on getting into car accidents ... in a foreign country. part 2

last time, i wrote about being involved in a car accident while on my mattress run to platinum last week. i spoke about the mechanics of the crash, the injury, the medical evaluation, and coming back home. and now for the other stuff.

5) what about insurance?
for a 14 year old car, i opted out of comprehensive collision insurance. this meant that if the car was damaged, they would pay no part of it. however, at 14 years old, ICBC (the government-run insurance provider that everyone in the province of BC must use) had evaluated my car as being worth no more than $2,500. if i were to accept a $1,000 deductible, they would charge me $600 a year for the comprehensive. of note, i still had third party liability, and if i injured myself in a crash, i would also be covered.

i did some quick math. if i did claim insurance for a collision which i would be at fault for (if i wasn't at fault, then the other person's insurance would cover it), then i move up 5 steps on the claims-rated scale. this would mean that for each of the following 5 years, my insurance costs would go up by 12.5%, on average. i calculated this to be worth at least $225 a year, or at least $1,125 over 5 years. on top of the $600 per year comprehensive insurance charge, the amount of money that i would get back for the car ($2,500 - $1,000) would be less than the total cost over the next five years. so it made sense to  decline coverage.

6) medical insurance as a part of my work benefits
ICBC had suggested that i claim with them anyway for the medical costs. the costs of the ultrasound, x-rays, and medical visit would probably easily cost over $1,000. they suggested that my medical plan wouldn't cover it if it was a car-related accident. it makes me upset that they would try to mislead me like this. why?

• my travel insurance (pacific blue cross) covered any emergency, and in talking to them, they confirmed that if the car accident led to something that would be a medical emergency, then this would be covered
• in speaking with pacific blue cross, the government of BC would re-imburse me the equivalent of what they would have paid out to their own doctors for the service. this is provided that i submit my claim within 90 days of receiving the services. i would be left to cover the excess, which is still quite significant as medical care list prices are often higher than canada's.
• they assumed that my $1,000 medical bill would be worth more than the $1,125 cost in increased insurance premiums in the future

7)  how does ICBC work?
i called in my claim monday night. there wasn't an out of province claims adjuster available until the following day. i received my claim number. they said they couldn't give me advice about what to do with the car until then. they suggested that i call back on tuesday. on tuesday, an adjuster still wasn't available, but that they had forwarded my claim to them and that they had 1-3 business days to call me back. i opted to go back home to vancouver on tuesday. she told me to just leave the car as is, and despite knowing what my policy had stated, that ICBC would cover the cost of the impounding and towing.

i hadn't heard anything from them by thursday (which i thought was 3 business days, but they apparently started the clock on wednesday. because when horrific car accidents happen, it is okay to make them wait up to 5 days before contacting you). i called them on thursday and spoke with the claims adjuster who told me that she "just" received my file that morning. reviewing the details of my policy (which i think anyone could have done on their end), they re-confirmed the fact that i would be responsible for disposing of my vehicle etc. they wanted nothing to do with it. if i didn't take the initiative to call, i think she would have called me back on friday.

8) did you know that impounding costs money?
so i knew that the tow and the impounding itself had a fee. but i didn't know that there was a $50 a day fee for storage. and if i tried to retrieve the vehicle on a weekend, there was an additional $100 call-back fee. oh, and i didn't know that you have to be there in person to release the vehicle (or send a notarized letter). ICBC forgot to mention this. and ICBC would have probably called me back on friday, which would have meant that i would have to arrange to go to seattle over the weekend, which in turn would cost me an extra $150 in impound fees. i ended up renting a car for friday to drive down for a day trip. i paid the hefty $392 impound fee using my no-forex fee credit card.

9) what happens to a totaled car?
the impound lot had suggested, correctly, that my car was done for. they gave me two auto wrecking companies nearby to call. they would simply crush up the car and sell it for scraps. they offered to tow the vehicle to their facility and then pay me out for the car. in this particular case, they offered me $275. i didn't know what the going rate for scrap cars was. i still don't know what i could have gotten for it. but i called two places, and this was the better of the two deals. i was willing to accept anything, really, provided that they took the car off my hands as soon as possible. and they did.

