U-Haul Rents Unsafe Trailer in Alabama Accident.

I saw your site and wanted to share with you my son’s accident on July 30, 2009 near Atmore Alabama. We rented a 5×8 trailer to pull behind a Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV. The manager of the U-Haul dealer hooked up the hitch for us.

When we began to drive away, we thought that it sounded loose and unstable so we asked the manager to check it. He did and said that it was fine, it was just an old trailer.

The next day my son was returning to college with antiques from my father’s estate and he encountered bad weather (straight line winds and torrential rain that came upon him quickly) The wind and water picked up the trailer from the ball hitch and began jack knifing it into the right side of the Jeep window and door crashing into it and breaking all of the glass into the car. It was still tethered by rusty chains so it jack knifed back to the left and swerved his Jeep and trailer across two lanes of traffic and into a deep ditch. The U-Haul flipped and barely missed flipping the Jeep. By the grace of the Almighty, my son and his puppy were not killed. He is suffering neck and back pain and whip lash from the accident.

We reported the accident to U-Haul and to Republic Western Insurance company and they arranged for another tow truck to bring another U-Haul trailer later that evening. They have not as of this time agreed to pay for the damages to the Jeep (Waiting to be determined with an estimate and the contents of the U-Haul that were destroyed which is approximately $6000 worth).

If you have any advice for me in handling this case, I would appreciate it greatly. I am paying a $1000 deductible for the Jeep to be fixed with auto insurance and $1000 deductible for contents to be reimbursed on my homeowners’ policy. This does not cover any damages, injuries, medical, pain, suffering or other costs associated with accident.

Thank you and be blessed for being a source of information for others on this kind of accident. This is a very dangerous situation!

R.B.

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