Winnebago Damage & Survival Story

[Y-Guy]

I thought I?d share my rather bizarre story of how my Winnebago Sightseer was recently damaged with you all.

I woke up a couple weeks ago about 2AM to find we were dark, no power. Eventually figured it wasn't just my house but the entire neighborhood. Looking outside I couldn't see a single light for miles. I flipped the main off, oddly enough my cell phone and the tower nearby worked. Local power company knew about the outage but no idea when it would be back or why. About 3:30 I woke up to the street light being on so turned our power on and went back to bed.

Went to work that morning and went about my day.  About 5PM I headed get my flatbed trailer from the motorhome in storage. Looking around I find a bunch of broke pieces of plastic. Sure looks like my MaxxAire vent covers, then I find a couple sewer caps! What the heck somebody tried to break in to my motorhome through the vent? I checked inside and found the bathroom fan assembly crushed and an open skylight.  Dang it! Glad I was taking Friday off to go with the kids on the their band trip as I'll have time to make a temporary cover.

So on a hunch I call the storage lot owner, who lives 3 houses down and ask if there have been any break in's over the past couple weeks. He chuckles and asks if I knew about the power outage... yes.  He chuckles more and tells me a good story.  Well turns out the outage was caused by a drunk driver on the street behind my house down by the storage lot. Police estimate he was going over 60MPH.  He managed to hit the curb, then two boulders and went airborne and managed to fly/roll into two BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) power polls with three live relay lines. Turns out the power line had fallen right on the motorhome, the lines managed to crush the skylight over the shower, and the vent fan/MaxxAir Cover, two sew caps, the radio antenna and rear ladder was partially damaged.

He did damage to 3 other RVs, the other guy with a similar rig go it pretty bad too.  The kid was driving Daddy?s truck, which is totaled, but he walked away with bruises.  Well he walked away, but he did walk to the officers waiting car to be booked into jail on suspicion of DUI.

Damage estimate from our dealer is just shy of $2,000 if I have them do all the work.  Unlucky, for me I have a $1,000 deductible and found out his Insurance company has already estimated the various damaged to RVs, storage lot, BPA and local utility with exceed his limits.  For now I?m having the skylight and vent fan replaced.  I think I can fix the sewer caps myself and the ladder though beaten up will probably work.  If I get the rest of the money I?ll get it fixed.

The good news in all of this is that no electrical items were fried, even though I was told the power line was live when it hit.  The plastic cover around the wire was about to melt though as it hung on the metal fence around the storage lot though, but it then fried out several transformers and other items that were connected to the lines.  The other good news was that the roof is not damaged or cracked.  Myself and two guys from the shop walked on it, couldn?t find any cracks or dings. (whew!) Thanks Winnebago for making a heck of a solid roof!

First photo is a view of the power lines overhead, I'm standing on top of my RV, second is of the damage to the vent & skylight.  I?m still amazed there wasn?t more damage done.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Sorry to hear about the insurance situation - exceeding the limits of coverage is one of those things we seldom think or hear about.

 

[Jim Godward]

Sorry to hear about the insurance situation - exceeding the limits of coverage is one of those things we seldom think or hear about.

One of the reasons to carry a large umbrella policy for liability.  At least then you have a chance that stuff will be covered if you are at fault.  Collision should take care of you.

 

[99WinAdventurer37G]

I carry a $1,000,000 umbrella and it's only $167 a year.  The problem with most states is that liability limits were set 20 or so years ago and are not tied to inflation, so are very outdated. 

On the bright side, he should be liable if you have the time to take him to small claims court.  But Daddy may settle out of court if you talk to him, as he knows it's his son that caused the damage in his car.

 

[Lou Schneider]

But Daddy may settle out of court if you talk to him

... especially if you start mentioning words like contributory negligence. 

 

[Y-Guy]

Thanks.  Situation does suck, but thankful the roof didn't crack at least (finding the positive in all of this).  Umbrella policy is a good idea, should have done that a long time ago.  Won't help me now but think I'll call my primary carrier.   

