Insurance refusing to replace crashed seats

I had posted a few days ago about my dh being in a bad accident. He was rear ended on the expressway at 70mph. Dh had slowed down due to a motorcylist falling off his motorcycle in front of the vehicle dh was following behind. Jeep was following too close and couldn't stop.. Dh was driving a 2002 Ford F250 quad cab and was rear ended by a 2010 Jeep Wrangler. Wrangler was totalled- F250 has severe damage- so far they are figuring $8,000 in damage. We'll know the final total by lunch time tomorrow. Bed of the truck has to be completely replaced due to severe damage, driver seat in the truck broke, some damage to the cab of the truck from the bed shifting into it from impact and slight damage to the front bumper and grill from hitting another vehicle after impact of being rear ended.
We are dealing with our insurance. They are on the ball with almost everything...except the car seat issue. I got on the phone with them today and they are arguing with me telling me since the child seats were un-occupied, they don't cover the replacement of them. They are also trying to tell me the seats are fine since the children were not in them. I know better than that and I am not accepting what they are dishing out.
How do I go about this situation? I've printed out both Graco and Britax accident info. I'm ready to provide the insurance company with both manufactures phone numbers so they can call be told that the seats need to be replaced. Aside from those things, what proof can I give them so they understand these seats are no longer safe to use? I've already told them if they won't reimburse us the cost of the seats, I will be replacing them anyways...but we have full coverage insurance and dh was the victim not the cause of the accident. My children will not be riding in seats that were involved in that severe of an accident.
I am a car seat tech and they won't listen to me. It's so frustrating and they're making me feel like I'm focusing on a pointless issue involving this accident, which I know I'm not. :crying:

Pics: Truck is ours
Jeep: the vehicle that crashed into dh at 70mph on the expressway.

All I told the last insurance company I was dealing w/ was both manufacturers say the seat needs to be replaced afater ANY crash. If they are not willing to do it and are telling me the seats are fine, then I'll need that in writing in case we get into another crash and something happens to my kids in those seats. They called back and apologized for the bad info they gave me and will replace my seats. Go figure.

The same thing happened to my sister. The insurance company refused to replace my nieces seat because it was unoccupied. I just emailed Graco yesterday and they said that the seat had to replaced (which I knew) and I forwarded the email to the insurance company I haven't heard back as of yet but I am hoping they don't fight it anymore.

The only state I know w/ laws against having to replace unoccupied seats is CA.

Being unoccupied doesn't mean the seats weren't subjected to crash forces in the vehicle that could compromise their future performance. It just means that your kids were fortunate enough to not be involved in this crash, thank goodness. You could try citing both NHTSA's and the carseat manufacturer's criteria and statements about replacing crashed carseats, and specifically point out that there is no distinction in those criteria between an occupied and an unoccupied carseat involved in a crash. You could also try the angle of the insurance company's bottom line. The insurance company should be willing to cover the comparatively low/nominal cost of new carseats to help ensure that your children won't be at greater risk of injury or worse and consequently greater monetary costs from using crashed seats in the event of a subsequent crash. The article at http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=9575 might also be helpful for you - it has links to NHTSA's and manufacturer's statements about crashed seat replacement and pointers for dealing with the insurance aspect.

When my DH was in a very mild fender bender they told me they would have their adjustor come inspect the seats, I told her that graco says the seat needs replacing, and that her inspectore was not a child passenger safety tech.. she said "oh don'tworry he is a tech" I told her "then he knows that car seats need to be replaced after any sort of accident weather occupied or not. she said "no he looks for damage to the seat and will replace it if there is any."
I told her she would be getting it in writting from graco.. I told her car seats are like condoms.. only good for one crash then you need a new one"

I did have a marathon in there but britax more than assured me it passed the 5 step test and was safe still.. (it really was)

We actually replaced teh turbo booster out of pocket cause in the end the damage to the car was so minimal that the 500 buck deductable was not worth it to have the ins company replace a fog light and a turbo booster lol

I think I'm confused a bit. Are you asking your insurance company to replace the seats or the guy with the Jeep? I've never had to deal with this before, so I may be totally wrong, but wouldn't you have the other guy's insurance pay for it? Or is that what you are doing now and they are refusing?

For my information, which I hope I would never need, if I were in an accident that was not my fault, who's insurance should replace the seats?

And ditto about getting copies of the statements from the company that says they are replaced no matter what.

thepeach80 said:

The only state I know w/ laws against having to replace unoccupied seats is CA.

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Just to be clear, it's not that California has a law AGAINST replacing unoccupied seats; it's that it HAS a law for replacing occupied seats. It doesn't mean unoccupied ones aren't, it just means fewer headaches in trying to get them replaced when occupied. I believe California and illinois are the only states with laws pertaining to seat replacement, though, so either way it doesn't help the OP much.

I would get letters from both manufacturers and also print out NHTSA's recommendations for seat replacement. Then I'd just continue to be a pest.

I'm not a fan of the "replace the seats or give me a letter saying they're fine strategy." It can come off sounding a bit hysterical and the insurance company can say no anyway.

Thank you all for the good tips and pointers! I feel a little more at ease and hopefully have enough info to back me now. I was just getting frustrated that they weren't listening to my dh, so I took over the situation and they weren't listening to me either. I plan to call or go into the office tomorrow with all the info I received here. Hopefully that gets me somewhere.

Being in a no fault state, we deal with our own insurance for everything. Kind of sucks, but that's the way it is. It would be so much easier if it were the other guys insurance, so I wouldn't have to deal with them ever again and I could be mean and demanding about it!

They finally came thru and said they would replace the seats! Thanks for the info. Now, to decide what seats to replace the MA and GN with, without being seeming too outrageous on the price.

That's great!

I had no idea there was such a thing as a no fault state. Does that make rates higher or lower what?

menfusse said:

That's great!

I had no idea there was such a thing as a no fault state. Does that make rates higher or lower what?

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Higher! I lived in MI and then moved here and my rates dropped by about $1100 per year!