Okay, here's my story. It's one thirty in the morning, I'm driving south on Maryland 118 through Germantown after a night of playing music with some pals. The speed limit is 50 mph but since all the traffic lights are blinking yellow, I cruise along at 45. As I cross the intersection of Middlebrook Road, a car came from my left through a blinking red light and hit my truck just behind the rear drivers side wheel, hard enough to make me loose control momentarily. The guy in the car was about 19-20 and fortunately nobody was hurt. We traded insurance information. The cops came, but didn't ticket either of us. The kid said he stopped at the blinking red light but didn't see me. "I think maybe that's because your truck is black," he said. Now this isn't some country intersection. Both roads are three lanes in each direction, so the intersection is huge and very well lit, not to mention that while my truck is black, the headlights aren't.
I call his insurance company and they were very cooperative. They directed me to their local office in Rockville, took photographs, took my statement, etc. They were contacting me regularly, everything was going well, but then they stopped. I waited patiently but after three weeks I called them. They said they were waiting for confirmation of the traffic light sequence from the County. They needed to verify that the light was blinking yellow for me as I claimed. This took them about two months to do. They finally get the confirmation, but guess what. They decided not to honor my claim because they said I didn't exercise enough caution at the blinking yellow light. The very next day I went to the office and spoke to the manager, who looked to me to be about 25 years old. He said that according to Maryland law, I have to be completely negligent-free to qualify for a claim.
"But I WAS negligent free," I objected.
"According to your statement, Mr Seventy, you were travelling at 45 mph. We feel that's not enough caution."
"Well what is the exceptable speed through a blinking yellow," I asked.
"There's no clearcut specific speed. It's open to interpretation."
"Well how fast should I have been going?"
"I can't say exactly, but certainly not 45 mph."
"Then how do you know I was going too fast if you don't know how fast I should be going??"
"45 mph is clearly not exercising enough caution."
"Look. You're denying my claim based on my speed, right? You're saying that the level of caution I exercised falls short of...something. I need to know what it is."
"There's no specific speed I can quote you. All I can tell you as that your speed doesn't reflect the level of caution required by a blinking yellow light. It's not a green light that you can just sail through, you know."
"I didn't just sail through it. I slowed down from 50 to 45."
"That's not enough."
"Then what IS enough??? What speed would satisfy you??"
"I told you already I can't say."
"Look, you can't deny my claim based on excessive speed if you can't tell me what the exceptable speed is."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Seventy, I'm afraid we'll just have to agree to disagree."
"Look, you guys have strung me along for 3 months, claiming to be waiting for confirmation from the county. You get that confirmation and now you decide to deny my claim BASED ON INFORMATION YOU'VE HAD SINCE I FIRST FILED?!"
"I do apologize for the delay."
"Oh, well that makes it all better then, doesn't it?!"
Needless to say, nothing was resolved that day. Now I've got to involve my own insurance company, which I really didn't want to do, and shouldn't have to do.
Does this sound typical to you guys? If they're denying my claim based solely on my speed, shouldn't they have to tell me what my maximum speed should have been?
I call his insurance company and they were very cooperative. They directed me to their local office in Rockville, took photographs, took my statement, etc. They were contacting me regularly, everything was going well, but then they stopped. I waited patiently but after three weeks I called them. They said they were waiting for confirmation of the traffic light sequence from the County. They needed to verify that the light was blinking yellow for me as I claimed. This took them about two months to do. They finally get the confirmation, but guess what. They decided not to honor my claim because they said I didn't exercise enough caution at the blinking yellow light. The very next day I went to the office and spoke to the manager, who looked to me to be about 25 years old. He said that according to Maryland law, I have to be completely negligent-free to qualify for a claim.
"But I WAS negligent free," I objected.
"According to your statement, Mr Seventy, you were travelling at 45 mph. We feel that's not enough caution."
"Well what is the exceptable speed through a blinking yellow," I asked.
"There's no clearcut specific speed. It's open to interpretation."
"Well how fast should I have been going?"
"I can't say exactly, but certainly not 45 mph."
"Then how do you know I was going too fast if you don't know how fast I should be going??"
"45 mph is clearly not exercising enough caution."
"Look. You're denying my claim based on my speed, right? You're saying that the level of caution I exercised falls short of...something. I need to know what it is."
"There's no specific speed I can quote you. All I can tell you as that your speed doesn't reflect the level of caution required by a blinking yellow light. It's not a green light that you can just sail through, you know."
"I didn't just sail through it. I slowed down from 50 to 45."
"That's not enough."
"Then what IS enough??? What speed would satisfy you??"
"I told you already I can't say."
"Look, you can't deny my claim based on excessive speed if you can't tell me what the exceptable speed is."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Seventy, I'm afraid we'll just have to agree to disagree."
"Look, you guys have strung me along for 3 months, claiming to be waiting for confirmation from the county. You get that confirmation and now you decide to deny my claim BASED ON INFORMATION YOU'VE HAD SINCE I FIRST FILED?!"
"I do apologize for the delay."
"Oh, well that makes it all better then, doesn't it?!"
Needless to say, nothing was resolved that day. Now I've got to involve my own insurance company, which I really didn't want to do, and shouldn't have to do.
Does this sound typical to you guys? If they're denying my claim based solely on my speed, shouldn't they have to tell me what my maximum speed should have been?
