Wheelie was nothing to do with accident

Question: I have an insurance claim going through following a bike accident in the summer. My bike was damaged with repairs costing $1100 and I got away with cuts and bruises.

The accident happened when a car pulled out across me while I was filtering at a low speed and with no junctions ahead for some distance.

My opponent’s insurer is stating that because two witnesses are saying I pulled a wheelie one mile before where the accident happened, I was riding dangerously and I am to blame for the accident.

Although I admit pulling a wheelie I don’t think it had anything to do with the accident!

Chris Edwards

Answer: I agree with you. You admit pulling a wheelie which is actually an example of dangerous driving as far as the police are concerned, so you are fortunate that the police did not see it.

However, that wheelie was one mile before the accident scene and had no bearing on the accident circumstances.

You need to argue that the two events were completely separate and that the cause of this accident was the car driver’s negligence in failing to spot your correctly proceeding vehicle.

It would be helpful if you had witnesses confirming the sensible speed at which you were filtering and a detailed plan of the road layout to show that there were no junctions in the vicinity.

I am confident that a court would not find that the wheelie had anything to do with the accident.

See original post at: http://www.motorcyclenews.com/insurance/insurance-advice/making-a-claim/2010/december/dec1510-wheelie-was-nothing-to-do-with-accident-/

Highway Patrol Error Results In Hellish Roadside Experience For Classic Car Owner

A string of errors on the part of troopers with the Nevada Highway Patrol resulted in a humiliating and frightening experience last year for a couple from Washington cruising down the highway in their classic 1962 Chevy Impala.

Now, the couple, Robin and Beverly Bruins, have filed suit against the troopers and the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Trouble started for the Bruins when they were pulled over by a trooper after he initiated a “routine records check” on the car. When the check did not return a match, the trooper pulled the couple over, Las Vegas’ KLAS reported.

When the trooper ran the registration number which the couple gave him, he didn’t include a “plus” sign. The vehicle showed up as an expired registration for a 2011 Harley Davidson, as a dismissal of charges document explains.

That mistake was compounded when the trooper relayed the Impala’s VIN to a dispatcher who then mis-keyed one of the digits.

When the entry bounced back as a stolen vehicle from California, troopers then proceeded to badger Robin, forcing him to take off his shirt and kneel on the ground before ultimately arresting him.

Dash camera footage recorded the entire dramatic scene.

“Driver! Remove your keys from the ignition and put them on the roof now!” a trooper commands.

Robin complied and says he made a joke to his wife but then turned around to find himself staring at drawn guns.

“And I turned and looked back and saw three gun barrels pointed at me. And, obviously it hit me. Whoa! What’s going on here. To this day I have never experienced anything like looking down the barrel of guns like that,” he told KLAS.

Robin was ordered out of the vehicle. And standing between the police cruisers and his car, he was ordered to take off his shirt.

“Go ahead, lift your shirt up,” the officer commanded. When Robin began taking off the shirt from his waist, the officer barked, “With the top of your collar!”

“And it wasn’t until I had taken my shirt off and told to get on my knees and handcuffed and I said, ‘What’s going on? Do you think this car is stolen or something?’ And he said, ‘exactly right. And their car is going back to its rightful owner,’” Robin told KLAS.

After Robin was taken into custody, the troopers zeroed in on Beverly who was still in the passenger side of the vehicle. They commanded her to get out, but she was on crutches and struggled doing so.

As she went to reach for the crutches, a trooper is heard yelling, “Keep — we said keep your hands in the air and walk backward towards us!”

She was then handcuffed as troopers checked her background.

After Beverly’s record came back clean, the troopers un-cuffed her and asked her if she wanted to say goodbye to her husband. She asked why she would need to say goodbye, and the trooper said “well, he’s going to jail.”

“So I went over to see Rob and he’s in the back seat with no shirt on on, hands behind his back and tears are running down his face,” Beverly told KLAS.

The Bruins contend that Robin never should have been arrested, and that troopers were almost certain he was not driving a stolen car when they detained him.

Evidence of that was also captured on the dashcam recording.

“I tend to believe him,” a trooper is heard saying. “I mean I’m gonna run him before I make a determination… the guy comes back with possession… or a history of something like that. If he’s lying to me, that’s a different story. But, as of right now, I mean, he seems to be legit.”

Nevertheless, Robin was shuffled off the Clark County Detention Center, where he spent most of the night in a cell with dozens of other inmates.

Robin also told KLAS that while he was in jail, he asked workers there, “Well I’m past the time for my medications, can I take those now?” he said.

“No, you can’t have anything you brought with you,” Robin says he was told.

“I just think they should have used, that they should have used a character judgment. We live our lives so that we don’t get into situations like this,” Beverly told KLAS.

“To be treated like the both of us were, I mean, at gunpoint and then handcuffed and then humiliated by making you take your shirt off and get on your knees on the side of the freeway. I mean, why should that have to happen to anybody?”