My carrier did mail the son and dad/mom a letter separately (copy arrived today) requesting they contact them to arrange for payment immediately. I don't expect that to move their insurance company any faster.  But hoping they want to get thing cleaned up. Seeing they are about 4 houses away it will make for some interesting times come summer. 

Having been hit by two uninsured drunks before I told my carrier that if they didn't pursue I would take him to small claims.  Took one guy 4 years to pay me off, rode him every month but he finally paid up.

contributory negligence - may have to look into that.

 

[JPete]

Wouldn't you think that the Storage Lot owner should have contacted anyone whose property may have been damaged by the falling power line? What if you had not gone to the lot for a few weeks and had water damage from rain. I guess payment of lot rent doesn't pay for common courtesy anymore.

Just my 2 cents.

Pete

 

[Foto-n-T]

It's interesting that the utility company allows ANYTHING to be stored or erected in the utility right of way.  In Arizona, Arizona Public Service which provides power around the state specifically prohibits any structure, storage or long term parking on their right of ways. I have a friend who owns property that has a right of way going across it and he would love to expand his RV park and storage facility but is unable to do so for this reason.

I would investigate whether or not you might be able to get the deep pockets of the utility company to cough up some chips for the damage that "their" lines caused to "your" property.  They in turn can subrogate the loss back to Daddy.  It's worth a shot.

 

[Dance Chick]

Wouldn't you think that the Storage Lot owner should have contacted anyone whose property may have been damaged by the falling power line? What if you had not gone to the lot for a few weeks and had water damage from rain. I guess payment of lot rent doesn't pay for common courtesy anymore.

Just my 2 cents.

Pete

I thought the same thing.

 

[dan2]

I would chuckle as I told the storage owner I'm moving my coach! Second thing I would do is hire a lawyer, Daddy's on the hook....
Does anyone besides me cover their investment;

Dan

 

[dan2]

On second thought.... what's a couple of thousand bucks between neighbors?

 

[Y-Guy]

John thanks for moving the post.

Pete, good point, to his credit his computer was fried along with the controls that allowed access and exit, he did say he was going to call me.  Having known him for about 10 years I think he was being honest with me.  He?s been great about keeping me in the loop since, and gave me the heads up a few days before I got  call from the drivers insurance company that  limits could be reached.

Joe, thanks I?d wondered that too.  I?ll call my insurance company to see what their take on it is.  I figured it was like if you rear ended in a long line, one by one they go after each other and the last guy gets soaked.

dan, I?m avoiding lawyering up just yet.  But very may well go to small claims.  I would move but the storage place is less then 1/2 mile from my house, and I drive by it to/from work every day so I can keep an eye on it, for $30/month I store my RV & 16 flatbed trailer there, hard to beat.  I don?t cover the RV for several reasons, mostly we use it a lot.  If it say for 3-5 months I would but we were thinking about a trip over Thanksgiving and Christmas, it had been used at my kids Marching Band events.  We also live in an area with frequent high winds and the cover would probably do more damage on the sidewalls I figure.  I have been working with the lot owner to build a covered/powered area, he?s thinking about it.

 

[dan2]

That price and that location, I would stay too. Steve, I thought we were the only ones camping on Thanksgiving: last year only three others were
at the campground. Good luck with all the fixes. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Y-Guy]

You too Dan, wish we were going out.  We've made it down to Canon Beach in Oregon several times, and Beverly Beach too.  Now we're hoping to get to one of those spots for Christmas, but depends on road conditions.

Giving things this week to settle down then I'll be poking their insurance company to try to settle things.  Figure being slightly annoying can't hurt.

 

[Foto-n-T]

I'd probably contact the utility company rather than my insurance company. Your insurance company really has no vested interest in this but the utility company may cough up just to make you go away. Good luck and let is know what happens. All in all you shouldn't have to foot the bill just because of somebody else's mistake.