Surviving a Collision Full story

Surviving a Collision

07/17/2007 7PM 7^th Rd

I was coming home from work in my boss’s car.
The truck I have been driving was in for service so he let me use his car to get home.

I was doing the speed limit travelling on a narrow country road I used often.
When I was about 60 feet from the crest of a blind hill, suddenly there were two cars travelling towards me, side by side. One car was in my lane. There was no where for me to go!

I pulled the steering wheel as fast as I could to the right, at the same time put my face into my arm and braked. Before I closed my eyes I remember seeing a large tree and thinking “it’s all over now”.
Things seem to go in slow motion after the first and hardest impact from the car that was head-on in my lane. I felt like I was tumbling, spinning and falling at the same time. I felt and heard the impact sounds of busting glass and crunching metal. Eight times I heard, and felt, a loud bang, and was jolted.
When the crunching, banging, and breaking glass finally stopped I opened my eyes.

I was hanging Upside down against the seat. The seat belt was so tight I could hardly breathe. I could feel the blood rushing to my head. I could see the blood dripping off me, and I struggled not to pass out. I could hear screaming. I heard someone saying “you all right” and, “he’s a live”.

Then I saw smoke, and thought the car was on fire, I thought I was going to burn to death trapped in the seat belt. I yelled at a guy by the shattered window. I told him “get me the fx&! out of here”. But he wouldn’t help me. I tried desperately to escape. While hanging upside down I put my arm in the roof full of broken bloody glass. My arm was messed up anyway by the look of the blood on it.
I made several attempts to lift my body into the seat by putting my arm in the glass and pushing. At the same time pushing the seat belt button as hard I could with the opposite hand.
The guy was telling me come on you can do it or something like that.
After several attempts the seat belt finally released and I fell into the broken glass in the roof.

I tried climbing out through the shattered window but there was a large picker bush in the way. I yelled at the guy to “step on it”. He did, and I fell out into the long weeds, grass, and debris in the ditch. There was a woman talking to me, she put blankets on me. Another woman was directing traffic. I was confused and hurt. I couldn’t understand how I was still alive, and still don't. Blood was coming out of my head, arm, and ear.

What I seen on the street were car parts scattered everywhere from the debris of the three car crash.

There were people everywhere. I couldn’t hear from my left ear because the air bag went off in the side of my head at a force 2/3's more powerful than that of today s cars. I had used the steering wheel to block my face from the crash. As a consequence my head was placed sideways in the steering wheel at the time of impact, and at the time of air bag detonation.

After the teenage boy he hit me with hit car, he then hit the vehicle behind me, and then hit a Cement barrier and hydro pole. Unfortunately the boy died in the crash as he hit another car, hydro pole, and a cement barrier. Amazingly his passenger survived.

I spent what seemed to be forever in an ambulance on the way to the hospital strapped to a stretcher. a plastic hard board. I was in agony with every bump. Why is there no air ride in an ambulance? The ambulance driver noticed my stomach was red, he wanted to cut off my shirt but I told him it was from a bug bite I had from the day before. My whole stomach and right side of my torso was red and hard. I can’t help but wonder if the bite did something to help me survive the crash.

In the hospital a woman came to take a bag of blood from me. She just grabbed my cutup arm without letting me know. I pulled it away from her. Then she stuck the needle in a piece of glass that was still in my right arm. I pulled that arm away from her too. Then she stuck the needle in the top of my hand. She kept taking the needle in and out and poking, grinding the needle around in the top of my hand. I think she was trying to make me pass out. An intensive care nurse should not have treated an accident patient in that way. It still makes me wounder what else in going on in that intensive care unit. They came to take some old fragile lady and put her in the hall. She had tubes sticking out of her everywhere.

I spoke up and told them to put me out in the hall instead.

My body wanted to pass out, but my mind was still on a high from being alive. I was still confused as to why I was not dead. Then, another woman took me to an x-ray booth. And they x-ray the aching shit out of me! Later I ended up in line waiting to use the bathroom. There was only one bathroom in the emergency ward! When I was finally able to use the bathroom I washed the blood off my arm, and the side of my face, myself. They finally let me go. I just wanted to get out of there. I was still on a, I’m still alive high. I was still confused and I felt indestructible. It was a feeling I can’t explain in any words. But I was not fine.

