Combs Construction Company

Combs Construction Company Kiewit Construction, Sundt Construction Damaged Vehicle, S.R. 101, ADOT Project # H745601C, HOV Lane Construction, Phoenix

15th of Sep, 2011 by User376868

On 7/30/2011, at about 3:45pm I was heading north on SR101 in the west side nearing the Bell Road Exit in the outer lane in my just purchased 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 Hemi that was only 5 weeks old and had about 1800 miles on it. I was minding my own business traveling about 55-60mph. There was very little traffic, when from my left I see a pickup truck coming from the middle area of the road and swerves in front of me. While this would normally not be a problem except this time he had just come from working in the construction area and was dropping all kinds of debris, and wet sand. A large portion o this debris blasted the front of my brand new challenger damaging the following: - Hood
- Windshield
- HID Headlights
- Turn Signals
- Front Grille
- Front Fascia
- Fog Lights The damage chipped the paint in several areas, put chips in the front window, chipped up the hood, chipped and left the surface of the front fascia rough, dinged the HID, Fog, and Turn Signal lights. All in all the damages were over $6,000!!!! Because the car was so new, and of limited production I had the car appraised for loss of value by a well known source of damage appraisals. They determined that the vehicle with this type of damage and its limited production status would have a loss in value more then $9400.00. Back to what happened, after the damage occurred I had 2 choices: - Chase him down, and risk further damage to his vehicle, and potentially create a unfriendly incident.
- Get as much detail off the vehicle as I could and follow up with the company and their insurance later. I knew the DPS would not do anything because the guy would have been long gone by the time they arrived which is typically 45+ minutes, so I opted to get as much info from the vehicle as I could and then reach out to the company and hope they are a stand up type of organization and have a worthwhile insurance company who will take care of the damages created by their inconsiderate driver. I was able to get from the vehicle the the following: - Type (not make), I referred to it as F250/F350 Service Vehicle
- Color (White/Off White)
- Logo on side of truck, with Arizona Flag style and Words " "
- Back of truck had some custom type racking/service vehicle type look to it.
- On the drivers side box/rack area near the cab there was a Blue Welder attached.
- Center box area was full of unsecured cardboard boxes.
- License plate was obscured. The vehicle was this type of Construction Service Truck (keep in mind my best view was from the rear). Like , and a close up . So as you can see I would have had to guess the brand of truck it was, as the logo I could see as I exited from the freeway to get out of his path of destruction. The license plate was obscured and I was not able to read it or get close enough without further damaging my vehicle. The logo on the the side of the vehicle looked like . The were contracted to a $90 MILLION project awarded to and who then subcontracted to for work. I took pictures of the damages and emailed Combs along with a full description of what occurred, you can see the links below of the sand and debris all over the front of my car. 3 days after the incident I finally heard from his insurance agent - , who talked to me about it, and then sent me a denial letter.. without even doing a investigation. I then called them back and talked to their owner who then said that they could not issue a denial from their office as it was never submitted to the carrier. I informed him that I expected it to be submitted and taken care as quickly as possible as their actions were inexcusable. A few days goes by, and I get a call from Colette Coxall who I believe is just a claims rep and works for . This conversation started out badly, as I could barely get a word in edgewise as she asked me for my statement in the matter... I had to raise my voice to her several times to get my point across.. so I knew right then and their that she had already formed her opinion and was not going to pay the claim.... I continue to have email conversations with her, and as usual when you dealing with a insurance company who entire goal is not NOT PAY claims she tries to twist my words around, and such... treating me like a common criminal during the process. A few more days go by and I get a call from the adjuster/inspector (Mike Serner) from Travelers who wanted to come and inspect the car, so he showed up at my house and I was on a conference call with work and could not deal with him, so asked him to come back later in the day and I would have the car in the driveway.... but FIRST I ASKED HIM WHEN HE ARRIVED TO CALL ME SO THAT I COULD MEET HIM OUTSIDE BEFORE HE DID ANYTHING AT ALL. This did not occur, he showed up and inadvertently set off the radar sensor on the car, and it alerted me inside that someone was outside messing with my vehicle and was on my property. So I went outside, and he was startled as to say to me "How did you know I was here", so I informed him that the car called me and said someone was to close to the vehicle. He then started to treat me rudely and unprofessionally when I tried to show him the damage pics and estimates from 2 well respected body shops. He would not have any part of it. This was witnessed by a friend of mine who arrived on the scene. Most likely I am going to file trespassing charges on this character since he came on my property and touch my vehicle when I asked him not to. As he left I said to him "I will be talking to you later" he replied "No you wont", and then got back in his car as if he was scared of me... and started sucking on his drink or malt. I mailed a letter to the president of of Travelers Insurance - Jim/James Fishman, complaining about Mike Serner and Colette, to this date I have not heard back from him..he must be scared to answer me. A day or two goes by, and then I get a denial letter from Colette Coxall in the mail, immediately I send a email to her advising that this would go well above her, she replies that she forwarded it to management, I never heard from anyone in management. Since then I have made contact with Travis McArthy who is the project manager for Sundt Construction and he told me that he had a conversation with Steve Combs the owner of Combs Construction. I wrote several emails and never heard back.. so I started going higher up, and made contact with KieWit Construction Compliance Office, they forwarded it to their attorneys, who until today refused to contact me after I insisted that someone talk to me about this... who informed me that they have officially sent the issue to Combs to deal with (like that will ever happen given how Combs has been about this). I have also reached out to ADOT Risk Managment during this process and they confirmed that Combs WAS WORKING that day and time, and location of the incident. Additionally I filed a Notice of Claim with the State of Arizona who officially also forwarded it to Kiewit because they agreed to indemnify AZ from all damages and losses, but the contract that Sundt and Combs has with Kiewit indemnifies Kiewith by Combs Insurance. So its now over 45 days since this all started, and I am no further than I was when it all started, I still have a damaged car, and dealing with unreasonable insurance companies who refuse to do the right thing here and take care of my damages. Combs has also tried every thing to conceal their vehicle so that I can not go on site and identify the one that did the damage (this does not surprise me one bit) Its been a freaking nightmare, so I then have made contact with the Governor of Arizona office asking them to set a meeting with me between the following parties as I am ultimatley holding the state at fault since they are the one who hired this companies to do the work. Why does it have to be so difficult when a normal person is wronged by a company has a great description of the vehicle, an then their two-bit insurance company runs me through hell and back just to make me whole again... this is absolutely crazy and uncalled for....

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