About Insurance, Community Health Schemes and Doing Harm
**For the sake of authenticity, I should state that I wrote this post five months prior to actually posting it. I expect you would understand why**
I won't bury the lead - I hit a motorcycle yesterday. This post is not about how terribly I feel for hurting another human being, or traumatizing my passengers, for impacting his family, and for the time I took from all the kind folks who stopped to help. It could be about all that, but that's for me to own and this blog's purpose has never been as a cathartic outlet for my guilt, though I'll concede it is a theme.
To clear the mud - my vehicle was hardly moving and acted more as a barrier to the bike, who because of the tractor ahead of us, or my unfamiliarity with right hand drive, or (possibly) his speed, I just didn't see coming over the hill opposite us as I was turning in to a driveway on a country road at mid-day. His leg was injured, and the bike scratched up, but no blood or unconsciousness or screaming. The injury more likely from the fall into the rocky ditch, than from the collision itself which was a hard glance off the front right panel of my car. I hurt a human, but a seemingly cliche combination of factors conspiring against us all could have compounded with my bad decision making into a far worse scenario.
And once I put the car in park safely out of the road (which took a hot second, let me tell you) and got out of the car to find him conscious, moving and speaking, a host of nightmares went quiet and I was able to focus somewhat on the actual problem in front of me.
Which I turned over in my head like this:
Is someone calling an ambulance? [Yes] How bad are his injuries? ['I'm ok. My foot's fucked,' he said] I wonder if he'd be mad if I tried to touch him? [No need, four cars have now stopped to help him and a neighbor has come out] We have insurance, right? [Yes] Will it cover everything? [I don't know] Will the national healthcare be able to give him what he needs? [Dunno] What's our deductible [I don't know] Oh shit, it's not even his bike. If he's not insured or licensed to drive a motorcycle, does it screw him over? [I don't know] What happens if this affects his work? [I dunno] Will our insurance give him what he needs for medical, the bike AND if he misses work? [I dunno] Will the family let me contact him? [IDK] Could I be arrested? [IDK] How does NZ even assign fault in auto collisions? [IDK] Will we have the money to handle his medical, our vehicles, any other distress it causes him or his family, and whatever trouble I've just gotten in to with the NZ legal system, and however this impacts our insurance here? [IDK IDK IDK IDK]
I explain the above to illustrate the point that the web of procedures and resources that exist to help us manage an event like this is complicated. And I have some understanding of how it works in the US, and what is expected of me in places where NONE of this infrastructure exists. But trembling roadside in the middle of summer, overlooking a scene of flashing lights and helping bystanders, trying to be available but not in the way, I just did not have the information I wanted.
But then it started to come.
My first indication that my terror about the outcome of all this was tuned a bit too high came from one of the first folks who'd stopped to help. She came over, told me I was shaking (yea, I know, lady) and kindly reminded me that no one had died. And accidents just happen.
She wasn't wrong, objectively. But the nonchalance of her statement did not jive with my understanding of how this kind of thing can shake out. The neighbors also came with the expected "this road is terrible"
Then the police told me not to worry too much about it. Two different officers, in fact. By the second, I was so aghast that I snapped "I just put another human in an ambulance. I think it's right I should feel bad." But I was getting the distinct impression that my understanding of traffic accident fallout where a human is injured, and theirs, had a bit of a gap.
Starting with what happens to me. I was told I'd get a call from the police in a couple days once he'd gotten care, and they'd processed the statements, and they'd tell me what, if anything (?!) I would need to do. Could be a careless driver citation - $100 fine, or ::his brow furrowed:: You may need to appear in front of a judge, and ::shoulders shrugging:: pay even up to $300 for causing the driver harm and distress.
..... With the conversion rate, that's just over 200 USD. Less than a speeding ticket in the US.
And then I learned what happens to him. We called our insurance company to file the claim - $400 deductible - which covers our car and the damage to the bike. So I thought "excellent - at least we have good collision coverage" then we inhaled and asked about the medical expenses. And the woman on the line said it would all likely be covered by ACC. After she realized we knew nothing about ACC, she explained - ACC is a national scheme that covers everyone involved in an accident. If my passengers experienced whiplash - covered. If I sprained my thumb - covered. If any of us were just tourists - covered. If he need physical therapy in four years for this - covered. We pay in to it every time we buy gas. If he loses wages during recovery, or for any appointments - covered.
There are still unknowns. And I still harmed someone. However legal and objective fault shakes out on this, they are hurt and I, at minimum, could have avoided it. More likely, my negligence caused it. But it is a relief to know that the guesswork is out of the road to making everyone whole again. That the system isn't rigged in my favor because I have all the right insurance. That it truly was "just an accident"
And I'm also very grateful for dogs - who love us even when we're assholes.
