Basically YOUR car insurance covers YOUR vehicle and persons in YOUR vehicle regardless of fault.

Here is where it kicks you in the ass……

Let’s say you do not have collision insurance on your vehicle, someone HITS YOU and its THEIR FAULT. If your vehicle sustains over $500 in damages you are entitled to what they call a mini-tort claim. The mini- tort is paid by the insurance company of the person at fault (providing they have this coverage, if not you have to sue them for it).

Someone hits you, it’s their fault …you get a SMASHED UP CAR and a measly $500!

Doesn’t seem very fair, does it? This has happened to me TWICE! It’s ridiculous!

Last Thursday afternoon coming from the HIGH SCHOOL I was hit by another driver. I had the green light and she BLEW through the red light into me at 45 MPH! Luckily I was turning and did not have my son with me. As I pulled into the nearest drive to get out of traffic she comes rushing up to me saying, “It was my fault, I did not realize the light was red”. She stated that she was worried about getting into the share a ride with the construction ahead and was not even looking at the light. Then she proceeds to tell me that she does not even live in the area, but wanted KFC so she got off on the previous exit and drove through Bridgeport.

For those of you who know our background you can imagine my anger. She ran a red light at 45 MPH at the High School intersection, minutes after school let out! Our son was killed just 100 feet down the same road two years ago! What if one of those students from the High School was crossing at the one and only crosswalk in town, the same crosswalk she just BLEW through to hit me! They would have had no chance against her SUV!

I was proud that I was able to keep my composure and not wrap my hands around her neck and squeeze tightly. I was so angry and distraught, so many bad memories of Dustin’s accident running through my mind. I just grinded my teeth, clenched my fist and tried to be patient as we waited for the police.

She was sited for failure to yield a red light. If the school signs we requested two years ago would have been put in place her citation would have been much worse or maybe just, maybe she would have seen the school signs and been more careful. (We were told by the Saginaw County Road commission that the signs were misleading to motorists)….what a crock of bull!

So this is the second time that I have a smashed car with no means to fix it. I will hopefully get the $500 mini-tort, but that won’t cover the $1500 in damage she caused because she was an idiot! The first time this happened I was hit from the rear at a red light, pushed through the intersection by a driver that had a suspended license!

The no-fault law also kicked us in the ass when Dustin was killed. At that time we did not have a running vehicle, (my husbands transmission went out) so we had no insurance. Since it is a no-fault state we received a mere $1400 to cover his funeral expenses that way exceeded $10,000 and our son was dead.

The state of Michigan says that no-fault insurance helps keep costs down, yet we have some of the highest rates in the country. We as citizens give up our right to sue when involved in an accident (unwillingly). Many of the people that live here don’t even realize what no-fault means. It only helps the person that is AT FAULT! How callous can you be?

The damn insurance companies have you again….all that money you pay them and you can’t even get your car repair when someone else is careless!