On October 11, 2018, while stopped for a construction zone flagman, I was hit from behind by a forty ton semi truck traveling fifty miles per hour. Apparently, "revised" accident reports, produced following the incident, state that I stopped in the middle of nowhere on a dark highway where I impeded the truck's travel. The video below, shot a few minutes after being knocked unconscious by the impact of a forty ton truck, clearly shows construction zone equipment, lights and construction zone workers in reflective vests standing on the side of the road. The original video file, shot on a Samsung phone, contains Metadata with the exact date and time.
At this point, my hearing aids were somewhere on the side of the highway, ejected from the glove compartment when the semi truck ripped apart the passenger side of the truck. The insurance companies refused to replace them. For more than two years, I would be functionally deaf, not being able to hear or carry on a conversation.
At the accident scene, Chiloquin Fire & Rescue ran the "check you out" on me. This is one of the oldest accident scams there is. I saw it all the time when I was a tow truck driver. The paramedic asks if you require medical treatment and asks to check you out. Even if you refuse treatment, if the paramedic touches you, legally that constitutes "treatment", and you get a bill. I refused treatment because I was busy picking up my belongings the semi truck had scattered along the dark highway. Instead of helping me out, the Chiloquin paramedic tapped me on the shoulder and sent me a bill.
Years after I lost everything because of the accident and was living in my truck, Chiloquin Fire & Rescue continued to run their scam and try to get a couple hundred bucks out of a homeless veteran.
Truck Driver Assault
Following the accident, the only place for me to go until morning was a local truck stop. The truck driver who had just hit me, a black man, came into the truck stop shortly thereafter. He saw me and threatened to "kill me and any other white people" among numerous racist and violent threats. Under normal circumstances, I would able to defend myself, but I had just been hit by a forty ton semi.
When I reported the incident to the Klamath County Sheriff later that day, despite witnesses and possibly security video, no action would be taken. The truck driver, the truck owner, the local police, all on the same team.
Klamath Falls, OR
A few hours after the semi accident and being assaulted by the truck driver who had just hit me, I got a ride into Klamath Falls, OR to rent a truck and visit the ER. When I told them I was in an accident, the Klamath Falls U-Haul charged me more than double the advertised rate and later charged my credit card another $100.
I was examined by emergency room of Sky Lakes Medical Center in Klamath Falls. I knew I had suffered a concussion, because I'd had them before. I also knew I was injured. I had just been hit by forty tons at fifty miles per hour, everything was injured. The exam consisted of x-rays to confirm no broken bones. I told the ER person I had been knocked unconscious and was suffering from a concussion, but I received no attention or treatment for a head injury. The ER person also offered prescription pain medication, which having received medical treatment for a concussion before, seemed strange because pain medication is usually not prescribed for people suffering from a concussion.
Following the accident, I had problems with Progressive Insurance opening insurance claims on my policy, even though Progressive denied to honor my policy. Gallagher Bassett, representing the truck driver's company and the drug cartel, tried to access my patient records at Sky Lakes Medical Center using a fake name. In the discussions with Progressive about my injuries, the representative stated I had "no serious injuries, no broken bones, no head injuries". The medical report from Sky Lakes Medical Center ER was custom made for the insurance company to deny coverage, the head injury I suffered as a result of the accident had been deliberately left out of the medical report.
On the way out of Klamath Falls, "We Honor Veterans" banners fluttering in the breeze, I was a veteran, left on the road for dead, ripped off every place I stopped. Now it was downhill from here. A couple hours later, from the back of a U-Haul truck, in a rest stop on the side of road with what was left of my possessions, I found out that Progressive Insurance declined to honor my insurance policy.
