It Was An Accident: Part 4 – Someone’s Handicapped Friend

One afternoon I was driving west on Cox Creek Parkway and was stopped by the light at Helton Drive. Soon the light turned green, and the cars ahead of me started to move. I let my foot off the brake, then suddenly, BAM! I was rear-ended hard. So hard, in fact, I was driven forward enough to read-end the car in front of me. It was a three car pileup, if you will. I was jolted about enough to be disoriented for a few minutes. You might say I was sent for a ride on the Disorient Express.

Before I had totally come to myself there was a knock at my window. I rolled the window down. Some guy was there asking me if I was okay. I said I thought I was. When he apologized, I just assumed he was the guy who had hit me. But then he went on to say, “I was following my handicapped friend and he lost control of his vehicle.” I acknowledged his statement, but I was still not comprehending everything very well. The guy left. I looked back and saw a customized van behind me with a strange looking man sitting in the driver’s seat with his eyes wide. The man who had checked on me went to a car behind the van. Given the friend’s comments, I just assumed that the man driving the van did not get out because he was handicapped in some way.

When I came to myself, I looked at myself and said, “Why don’t you call the police?”

I responded to myself, “Good idea!”

However, that was easier said than done as I could not find my cell phone. After a bit of looking I found it on the floor bed near the pedals. It had apparently been slung down there when my car was double whammied rear and front. I grabbed it up and dialed 911, although technically I didn’t dial, I pushed some buttons. Ah, those outmoded terms!

As I was talking to the responder, I looked up and saw my wife, Kathy, passing me in her vehicle. When she saw me, she made her way to the side of the road so she could come over to check on me. I had intended to go back and check on the handicapped driver who hit me, but by the time I finished with the phone call, Kathy was there checking on me. When she saw I was okay, she went back to check on the man in the van. She said he seemed scared, but was otherwise okay. Soon afterwards a man and a woman from the car in front of me came back to talk to Kathy and me.

By this time I was able to get out and stand. I found out that the couple from the car I had rear-ended in front of me were from Tennessee and had just gotten married and were in Florence as part of their honeymoon. The couple appeared to be in their late 30’s or early 40’s. The lady kept going on and on about all the troubles she had seen in her life. Have you ever noticed how some people seem to enjoy talking about the lack of joy in their lives? This was one of those people. Maybe if she had talked about the times she had talked to others about her lack of joy that would have cheered her up. Oh, well. As we continued to talk, I looked back and realized that the customized van that had hit me was no longer behind me. I looked around and saw that he had pulled off to the side of the road. For an accident of this magnitude I knew he shouldn’t have done that, but I guessed it would be okay.

The couple, my wife, and I continued to talk. We found out they had State Farm insurance, which was good since that was what I had. That would make it easier when sorting out the repair costs. A little later I looked over and realized that the van was now totally gone. That wascally wabbit had snuck off right under our noses and was nowhere to be found. What should have been a simple rear-ending had now turned into a hit-and-run.

Soon afterwards the police arrived. I explained exactly what had happened and described the van as best I could while Kathy described the driver. Since the van was customized, I thought that would make it easier for the police to find, but I was actually informed that without the tag number it would be difficult to locate. Basically, it would take too much manpower to search out the van given the lack of human suffering that had resulted from the accident.

Well, anyway, the police officer completed taking our reports, the couple and I exchanged information, and we went on our not-so-merry way. The front of my car was not damaged too badly, but the rear end was crunched up a lot. But it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t drive it. I took it over to the dealership where I had bought it so they could determine the cost of repairs.

I would dearly love to tell you that the customized van and its driver was caught and brought to justice. Actually, I could tell you that, but I’d be lying. The good news, however, is that our insurance covered everything and all remained well in the hood. Or should I say under the hood. Well, actually, more so in the trunk. State Farm took care of the couple’s car also. But neither I nor my car could foresee what was going to happen just two weeks after the repairs were complete. Tune in to my next post to find out.