I won't bury the lead - I hit a motorcycle yesterday. This post is not about how terribly I feel for hurting another human being, or traumatizing my passengers, for impacting his family, and for the time I took from all the kind folks who stopped to help. It could be about all that, but that's for me to own and this blog's purpose has never been as a cathartic outlet for my guilt, though I'll concede it is a theme.
To clear the mud - my vehicle was hardly moving and acted more as a barrier to the bike, who because of the tractor ahead of us, or my unfamiliarity with right hand drive, or (possibly) his speed, I just didn't see coming over the hill opposite us as I was turning in to a driveway on a country road at mid-day. His leg was injured, and the bike scratched up, but no blood or unconsciousness or screaming. The injury more likely from the fall into the rocky ditch, than from the collision itself which was a hard glance off the front right panel of my car. I hurt a human, but a seemingly cliche combination of factors conspiring against us all could have compounded with my bad decision making into a far worse scenario.
And once I put the car in park safely out of the road (which took a hot second, let me tell you) and got out of the car to find him conscious, moving and speaking, a host of nightmares went quiet and I was able to focus somewhat on the actual problem in front of me.
Which I turned over in my head like this:
Is someone calling an ambulance? [Yes] How bad are his injuries? ['I'm ok. My foot's fucked,' he said] I wonder if he'd be mad if I tried to touch him? [No need, four cars have now stopped to help him and a neighbor has come out] We have insurance, right? [Yes] Will it cover everything? [I don't know] Will the national healthcare be able to give him what he needs? [Dunno] What's our deductible [I don't know] Oh shit, it's not even his bike. If he's not insured or licensed to drive a motorcycle, does it screw him over? [I don't know] What happens if this affects his work? [I dunno] Will our insurance give him what he needs for medical, the bike AND if he misses work? [I dunno] Will the family let me contact him? [IDK] Could I be arrested? [IDK] How does NZ even assign fault in auto collisions? [IDK] Will we have the money to handle his medical, our vehicles, any other distress it causes him or his family, and whatever trouble I've just gotten in to with the NZ legal system, and however this impacts our insurance here? [IDK IDK IDK IDK]
I explain the above to illustrate the point that the web of procedures and resources that exist to help us manage an event like this is complicated. And I have some understanding of how it works in the US, and what is expected of me in places where NONE of this infrastructure exists. But trembling roadside in the middle of summer, overlooking a scene of flashing lights and helping bystanders, trying to be available but not in the way, I just did not have the information I wanted.
But then it started to come.
My first indication that my terror about the outcome of all this was tuned a bit too high came from one of the first folks who'd stopped to help. She came over, told me I was shaking (yea, I know, lady) and kindly reminded me that no one had died. And accidents just happen.
She wasn't wrong, objectively. But the nonchalance of her statement did not jive with my understanding of how this kind of thing can shake out. The neighbors also came with the expected "this road is terrible"
Then the police told me not to worry too much about it. Two different officers, in fact. By the second, I was so aghast that I snapped "I just put another human in an ambulance. I think it's right I should feel bad." But I was getting the distinct impression that my understanding of traffic accident fallout where a human is injured, and theirs, had a bit of a gap.
Starting with what happens to me. I was told I'd get a call from the police in a couple days once he'd gotten care, and they'd processed the statements, and they'd tell me what, if anything (?!) I would need to do. Could be a careless driver citation - $100 fine, or ::his brow furrowed:: You may need to appear in front of a judge, and ::shoulders shrugging:: pay even up to $300 for causing the driver harm and distress.
..... With the conversion rate, that's just over 200 USD. Less than a speeding ticket in the US.
And then I learned what happens to him. We called our insurance company to file the claim - $400 deductible - which covers our car and the damage to the bike. So I thought "excellent - at least we have good collision coverage" then we inhaled and asked about the medical expenses. And the woman on the line said it would all likely be covered by ACC. After she realized we knew nothing about ACC, she explained - ACC is a national scheme that covers everyone involved in an accident. If my passengers experienced whiplash - covered. If I sprained my thumb - covered. If any of us were just tourists - covered. If he need physical therapy in four years for this - covered. We pay in to it every time we buy gas. If he loses wages during recovery, or for any appointments - covered.
There are still unknowns. And I still harmed someone. However legal and objective fault shakes out on this, they are hurt and I, at minimum, could have avoided it. More likely, my negligence caused it. But it is a relief to know that the guesswork is out of the road to making everyone whole again. That the system isn't rigged in my favor because I have all the right insurance. That it truly was "just an accident"
And I'm also very grateful for dogs - who love us even when we're assholes.
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