The Accident
It was our last day in Costa Rica and our 10 day trip had gone smoothly so far. This was a surprise due to the bad luck we’ve had on recent trips.
Our last day was going perfectly. We woke up early, visited the Rio Celeste waterfall, grabbed McDonalds (a necessity for any American’s last day), and headed to drop off our rental car. We were on time, everything was lining up in our favor.
When we pulled our rental into Economy Car in pristine condition, one of the employees informed us that we needed to fill our gas tank or pay over $100. Lauren and I got back into the car, her flight was close to an hour away. The plan would be to drop her off at the airport, fill our tank, return the car and then hurry to catch my flight out.
While I was driving down the highway, we realized we passed the road to the airport, so I put on my left blinker to pull into a drive way. The driver behind me attempted to pass me on the left hand side and rammed directly into us. Apparently Costa Rican drivers do not yield if you are making a left hand turn. Anyone that is visiting Costa Rica, please make note of this.
The truck that hit us was pretty big, it left the whole left side of our car destroyed. They took off driving as Lauren and I sat dumbfounded on the side of the road. Instead of missing our flight, we tried to keep it together and I proceeded to drop Lauren off at the airport, broken side mirror, car falling apart and all.
The faces of the car rental employees when I pulled the car in the second time around were pretty priceless. But, our accident was not.
I already put a deposit down of ~$1500 which was not returned to us. To be honest, money wasn’t even on my mind at the time. The only thing I knew is that this was the first car accident I had ever been in, and that I needed to catch my flight and get the hell out of Costa Rica. I was shaken up to say the least.
Once I returned home, my mind went back to money. From Economy, I only had catastrophic car insurance on the car, and my domestic car insurance would not cover the incident. I begin to search the internet for other options. And there it was…
Thanks to a lot of research and my U.S. Airways Credit Card, I was covered by my credit card’s insurance. It took around four months of endless phone conversations, emails, and paperwork, but I finally received my refund in the mail!
The lesson from this one was hard to determine, since I really don’t think the car accident could have been prevented in any way. However, I did almost give up with the credit card company a few times when they repeatedly asked me to fill out more and more paperwork.
So, I guess the lesson would be if you stay persistant, you can get what you deserve. Oh, AND if you go to Costa Rica, get the car insurance! The drivers there are horrendous and the roads are even worse.
By the way, if you are heading there, here is my 10 day itinerary for Costa Rica.
Great article,Marteen!