It Was An Accident: Part 3 – The Company Man

Another accident I had many years ago took place in downtown Florence, AL. I was driving south on Court Street. There was a bit of traffic, so at one point I had to stop in the middle of the block. BAM! I was rear-ended by a fairly young guy who was driving a truck owned by the company for which he worked. And no, it wasn’t Emeril Lagasse driving a Books-A-Million truck. I kind of felt sorry for the guy because I knew he would soon have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do to his bosses. Despite how young you think I am, this took place back before cell phones were popular. Those that did own them had big dumb ones. It took man millions of year to evolve to where we are today, which is a state of greater knowledge, but still dumb in many ways. Cell phones, on the other hand, have evolved to a state of sleek smartness in just a few decades.

With neither the perp nor the vic (me) having a phone, I told the other driver that I would go into a nearby store and ask to use a phone. I no longer remember the name of the store, but they had a counter in the middle, and an employee let me use a store phone. When someone answered, I looked out the front glass doors of the store and saw that a police officer had already arrived on the scene. The lady on the phone made contact with an officer. I could hear the officer speaking to her via walkie-talkie. And not only that, I could see him moving his lips. No, thou highly evolved dumb person, not over the phone. It turned out the responding officer I had seen outside was the same officer the call responder was talking to. So, I was seeing him speak through the store’s front doors and hearing his words over the phone perfectly synced with his lips. It threw me for a loop a short while until I realized what was happening. It was really quite cool. Sort of like being at a drive-in movie theater watching the show from a distance but hearing the sound right next to you.

I told the lady that I could see the officer she was talking to outside, so I would hang up and go back out. The officer took our reports, and we were on our way. I was concerned about how good the driver’s company’s insurance would be. From stories I had heard, I was fully expecting them to try to weasel out of paying me for the damages to my car. My expectations were wrong.

A few days later I received a call from a lady at the insurance company. I was told that they wanted me to get an estimate for repairing the damage to my car and send it to them. They’d then mail me a check to cover that amount. This was sounding promising. She inquired about any injuries. I told her that I seemed to be okay, but I was going to my chiropractor anyway just to make sure. She got a bit excited and inquired, “So, you hurt your neck?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve had a bit of neck pain, but it should be fine. I thought I’d check with my chiropractor just to make sure.”

“Oh, we need to take care of those expenses, also. Have your chiropractor sent his bills directly to us. We’ll pay him directly.”

Wow, this was sounding really good. But just when I didn’t think it could get any better, the insurance lady told me that they would be sending me a few hundred extra dollars as an inconvenience fee. Wow! I thought about asking if they’d buy me a new camera also, but then thought better of it.

Well, as you might expect, I simply pocketed all the money I received for repairs and drove the car around with a dented rear bumper. It wasn’t really all that bad, and it wasn’t too new a car anyway. I figured it would be just fine until the day I would need to rid myself of it. And who knew if I might be read-ended again soon. Why spend that money for repairs when they could all be undone by another reckless driver looking to do some ‘splainin’ to his bosses.

It Was An Accident: Part 1 - My First One

This is my inaugural post about having accidents. And while technically my first accident was probably pooping my pants as a toddler, this series will be restricted to automobile accidents. I have had quite a few of these, but only a couple have been my fault, including my first one that I will tell you about now.

Although I was born in Alabama, I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. That’s because my dad got a job in Louisville when I was 2 ½ months old. I wanted to stay in Alabama, but my parents thought I was too young to live on my own. I personally believe they were just being overprotective. Anyway, when I was in high school, a number of my friends and I loved to eat pizza at some of the local pizzerias. At that time I considered pizza to be a late night snack rather than a meal. The thought of eating pizza for lunch or dinner did not appeal to me at all. Of course that all changed when my thin-as-a-rail body began to balloon and big late night snacks became a No-No (not to be confused with the body hair removal system).

Normally my friends and I ate at the local pizzerias, but one night we ate at a Pizza Hut located on Kenwood Dr. According to Google Maps, a Little Caesar’s is now located there, keeping the pizza tradition alive. My Louisville friends will know that the Pizza Hut we dined at was right next to Colonial Gardens, a well-known entertainment complex. I just read recently that someone is planning to renovate this place. That particular Pizza Hut had a parking area in the front and the back and some parallel parking along the side. I had parked in the latter area, but was the only car there when we arrived. Well, we were dining late as usual and actually finished after they closed at 1:00 AM. An employee had to let us out as they had already locked the door.