The diagnosis was Severe Whiplash. According to my research whiplash is a common diagnosis after a collision. My symptoms were; headaches, memory loss, trouble Sleeping, neck pain, and back pain, chest pain, head injuries, cuts in ear and arm, trouble sleeping, poor memory and concentration. emotional trauma, fatigue feeling of being very tired all the time, stiffness in the neck, neck pain, shoulder pain, pain turning head, looking up, sitting or standing too long, reaching over head, nightmares and driver paranoia.

The doctor offered Drugs and suggested Therapy. I couldn’t afford Therapy, as for the Drugs - I refused to take pills. On my Second visit again he offered Drugs and suggested more x-rays. I told him they did enough x-rays at the hospital. Research has shown that ordinary x-rays and even MRIs will not show this type of injury. When I mentioned to him I was “losing words” he asked me “did you get hit on the head?” I said yes, several times, he said “you must have a Concussion”. Obviously the Hospital report fell short in providing information to my doctor, due to my short visit there.

I finally did try a collection of prescribed pills but they had no effect on my pain so I gave them back to the doctor. I cancelled my third doctor’s appointment and went back to work. I was off work less than a month when I returned. I was in a lot of pain - but I went back anyway. I was worried about feeding my family, and being replaced on my job. My injuries were causing problems. I was having trouble sustaining my previous level of work, and was in a lot of pain. I was let go, laid off, then replaced.

A local newspaper originally reported that I was at fault. The truth was later reported because one of the residences living in the crash area called them to report on the truth.
Another Newspaper reported “the young man was doing something that all of us do” -referring to the kid that crashed his car into me speeding. This reporter thinks it's alright to speed and pass on a solid double line on a blind hill!

Investigation later proved that a Teen-aged boy was driving the vehicle that hit me. He was travelling in excess of 102km per hour speeding well over the speed limit, and passing on a blind hill, and solid double line. According to sources he liked to race on this Street often and was passing everyone on that road that day. Sources also say he was a Private in the Forces going to the war in Afghanistan.

According to Media Reports and Residents what is now known as the “notorious Mud hill” there’s always accidents or near misses. The city has allowed a scrap yard to setup shop on the blind hill. The parking lot is too small for customers and they end up stopped on the blind hill looking for a place to park. One resident right in front of the accident scene said “it’s basically on a daily basis”. The Residences of this Stretch of road have been asking City officials for help.

In an email one resident told them - “Please don’t let anyone else die!!!
But City officials ignored warnings. They did nothing to remedy the situation of this dangerous blind hill. No blind spot sign, prepare to stop sign, reduced speed sign. Not one sign despite documented complaints, accidents and even deaths. When I asked for some restitution from the City my legal representative declined to take action. We were burned at this opportunity for justice.

I was told quietly from my Insurance Broker that I have been with at that time for over 20 years, and no claims, that if I put a claim in with them, “other Insurance Companies might not want to insure me in the future”. So I didn’t. At first, until I spoke with a lawyer. He said I must put a claim in with my insurance company, and I did.

The initial application package consisted of five forms totalling twenty pages to be completed by persons claiming benefits, their employer and their health care provider. The insurer’s ability to pick and choose their medical assessor was somewhat circumscribed. An application can be considered incomplete and its processing delayed if an adjuster decides that missing information is needed to determine entitlement to a benefit. There are nineteen current claim forms that could apply to existing claimants. The large number of forms creates a paper burden for claimants, adjusters and other participants in the auto insurance system, and did.

My Insurer made an issue because the doctor checked off N/A on some questions. He had just returned from vacation and his office was full. This simple thing gave them an excuse not to pay some of the Accident benefits required by my policy. It took 6 months for them to start paying some of the benefits I was entitled to.

Our financial losses during that time were many. Because of the crash and our insurer not paying benefits I had to sell off my belongings. Roofs leaked because I could no longer do my normal things like removing the leaves from the gutters. We were not asking for the full amount, just the labour costs from our insurer, but they refused. Gutters clogged up and the bricks on the side of the house fell off. The water went into the basement. The foundation leaked split and twisted.

We wouldn’t still have damaged buildings and repairs if it were not for the crash, and unjust denies from insurance systems. I have been treated like a criminal by a process of unscientific preconceived mandatory punishments.

