available. So we used armadillos (which we don't have) and made them bigger or moose (which we don't have) and made them smaller until they programmed us in a deer...

 

[blackbetty14]

thanks guys, I made an appointment for an estimate tmrw near my work. In the meantime I now have a check engine light which I read the code and its the active grill shutter performance. My guess is some of the slats or something was damaged in the accident. I did see at the very bottom a broken plastic support for the shutter system. Just a rough estimate if I purchased the main items cost is prob around 2k. Now add labor etc I can see this being 3k pretty easily.

 

[blackbetty14]

I added the video and photos to the original post.

 

[Marshall]

I can't believe some of what I hear , it flew off his truck so the stupid cop says it is road debris. BS. His insurance is the one that should be fixing your truck, if you want to do it your self, than they pay for that as well . We can't have a licence with out have full insurance coverage.
Where I live. Antique car or truck is different, but you had better have something.
I hear stories about ******** driving with out insurance . should lose their ride.

 

[Rav3ncroft]

You're seriously lucky. That could have ended really bad. Road debris... My @$$...did the cops see the video before they said that?

I agree with others about working with your insurance company. I understand working with someone and giving them a break. However, you won't be happy if a needed repair is missed.

 

[RamDiver]

I find it very difficult to comprehend when there's video evidence of the cover flying off the other truck and directly into the OP's vehicle. What was he expected to do to avoid the collision?

I'm pretty certain that the Ontario Highway Traffic Act clearly assigns blame to the vehicle that ejected the load. The OPP regularly hassle people moving crap when they have insufficient attachments, ropes, or straps.
.

 

[blackbetty14]

I can't believe some of what I hear , it flew off his truck so the stupid cop says it is road debris. BS. His insurance is the one that should be fixing your truck, if you want to do it your self, than they pay for that as well . We can't have a licence with out have full insurance coverage.
Where I live. Antique car or truck is different, but you had better have something.
I hear stories about ******** driving with out insurance . should lose their ride.

Yup! The young guy/kid had everything (insurance and all that) but I get why he doesn't want his insurance involved. His rates would go through the roof on a new $$ truck for quite a while. The thing is I don't trust bodyshops... I knew a guy who owned one and the people who work there and the quality of work (looked good) but still not great in the long run. My wife had her CRV fixed and the tow guy messed up the hatch (front accident) and blamed it on the accident lol. Then the body shop forgot to put lots of bits back in the car so now we have no mechanical key to put the car in neutral for a tow (so no idea how thats gona roll in the future), belly pan is missing a few bolts, the steering wheel came back pointing 5* off front straight and the clear is peeling on the roof pillar where they clearly tried to blend the paint over existing. I've also seen wrong hardware used, excessive use of bondo and other cr@p. Another car I had painted by a local autobody shop and someone backed into the front bumper (87 firebird which has a poly front bumper) caused flex cracks and the paint chipped off in sheets. They say with your kids the only people who will care about your kids as much as you do are the grandparents. A body shop guy is doing whatever is fast and easy and thats not how I roll. I try to keep my truck pristine and don't want people touching my stuff unless they have too. I plan to get paid whatever the shop was going to get paid... so if it comes back $4k I will spend the money on the parts that I want and install and pocket the remainder.

I agree on the lose your ride as well... mandatory jail time and a few other things like suspension of license etc should be in order. The issue is the state/court will make more off you in court fees/tickets/registration/insurance/taxes/license/tolls and car tax (depending on the state) if you have a license. So taking it away doesn't benefit them, they get you more initially plus after in the regular stuff.

 

[blackbetty14]

You're seriously lucky. That could have ended really bad. Road debris... My @$$...did the cops see the video before they said that?

I agree with others about working with your insurance company. I understand working with someone and giving them a break. However, you won't be happy if a needed repair is missed.

Yup! A little higher and it would have been in the windshield. Luckily I had a few car lengths between us. I didn't show him as he didn't seem interested in the video after I brought it up. I will go through insurance if he tries to bolt as he won't be getting away with it but I will give him the benefit of following through on his word.

 

[blackbetty14]

I find it very difficult to comprehend when there's video evidence of the cover flying off the other truck and directly into the OP's vehicle. What was he expected to do to avoid the collision?

I'm pretty certain that the Ontario Highway Traffic Act clearly assigns blame to the vehicle that ejected the load. The OPP regularly hassle people moving crap when they have insufficient attachments, ropes, or straps.