"who does that raisin belong to?" one guy asks his coworkers as he entered the building. his coworker then pointed at me.

it is important to bring your registration and driver's license to the auto wrecking company. you have to sign away your car, sign a release of information, and give a photocopy of your driver's license. all of this data goes to the state department for processing at months' end. in washington, you have to bring the "deed" to your car, but in british columbia, the deed is the same as the registration. at least that's what i was told. i tore that portion off of my insurance forms, and that's what they accepted.

10) things i wish i had done differently
first of all, i'm grateful that i was the only person involved in the accident. i was grateful that asides from a bruised/cracked rib, that's the only injury remaining. i'm grateful that i didn't die, i'm grateful that i am intact. i'm grateful to realize that i have really good friends.

that being said, there are a few things i would have done differently after having an accident:

1. take pictures at the scene of the accident. i figured that the guy was long gone, and the one witness that did stop didn't catch the license plate number. i figured that it would be up to my own insurance policy, and knowing that i had nothing to cover this particular kind damage, taking pictures was pointless.
2. take down the state trooper's and witness' name and number. i was in so much psychological confusion at the time that i didn't think to do that. the state trooper entered everyone's details into their computer system, so i know it's present, but i wish i had done that sooner.
3. knowing the policy and the plan, i would have pressed the insurance people a bit harder instead of waiting until thursday. 
4. i would have dealt with the vehicle on tuesday. this would have saved me $150 in impound fees, and i wouldn't have had to drive back down to seattle for a day trip. 
5. i would have cleaned out my car the day that it went into the impound. nothing was stolen, there was nothing of value, but it's peace of mind.
6. i wish that i brought a wrench to extricate the license plates with me. i had to get the auto wrecking people to do it for me. bringing back the license plate was necessary to get a partial refund of my car insurance. i had paid $1,300 for car insurance beginning on october 22, 2013. with the license plates in hand, i was able to get back $1,084. no need to carry insurance on a car that doesn't exist anymore.
7. i shouldn't have purchased the ICBC car rental insurance for $10 per calendar day. i should have just purchased the budget $5/24-hr policy for third party liability. after all, i already had comprehensive medical insurance and my credit card had a CDW insurance. i could have saved $15 this way (one 24-hr period vs. two calendar days)
8. i would have iced my injuries instead of relying on maximum daily doses of ibuprofen for relief of inflammation. i think the ibuprofen may have caused my knee to bruise up even more than it should have. i think i should have also alternated between high doses of ibuprofen and acetaminophen for pain control.
9. i would have avoided stairs, i would have avoided carrying my luggage up and down everywhere, i would have used the elevator more, and quite frankly, i should have just sat in the senior's/handicapped area of the bus instead of standing on a bad knee.

i debated posting this publicly, but it's a reminder that accidents happen. and for those who haven't experienced this kind of situation before, i hope this helps in some way.

on getting into car accidents ... in a foreign country

last week, i got into a car accident while doing my run to platinum status at the starwood preferred guest program. i had 17 stays for the year, and needed 8 more. so i booked an 8-stay mattress run between seattle and portland for the week in order to hit it. i had completed two stays in seattle, then was off to portland. en route to portland, i was involved in a car accident.

i've separated this story into two posts. the first post is the mechanics of the accident. the next part is the insurance portion, the costs, and how i dealt with things when back in canada.

1) the mechanics of it all
the speed limit was 60 mph, or roughly 100 km/hr. i was driving in the middle lane and another car was driving in the lane to the right of me. there were 4 lanes in total. i do checks regularly, and knew that there was a car behind me but no one on the left.


this particular day, the car on the right was overlapping mine by about half a car. this meant that i couldn't see his tail lights, couldn't see him signal, didn't know any of his intentions. and i must have been in his blind spot, because he quickly moved into my lane as if to lane change. if i hit the brakes suddenly, i would have caused an accident for the person behind me. if i let him hit me, there would be an accident by definition. but if i quickly maneuvered to the empy left lane, that would have worked. and that's what i tried.

