Any Detective Legal Advice for Post Tourney Wreck

We were driving back from the Midwestcoast Summerfest and had a wreck just east of Springfield on I-44. Everyone is OK and we had a good time at the tourney...man the intermediate competition is getting tough.

Anyway, I am in the left lane in a van towing a camper and the guy in front of me is driving a stripped down ambulance with just the cab and truck frame. Ahead of them is a minivan and somewhere ahead of that is a truck and the bed liner flies out of it. When the liner flies out, the minivan swerves hard right, the stripped ambulance has no where to go and locks up his brakes hits the bedliner and I jump on my brakes and end up hitting him in the rear before I come to a complete stop. There is virtually no damage to his vehicle, but the i-beams on the rear of his stripped out ambulance do a number to the front of my van. The only ones that stopped were myself and the driver of the stripped ambulance. We call the police and have an accident report but no one is cited as a result of the accident.

We take pictures of everything and the bedliner has a serial number and there is a name hand written on the liner.

Right now I am wondering how much effort I should put into tracking down the owner of the liner. Ultimately the liner flying out of a truck at 65MPH caused this whole mess but, I still hit the guy in front of me and it could be argued that had I kept a safer distance between me and him, I wouldn't have hit him. Certainly my stopping distance was much greater than the guy in front of me given the trailer I was pulling and the fact that his 6 wheel vehicle only had a cab. I guess what I am asking is if the bedliner owner is legally culpable for my damages?

Assuming it would be worth my while to track down this guy, do any of you know how to track down the bedliner to an owner? I was thinking of trying to match the name on the bedliner to the Springfield white pages and call some of the bedliner shops in around to see what I come up with but didn't know if there was some tracking of liners in the industry or if there were any otther sleuthy tricks of the trade. Unfortunately, none of us that stopped had a good sight of the truck.

Ok - done. Sorry for the long post.

The owner of the bed liner is responsible for his Hit and Run in my opinion.

But, "it could be argued that had I kept a safer distance between me and him, I wouldn't have hit him." It might come down to that. Usually the person in the rear is at fault for that reason.

You can track down the owner of the bedliner but you'll be doing it for the ambulance owner. You rear ended the ambulance. There is no "it could be argued." You're at fault as far as insurance will be concerned, especially with nobody cited. If your insurance company is even willing to look into fighting it, I'll be very surprised.

For the sake of argument, look up the model and serial number. Then call the nearest dealer of the bedliner and they can probably at least tell you who they sold it to.

EDIT: After reading what I wrote, I think it's a bit ambiguous. There are two collisions. The ambulance with the bedliner and the truck with the ambulance. The truck is certainly at fault for hitting the ambulance. I'd imagine the bedliner owner is at fault for the other.

(Message edited by hal2814 on July 16, 2007)

Nope, You are screwed.(I have been in the same situation)

It is your fault for the wreck regardless of why the guy in front of your stopped. Next time keep a safe time "bumper" and you won't be on here posting.

Why do they make bed liners even able to come out? i remember driving down teh highway and seeing what I thought was a car flying at me. Why make or sell something that could cause wrecks?

They might also argue that you shouldn't have been in the left lane while towing.

Depending on different state laws and how your insurance will deal with the bedlinerless truck's insurance, typically not all accidents are 100% one person at fault. They might be able to say you were only 30% at fault for the accident and as such your insurance will get 70% of the damages paid for by the hit and run truck. That's the way most of the insurance company's I've worked with tend to deal with these kinds of things. (I do some part time accident scene investigations as a third party for insurance companies)

Shawn - I do not have collision on the vehicle so I am probably on my own unless uninsured motorist would apply. Is there a way to negoriate similarly with their insurance company?

Right now I am a bit hesitant to involve my insurance company.

J-Rod: I have learned my painful lesson on this one. Perhaps others can learn from this too.

Oh it sounds bad hitting what used to be an 'ambulance', but this thing was stripped down to the beams and gas tank and there is no way you could tell this thing was ever an ambulance from the rear. I had no idea it was until the guy told me it was an ambulance in it's former life.

Did the "ambulance" have working DOT approved brake lights mounted at the proper height? And a legal (for your state) bumper to prevent damage to your ride? Just a thought.

I don't think that there is any reason that you couldn't theoretically sue the owner of the bedliner in small claims court to make up for whatever out of pocket costs you incur as a result of his negligence. That assumes you can find him though.

The serial number should lead to a shop where it was sold to a consumer but I would be surprised if you would get any of that info without a subpoena being issued (for consumer protection/identity theft would you want a shop you bought a product from giving your name to anyone?). Basically, it will boil down to it being more expensive than it is worth.

If the police didn't cite you I would consider this one a moral victory, take your lumps and move on. I think in Oregon, technically, a rear end accident that causes $500+ in damage is a careless driving citation.

Just curious, what kind of insurance coverage do you carry on your vehicle if there is no collision coverage? Is it only uninsured motorist? I'm just wondering as I live in a state thats probably getting kick backs from the insurance companies in an alley somewhere for the insurance requirements.

If you track down the owner of the bedliner, you can try to get his insurance to pay for the damage to your vehicle by claiming that you were faced with a sudden emergency (which you were and which is - at least in colorado - a valid defense). There may also be some recourse because (this sounds bad however i say it, so i'll just throw it out there!) the owner of the bedliner "lost his load" so to speak. i guess it depends how much effort you want to put into it. i have been in an accident before where the other party left the scene, so i had no choice but to report it to my insurance company. i had to pay the deductible, but it did not go against me as far as the insurance company was concerned because i had a police report verifying that i was not at fault. good luck!

How much damage was done in dollars to your vehicle? Getting the insurance companies involved, if it is later determined you were at fault, is going to cost you in higher premiums. Unless there is over say 5k worth of damage, I would walk away feeling lucky the Hwy Patrol didn't cite and therefore your insurance company doesn't know. You could easily wind up paying several thousand more over the next few years in increased premiums and get nothing from bed liner person, and still have to pay for the repair of your vehicle.

I would bet the chance of tracking down "the owner" of the bedliner are slim to none, and a total shot in the dark. True, bedliner dude was supposed to be "controlling his load" in the back of his pickup, but unless he calls the police department, you might as well forget that scenerio of finding him. He might not even know it happened. If you think about it, who actually writes their contact information on a bedliner. Like you, I would be grabbing at any straw in this scenerio, to get the person responsible to pay the damages. If the person in the ambulance was driving out of control, you may have a leg to stand on, with regard to fault, but it kind of sounds like you are going to have to take your lumps and move on.
I had a similar incident, with a trash truck that had something fly out and hit my windshield. The trash company told me to go jump in a lake, without the drivers' personal license information and a signed letter admitting fault, I had no case.
Sorry about your bad luck, hope the damages aren't too bad for you.