We were dedicated long term (over ¼ century) customers. Our insurer refused to pay benefits promptly, and some benefits they didn’t even respond to. With no income I had to hire contractors – something I never done before. I learned about bad contractors. We had to have the same gutters replaced twice.

With no income we had to have the foundation on our home repaired. Even that did not turn out well and I had to have that contractor return to uphold the agreement.

During that time an insurance interrogators OT report stated; “He reported that he strained his right toe while performing some back filling of a trench next to his homes foundation in 2008”

His pay-for-hire-report was completely false! It was some ground sinking around a downspout, not back filling of a TRENCH!

His report was so disturbing I addressed it with a letter back to him and described in detail his creative writing lies - after which we were threatened with legal action if I was to defend myself again or put anything online about him. I still have nerve damage in my toe -because I was moving the shovels of dirt with my foot, -because of spine injuries due to the crash, and because I had no income to hire someone -because my insurer held back my income replacement benefits.

The emotional trauma and stress to my family and I from the Collision have been numerous.
Many, many, activities of daily living, activities I performed prior to the accident have been taken from me. My strength has been taken and replaced with a feeling of pain, stress, and a feeling of uselessness.
I fear that damages to me caused by the crash will worsen as I get older, and logically, will multiply exponentially and worsen with age. Because of the Crash I’ve had to live in constant pain. I am no longer able to do the normal things in my life, fix, clean, clear, pick, ride, teach, run, play, dream, and sleep, -which in turn affects the lives of my family. My spouse received not one single penny from her lawsuit, and she was never given a reasonable explanation to why her legal suit was simply not done.

I was very physical. I don’t believe that I would fall into the same physical category as most would say as normal. No contractors, no mechanics, do it yourself. I would help you if I could.

I had the ability to do all home repairs. I was a guy that took a shovel and dug down to the footing of our house, by myself, to fix the cement wall. I would workout daily on a heavy bag and double end speed bag - at the same time, build and maintain a very large garden daily, and maintain a 1 1/2 acre property with pool. I shingled a roof by myself, dug a 400’ ditch - by hand.

In previous employment I spent 13 years piling 1000s boxes of glass per hour onto skids keeping up to production machines. I replaced a motor and transmission in one day, by myself, without any automotive schooling. I moved tons of stone by hand, work extreme hours, pull 48' drywall tarps, and chain slabs of steel, and steel coils. How do you do, your normal things?

Question from my insurer (disability certificate): "does the applicant suffer a substantial inability to perform the housekeeping an home maintenance services that he/she normally performed before the accident?" Answer: No, not my normal things.

At the time of the crash we paid insurance premiums for over twenty years. We though we were protected if anything should happen. We were wrong. Our insurers made errors relating to my Name, Gender, Phone number, Birth date, and date of MVA. We had a complaint from the Post office because of letters being sent to us with the wrong address. We had the wrong information on our Liability Slips, and had to have Proof of Insurance resent. This type of conduct went on for years. It took 4 years to get a simple pickup stick, and a cane took 1652 days. I was a Professional driver with perfect driving record and no claims, ever. Their probing, surveillance, hired guns, paper trails, lies, denial of benefits, mandatory punishment rape of my being sessions and tactics only made me more determined to have justice.

The newspaper was wrong when it reported the crash. The Hospital x-rays were inconclusive.

The Paperwork got messed up. The Therapist didn’t get paid, and didn’t come back.

The Neurologist lied when he wrote that I said I felt good enough to go back to work. My story should have ended here with our insurance company upholding decades of prompt payments to them, and help me in my recovery’s. But it got worse as I became an unwilling participant of the insurance world.

The Police report was obtained by me shortly after the crash. I was unaware at the time the report that I was first given was only the top portion of pages 1 and 2. I obtained the full version of the Police report as I requested it from my Lawyer. The report is inaccurate. In the description part of the report it shows that I was not hit at all! My complaints fell on deaf ears. The police and my lawyer both told me to forget it. I wrote a letter to the police department anyway -before I let it go, asking for acknowledgement to the error in the Police report. To date the police report has not been fixed. There was no action taken by my legal representative, and there has been no response to my letter from the police.

