Help Needed

This past Saturday, I was driving on a local highway when my car was attacked by flying ice. The weather was wonderful...maybe a little cold...the visibility was excellent, the roads were dry and that's impressive considering the weather we've been having.

But there was hidden ice. Ice slowly losing its grip, just waiting to take flight and crush innocent victims. Now, for the record, I'm one of those good drivers that cleans snow and ice off all of my vehicle before driving. I don't leave snow on the hood that will blow off on to other cars...nope I clean it all off. But that isn't true of the 18-wheeler I was behind on I-355 at 1:30 P.M., Saturday Dec. 8, 2007.

I was driving along when huge chunks of ice debunked from the roof of the truck, soared through the air, targeted my car, and attacked. I couldn't change lanes because there were other cars, but I hit my brakes. SMASH! Several chunks of ice pounded my hood and one, the size of a cookie sheet or furnace filter and about an inch thick, bulldozed the front of the hood and stomped up to the windshield. Thankfully, the windshield held so Reggie and I weren't hurt! But my hood and the wiper are history. My car is at a body shop that has estimated the damage at $1,300. Not happy. Not happy. The hood rattles really bad, but we don't want to open it for fear of not being able to close it again, so there might be more damage.

I've filed a claim with my insurance agent and his staff said they think this will be treated as a Comprehensive claim. That means I won't have to pay anything, but the Claims department hasn't called me yet and I was told that might take 24 to 48 hours. Considering the bad weather, I'm not surprised I haven't heard from them they must be buried, but I'll call tomorrow afternoon if they don't call by then.

Here's where I could use your help!!! Several cars were hit by ice coming off this truck, but it kept going and I couldn't get close enough to get any identifying numbers. The only thing I know about the truck is that it had a logo of a large red 1 with the letter C stacked three times vertically in the 1. This image here is a very rough approximation of the logo...I don't know if the font are right and I don't know how close together the Cs were...but you get the idea. I don't know who that is...do you? I would love to tell my insurance company who to chase; especially if they don't classify it as Comprehensive and I get hit with my deductible.

This happened a few years ago to a friend of mine, only worse. Her windshield shattered and glass and ice hit everyone in the car. Another car got the truck to pull over and the trucker was very helpful. He urged my friend to file against his employer because the company wouldn't let truckers de-ice their trucks before getting on highways. This saved the trucking company time and money. I don't know if all trucking companies do this...I hope not. But in my case, the company has saved themselves the time and money for the de-icing and the repairs costs to my car...they've conveniently left the repair costs to me and my insurance company. Nice racket if that's what they're doing.

Let me know if you know the logo. Thanks!

UPDATE: The villain has been identified. Delmer and I have both spotted the logo and trucks on the highway. The negligent company that's saving itself money by not de-icing is Crete Carrier Corp. All I can say about Crete Carrier Corp is that they make me ill.

Comments

[delmer]

Sorry (Naturally).

Good job on getting the truck logo. A friend of mine had a problem of some sort with a truck and got the trailer number ... something like 53. Which turned out to be the length of the trailer and useless as an identifying mark.

[Missy]

The more I hear from people the more I think it's a scam. My insurance is paying for the whole bit...all because a trucking company won't pay to have their trucks de-iced in the morning. Argh. I hope your friend was ok!