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I just totalled my Tesla!!!

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#21
jaguar36 said:
Has it actually been totaled by the insurance? Damage doesn't look to bad, probably $20k or so. From the looks of the damage any modern car would have protected you just as well.
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The car is a rock! Saved my life and my face given how fast I was going. The damage is far more than $20k. The insurance company gave me $93K to get another Tesla, so the depreciation hit was not bad. I wonder if I can get a gap insurance on my next Tesla. I believe the Tesla is the Safest car out there!

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cmu5p said:
efusco was saying OP's hand burns were chemical (alkali) burns from airbag deployment. Although this source (Medscape: Medscape Access) implicates both thermal and chemical as culprits. Either way, glad you walked away from that hot mess. (See what I did there? :)
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Thanks! I saw steam coming from the airbag, so I assumed it's thermal. Either way, I'm glad my face didn't hit the airbag and just burned my hand. Pretty bad burn though...
 
#22
Auzie said:
Charles

That's an awfully dangerous accident at high speed, it is great that no one was hurt.

So glad to hear about the happy ending :smile: of your unpleasant encounter. Great that you are alive to post about your story, and you'll be in a new Tesla soon.

It is possible that the other driver might genuinely believe that she was in the right.

Few times I was in accidents that were not my fault but the other party would not readily admit to their fault, quite the opposite, they would defensively accuse me. That is quite unpleasant but not surprising. Luckily, I had independent witnesses in each situation, same as you, and that helped greatly to resolve liability. Without witnesses, it might be more difficult to establish the truth.

To ensure ever-present witness to these murky situations, I installed BlackVue in my car. It had already paid for itself as I had to use my recording to prove someone's liability.

I wonder when the dashcams will become standard in all cars.
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There is no way she thought she had a green light. There were other cars behind her who had already stopped because it was red. In fact, the situation was not about the light turning just green, I had the green light for good 2 minutes and traveling at high speed through the intersection. This is her quote. " You are a very bad man for running a red light". Luckly I had three witnesses who testified and gave their names to the police saying it was a full red light for a long time!
 
#23
Glad to hear you were not seriously injured. It angers me to no end that people are not accountable for their mistakes and want to put the blame on others. This is why a dash cam is so valuable.

I'm guessing your insurer declared it a total loss owing to front frame damage, which doesn't show clearly in the photos you posted.
 
#24
Charles Kim said:
There is no way she thought she had a green light. There were other cars behind her who had already stopped because it was red. In fact, the situation was not about the light turning just green, I had the green light for good 2 minutes and traveling at high speed through the intersection. This is her quote. " You are a very bad man for running a red light". Luckly I had three witnesses who testified and gave their names to the police saying it was a full red light for a long time!
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I am really glad that you had witnesses to support you. If it were just your car and her car with no others present, the favourable liability outcome would have been less certain for you.
 
#25
Auzie said:
I am really glad that you had witnesses to support you. If it were just your car and her car with no others present, the favourable liability outcome would have been less certain for you.
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It really is worth buying a dashcam, then you don't have to rely on luck for a witness.

Just yesterday, I had someone right-turn-on-red and cross 2 full lanes and cut me off. If I had hit them, without it, I'm not sure the Police would believe me when I told them someone crossed multiple lanes while tuning on a red light into oncoming traffic.
 
#26
1) Don't feel bad for your insurance company! In general terms, your totaled car is worth FAR MORE than it's salvage value for parts. Just *guess* what you could get for a Tesla windshield right now, or a door panel, tail lights, seats, etc.
2) Did you get to tell the other driver she was a VERY BAD WOMAN for running the light and lying to the police?
 
#27
Panoz said:
1) Don't feel bad for your insurance company! In general terms, your totaled car is worth FAR MORE than it's salvage value for parts. Just *guess* what you could get for a Tesla windshield right now, or a door panel, tail lights, seats, etc.
2) Did you get to tell the other driver she was a VERY BAD WOMAN for running the light and lying to the police?
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It is very easy to make a mistake when driving (says someone who's made many). When such mistake is potentially deadly, some people lose it. Some people lose it even in fender bender situations.

It would be great if drivers can keep their cool in all situations, regardless of whose fault it was.
 
#29
Electricfan said:
Hope Tesla is listening! They are trying to be leaders in the automotive industry and this would be an awesome thing to make standard!
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Great idea! The dash cam as a standard would likely deter road ragers.

Imagine all wanna be road ragers that want to bash Tesla's windshield, they'd be disappointed. No one can happily bash a windshield if they know they are being recorded.
 
#30
Panoz said:
1) Don't feel bad for your insurance company! In general terms, your totaled car is worth FAR MORE than it's salvage value for parts. Just *guess* what you could get for a Tesla windshield right now, or a door panel, tail lights, seats, etc.
Click to expand...

From the posts, I gather that the OP's insurance co. was State Farm, which made the payment; however, State Farm will go to the insurance company of the at-fault driver (determined by who got cited), to get reimbursed. The insurance company of the at-fault driver is the one that takes the hit, normally.

And BTW, I get the impression after reading many posts, that it is easy to total a Tesla due to the high cost of repairs at a certified Tesla shop, and high cost of repair parts.

So, for the other driver, this could be very expensive. I mean, driving that way they could have hit a Ferrari (even higher costs), or killed somebody. Thank heavens no serious injuries.
 
#31
Speaking for Allstate, the success rate rate in recovery when Insurance goes against an uninsured person was less than 5%. This was mentioned to my family after being rear-ended by an uninsured driver. I'm sure it's dramatically higher if it's an insurance company collecting from another company.
 
#32
AB4EJ said:
From the posts, I gather that the OP's insurance co. was State Farm, which made the payment; however, State Farm will go to the insurance company of the at-fault driver (determined by who got cited), to get reimbursed. The insurance company of the at-fault driver is the one that takes the hit, normally.

And BTW, I get the impression after reading many posts, that it is easy to total a Tesla due to the high cost of repairs at a certified Tesla shop, and high cost of repair parts.

So, for the other driver, this could be very expensive. I mean, driving that way they could have hit a Ferrari (even higher costs), or killed somebody. Thank heavens no serious injuries.
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The other driver's insurance was State Farm as well. So doing the investigation was a breeze...
 
#33
Charles Kim said:
The other driver's insurance was State Farm as well. So doing the investigation was a breeze...
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That's the best case scenario when it is clear who is at fault. They can have the same claim handler for both sides rather than two companies and two handlers doing it independently (I'm assuming, although in some cases it does makes sense even for the same company to have two independent handlers so that they are not biased in evaluating who is at fault).
 
#34
Charles Kim said:
...I hit her smack into her passenger side door. I didn't even have time to put on my brakes and basically I stopped by hitting her car. Due to the impact, I pushed her car about 30 meters into a telephone pole.
The other car was driven by a women aged between 50-60 and she had a passenger in the front seat.
View attachment 105857
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What kind of car was the other person driving and what was the condition of her passenger? It seems her car protected her pretty well from such an impact.
 
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