My First Car Accident, AR Edition

[alfred russel]

Well, at least the first car accident that I caused and resulted in any type of real damage.

I was somewhat in the neighborhood for work, and I decided I wanted to visit the Cueva de las Manos in Patagonia. It is off the tourist path, which made it rather attractive. I flew into Comodoro Rivadavia, an oil town, rented a car from Hertz, and drove 5 hours to Perito Moreno the nearest town with any type of tourist facilities I could find (to put in perspective how remote this is, about 2 hours before Perito Moreno there were no more radio stations I could tune in). 3 hours further was the cueva de las manos.

I was just 30 km from the cueva, perhaps driving a bit fast at 80 km/hr on a crappy gravel road, and I lost control and flipped the car. I was unhurt, which was very convenient because the nearest hospital was back in Perito Moreno. The car landed right side up, but was somewhat buried in the dirt.

In a somewhat miraculous circumstance, about 5-10 minutes after I flipped, a couple trekking through Patagonia in a van filled with a shovel, towing equipment, and other automotive repair items drove by (I was worried it might be hours before I even saw anyone). We spent about an hour and a half digging out my car and then they towed me onto the road. And the only thing keeping me from driving was a blown out tire, which they took to a nearby town (about 15 houses) and went house to house until they found someone who could repair the tire. Really, I think I owe these people a kidney. Maybe two.

The car was a wreck, but I made it back to Comodoro Rivadavia. I never saw that fucking cueva. I'm absolutely estatic that I flipped a car in a remote region of Patagonia and got out in one piece, without even a scratch.

Hertz wasn't as estatic when I showed up with their car though. They want me to pay for it (the audacity of those people!). If I have to pay, I have to pay, and that is just the way it is. But:

--I don't think my US car insurance would cover this. I checked my policy and the comprehensive is limited to the cars listed in the policy. The only one that might apply is property damage. Does anyone know the answer to this (yes I will check with a lawyer, but I won't be back in the US for a couple of weeks)?
--I've always used my amex corporate card for rental cars on the basis that I know my card covers all rental damage. Since it had never come up, I never thought about this any deeper, but it took about 1 hour after the wreck to think, "wait, this is a personal expense, I'm not visiting the cueva de las manos for work--could this void the coverages". This isn't an expense reporting problem: I just mark these expenses as personal and pay them out of my money. But does that exclude me from the rental coverage? I don't know. Has anyone used a corporate amex card coverages for rental car damages?

[Admiral Yi]

Thank God our little Fredo wasn't hurt.

[The Larch]

Now that's a remote part of the world to have such a serious accident. You were really lucky that these other guys appeared. Did you have a radio or satellite phone to contact somebody or were you at the mercy of the elements?

[jimmy olsen]

Glad to hear you're ok.

[DGuller]

Isn't 80 km/hr recklessly fast on a gravel road?  Anyway, good thing you're OK.

[alfred russel]

Now that's a remote part of the world to have such a serious accident. You were really lucky that these other guys appeared. Did you have a radio or satellite phone to contact somebody or were you at the mercy of the elements?

Nope, I was at the mercy of the elements, and I was absurdly lucky. But the elements weren't that extreme, around 10 C. The winds were severe though. I had enough food and water to keep me okay for a few days, if worst came to worst.

[alfred russel]

Isn't 80 km/hr recklessly fast on a gravel road?  Anyway, good thing you're OK.

I thought not, but I guess evidence indicates otherwise. Really it was a situation where I started going 50, felt secure at that speed, so upped it to 55, then 60, etc. until 80.

[Malthus]

I'm always careful to go slow on gravel roads, because of what happened to a friend of mine in university - he flipped his car by going too fast, with a carful of classmates (a couple of buddies, a couple of chicks he hardly knew). One of the chicks cracked some vertibrae in her neck and was lucky not to snap her spinal cord (no seatbelt, natch).

This lead to a lengthy insurance-related saga ... and my friend felt so guilty about it, he visted her, flowers in hand, every single day in the hospital.

Well, as it turned out, she was in a long, long time, and none of her friends & family really came to visit much. By the time she was discharged, they were an item. They lookeclike a great couple - she was pretty hott.

Only problem was that she was crazy in a bad way, and they had absolutely nothing in common, other than a big old buttload of guilt on his part for breaking her neck, and a lingering lawsuit involving the insurers - his was arguing she should be partly to blame for not wearing a seatbelt, hers arguing he was wholly to blame for shitty driving. The romance ended badly, as one might expect (though if I ever knew the outcome of the legal case, I long ago forgot it). Allegedly, she - bit down on him in an intimate moment, angry at some insensitive stuff he was saying to encourage her to greater oral efforts. Turns out, breaking a girl's neck isn't the best way of forming a relationship.   

So don't drive too fast on gravel, or that could happen to you. 

[alfred russel]

Well, getting action is a bit of an accomplishment considering he started by breaking her neck. Check that one off of life's to do list.

An unexpected benefit of a developing world rental in a major accident: the car didn't have an airbag. If it did, it probably would have deployed, and I wouldn't have been driving it out of there.

[Jacob]

Glad you're okay

I don't see why the corporate card insurance shouldn't apply.

[Zanza]

Sounds like quite the adventure. I obviously have no idea about the terms of your card, but my corporate credit card does include private liability insurance on business trips, so it would cover the car.

[DGuller]

Sounds like quite the adventure. I obviously have no idea about the terms of your card, but my corporate credit card does include private liability insurance on business trips, so it would cover the car.

In the American sense of car insurance, at least, liability insurance wouldn't cover this.  Liability insurance covers the damage to other cars that you cause.  In US, at least, this kind of accident would be under a collision coverage, which is optional.

[Zanza]

In the American sense of car insurance, at least, liability insurance wouldn't cover this.  Liability insurance covers the damage to other cars that you cause.  In US, at least, this kind of accident would be under a collision coverage, which is optional.

It's a general liability insurance that covers all damages that I cause (without gross negligence) on a business trip to persons, things or assets up to a million Euro. However, I just looked up the small print and found that they exclude damage to self-driven cars, so it wouldn't be covered after all.

[DGuller]

However, I just looked up the small print and found that they exclude damage to self-driven cars, so it wouldn't be covered after all.

So they only cover Google's robot car?

[MadImmortalMan]

So, what kind of car was it?