We all piled in the car, and I cranked up the engine. I was planning to back up into the empty parking area in the front so I could pull out onto Kenwood Dr. However, I had failed to notice that a car was now parked behind me. I put the car into reverse, with my foot on the brake of course, and looked into my rearview mirror as I released my foot from the brake. Just then I noticed the car behind me. I immediately went for the brake pedal again, but my foot slipped and jammed the gas pedal instead. BAM! I hit the car parked behind me. HARD! I cursed my stupidity and then got out to inspect the damage. There was not much damage to the tank I was driving, but the other car’s hood was crumpled. They say that when a car is rear-ended, it’s always the guy in the rear’s fault, but somehow I didn’t think that would apply in this case, especially since the rear car didn't even have a driver.

Being the responsible teenager that I was, I went to the entrance to Pizza Hut and knocked. An employee yelled through the locked door, “WE’RE CLOSED!” I let him know that I already knew that, but was looking for the owner of the car I just hit. He checked around with the few remaining customers and all of them said they were parked elsewhere. So, I started looking for some paper to write a note on to leave on the windshield of the car. An observant customer at Colonial Gardens, who was out on their porch, yelled out, “JUST GO AHEAD AND LEAVE!” I laughed, but ignored his suggestion.

As I was writing the note, three big tough-looking Mexican men came out of Pizza Hut and informed me that that was their car. I began to sweat. I knew they could rough us up good if they wanted to. I apologized profusely and explained my mistake to them, hoping they would go easy on me. The guy who actually owned the car went over to his hood and tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge. It had crumpled enough to jam it in place. I apologized again. He just looked at me and said, “Oh, what the f*ck!”

I told him that I had insurance and it would cover his cost of repair. He told me that he and his friends were from Michigan and were just in town temporarily for the horse races at Churchill Downs. Since it was the weekend, I gave him my phone number so he could call me on Monday after I contacted State Farm.

Monday morning came, but my State Farm agent didn’t open until after school started. So, I had to wait and go into school late after I talked to him. After explaining to him everything that happened, he said, “Okay, well IF they call you back, give him my number, and I will take care of everything.”

I thought, “What does he mean by ‘IF they call…’?” Of course they’d call back. They’d want their car fixed. But I didn’t say anything to the agent. I just said, “Okay.”

Well, as it turned out, they did not call…for two weeks. I was a bit surprised. When I received the call, the man asked if he could just get an estimate and have me pay him directly. I said, “I can’t do that. I’ve already reported it to my insurance agent and he will take care of everything. I have the number for you to call.”

He said, “Wait a minute. I need to get something to write with.” After several minutes, he returned and took down the number.

I thought everything was settled at that point, at least as far as I was concerned. But I was wrong. About two more weeks later I got a call from the man again. He said he had not contacted the State Farm agent and again wanted to know if I’d pay him directly. I once again explained that I couldn’t do that. He’d have to get paid by my insurance. And once again he took down my agent’s phone number.

As far as I know, he never contacted the agent. I never got any notice about it, and my rates never changed. It was then that I understood what my agent had meant by “IF they call back…” Apparently he already suspected that something didn’t smell right in the kitchen. Perhaps they were in the country illegally. Perhaps the car was stolen. Perhaps they were allergic to insurance agents. Whatever it was, they were unwilling to be put in the system by filing a claim with State Farm. But that all worked in my favor, thank goodness!

Free Health Care For Everybody

In the January 30, 2012 issue of our local newspaper, the TimesDaily, there was a photo of some graffiti left by an Occupy Oakland participant in California. The graffiti consisted of the exact words I used for the title of this post: “Free Health Care For Everybody.” Now who could disagree with that statement? Everybody likes free stuff, and given how expensive healthcare can be these days, getting it free would be a great money saver.

So, how do we start? What plans must we put in place to make this worthwhile venture a success? Well, a good place to start would be to ask doctors to quit charging for their services. Most of the cost of healthcare most likely resides here since millions of people visit doctors of one type or another every day. I suspect that they will object to this and try to convince us of how expensive it was to attend medical school, how much money it takes to rent a space for their practice, and how they must pay for equipment, utilities, malpractice insurance, staff salaries and benefits, and a myriad of other things. Well, don’t be fooled. Healthcare is too important a commodity to be left to the vagaries of a free market with the greedy doctors trying to actually make a profit. But we can expect most if not all doctors to claim that supporting their families is more important to them than helping the rest of us. So, we must be prepared to force them to provide their services without recompense.

