I stopped. I looked. I pulled into the intersection, and suddenly a late-model sedan was in my lap.

The crash occurred early one morning at an intersection in a quiet residential neighborhood. There was no other traffic nearby--just two cars paused at stop signs. Somehow, once they started moving, they managed to run into each other.

Help came almost immediately--from a nearby fire department, from the police, from passers-by. Within a half hour, the silent streets were abuzz. Tow trucks were en route, information was exchanged, IDs checked, vehicle contents were removed, friends/family were notified, and car parts were swept from the road. Despite the abundance of flashing red lights all around, several rubbernecking drivers approached the disarray. It's the only time the police officer who was there appeared to get exasperated as he instructed them to turn around and drive elsewhere.

This all happened quickly. Then time slowed.

After prying open the semi-stuck driver's side door (with the help of a firefighter) and scooting out around my car's deployed air bag, I called my insurance company, where I've been a customer for 30-plus years. A polite voice expressed concern. Then, unlike previous occasions in which our locals handled such incidents, I was transferred to a centralized claims facility. Talking to that polite local voice is one of the last times I encountered a real human being.

My interaction (or lack thereof) with central claims consisted entirely with an app that did not speak. It instructed that the company had received a claim for my vehicle, produced a claim number, and declared it had started a review. "We'll contact you if we need more information. We're here to help you get back on the road," it says.

That review? It didn't start, but I didn't know that at the time.

There's a link to a chat on the app, but despite the fact that I had a claim number, it didn't seem to know who I was or show any interest in providing answers to the questions I had. When I clicked on another link to get information on a rental car, I was advised to contact my claim handler.

That's what I thought I was doing.

A generic message told me that the company's investigation would take one to three days. During that period, I kept checking its app, which never wavered in telling me nothing. I called my local agent's office several times, where I was told they'd notify whoever these people were that were supposed to be handling this. Nothing happened.

The only progress I made was to contact the North Little Rock police to find out where my car had been towed. At last, I got a prompt response. Then I called the towing company. A good-natured man let me know that my car was indeed there, but that no one from my insurance company had come by to check it out. When I told him which company I used, he said, "Huh; they're usually pretty quick." I appreciated his input, but it didn't make me feel better.

Finally, my husband wearied of listening to me whine. With no small amount of effort, he managed to get in touch with a national claims adjuster. She said they--I'm assuming the national claims people--had called me but I hadn't called back. (That's because I kept calling my local agent, which is what I'd always done in past situations; apparently that's not how this is handled now.)

Crisply professional, she proceeded to conduct her review, running down a list of questions. Then she told me I'd be hearing from a nearby car rental company within four hours. My damaged car would be fetched from the towing company's impound lot (where it was running up a storage tab) to be determined if it could be saved or written off as a total loss.

As I awaited word from the rental-car company (which happened within the allotted four hours), I realize I'm lucky in that I can walk to work. Sooner or later I'd need to go to a grocery store, but this situation wasn't going to solve itself without outside assistance.

The lesson here is that just because you always did something one way, don't assume that's how it's being done now.

The story gets better. To be continued ...

Karen Martin is senior editor of Perspective.

kmartin@adgnewsroom.com

kmartin@adgnewsroom.com

Karen Martin is senior editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s weekly Perspective (opinion) section, where she edits staff-written editorials and columns along with choosing and editing other writers' contributions on topics such as education, public policy, foreign affairs, current events and popular culture.

© Arkansas Online