auto accidents: don't have one

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bookworm
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auto accidents: don't have one

Post by bookworm »

I was in my first car accident last month. It wasn’t my fault at all, someone didn’t stop at their end of a four-way intersection while I was going through and hit me in the middle. It wasn’t a huge impact, but it was a good one.
Now I had always hoped, of course, that I would never be in an accident, but if I ever was I knew it would be the other driver’s fault. I am a very cautious driver, at times perhaps overly cautious, so if something ever happened it wouldn’t be on me. That is what happened here, but I still had it wrong though. I always thought it would be the result of the other person being a jerk and intentionally trying to pull a risky move, you know, race out in front of me or something like that. That isn’t what happened here at all, this was a complete accident. The kid was new to town, as far as I can tell he didn’t realize it was a four-way stop and thought I would stay at my end until he passed or something. So he wasn’t trying to beat me through or anything, it was just a fluke. Just bad timing.

Anyway, the reason I post is to pass on some important information to drivers who haven’t experienced an accident yet. I imagine you’re probably of the same thought process I was. ‘If it ever happens it won’t be my fault, so it’s not a big deal. It would be somewhat inconvenient, but if it’s not my fault it couldn’t be too bad.’ I’m here to tell you that is not the case. Even if the accident isn’t your fault it will still be a major hassle for you that you do not need in your life.

This was 100% the other driver’s fault, the officer that came out actually cited him right there for running the stop sign and said there would be no issue with the insurance because his report would show it wasn’t me, but even so dealing with the fallout took up all of my time for a solid week. Between phone tag with my insurance and the other guy’s because they both needed recorded statements, issues getting the insurance to work with the garage to start assessing the damage, problems securing a rental car, filling out forms for the DMV, and other general nuisance, it was absolutely ridiculous. I had thought I would just tell them what happened, and since it wasn’t my fault they would take care of everything. Again, not the case. They readily agreed it wasn’t my fault, but I still had to deal with everything.

Also, beyond the physical issues that needed attended to in the damage to the car, the incident affected me mentally. I was already an extremely cautious driver, this turned me into an absolutely paranoid driver. Any movement in my peripherals caused me to freak out for at least the next two weeks once I was driving again. I was sure everyone around me was going to pull out or cut in front of me. Which was really dumb, because once again that isn’t what caused this accident, it was completely unintentional, he wasn’t trying to gun past me on purpose so I shouldn’t have started thinking other people would, but I couldn’t help it.

And I still don’t have the car back. After already being delayed past when they thought it would be done they were about to finally give it back when they discovered new damage that is apparently so extensive they need the insurance to come back out and reassess because they may now actually consider the car totaled. If they do I don’t know what will happen, if they don’t they’ll need the other insurance to increase their payment before they can even start on the new repairs, which will apparently be a big job, so this is nowhere near being resolved over a month from the actual accident date.

So yeah, never have an auto accident. It’s not something you only have to worry about if you cause it and can otherwise shrug off. It doesn’t matter if it’s your fault or not, either way it will majorly complicate your life.
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Post by Whitty Whit »

Thanks bookworm for sharing your story. I appreciate that.

Yeah a saying I've heard is: "In an collision, no matter who is at fault, you are never made whole." You always lose something in an collision.
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Post by Catspaw »

Aww, that sounds like a lousy experience all around. :( I hope that things get resolved in the not-too-distant future, bookworm.

A couple of years ago I was involved in a small accident myself, and I have been more concerned about other drivers since then, like if they're actually going to stop at a stop sign etc. The insurance part wasn't too bad, but still a nuisance. I don't know what your options will be, bookworm, but for me, they did write off my car, since it was older already and they base repair costs on all new parts, but I had the option to buy it back, so I got a payout for my car because they considered my car totaled, and then I bought it back and had a mechanic who is a friend of the family fix it with used parts etc. so I came out basically even between what they paid me and what I paid out to rebuy my car and get it fixed and safetied. I drove the car with no issues for two or so years after the accident, and it worked out for me. At the time I wanted to keep my car and I was fortunate enough to know somebody who would fix it well but without needing new parts for every little thing to keep the cost way down.
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Post by Anna><> »

About 5 years ago when I first started driving I closed the garage door and scraped the back of my car. I also once reversed into a parked car and touched his time (didn't cause any damage to either of us fortunately) but I'm super cautious in reverse and parking now!
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Post by Jonathan »

Well, since we're sharing stories,

Four years ago, when I was dating a girl, we were driving to the MN state fair (b/c the MN state fair is a special kind of fantastic). We're about a mile, maybe less, outside of downtown Minneapolis when I rear-end someone.