See more at: yahoo.com

Show Car 1969 Camaro Destroyed by Fire During Transport in Trailer

As avid car enthusiasts, this video is quite difficult to watch without having that knotting feeling in our stomachs. We join in on this unfortunate situation as a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro show car is ablaze inside of a trailer.

Even though the owner’s criticism of the fire department at the beginning seems a bit harsh, we can feel their pain as all they’re able to do is stand by and watch their pride and joy burns away in a ball of fire.Check out the video below if you think you’re up to it! Hopefully this guy has full coverage on this show ride and is able to restore it back to a quality finish!

A witness driving behind the trailer said that the owner noticed possible smoke, but thought it was road dust at first, somewhere between Vail Avenue and Walnut/Ridge Avenue on westbound Northwest Highway. When the driver smelled smoke, he stopped and saw heavier white smoke coming out of the trailer. The back door of the trailer was open when firefighters arrived. The vehicle became fully-involved with flames as firefighters connected to the hydrant and charged the line. The fire was extinguished within about five minutes.

No injuries were reported. The Chevy Camaro was being transported home to Palatine after it was on display at the Maine East High School Charity Car Show Does your insurance cover your classic when being transported?

See original article at http://truckviewtv.com/show-car-1969-camaro-destroyed-by-fire-during-transport-in-trailer/

Sacramento Man Reunited With His 1964 T-Bird 33 Years After It Was Stolen

Sacramento Man Reunited With His 1964 T-Bird 33 Years After It Was Stolen

A Sacramento man says he feels like he has won the lottery, now that his beloved 1964 Ford Thunderbird is back at home in his driveway after it was stolen decades ago.

‘Wow. Thirty-three years, huh?” said Gary Chartrand, the owner. “Man, look how clean
that is. Wahoo!”

Sweaty palms, knotty stomach, and stuttering: all symptoms of being reunited with a long-lost love. Those were the symptoms Chartrand had Tuesday as he waited for his long-lost car to be delivered.

“Beautiful. Just a few bumps and bruises, but, boy, not much has changed,” said
Chartrand.

The last time Chartrand saw his 1964 T-Bird was in 1981, about a year after he paid $1,600 for it as a gift to himself when his 10-year marriage ended in divorce.

“I don’t even remember how to get into the glove box,” he said.

On one of what he calls the worst nights of his life, his blue beauty was stolen from under his nose — possibly by another classics admirer — while he was bartending in Old Sacramento at Fanny Ann’s Saloon./

Fast forward 33 years, and Chartrand got a call recently he never thought would come.

“It’s just nice to have it back,” he said.

Sacramento police told him his missing Ford was found 750 miles north of Sacramento in Washington, and it was in surprisingly good condition.

“Considering it’s a 50-year-old car; it’s been gone for 33 years; you have no idea where
it’s been,” he said.

So where has his love been? Who stole it? What where they doing with it?

“Looks like somebody’s had it and was getting it registered or ready for the road,” he
said.

Perhaps as the former lovers get reacquainted, clues from the last lonely decades will continue to unravel.

Since the case is so old, and it took police so long to track Chartrand down, they are still trying to locate the initial police report from when the vehicle was recovered.

As of now, there’s no word on any suspects or arrests in the case.

See original story at http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/09/02/sacramento-man-reunited-with-his-1964-t-bird-33-years-after-it-was-stolen/

What Makes a Car a Classic?

Just because a car is a vintage model in perfect shape does not make it eligible to be called a classic car. This is a very specific term that only applies to certain cars built over one 23-year period. Of course, uninitiated people apply the term more widely, and governments use the term “classic car” to describe which cars can carry antique vehicle license plates.

Identification

      • According to the Classic Car Club of America, a classic car is defined by three criteria. First, it must be a “fine or distinctive automobile.” Second, it has to have been built either in the United States or abroad during the years between 1925 and 1948. Finally, it has to have been originally a high priced car.

Significance

      • The Classic Car Club of America maintains a listing of those cars which meet the standards of these three criteria. They are certified as either CCCA Classics or as Full Classics. If a member of the Classic Car Club believes that another vehicle should be awarded this designation, a petition can be made. However, additional models have rarely been certified as CCCA classics.

Size

      • According to the research of John Lee, a Classic Car Club member, 1,366,843 American classic cars were produced. Packards and Cadillacs account for over half of them. 388,980 classic Cadillacs and 336,799 classic Packards were made.

Types

      • The other classic cars were made by 37 other American car makers. The list includes such familiar names as: LaSalles, Lincolns, Buicks, Studebakers and Chryslers. The classic car maker who produced only one known vehicle, according to John Lee, was Julian.

Considerations

      • Each state has a law that determines which cars qualify for antique vehicle registration. Many states, like Pennsylvania for example, set the eligibility for this special license category as pertaining to cars that are more than 15 years older than the current calendar year. The cars must also be in their original condition to qualify. While these cars may be classic cars according to the law, the Classic Car Club would not certify one of them as a true classic. Instead, they would be called modern classic cars.