Kevin's Watch

So a few months ago, an acquaintance of mine was involved in a one car accident on one of the WI state highways. He had some minor injuries, but his car had significant damage after hitting the guardrail. I ran into his wife the other day, and she indicated that they are now getting bills from the state, charging them for the guardrail he hit.

I had never heard of anything like this before. Guns, you work in the WI dept. of transportation, right? Does this make sense to you? (Anyone else can feel free to chime in too. ) I had assumed that state taxes paid for upkeep and maitanence of guardrails and such. It never occured to me that you might be charged for hitting one in a car accident. Seems kind of like adding insult to injury.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

my wife says the state of texas will also charge you for damage to their property.

Sounds right. The state is like any other owner who's property is damaged in an accident. It'd be handled by the insurance company, if they were insured.

Here is a link I found which seems related - Chicago bills when a law has been broken:
www.mnplan.state.mn.us/issues/resource.html?Id=3337

I don't know anything about Wisconsin state law (i.e., whether auto accidents can be termed 'fault' or 'no fault'), but it sounds like if your friend was deemed responsible for the accident and was cited for a violation (reckless driving or DUI would be pretty inescapable), then he could be held liable for the damage to public property, if the State decides to pursue the claim beyond sending a bill. In any case, the liability part of his auto insurance policy should cover this.

However, if he was not cited for some sort of violation at the time of the accident, the State would have less legal ground to stand on, should he wish to challenge it. Assuming the driver was not found to be at fault, then a good/evil lawyer might even try to push back and counterclaim that this stretch of road is hazardous and caused the accident.

Tell your friend to bill the state for the damage their guard rail did to his car.

When I worked local collections we actually had to collect on the cost to replace public service electric poles hit in an accident. States, municipalities and utilities have every right to bill you, unfortunately...

Thanks for the info guys. I don't have all the information, but I'm pretty sure he hadn't been in violation of any laws at the time - no DUI, not speeding, etc. He was coming home from a food tasting event (he's a chef) and had gotten food poisoning there, was dehydrated and went off the road as he passed out.

I guess what you're all saying about damaging state property makes sense, but I had assumed that unless it was willful damage (ie vadalism) that those types of things were part of expected wear and tear, and thus would be covered by taxes. Shows where making assumptions gets me.

you'll just as likely get a bill for the ambulance, and in some cases, the fire dept too!

Yeah, a friend of mine took down a telephone pole once with his truck.
I forget the amount of the bill he got but it was a big one.
But his insurance took care of it after the deductible.

When I was sixteen I sideswiped a telephone pole and knocked it over. My parents had to pay for it. And I'm still paying for it 6 years later.

The State can make you do whatever it wants.

Esmer wrote:you'll just as likely get a bill for the ambulance, and in some cases, the fire dept too!

I can vouch for that. Thank god for bitchin' insurance.

Emotional Leper wrote: The State can make you do whatever it wants.

that makes me happy sometimes.

Mortice Root wrote:...I had assumed that unless it was willful damage (ie vadalism) that those types of things were part of expected wear and tear, and thus would be covered by taxes.

It is, here. If you're gonna crash, do it in the UK.

Mortice Root wrote:Thanks for the info guys. I don't have all the information, but I'm pretty sure he hadn't been in violation of any laws at the time - no DUI, not speeding, etc. He was coming home from a food tasting event (he's a chef) and had gotten food poisoning there, was dehydrated and went off the road as he passed out.

I would think, given those circumstances, they'd charge him with something like reckless driving. His ability to drive a motor vehicle was impaired by him being sick.

Possibly, Damelon. I don't know them well enough to ask, so I'm just basically going on what they are volunteering to me. Thanks for all the input, everyone.

sgt.null wrote:

Emotional Leper wrote: The State can make you do whatever it wants.

that makes me happy sometimes.

And it scares me all the time. Bullies are scary. Particularly bullies with thermonuclear weapons.

Emotional Leper wrote:

sgt.null wrote:

Emotional Leper wrote: The State can make you do whatever it wants.

that makes me happy sometimes.

And it scares me all the time. Bullies are scary. Particularly bullies with thermonuclear weapons.

If the state uses thermonuclear weapons to enforce the repair bill for a guardrail, then you know you're in trouble.

Well... if you happen to be holding all the cards, it's pretty easy to change the rules as you go - for the good of the game, of course. [/ominousness]

dw

It's been a wonderful 7 years.







NOT!

I guess it changes country by country. I wasn't sure if these things are charged in the UK until CJ said not, although I know people who've taken out lamp posts and I don't recall them bitching about the bill.

I do know somebody who decided to drive his Audi RS4 up to Germany last year to spend a couple of days lapping the Nurburgring. He managed to leave the road at about 120mph after the car became unsettled by the bumps, but hit the barrier at a shallow angle and walked away unhurt.

The car was written off, but the police found a stopwatch in it and duly reported this to the insurance company, who took this as evidence Rich was racing and refused to pay out. Eventually he managed to get them to pay for the car, but not the £30,000 the German Department of Transport charged him for 20ft of bent armco barrier.

In summary the Nurburgring is very big indeed, but not at all clever.