Please everyone - I really need your help. I was driving on the highway today and these rocks come flying at my Z. I try to get our of the way as fast as I can (I'm in the left lane, no where to go!), but I see one fly off of my hood. I start freakin out, get out a pen, and write down the license plate of the truck that they flew out of. Once I get off the highway, I immediately stop and check out the damage. I have a huge rock mark on my hood. Where the rock hit, there is a HUGE dent and it looks like a streaky white. What the hell should I do? Get it fixed myself? Can I do anything with the license plate of the truck? Like file a report or something? I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO mad you don't even understand. I was almost in tears...Any help anyone can give me is greatly appreciated. I don't want to have to have this come out of my insurance or my pocket, cuz it wasn't my fault. GRRRRRRRRR. Thanks for letting me vent...

-Jill

 

Well . . . if you know what company the truck belongs to, look up the corporate number. Call them and explain in detail (time, situation, etc.) what happened. If the debris was part of the truck's haul, is it likely the co. will pay to repair your car. If the rocks were simply kicked up by the truck's tires, it is really at the company's discretion.

 

Contact the police dept where it happened. Call the company of the truck and have their insurance company pay for the damage.
Happens all the time.
Grogs

 

Stupid damn trucks with rocks spilling out of them. We get TONS of those A$$HOLES on the 495. Really pisses me off. Well did it have a sticker on it? Like "hows my driving call 1800dumbass" or something? Hopefully you can contact them. I don't know what the police could do, maybe find the guy and give him a summons for not having the damn truck's top strapped down. If all else fails I guess you need to get the thing fixed, if it costs less than your deductable then it would be better not to even tell your insurance company, they tend to raise prices for the hell of it sometimes. It sucks that this crap happened.

Last week idiot road workers were blowing rocks INTO the highway, like WTF why the hell are you blowing those rocks in here for? blow them to the side of the street, losers.

 

truck... was this a dump truck, pick up truck, private or corporate. you can bring it up with the police, but can you prove it was them? Im not sure how this works.

otherwise with the right searches you could find his adress on the net and pay him a visit with a few of your larger friends.

 

Go to the police where the incident happened.. have them make out a report and give them the license plate of the truck that caused the incident. The Police should be able to get you the information on who owns the truck. Contact them and explain what happened.. I had this happen a long time ago with my 260Z. The owner of the company apoligized and paid for all repairs..

If they refuse to help you, I would contact a lawyer as this repair will cost a few bucks.. I don't know what your deductable is on your insurance so It may not be worth giving it to them..

Good Luck

Steve (k2we) Dobbs Ferry, NY

 

Sadly, I don't think there's much you can do. The company will likely laugh at you, and I know in VA, the police would laugh at you too. Good luck though...

 

Unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do. You can definitely try and see...

If not try taking it to the Dent Wizard in your area and have them look at it.

 

I think the hard part would be to prove that the rock came out of the truck and not kicked up off the road. Were you able to get the rock? If you could prove that the rock is from the truck then you have a case, if not then I'm sorry to say but there is probably nothing you can do.

The easiest thing would be to just pay your deductible and have your insurance company take care of it.

 

If it was from a truck hualing dirt/rock/sand/etc. Call the local police and report it. It probably won't do you any good but in Calif. it usually results in the trucks being monitored for spillage which they can be cited for and the companies involved will take action to make sure that it gets better.

For your hood dent I had a large dent removed from my door by a local paintless dent removal place. They did good work and it was completetly removed ($95 and a little less than 1 hour). To check if the paint is damaged you can use a little polish and a damp rag to rub the rock debris off the hood. If the paint isn't damaged it is probably a canidate for the paintless dent removal process.

Good luck.

 

Damn, Jill, I'm so sorry! I don't know how helpful the cops are in your neck of the woods, but I seriously doubt they'd take a claim like that and run with it. They might think it's a waste of their time. However, you can see if you can contact the company the truck bleonged to or even your own insurance co. They'd be more willing to help if in the end they don't have to pay for the repairs.

I hope it all works out for you and that the damage wasn't too bad. Good Luck!

Christi

 

I wouldn't bother with your insurance company - the cost to repair is probably less than your deductable.

Ethan

 

Sorry Z girl!! I checked w/ my wife (she's an agent) You have "road hazard" that takes care of situation like this (most of the time) . Report it to your insurance - this won't affect your rate. I forgot to ask if you have to pay the "deductable" or they pay the whole thing (like they do with glass breakage) Report it to your insurance - I wouldn't bother with the police.

 

I checked again - the "road hazard" or "comprehensive" covers this. The deductable if any is not the same as your coilision deductable - usually nothing or $50 or so. Check with your agent

 

simple solutionn

you know the name of the truck company simply go down there tell them hey i just bought my new car blah blah blah and the other day some rocks flew off your truck and damaged my car.


they should just hand you a check for a couple of hundred cause thats all it will take to fix it.

if they say GO **** YOURSELF just say OH YEAH
then calmly walk out.
later give me there name and addresee and ill BUST THERE ASSES UP CAUSE IM GOOD LIKE THAT.

ill then charge them several hundred dollars for kicking there asses
IM RUNNING A SPECIAL THIS WEEK. and you can use this money to fix your car.




if it was a dump truck or road construction truck theres no dought they will pay .

they overfill does ****ers all the time. and are supposed to hose of there trucks of course they never do whens the last time you saw a clean truck.
also in the winter ice comes flying of the roof breaking windows and what not.

 

Thanks for all of the input and support. It's a pretty deep dent with 5 parallel white scratches - looks like @ss - and you can see it from about 40 feet away.

What I did:
Contacted the local police who traffic the area. I spoke to a gentlemen that said to contact the state police, but they weren't that much help, so he told me to call him back if they wouldn't do anything. Called the local police back, and someone there said they COULD run the plates for us. It's funny, cuz the local police said that if the truckers insurance doesn't pay for it, he'll write them a ticket or whatever for hazardous road materials and they'll probably end up covering it. Weird, huh? I have to make some more phone calls today, but we'll see what progresses. Even if their insurance doesn't pay for it, I have that type of insurance with a $50 deductible, so I guess that's what I'd do.

Some more information I left out before by mistake:
The type of truck was sort of a dump truck that would be carrying large materials like this all the time. The rocks flew out of the bottom of the dump part of the truck and headed for my car. There were a LOT of these rocks, but only one hit my car thank god. I got the license plate of the truck, the trucking companies name and city, the time that it happened, where (city and exit) that it happened at. I figured that this is the type of information I would need if anything happened, so it wouldn't hurt to get it, right? Well, thank you everyone for the input once again. You're great!

-Jill

 

I talked to wife again in more detail last night: The truckers all have insurance for this kind of thing - the only time the insurance co's balk is is when it's some major collision kind of thing. She routinely processes small claims like this. It's up to you if you want your ins to cover or the truckers ins but since you got the
license # I'd go for the trucker. Another tip - be nice to the ins. agent; they're not the one's who damaged your car but responsible to get you payment. As Barbara explained to me,
she arrives to work every day and has a stack of stuff to do. It all gets done eventually but when she gets fussed at that person's claim goes to the bottom of the pile.

 

I found out that I don't even have to file a report with the police department - yay! I got a hold of the trucking company and all I have to do is write a detailed description of exactly what happened and fax it to them with my estimates that I have to get and they'll pay for it. The lady was very nice about it. And thank you Bill for speaking to your wife about it, I really appreciate it. You're the man! Thank your wife also.
-Jill