The same will have to be applied to hospitals and all the people that work for them. And let’s not forget about all those pharmaceutical companies. We will have to forcefully make it known that we still expect them to spend billions of dollars developing new lifesaving drugs, but provide those drugs at no cost to the public.

We can expect retaliation from all these medical professionals in the form of strongly urging the rest of us to provide our services to them for free also. They’ll probably say something like, “Food is just as important to a person’s health as is medical care. Since we don’t have any money, and we need food to survive, we should have our food provided for free. And while we are at it, we also need housing and transportation. So, give us these things also.” No matter how logical their arguments may be, we must stand strong and insist that they pay us for the goods and services we provide while they continue to provide their services at no cost to us.

---------------------------------------------------

Read my novel, "Passion is a Harsh Taskmaster," in either Kindle or paperback format. Available at Amazon.com.

---------------------------------------------------

Well, as you can hopefully tell, I’m being facetious. There isn’t any such thing as FREE healthcare. And for that matter, there is no such thing as having any goods or services that cost nothing. What the Occupy Oakland graffiti writer really means is “free healthcare for me at somebody else’s expense.” So, how would that work?

There have been many methods suggested for how to provide universal healthcare within the US. Some methods are already being used in other countries. But the bottom line for all of these methods is that some people pay nothing, some pay less than the cost of the services provided to them, some pay the same as the cost of the services provided to them, and some pay more than the cost of the services provided to them. So, it ends up being a great deal for some and a terrible one for others.

You might ask, “Isn’t that exactly the same result people get when buying insurance?” And indeed, the answer is “Yes.” Insurance is one of those strange commodities that people purchase with the hope of NEVER getting their money back. But, there is one major difference. Insurance is voluntary; a government program is not. There has been a lot of controversy lately about the Constitutionality of an individual mandate for health insurance. In other words, is it Constitutional for the federal government to force all individual citizens to purchase some form of health insurance?

I personally believe that it is extremely UN-Constitutional for the federal government to force its citizens to buy ANYTHING, including health insurance. But even if it were Constitutional, I believe it can ultimately lead to some very bad consequences, such as taking away many of the freedoms we currently enjoy. It may take many years for the problems to manifest themselves to an unacceptable level, just as communism took many years before it failed in the Soviet Union. However, I believe the problems will eventually come.

Suppose we implement a healthcare plan here in the US that provides all people with any medical services they need at any time. Almost immediately all of those expensive procedures that people chose not to have done due to the cost will be scheduled. Over time, as more and more procedures are done, the authorities will begin to see that there is more money being spent than being taken in. Choices will have to be made. Charge everybody more for their “insurance,” or cut costs in some way. Most likely both will occur. They will begin paying doctors and hospitals and drug companies less for their goods and services. This will cause some on the edge to go out of business, and it will most likely affect people in rural areas the most. Eventually, the feds will begin to realize that they cannot cut payments anymore and will try to ration care to cut costs. This will upset many people who will have to forego medical procedures that could help them. Additionally, the feds will also realize that many of the procedures that people are getting relate to bad lifestyle choices. They will begin pushing for regulations on a number of different fronts. Some of these would be: smoking, fat and sugar intake, alcohol consumption, and the amount of exercise people are getting. So, little by little our healthcare will dwindle as our lifestyle choices become more and more regulated. In other words, we will become less free.

When people buy insurance, they do so with the knowledge that certain activities on their part can lead to their insurance costing more than another person’s. For instance, if a person is a smoker, they will pay more. If they are overweight and already have high blood pressure and high glucose levels, they’ll pay more. If they are into extreme sports, they’ll pay more. But the individual’s lifestyle choices remain his or her choice. On the other hand, the tendency for government plans is for the leaders to begin mandating actions rather than charge people differently according to risk.

So, which would you rather have? Freedom or “free” healthcare? I’m afraid the evidence points to a fact that many simply refuse to accept: WE CAN’T HAVE BOTH.