Sand Damage Claim
 

Has anyone here ever claimed Sand Damage with an insurance company? I recently had my entire car pitted and chipped due to the sand that was put on the road during a snow storm driving from Sac to Reno. Do you still pay your deductable if you make this type of claim? If you have claimed this any advice would help. Thanks!

That is a claim that should be filed with Caltrans. I would involve my insurance so that they can fight the fight, but Caltrans is responsible for the damage ultimately.

The sand is brutal. One season of driving back and forth to Tahoe in the snow really hammers a paint job.

Sand damage is better than the damage a car (or bodies inside) may have gotten by sliding on ice head-on into another car or tree or something. I kind of doubt insurance would cover something like that. Suing Caltrans isn't justified at all imo.

I had crazy damage from an open rear door on a tractor trailer miles in front of us carrying a load of sand that was dumping out of the back rolling 80mph down the interstate. It was summertime, no winter road sanding going on. It was like a crazy sand storm. Filed a claim with the insurance company, and they were going to pay for a new paint job but I had already filed one for major hail damage, and they would have raised my rates with the second claim, so I just left it alone and I'll deal with it. I'm not saying to lie about where the damage occurred from, but just don't say it was from winter road travel.

I sorta think the adjuster would laugh at you. That's the cost of doing business of winter driving in these parts. You can cut down on the amount of sand that is thrown at your vehicle by not tailgating.

Just go look at the hood of any 5+ year old subaru (notorious for weak paint) in truckee to see that there aren't many sand damage claims being filed.

Well you are sorta wrong. Adjuster came today and said its over 13k in damage and to take it to where I feel comfortable. Tailgating was not the issue a Caltrain truck got on I80 in front of me and unloaded the sand. Seeing as it was 1 lane and white out conditions all I could do was slow and take the damage. It only costs me my $500 deductable and since there is no fault my rates won't go up. As far as a paint job on a 5+ year old Sabaru well you get what you pay for. I chose not to have a messed up paint job on my 2 year old Jaguar.

Couldn't you have just pulled over or slowed down enough to put lots of distance between you and the truck? They gravel our mountain passes and if someone is throwing up rocks in front of you, you just back off a few hundred feet and the problem is solved.