Having been a victim of a fatal crash in 2007 I spent 5 years meeting with Insurance interrogators and disputing their pay-for-hire-doctors and their wordhirlings! Their doctors don’t even write their own reports -the insurers make them up with the help of assessment mills. In 2011 my lawsuit produced up to 600 confidential pages. I can tell you first hand my dealings with the Insurance System until the forced settlement in 2012. Our adjuster rejected claims of treating physicians, without obtaining a medical opinion. My Adjusters denied, delayed my legitimate accident benefits off and on for 5 years with the use of bogus reports. My case file was manipulated to provide false representation of a matter of fact by deleting parts of the file and duplicating others.

Our insurer began paying accident benefits after a 5 month delay. And only after I put up a website, got a lawyer, paid our taxes with visa, and wrote a letter to the president of the insurance company. My adjuster was removed and replaced from my case.

The Insurance Company takes our premiums to pay the doctor to fill out paperwork for medication that is only a fraction of the cost of that paperwork. Plus they take Administration costs for them selves to do the paperwork. In short, my Doctor is paid more to complete paperwork for a prescription, than the cost of the prescription. They made me drive to/from the doctor’s office 1 hour round trip, wait/ see doctor, send paperwork. Then they just simply ignored it. I had to write letters to get it done, and only after repeated enquiries by me my lawyer a portion of it was paid months later. I am sure consumers would not want to pay for medication on top of paying Insurance Premiums to get medication, and then pay the Doctor more than the medication is worth to fill out the paperwork.

I filed a formal complaint to the Collage of Physicians and surgeons of Ontario against another insurance hired gun after he lied in his report at a multi disciplinary assessment. He said that I “felt well enough to go back to work”, and assaulted me during his examination for the insurer. He lectured me about the policies of the Insurance Industry, and badgered me for responses to his answers. The “law will only help you for 2 years” he says. “Then you’re on your own” he says, “what will you do then?” The whole conversation was clearly inappropriate behaviour for a doctor.

He banged on my knees with his mallet, noticeably, and excessively hard. Since that time I have experienced problems with my knee. It was, as he knows, my good one - he gave the hardest whack too. He then proceeded with pushing his knuckles into my damaged shoulder blade. When he found a pain spot he jammed his knuckles twice in the same spot, even harder, even after he knew it hurt. He was obviously trying to hurt me, and he did. My insurer tried to send me back to him again! Even though they should have known it would be a conflict of interest. I had to refuse to go back to him.

I filed a complaint with the privacy commissioner of Canada because another hired gun doctor was trying to make me sign privacy documents that were unreasonable. I found their Privacy Policy to be in question, and needed clarification as to its authenticity. The statement “if we believe the client would consent if asked” is questionable. At the end of one of the pages it was cut off, so what was missing?

There was also no page numbers. How do I know what I am signing?

The Lawyer didn’t show up for a meeting, and didn’t return my calls, and said “I really don’t know your case.” I formally withdrew my consent to the undated, vague, release forms that I signed at the lawyer’s office. It was one of many heated conversations with them.

They have a thing called Discovery. This is another form of interrogation. I found out during Discovery you’re not allowed to talk to your own lawyer during this event. In my opinion it felt like my lawyer was just there to kiss the ass of the lawyer for the insurer. Requests for a diary, my daughter’s employment, our banking information, name and address of my pharmacy, and contact details of my employers -that precede the crash date. The crash victim is the one that goes on trial. In my opinion the requests made by the discovery interrogator were frivolous under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act as I justifiably refused requests. They requested information about tax information that was clearly frivolous and even the tax man doesn’t ask you to keep records that long. They asked for employment information 8 years before the crash -for their paperwork against me, but they will not use that same employments earnings to calculate “worth of loss of income”. How convenient for them. I felt as if I was on trial for no crime.

Our adjuster’s tactics of sending me excessive distances to insurer interrogations created a delay; he wanted me to travel almost 5 hrs for one of their interrogations! I had to refuse. He also mandated an insurer’s examination with a doctor with an obvious conflict of interest that he new or should have known existed, creating further delay. He also mandated on two separate occasions interrogations and the doors were locked, creating again an even further delay. I took pictures of the doors locked and the lights out to prove these insurer tactics so they couldn’t use me not attending their interrogations as an excuse not to pay replacement benefits.

