Seattle Times

October 14, 2005
By Seattle Times Staff

Ethel Adams was driving along minding her own business last March when a pickup truck was forced into her lane, slamming into her head-on...

Ethel Adams was driving along minding her own business last March when a pickup truck was forced into her lane, slamming into her head-on.

She had to be cut from her crumpled Hyundai Accent. She was in a coma for nine days. Doctors first debated whether she’d live, then, later, whether she’d walk. It would seem Adams was the unlucky victim of an unforeseen event — what most anyone would call an “accident.”

Not her insurance company.

Though Adams, 60, has $2 million worth of coverage, a subsidiary of Farmers Insurance has decided not to pay her a penny because they say someone caused Adams’ crash on purpose.

And state case law suggests they might be able to get away with it.

“I’m in shock; it’s unbelievable to me that a huge insurance company can just declare that I wasn’t in an accident,” said Adams, sitting in a wheelchair in her Everett apartment.