but there's something strange about sudden, panicked lane changes while going at 100 km/hr. you end up losing control of the car. i was swerving for tense seconds, right and left and right and left, and then it finally just stuck left. there was a high concrete median separating the southbound traffic that i was on from the northbound traffic, and i was heading right for it.

i can't say that i was scared or that my life was flashing through my eyes. i feel like that's almost made-for-tv. i knew that i was going to hit the median -- that was inevitable. but i had a mental checklist: 1) i was wearing my safety belt, 2) the car has airbags, and 3) this happens all the time on television. in my mind, i was thinking that it would be a simple love tap.

front driver's side impact, sudden twist, rear passenger side impact.

i didn't lose consciousness, i didn't feel pain. it just felt like a hard bump with anti-climatic sounds. there was no shattering of windshields. the airbags deployed somewhere in that process. they weren't those marshmallow-like bags that you see on the crash test dummy commercials. they were these hard cloth-like bags, which had deflated somewhat soon afterwards. there was smoke in the car

and there i was, busy traffic rushing by, two deployed airbags, and crinkled car. oh, and the other guy drove away, probably none the wiser that he should have shoulder checked.

2) on exiting the vehicle
i'm a doctor by training. i didn't hit my head, there was no loss of consciousness. my hearing was blunted a bit, but it was coming back quickly. i could feel and move all four limbs. no c-spine pain. i quickly palpated for tenderness along the c-spine and all the way down. satisfied, i grabbed my phone, and my mifi and carefully exited the car. another driver had stopped to make sure i was okay. an off duty police officer had stopped and waited with the witness and i. the state trooper came by and took our details. he didn't issue me a ticket, so i assume that i wasn't going to be hit with an at fault claim. and then the tow truck came and my 14 year old car went to the impound lot.

while waiting for the state trooper to come, using my mifi (mobile internet hotspot specifically for america), i started texting people. the mobile internet battery only lasts so long, as does the phone's, so i had to choose who to text carefully. luckily, i had an amazing friend in seattle. he picked me up from the impound lot, handed me a diet coke (more for reassurance and comfort, rather than to prevent hypovolemic shock), and figured out my medical plan.

3) medical care in america
my employer gives me free travel medical benefits that are included in its health and dental plans. i had called their claims number on my friend's phone (because they want you to call them first), but they simply told me that if it was an emergency, then to just get the care first and contact them again later. i figured that a 100 km/hr collision, a bruised up knee, and right upper quandrant tenderness would qualify as an emergency. but it wasn't emergency enough to think that i needed to go to an emergency room.

my friend got me in to see his family practice group. it's apparently a more expensive clinic, and hence the lack of wait. this was all being covered by my benefits, so i really didn't care. interestingly, they charged $135 for this appointment, while the equivalent billing fee in the province of british columbia was just ~$33. and it was a nurse practitioner who saw me as well, which would have normally cost the system even less.

he waited with me while we shuttled to get an urgent x-ray of the knee and leg (which, after the physical exams, i was pretty confident they weren't broken ... but if it's free ...), and an ultrasound of the abdomen (i've never had any of those before). they were all normal.

now coming up to a week later, my knee, while bruised, is better. there isn't any pain when walking anymore. the neck, which initially felt so strained that it was difficult to lift my head off the bed unsupported, is completely back to normal. no whiplash so far. my rib still hurts -- it's most likely cracked, which i expect will take some time to heal up.

4) and the unexpected night in seattle
my friend was kind enough to look after dinner and the evening for me. the main starwood hotels were all full for the night, so my friends were kind enough to let me stay at their place for the evening. trying to figure out how i was going to get back to vancouver on the cheap, i learned about the joys of the bolt bus and even signed up for bolt rewards. i found my way down to the king street station in downtown seattle, and boarded the bus that took me to the main street / terminal station in vancouver. all for $17 one way. clean, power plugs, wifi, not crowded at all. it was a comfortable ride up.

oh, and there was also the comfort of knowing that if a car were to decide to merge into our lane without doing an appropriate shoulder check, well, they would be the ones with a problem, not me.