Ryan sent a message to Thomas Wilson that said:
Sir,
At approximately 0650 EST on June 8th, 2018, I was traveling down Cameron Street in Old Town Alexandria. While crossing Patrick Street, I was blindsided by a GMC Sierra that was A. Running a red light, and B. Speeding. My car was thrown from the far right lane to the far left, spun approx. 165 degrees the opposite direction, and totaled upon impact. I remained conscious throughout the impact, though suffered a pretty severe case of whiplash. I immediately leapt from my vehicle to assess the other driver\'s health and take the appropriate response actions if there was an injury. The driver of the other vehicle remained in his vehicle for several minutes (it felt like) while on a cell phone. He eventually got out and apologized for missing the red light, stating that he 'wasn't looking up' while approaching the intersection; I thanked him for his honesty. I was then taken away in an ambulance, at the urging of the Alexandria Police Department (after they saw my vehicle) to Alexandria NORVA hospital, where I was admitted to the ER and given a round of X-Rays for my neck/back. Luckily, aside from a killer headache and severe neck pain, nothing was broken/out-of-sorts. I was doing my best to keep the folks in the ER laughing when the reporting police officer for the scene arrived to tell me, among other things, that the driver of the other vehicle was now claiming that I ran a red light. However, the police officer had already taken an anonymous statement that confirmed my version of the story, so I attempted to remain positive.
Skipping some details, because this can go on for a while, the other driver was able to weasel his way out of the ticket in court, have his insurance company fight tooth and nail to not pay out the medical expenses and rental costs incurred from being vehicle-less for several weeks, not to mention pain/suffering expenses. That being said, my insurance company, USAA, took his, ALLSTATE, to arbitration where they won hands-down regarding who was at fault for the accident. After calling ALLSTATE to attempt to recover the above costs (not related to the vehicle itself, they did pay USAA back for the totaling of my car), I was told that ALLSTATE would continue to deny payment for A. Rental Vehicle Costs, B. Medical Costs, and C. Any pain/suffering costs.
If you personally think that this is in the realm of 'fair and reasonable', I'd like to hear it from your office. The fact that your driver didn't kill me that day due to his recklessness blows me away...
I'm asking your company to do the right thing. Pay for the rental costs incurred while my vehicle was being totaled out, reimburse TRICARE (really, the taxpayers) for the medical expenses incurred by visiting the hospital via an ambulance, and issue any pain and suffering that is typically issued in a case like this.
V/R
LT Stagg, Ryan W. USN
