V you could be correct but I do not think so. Talk to some insurance adjusters and police officers and see how long it has been since they weighed a motor home after an accident.
I'm an accident investigator for the largest metro sheriff's department in Texas and if it doesn't involve a COMMERCIAL vehicle I can't get a DOT unit to come weigh it...and no one else has scales. I say good luck ever proving an RV (or any other non commercial vehicle) was overweight in most states.
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What's an 'accident', don't they call them collisions down there?
Up in Washington, I can get anything weighed that I want. And yes, I have seen non-commercial vehicles weighed for serious injury or fatality collisions. Then, since Washington has a "Disregard for Safety of Others" written into the Vehicular Assault and Vehicular Homicide laws, the evidence that the vehicle was past the ratings will be introduced into court.
Gale Hawkins wrote: V you could be correct but I do not think so. Talk to some insurance adjusters and police officers and see how long it has been since they weighed a motor home after an accident.
As a police officer with 25+ years of experience, and a person who has investigated hundreds of accidents (more fatal accidents then I care to think about), I can tell you that IF an officer believes that weight has ANYTHING to do with the accident (commercial or not), the vehicle(s) would be weighed. Certified scales are easily accessible in Arizona. Most major cities have them and the State police (DPS) have them available for any agency that doesn't have their own.
I can tell you first had about an accident where weight was an issue for a truck towing a trailer that was overweight by 2800 pounds, which caused the hitch to fail and the travel trailer (toy hauler) to become detached from the tow vehicle, crossing left of center into on-coming traffic, causing a fatal accident.
Keep one other thing in mind - insurance companies employee their own investigators (ex-police officers) to try and determine CONTRIBUTOR NEGLIGENCE on all large accident claims to minimize the insurance companies exposure. They don't have to "weigh" your truck, trailer, toy hauler, motorhome, whatever at the scene, the can do it at a later date and time... If they can find a way to NOT pay, or limited the amount they pay, they will... It saves them millions every year and your kidding yourself if you think it doesn't happen. Insurance companies don't make millions every year by paying claims.
What's an 'accident', don't they call them collisions down there?
Up in Washington, I can get anything weighed that I want. And yes, I have seen non-commercial vehicles weighed for serious injury or fatality collisions. Then, since Washington has a "Disregard for Safety of Others" written into the Vehicular Assault and Vehicular Homicide laws, the evidence that the vehicle was past the ratings will be introduced into court.
V that was a good specific of a case involving an RV. When death occurs it does change things and 2800 pounds is not a small amount of being over weight. I was thinking more in terms of a motor home and it would be hard to overload a motor home by that amount unless you filled it with fruit or something like that but at would be clear at the scene. I think you will agree private passenger vehicles like motor homes just do not get the attention of commercial vehicles.
CONTRIBUTOR NEGLIGENCE is a term that may not apply to this subject as you can read at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/contributory+negligence:
Noun 1. contributory negligence - (law) behavior by the plaintiff that contributes to the harm resulting from the defendant's negligence; "in common law any degree of contributory negligence would bar the plaintiff from collecting damages".
Insurance does pay claims based on the written contract they have with the policy holder. I think what you may be thinking about has to do with the deals struck by carriers with each other and not the ones they insure. If I go to turn and do not signal and you rear end me then it is true you did not stay in full control of your vehicle because you hit me. However if I did not give a signal and you make a statement to this effect the two carries may decide there was a 30% chance you would have stayed in control of your vehicle had I correctly signaled my turn then my carrier may decide to pay 30% of the damages you created to my vehicle and your carrier will pay 70% of the damages you created. This can vary from state to state due to state laws.
CONTRIBUTOR NEGLIGENCE would be more like in a case where you have an RV store and after clearly posted business hours I am on your lot and find a MH that is not locked and I go in it to check it out and the way out I slip and fall. I was on your lot at an hour when you were closed and it was getting dark so I assumed some of the risk. Maybe I was 2x my idea weight (over weight) and had just had 3 beers at the restaurant across the street, etc. When I sued you these are the kinds of things your defense would bring out. This is more of a legal issue then an insurance issue but if I loose my case against you then your insurance carrier will be happy. Insurance carriers pay more often than not when a policy holder creates covered losses. I know I was surprised before we got into the property claims software solution business at how readily carriers pay claims. Also having been rear ended about nine years ago I was surprised at how free they are with their money. Carriers work off of the odds and when a loss occurs they work to limit the loss amount by settling as fast as possible to a known concrete fixed dollar amount.
And back to OP, since with is safety a myth? This is an old argument that won't be solved here ever. Want to be unsafe towing then, please just post a sign saying "Fool Behind Wheel, Exercise caution". That way those of who are concerned with safety can at least be notified of the danger.
NoLookingBack wrote: And back to OP, since with is safety a myth? This is an old argument that won't be solved here ever. Want to be unsafe towing then, please just post a sign saying "Fool Behind Wheel, Exercise caution". That way those of who are concerned with safety can at least be notified of the danger.
Hi NoLookingBack,
I must apologize. I re-read the 4 questions that I posed in the original post and did not see any references to safety. Can you point out where I referred to safety? I'm just not seeing it.
My intentions with this post is to explore the ideas that the 4 questions focus on. These questions came about after reading post after post about insurance companies not paying claims, people being cited as "at fault" not matter what actually happened, law enforcement officers combing the highways picking up debris to be weighed, and people having to sleep in their cars or homeless shelters because they were sued.
* This post was
edited 01/07/08 06:33am by rshidler *
Bob & Jamie
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- Don't sweat petty things ... and don't pet sweaty things!
- I can't be troubled with your business ... I'm far too busy tending to my own!
- Remember, just because you saw it on the internet doesn't make it so!
They don't weigh your rig or cancel your insurance just because you crushed someones fender.
As the above LEO posters stated, if they feel that during the course of an accident investigation, they need to have something weighted, measured, or otherwise quantified, it will happen. I am peripherally associated with accident investigations and our state police have no problem seizing a vehicle (or its remains) for examination as to cause. Do I have first hand knowledger of an exact event where weight was suspected as a factor, no. But I have seen them consider and dismiss weight as a cause without going to the extream.
Is the purpose of this post to support your decision to run overweight, or are you just passing time?
Dave & Mary
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If it's listed in the Yellow Pages, the government shouldn't be messing around with it.
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