I find it very difficult to comprehend when there's video evidence of the cover flying off the other truck and directly into the OP's vehicle. What was he expected to do to avoid the collision?

I'm pretty certain that the Ontario Highway Traffic Act clearly assigns blame to the vehicle that ejected the load. The OPP regularly hassle people moving crap when they have insufficient attachments, ropes, or straps.
.

Agreed, I'm hoping this will be enough if it comes down to needing to prove it never touched the ground and the other driver is clearly at fault which should have been in the report from the police. All I had was a small shoulder on the right but the subaru behind me would not have been so lucky.

 

[blackbetty14]

Got two estimates today. I have scheduled a 3rd for tmrw mid day. So I will likely have everything by EOD Wednesday/Thursday. Judging by the estimates below I would be looking around $2k in parts plus labor. I don't think the kid is going to be ready for these prices.... ouch. My active grille shutters threw the code again today. So after my estimate tmrw I'm going to pop the shroud off and take a look to see if its something simple.

Estimate 1: $4,000 = without any brackets or impact bars (basically all the exterior stuff). Potentially could be higher if brackets are damaged or twisted. I told the guy the lower brackets that attach to the bottom of the bumper looked twisted more on the pass side but he wasn't going to crawl under to look.

Estimate 2: $6,500 = should have everything in this one.

 

[gofishn]

Yup! The young guy/kid had everything (insurance and all that) but I get why he doesn't want his insurance involved. His rates would go through the roof on a new $$ truck for quite a while. The thing is I don't trust bodyshops... I knew a guy who owned one and the people who work there and the quality of work (looked good) but still not great in the long run. My wife had her CRV fixed and the tow guy messed up the hatch (front accident) and blamed it on the accident lol. Then the body shop forgot to put lots of bits back in the car so now we have no mechanical key to put the car in neutral for a tow (so no idea how thats gona roll in the future), belly pan is missing a few bolts, the steering wheel came back pointing 5* off front straight and the clear is peeling on the roof pillar where they clearly tried to blend the paint over existing. I've also seen wrong hardware used, excessive use of bondo and other cr@p. Another car I had painted by a local autobody shop and someone backed into the front bumper (87 firebird which has a poly front bumper) caused flex cracks and the paint chipped off in sheets. They say with your kids the only people who will care about your kids as much as you do are the grandparents. A body shop guy is doing whatever is fast and easy and thats not how I roll. I try to keep my truck pristine and don't want people touching my stuff unless they have too. I plan to get paid whatever the shop was going to get paid... so if it comes back $4k I will spend the money on the parts that I want and install and pocket the remainder.

I agree on the lose your ride as well... mandatory jail time and a few other things like suspension of license etc should be in order. The issue is the state/court will make more off you in court fees/tickets/registration/insurance/taxes/license/tolls and car tax (depending on the state) if you have a license. So taking it away doesn't benefit them, they get you more initially plus after in the regular stuff.

AS with anything, anywhere, there are both good and bad. Find a good body shop.

There are still plenty of them out there that take Pride in their Work and do terrific jobs, which they will warranty. Body shop I use warranties repairs for the life of the car, not the life of the car, not just while I own it, but the life of the car. They have more than oen location but appointments area still a month out.

Yet another reason i have Rental allowance in all riders of my auto policy. Some only allkow2,3 or 4 weeks. Actually had the Insurance company, for the guy, who hit my Parked Truck tell me I had to return my rental by this day. Couldn't help myself, I laughed at them, over the phone. No Problem, you do not want to pay the $50 or whatever, you can pay my insurance company the $50 plus whatever administration fee charges they add to the bill, when they submit it, to you, for reimbursement,
What day was it you wanted me to return it so I can notify the rental company to start charging my policy, again?

Yet another reason I only deal with my insurance company. Wife set up that rental, while I was out of town, and rental company used case # or whatever # & charged it to that guy's policy, not mine.

 

[Marshall]

I know 3 auto body shops , one is a local fellow , one man shop with frame machines, top of the line booths, etc. He does a lot of custom rides, and goes way past what will work. He did a truck for me 20-25 yrs ago that got dinging. A couple more in the city do great work.
I have done some on my own stuff, but not anymore.
My son is in the trade, now teaching service, and auto body on the west coast. After pulling wrenches for a few yrs. That is his paint on the 67 New Yorker in my picture.