ole joyful - Maybe I missed something some where along the way. Do you drive a truck and that's why you need a truck driver's license? I think one of the reasons so many have suggested that you might stop driving is that they care for you and are worried about you. You mentioned that you failed the test for the following reasons: "driving too slowly, didn't give nearby car enough space in multiple lane turn, not check blind spot enough, etc." These reasons seem valid reasons for failing the test. I understand that you passed the vision test for a regular license but my concern is the driving part. When my Dad moved in with us at age 85 he was still driving. He had only had one minor accident in 20 years. One day I happened to be following him home and noticed he was driving very slowly, not coming to a complete stop at stop signs and when he turned he made such wide turns that he was in the other lane. So one afternoon my neighbor and I followed him so that I could have another opinion of his skills and unfortunately his driving was even more erratic. I was planning on talking with him about it that evening. Unfortunately that afternoon he was parallel parking and thought the car was in reverse - it was in forward and he hit the car in front and pushed it 8 feet into the intersection. He came home and was so shaken up that he handed me his keys and said that it was time. I apolozige if I've offended you. I certainly don't know how well you drive and if I am wrong I wish you many years of happy driving. But we are all concerned and I hope that when my time comes to give up the keys someone who loves me will tell me.

A ticket should be public record, but contact the officer who was at the scene. I imagine it could be that it's not public data until they either admit guilt and pay the fine or go to court. Did you get a copy of the police report yet? If so, it should have the insurance company and policy number of all drivers, including other info. Often it will say whether a ticket was issued but it's usually not a big deal to call the officer. It might take a few days to get back to you. Oh, wait, I see you did get the report. Whether a ticket was issued really won't make a lot of difference though as far as repairing the vehicle. Being on the road automatically makes the driver partly to blame. Just depends on how much. Around here, 20%-30% is pretty common. I don't keep an attorney on hand. I know of some I would use for certain things but they also charge $200-$600 or more per hour. I've represented myself in court 3 times and won every time. If you have a serious injury, yes, I'd say consult a lawyer, but if you're going to have one represent you on negotiating for a car repair... SHEESH! You *really* want to pay $400+ per hour to have him/her talk on the phone and write some letters, then relay to you? I sure wouldn't! LOL I highly doubt you'll stand a chance of being reimbursed for legal fees for negotiating a car repair! The insurance company is under no obligation to buy you a new car unless you have special coverage. They go by the insurance rate books for book value on a vehicle. And no, things like new tires, a new battery, etc will not increase the value as some people think it should. Low mileage will raise value and good condition but often an old car in excellent shape isn't going to be worth what the owners usually think it should be. And in fairness to the insurance company, it shouldn't unless everyone is ready to pay more for their insurance. So if book value is $10k and the damage approaches it, they'll probably total it and ink you a check. If it's under that, they'll pay for the repair. And if you choose to not repair the vehicle they can deduct a portion, something like 25%-30% as I recall. Now keep in mind laws vary from state to state so asking legal advice online is a precarious thing to do. You will need to do your homework. Also keep in mind that most of the adjusters have more than one person they're dealing with so they might not be available to you at every moment you want them. Questions and the like can be routed through your agent. That's what they get paid for. They certainly should be able to tell you a time frame for things and whether the delays are normal or not. Sometimes it can be a good thing to have it totaled, buy it back and fix it. However it depends on what they can get for salvage value too. And occasionally they have people lined up to get insurance recoveries so it can up the price of it. I negotiated my one settlement as $___ plus I keep the vehicle. Although that was an old car and they really didn't want it anyway. It's a stressful time. Keep your head. Keep calm. Things will work out. BTW, Great Northern Insurance Agency in Chicago is an insurance broker so they handle several companies. This is neither good nor bad. I used to be with a broker. I liked the idea of several options since my agent would regularly check which company had better rates for me and would switch me around. Now with a single company, I have to do the checking. Anyway, it should be easy enough to do a little homework from the info you have to determine if it's this agency or if there's an insurance company called Great Northern. If you want to do more legwork, then deal directly with the other insurance company. If you want to let your company do the work, let them. You might get a better settlement if you represent yourself but you'll trade off time and frustration, plus you'll be going up against a "professional" most likely so do you feel confident? As long as you understand the assignments of blame and the like and understand and research values, etc, you could do OK. There's truth to the statement that insurance companies want to settle for as little as they can, but there's another factor few people understand. The quicker they can settle it, the less it costs them in some ways too so if they spend a few more dollars to get a quick settlement, it's to their benefit. This is why insurance companies settle rather quickly with each other even taking a bit less. Close the file and move on. Have you had a chance to get an estimate on it yet? That should give you more info on deciding how you want to approach it. Naturally all caveats and disclaimers apply since my experiences are with Minnesota laws, not Illinois. Around here, replacement coverage only applies on Homeowners policies. With a new car, certainly it's going to be different and they'd be more amenable to totaling a 3 week old vehicle since the reclaim value on that car would be quite high. Fix it and sell it. I had an uncle in the auto parts business for a lot of years and he bought totals, fixed and sold them, among other things. Good luck. Try not to let it bug you too much. As long as nobody was seriously hurt, the car is a small thing in the grand scheme of life.

When I'm being tailed too close I tap my break pedal just enough so the light goes on and they think I'm breaking. After a couple of times, they get the hint, but I love the window washer idea, will try that next time. One thing some drivers do that I just don't get is to ignore merge lanes. We have a lot of turning lanes that start out as two at the turn light, but after the turn, they eventually merge into one. Ideally, cars are supposed to alternate to form a single line, but instead a lot of folks here purposely speed up so the car from the other lane can't get in even though the lane is ending. Seriously? Where are they supposed to go? Over the curb? The same thing happens on the freeway too when there's an accident or road construction. It really irks me to no end.

Out main freeway and the only one in a good part of thr state is the same one Elmer wrote about I-5 It’s usually 3 lanes, often only 2 in some rural areas and 4 thru parts of urban area. I’m mostly on the 3 lane sections and it is clogged with truck traffic. Usually bumper to bumper in the right lane, then the middle lane is filled with trucks that think the right lane is too slow for them, so the are technically ”passing” the trucks in the right lane but they never move right ( or don’t for miles and miles). Both lanes are often so clogged that it’s not safe to try to squeeze in, or if you do, you are walled in on 3 sides by big rigs. Often they are driving an ok speed, but our feeways have lots of hlls, so they slow on the hills. Woe be to the drivers who want to try to get into the left lane to get out of the clog because it is filled with cars who think they are entitled to drive there exclusively because they are going over the limit. They never move right and if you get in their way they will tailgate even if there is no break in the trucks for you to move over and get out of their way. And I’m not talking about me going slow in the left lane; it doesn’t matter how fast you go, the aggressive drivers want no one in front of them.