Last Tuesday, September 23, Andrea got rear-ended on I-25 on her way home from training in Castle Rock. Fortunately, she was ok except for some minor neck and shoulder pain. Unfortunately, the Jeep didn’t make it out as well.
The accident was around I-25 and Santa Fe, right as they were entering a construction zone. Andrea slowed with traffic to about 10 mph and the guy that hit her didn’t, hitting her at about 65 mph. The other guy’s car was obviously totalled, but the Jeep doesn’t look terrible. He was cited for reckless driving, failure to produce insurance, and expired plates; all in a construction zone, no less.
Despite the outside looks, the damage to the Jeep ended up being more than the car was worth, so State Farm officially totalled it on Friday. It’s nice that Andrea’s ok so that we can laugh about this, but her reaction on hearing that it was likely that the car was totalled was, “… but it has new tires damn it!”
For the most part, I am really impressed with how both insurance companies have handled the situation. We got a call from USAA less than 12 hours after the accident admitting fault and saying that they would pay for everything. Everything progressed rapidly from there. My only complaint is that they only gave us three business days after calling the Jeep totalled to turn in the rental car, compressing the normal process of car buying into just a couple of days.