I filed a complaint with the health board because of an insurance interrogators office was so appallingly filthy. The conditions in the washrooms are nauseating. There was Puke on the paper towel rack along the whole side of the wall. Toilets full of urine and fesses. There was an inlet in the wall behind the toilet that people use as an ashtray. The bathroom door has a hole at the bottom that looks like the rats have chow down on. Or maybe it just allows some of the rancid smell out. Something was all alone the floor in droplets that looked like dried blood.

I tried using one of the dispensers and what I grabbed was actually someone’s snot rag! When I attempted to leave this hellhole I was given a gift on the door knob by something oozing with slime.

This building has two sets of doors that one must hold open and then make way to a flight of stairs, uneasily negotiated. I spent some time holding open a door for a line of old frail people with canes and walkers coming out. This location is not user friendly. Each one of these people looked at me straight in the eye and said “thank you” to me. There eyes where all filled with pain. One of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed.

Contacting the health board was later the downfall of my case because the lawyer and mediator were very concerned about my complaint. Who owned the building that I had made the health complaint against...... wink, wink, nudge, nudge? I was told the owner of the building that the insurance investigation took place was “owned by one of their friends” and “I was as a client making things hard”.

The Health board never contacted me about my complaint to them. I let it go to regain my case, and did not send the pictures to the media. I won't start bashing the ambulance chasers in this letter -for I will not stop. I will say however my lawyers opening remarks at arbitration was not the right thing to do when he said that I felt “guilty”. I do not feel guilty, and I never said I feel guilt. I asked him why he would say that. Why would a lawyers opening remark be to say there client is guilty?

Questions still remain, did my complaint against my lawyers “friend” do harm to my case? Why was my complaint to the Health Board the first concern, and the first conversation with the mediator during mediation?

Suddenly before Mediation they cut off my income replacement benefits that I fought so hard to get in an effort to make me settle in favour of the insurer. The lawyers say “it’s normal it’s nothing personal”.

What choice did we have but to sign on the line after our lawyer told us it could take years to get my case heard because of the FSCO backlog.

Source: http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/drs/Pages/mediation-statistics-timelines.aspx

According to the Ontario Automobile Insurance Dispute Resolution System Review Interim report beginning in 2007 FSCO began to experience a dramatic increase in Applications for Mediation. In 2006 – 07, FSCO received 13,053 new applications and in 2011– 12, received 35,727 applications — a 174 per cent increase. As a result, FSCO was not able to meet the legislated 60- day time line for mediation and a backlog of files awaiting assignment to a mediator developed. At the end of December 2011, there was a backlog of approximately 30,700 files, FSCO was receiving an average of 2,949 new Applications for Mediation every month and claimants were waiting in excess of 11 months for mediation.

Mediation took 5 years in my case In the Mediation brief of the defendant I had to defend against attacks of my character, my work ethics, and misrepresentations of who I am. I submitted 4 letters of commendations, clean drivers abstract, air brake certificate, dangerous goods certificate, drug test certificates, I.A.P.A certificate, clean police certificate, and a W.M.I.S certificate. I should not have had to defend against labour issues of years ago. I fail to see the relevance. A boy crashed into me with his car. Why was I on trial? I was not guilty of anything.

The insurer’s pay-for-hires try to make you sound guilty. They said I didn’t “avoid the collision”.

Calculations suggest that I had less than a 10th of a second to react to the head-on crash.

According to the police the boy that crashed into me with his car was doing 102km / hr at the end of his skid! I was travelling at 70km /hr going in the opposite direction! Do the math!

The insurance world requests information about every aspect of your life, and they copy it all over the place! Your privacy is lost forever to the internet and simply put everywhere for the taking. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada admitted to me she doesn’t have the power to protect our privacy.

The Insurance system has allowed my personal information to be accessed at the HCAI anonymously.

Wordhirlings working my case have shared all our personal information loosely threw many unsecured channels. There is obviously a bug in the software and very lenient rules for sending information. No one should be logged-in anonymously accessing my personal information from the Secure Dox web site. Obviously more testing should have gone on before the site was opened for business in only a short time ago. They also send emails threw unsecured channels and put personal information in the subject lines that are not encrypted. I feel that the public would react negatively -much like I do, when you find out that your medical files are at risk by pay-for-hire doctors that carry around your personal information on their laptops and use Bells Sympatico email server to exchange passwords with the HCAI database.