I wasn't driving my car. I wasn't driving her car.

I was driving her dad's car.

Never made it to the fair. The rest of that day was just one big dose of uncomfortable.
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Post by Catspaw »

Jonathan wins. Seriously, Jonathan, you always have the best accident stories. I hope you take that as a compliment, as it was intended. ;)
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Post by Jonathan »

haha, yeah, I'll take that as a compliment.
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Post by Baragon »

We were in an accident (Top's fault) about.... 4 years ago? Give or take. Anyway, we were T-boned on the driver's side and the impact of the crash pushed us into taking the street sign out. I just remember the car spinning and when it came to a stop I thought I was in a dream and I was amazed at the airbags. It was pretty freaky and left me paranoid about driving... Now, I'm over it and am back to being the crazy and reckless driver I used to be! \:D/ My car had nearly $10,000 damage and I argued with the insurance because they didn't total it. But, I'm still driving it!
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Post by Marvin D. »

Being in a car accident over here is much less of a hassle. There's mostly just a lot of screaming.
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Post by Whitty Whit »

Is there an update to this story, bookworm? Did you get the car back or was it deemed totaled and did you have to get a new car?
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Post by bookworm »

I forgot I never updated this with the conclusion, thanks Whitty.


So when they finally got the insurance back out there to look they agreed the car was totaled. We were pretty much in shock, thinking it would be a disaster because it was pretty much brand new. We bought it used, but just barely; we had just gotten it about a year ago and it was just the previous year’s model. We thought we were going to be majorly screwed over because you know how it is, they aren’t going to cover what the car is really worth. They’re going to go ‘Well you drove it for a year, that takes value off’ when really, come on, we drove it for a year the thing is still new! So we were sure we would be out a lot of money and just couldn’t believe that a very minor collision could do that much alleged damage. I guess it hit in just the right spot.
And the other driver’s insurance was cancelling the rental car now that they knew we wouldn’t get ours back, so we were on the clock to find a new one adding more pressure to the situation.

After a bit of figuring things out with the bank about the loan things started looking alright though, they were a lot more cooperative than we thought they would be and nearly agreed with our value, so we weren’t going to be out on the loss after all. And at the end they gave us a tip in looking for a new car, a dealer they have a partnership with was having a great financing deal coming up.

So we went up there to look around and couldn’t find anything we really wanted, until at the end of the day we came across what we instantly knew was the one. We could just tell. Did some diligence and test driving, talked finances, and bought it that very evening. It’s a great car. We like the model better than our old new one, it gets better gas mileage, and because of that special deal they were running we got it on better financing than the other had been on. And it was even newer than our first one; it was the current model year and it had only been used as a temporary rental for businesspeople who were passing through town so it was barely driven at all. The first car had been practically brand new, this one truly was.

So in a bizarre twist to the story, what started out looking like the worst thing that could happen ended up being... something we needed to happen? We got a car that is even newer so it will last even longer, that we like even better, with better gas mileage so it saves us money, and better financing so we save even more money. And it was only possible because of the timing; if the accident hadn’t happened just then, and the repairs hadn’t stalled for so long, it wouldn’t have all gone down in the perfect timeframe to buy during that special financing event. They would have noticed it was totaled several weeks earlier, and because we would have been in the same pinch to get a new car we would have had to buy then. Also because the accident wasn’t my fault the insurance didn’t change. So now that everything has finally settled, we actually seem to have come out ahead from the whole episode.

I guess “we know that all things work together for good.”
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Post by Woody »

Sounds like it worked out well. Does that mean we should change the title of this thread to "auto accidents: have one"? xD
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Post by bookworm »

Absolutely not! Though this one did turn out, objectively, to be beneficial in the end, it was still a major hassle and emotional drain. A good end result doesn’t make the journey a good experience.
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Post by Woody »

Sarcasm + bookworm = a bad combination
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Post by bookworm »

EK wrote:Well, we all know bookworm is a robot that can't computer sarcasm.
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Post by Marvin D. »

I'm so sorry for you, bookworm :(
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Post by bookworm »

Don’t be. I don’t know what I’m missing out on, so I can’t miss it. \:D/
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Post by Catspaw »

Wow, I'm glad that things worked out so well in the end, bookworm! Of course it was still a huge hassle, but it sounds like things ended as well as they possibly could have. :)
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