Action News Investigation: Philadelphia man in fight with city after Streets Department truck damages car

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — If a metropolis company is at fault for hitting and damaging your car or truck or residence, you would anticipate them to fork out.

But an East Falls man said he was still left with a significant restore monthly bill just after his vehicle was strike by a Philadelphia recycling truck.

Nicholas Nehez mentioned the sound was deafening.

“I read crunch, crunch,” he explained.

The instant he looked outside the house his window on Creswell Road, he straight away saw his auto staying mangled. The recycling truck was hooked up to his 2002 Mercedes Benz wheel well.

“We experienced to push the car or truck in excess of so that the sections of his wheel would pop out of the fender,” explained Nehez.

Nehez couldn’t drive his automobile after the April 2020 accident and it later failed a state inspection. The destruction estimate was roughly $5,000.

“I acquired 3 estimates. I didn’t go for the higher end, the gold-plated a person,” he stated.

Nehez claimed he promptly alerted the town, but it took months ahead of it despatched a declare acknowledgment. And when they did, he obtained bad information.

The city’s 1st supply was just $1,500.

The city’s rationale?

“We are only going to do this much since the carpet is dirty and there is a scratch on the back bumper,” recalled Nehez.

He balked and the statements department ultimately bumped it up to $2,200, which was still not enough to deal with the restore.

“Gosh, just resolve the motor vehicle, repair the problems that you did and I will be happy,” explained Nehez.

The city’s lowball provide appears to be to be the norm.

The Motion Information investigators did a deep dive into the Philadelphia Streets Department motor car or truck incidents for the previous 10 many years ending in 2020. The metropolis had far more than 2,300 claims.

We discovered additional than 50 percent of closed promises experienced no payment.

And when the city does shell out, most settlements were below a $1,000 with the median payment being a very little above $600.

It is really unclear how lots of of all those payments covered the entire price of ruined vehicles or house.

A city spokesperson informed Action News it built a “fair supply” on a 19-calendar year-aged vehicle, and that it pays the lesser of the actual dollars benefit for the declare or the depreciated worth of the car at the time of the decline.

Merely put, the metropolis says Nehez’s car just isn’t worthy of a lot more than a $2,200 maintenance monthly bill.

The city reported it employs a accredited auto appraiser or skilled car restore store to figure out the price tag of repairs and makes use of Kelly Blue Reserve to decide the general value of a vehicle.

But when we place Nehez’s VIN amount into Kelley Blue Ebook it showed his car or truck is well worth among $4,000 and $7,000, considerably more than the $2,200 the city is still offering.

“I do not see why I have to engage in a discussion of how substantially the motor vehicle is truly worth,” said Nehez. “There is an item, they weakened it. They acknowledge they destroyed it. It is in the law enforcement report. Fix the car.”

Nehez explained he now ideas to take the city to court docket, but that clock is ticking.

The town has a statute of restrictions of two several years to file a lawsuit and it would seem the city can drag its toes.

We discovered many of the promises with the town took a lot more than two decades to resolve.