We were made to settle our case in 2012, the insurance company got what they wanted and the lawyers took way too much in the end. Because it is settled I am not allowed to precede with it any further action. I suggest to anyone that is going threw this castrated nightmare to investigate your lawyer to see if he works for the dark side (insurance). Request a copy of your insurance file and a copy of all the personal documents that the wordhirling mills email back and forth about you. This will give you an education as to the inner workings of the insurance fraud system and give you the opportunity to defend yourself against the attacks. Make the record reflect the truth now because your health file will be forever filled with what ever they choose to put in it, as mine is.

By the time my lawsuit was over I was fed up with describing over and over to their hit men and women for years - how I feel and how messed up everything is.

How many times must a victim be made to answer the same questions over and over and over before it should be considered harassment?

My tolerance for this warped twisted process has been extreme. I have an immense need to repair the unfair corrupted insurance industry so others do not have to go threw this injustice. I am outraged by the medical community as well, and their unethical activities. Doctors should help people and conduct themselves appropriate, they should not be bias, demeaning, and humiliate injured victims for profit. It’s disgraceful.

I was told by my lawyer not to file a disability claim, I will not receive it because my case would have to be resolved first. The FSCO backlog did a lot more harm than just poison my access to justice, victims of insurance had no choice but to sign forced settlements because Insurance Companies cut benefits off just before settlement – a well known tactic in the Insurance industry. When victims were told that mediation could take up to or more than a year to get heard. We had no choice. With no income, no justice, disabled, what can you do, we got screwed. These forced settlements were illegal, immoral, and insurance companies profited greatly by them.

The FSCO backlog also took away my ability to receive CPP Disability benefits. Under the disability rules I was disqualified for benefits because I filed too late. I filled late because my case took to long to resolve. There is a standard waiting time in the industry of 2 years for the pay for hire doctors and lawyers, to make lots of money from us first. Apparently they spent close to $100,000.00. to deny me my rights to paid benefits. I’ll never know what they really spent to deny assistive devices, medication, and replacement benefits.

Since my lawsuit was so unsuccessful I had to apply for CPP Disability benefits. Their denials did not come as a shock after what has transcribed so far. It has been like trying to communicate with someone that’s not home, with no phone and no way to reach them. Dealing with Service Canada has been similar to dealing with the insurance company. They delay, deny and ignore my letters. Service Canada played with my application for years as I appealed there unreasonable unjust denials. I have been denied for disability insurance 4 times since my application in 2008.

I am now at the stage of the Social Security Tribunal. So far they say that they have 365 days to start something. They claim to have 7000 Income Security appeals filed as of April 1, 2013. There seems to be a common theme of delaying payments to injured victims.

I am a 53 white male, born in Canada with roots going back to 1670. Before the fatal crash I was a 3rd generation truck driver. My jobs included hauling almost every produce and commodity imaginable. I was a professional driver with a perfect driving record. We display a Canadian flag on our back and front lawn. We have two children. Both my wife and I are law abiding members of the community with no criminal records.

Disabled, not justice, no job, no replacement benefits, no pension.

I have constant neck pain 100% of the time and constant pain tuning my head that accompanies clicking, cracking, grinding, in my neck 100% of the time. It hurts just to brush my teeth!
I have a sharp pain that originates in the back of my head/neck and radiates into my upper back that feels like pinched nerve spasms. Another sharp electrical type shock radiates into my left shoulder into my left arm and hand. I have a constant high pitch ringing in my left ear from when the air bag went off in the side of my head. My headaches sometimes last for days. I have back pain, and a nerve in my back that is causing a nerve in my toe making it painful to walk. I grind my teeth all night thinking about the insurance and finances which in turn has given me jaw pain and further sleep disruption. I have intermittent nerve root irritation. I have been bed ridden on many occasions.

This letter has taken along time for me to write -given my headaches, and mixing up letters of the alphabet. It could be a book that has no ending as it has been written over a period of years with many edits. I paid my share since the 1970s. I was not a compensation case. I was not injured at work. I am a victim of a crime, and I have spent years being prosecuted by systems that are suppose help us, when we need them.

In 2007 I lost my life to a boy travelling towards me on a narrow country road, he was in my lane, there was no where for me to go!

Since then I’ve lost my life to the broken insurance systems.