On the way in to work last night, I was nb on 35 in Buda (Byoo-duh to you out of staters) middle lane 70mph. On my right was a tractor/trailer, to my left a small car. All of us doing 65-70 in heavy traffic. The southbound lanes were thick also. Out of the wild blue yonder, like in a video game, a tire with wheel came bouncing from the sb lanes, at 70ish also. It decides to cross the concrete divider, as it was bouncing 20-25 feet high, and started for the center lane I'm in. I couldn't dodge right- semi truck, I couldn't wreck the folks in the small car to my left, so I got as close to the left lane as I could, and took the lick on the front bumper/grill. Air bags didn't deploy, no glass breakage but all my idiot lights came on, lost power and got it off the highway. The attached picture shows the damage.
Long story short, a witness came back to me and said a car had hit the wall on the sb side, and the wheel had came off that car. Cops and wrecker show up, witness gives his account to Buda PD, who sent another unit there. Driver gave them fict name, had warrants out of state, and no insurance. I feel LUCKY those folks stopped and talked to the officer.
Anyway, my truck is an 07 with 212k miles. Do any of you insurance guys think it's totaled?
I'm not sure dumping 3-4k into a 11 year old vehicle is such a smart idea. Other than today's fiasco, it is/was mechanically sound.
And yeah, I've already been truck shopping on line.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MRBTX,

Can’t help regarding the insurance aspect but I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re ok

wow! I’m glad you came out of this unharmed.

That's nasty. I saw one heading my way over the median on Alligator Alley a while back. I was fortunate enough to time it properly to have a near miss. The thing was really flying and I almost crapped my pants.

Glad you’re ok. I’m sure this bender took the spirit from the day?

Be damn lucky that didn't come through the windshield. A shame about the truck.

Guatemalans will buy that and drive it home in a caravan to repair and sell.

I don't think the year is what is going to get it you. It is the mileage. My guess is your truck is worth about $10k. If the damage is $4k, insurance fixes it. If it is $6k, you get a check.

my third most surreal driving experience was when that same situation happened to me
I was driving home from work, and 30 feet in the air , there was a tire and rim , falling
from the sky !

it hit the ground , in my lane, 75 feet in front of my car ( doing 60 m.p.h. ) you
could see it spinning at around 55.m.p.h.and itbounced back up, I passed underneath it
and it hit the ground fifty feet behind me.

a micro second after it hit the highway, it bounced in to the front of a pickup.

it took me another 2 miles to process what the heck just happened.

of all the crap you try to prepare for on the highways of Maricopa county , AZ,
thats one I could have never imagined.

Yikes glad you're all right.

I think the truck is totaled, personally. Entire new front end... hood, grill, fender, lights, possibly some work on quarter panels, plus whatever they're gonna find inside...

I also saw a tire/wheel come off a vehicle on I75 here in Atlanta about a year ago. Car was on my side and going 65-70 when it came off, about 300 yards ahead of me. Fortunately the tire hit a big divider and did not make it onto the other side into oncoming traffic.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: YellowJacket,

Holy heck. Glad you are safe.

I know a guy with a Hurst tool.

For when you feel the need to unclench your buttocks.

Glad you are ok.
I know of a similar case where the tire went through the windshield killing the young lady who was driving. Wrong place wrong time.

quote:

Originally posted by armedprof:
I don't think the year is what is going to get it you. It is the mileage. My guess is your truck is worth about $10k. If the damage is $4k, insurance fixes it. If it is $6k, you get a check.

$10k sounds like a good ballpark estimate. I would sure think it's worth fixing, but it may be smarter to cut your losses and go with purchasing a new / newer one.

Damn shame that morons with warrants and no insurance are allowed to drive around causing havoc and destruction. Just like a tiny percentage of the population is responsible for the majority of murders, the same could be said for car accidents. It's the same ones over and over.

It was amazing how fast that tire closed the distance from when I first saw it until it hit the truck. Honestly, I think it's totaled also. Looking at a 2018 F150 xlt 4x4 as a replacement.
I'll update this when I know more.

Better the grille than the windshield. Glad you're alright.

Like others have said I'm glad you survived relatively intact.

As for your truck, the damage is way more than 3-4K
It could very well be totaled.
Let us know how this turns out.

Really glad you're ok, more glad you were paying attention and knew all your options and didn't turn a bad event into a massive pileup with injuries to yourself and others. I suspect you were squeezing as far left as you could and had sucked in every bit of air in the cab trying to get even skinnier!

I'm gonna go with totaled as well, just because all the components that look to be impacted. Either way, hope all works out well for you and you never see such a thing again.

One night on an urban interstate, a pickup changed lanes in front of me and then bounced up like he hit something big showering me with debris. I hit the brakes thinking he hit a car and I was about to crash into a pileup. He limped off at the next exit due to damage. He hit a large tube type TV that pretty much exploded when the front tire hit it. I might have hit it if he hadn't changed lanes in front of me.

Glad you escaped what could have been a result bad experience.
I couldn't take the totaling and come up with 30k rather than spend 5k even 15k. But I'm retired & living small.

As others have said, the mileage is what will get you. But in TX the total loss threshold is 100% of the vehicle value. So the damages will have to reach that before they total it.