What are the odds?

Yesterday, while awaiting to make a left turn off of a rural highway, a local roofing company truck, plowed into the back of our family sedan, containing my wife and two of our youngest children.

The driver made no attempts to express any concern for the people he had just slammed into at 35mph He simply remained at his vehicle....In fact; He LAUGHED, when my wife asked him WTH? (He may not speak English). Some bystanders came to my wife's aid, thank God. Called 911/etc.

Fotunately, the kids walked away, seemingly only bruised-up a bit....The wife's unsure...Not feeling so hot this AM.

TomB Said: The real reason, of course, is that most of their employees are illegals and have no valid DLs, etc.....

Theyre going to get theyre proverbial titn the ringer, if theyre not careful.

They always do!

So I call the place of business and ask to speak to an owner, (I'm quite sure they have no idea who I/we are). The gal wants to know why, so I run down the story,

She tells me she'll have "so n' so", (the "general manager), call me tomorrow.....I said, no, I want to speak to an owner; Not some kid that works there. She says thre's a lot of owners. I said, any one of them will do.

Then she goes on some story of how the guy that hit my wife was borrowing a truck that is registared to another employee...Along about now, I simply state that we can do this the easy way or the long, hard, expensive way....She hangs-up on me.

The wife gives them a call later that day....She gets the same story. Wife says; Look; Walk outside, get one of the insurance cards from anyone of the vehicles, All we want is the ins. info. Wife gets similar story, blah, blah, blah....

Oh yeah; They pay for their employee's personal auto ins. as part of the "benifits", (Huh?...WTH?); How does that work? On the job, as well as off the clock? Never heard of such a policy.

The real reason, of course, is that most of their employee's are illegals and have no valid DL's, etc.....

They're going to get they're proverbial tit'n the ringer, if they're not careful.

Here, here. Hope the prayers helped.

Glad she's doing OK Tom.

She's up & about....Still lingering soreness/pain....Hopefully all will subside.....Thanks for asking :)

Tom, how is your wife doing? Hope all is well. PC

I've told this story on here before, but this reminds me of it.

Some years back I was doing a reroof for a Korean couple. She was a pharmacist and very fluent with English and who I mostly dealt with. Her husband was a Korean church pastor with such a heavy accent that it took time to decypher whatever he said.

Since he was around most of the time, when he spoke to us, we would mostly grin, nod and say "yeah". On the last day on the house I was working solo to finish some details and he offered to buy me lunch. When we were walking in the restaraunt parking lot, he said something and I did my grin, nod "yeah" routine and surprisingly he started to hug me. It was just as he started to embrace me that I processed what he had said. "I saw you work alone and think you look lonely. Are you lonely?"

Exactly, no rhyme/reason. That's A load of crap. They have emotions. I sometimes, when I see A passel of 'e on A roof, I'll park up the block, then walk over and holler MIGRA' MIGRA'! Which to them is immigration. Try it some time. It's A hoot. Down here in sunny south Florida they are refered to as "walking ATM's by the local criminal element. They say, "it's the fastest 1000 do.lar withdrawl around". I call it thieves robbing criminals.

Sometimes I respond with a stupid smile/ laugh ......before I fully comprehend something. No rhyme or reason to it.

"Terms?"....Has no bearing. The responsible party is going to compensate for the car and any losses incurreed; Period.

I know what you mean with the smile....I do that myself; They say it's a defense mechanism of sorts....An actual laugh however, that's completely different.....Not a cultural thing.....Could be cultural, if the selfish/crimminal mindset is a culture.

Congratulations Woody, you've got the only legal workers in the states.

That's too bad, Tom. What kind of terms are you on with the owner of the other roofing company?

I wouldn't let the laugh neccessarily mean too much. If I confront a Hispanic worker about doing something to my work like nailing through my flashing or walking on my tile, they always seem to respond with a sheepish laugh. I think it's a cultural thing actually meant to avoid confrontation.

If it was a "Ha Ha look how mad that gringo lady is" laugh, then it's different.

A couple of years back, I was at a party and asked a lady there about the two spots her hood was smashed in on her car. She told me she was behind one of my competitors roofing truck on a hill and it rolled back into her hood when it took off and she had to chase it down.

Had he laughed at my wife after doing this, he'd be trying to pass tooth fragments tomorrow.

Tom, my prayers are with you, your wife and family. I hope nothing serious comes of it and hopefully the other vehicle had insurance.

Run that company owner down through there.