Hello all,
Thanks for the numerous notes of sympathy and suggestions for a good
exhaust. I think I'm going with stainless for the new system. Not only
that, it's going to be welded in place and tied tightly to the car. But,
I've met some resistance...
I was given the advice to file a police report by the local DOT,
since it's the city's contractors that are doing the work. The city of
craters is Latrobe, PA, for those of you looking for an area to avoid. And
yes, that's where they make Rolling Rock beer. ;-)
So, I took pictures of the damage to the car, damage to the pipes,
and the two offending areas that caused the turmoil. As it turns out, I was
wrong about the railroad tracks - they were not under construction. They
were supposedly fixed this spring!!!
I also took pictures of the manhole cover that started the incident,
and the tracks that finished the deal. At the tracks, there is a sickening
scrape in the pavement that could have only been caused by my pipes hanging
up. I've got a picture of that too.
The officer I talked to was very helpful - he looked at the evidence,
and is filing a report about the incident for the city. We estimated the
damage at about $500 - between the body work and the exhaust system. When I
asked him about my next step, he said that it was standard procedure to
report the damage to my insurance company!
BULL$HIT!!! I'm not paying for this!
So, dear listers, my memory is racing. I *think* that our own, dear
Larry Macy reported that he got a payment for wheels that were damaged by
terrible road conditions in PA. Larry, was that you, or am I thinking of
someone else? Anyone else have any luck with getting payment for damaged
parts because of faulty road conditions?
I'm going to fight this as far as I can. I don't want my insurance
premium going up because of road conditions that I could do nothing about!
I'll be damned if they're getting another cent out of me! I'm going to call
the local road authority and see if I can shake them up - maybe a letter from
the family lawyer will get something done...
Maybe I'm going too far with this. Maybe there aren't enough people
that will stand up when they think they've been wronged. Maybe I need to go
to sleep, and when I wake up this will all have been a nightmare...
Mike Lishego
1974 MGB (Subject of great legal and ethical debate)
1986 Plymouth Turismo Turbo (Subject of an experiment in stealth)
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