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Long story short, the intersection that I thought was a 4-way stop was not, and so I ended up t-boning an old lady's car. I was on my way to work, stopped at the sign, looked at the big yellow caution sign hanging above the intersection -- the one that advised to look out for oncoming traffic -- saw her car approaching from the cross street, and figuring she would stop for her stop sign, I headed on across.
End result, her car was heavily damaged if not totaled, my car is almost certainly totaled because it had the entire front end ripped off, and now the dance of the insurance companies begins. The wreck was my fault and I was cited for not yielding right of way, with a fine of a little more than $200. The old lady went to the hospital, the tow trucks came, and what remains of my car is now sitting at my cousin's auto body shop.
God knows what happens now. I get a rental car tomorrow, the insurance companies start doing their thing bright and early, and then I guess they decide what happens to my car. If it's fixable, it'll get fixed. If not, I'll get a paltry settlement that I'll have to try to use to buy another vehicle.
And I'm mad. Good God, am I mad. Not at the old lady or myself, just at the situation. Thank God no one was seriously hurt -- neither one of our airbags even deployed, and the old lady went to the hospital because of how hard she'd been yanked against her seatbelt. But, fuck, am I angry. I had paid that car off. It was the most expensive thing I've ever bought, and by far the most valuable thing I owned. I'd even had a lot of work done to it recently to make sure it would last me another six years.
Gone.
I'm mad at the situation. I was only going to work, to a job that barely pays me enough to keep gas in the car, in a car that ferried me from home to school, to my mother's house, to her doctor's appointments, and which I would have needed when I transfer from college to a university that will require driving to the next county once or twice a week. I needed a reliable car, and for once in my life it seemed like I had one.
I am furious.
Then I consider that but for a split-second's difference, I could have killed that old lady, if not her and her adult granddaughter who was riding with her. I seriously could have killed someone. All over a stupid mistake. My car hit hers right at the front driver's-side tire. A bit to the right and it would have caved in her door.
I've been running on adrenaline since it happened, and as that wears off, the aches and pains set in. I have no health insurance, and still can't get it thanks to our illustrious governor's decisions on Obamacare (take it to fratching, because I don't want to hear it), and could not afford to go get checked out myself. A bruise is developing where I was slammed against my own seatbelt. And today, riding to church and back with my partner, the fight-or-flight response set in every time I saw a car about to turn. My heart was racing the entire time we were in the car.
This sucks, and apparently the whole thing was a lot more traumatic that it seemed yesterday at first glance.
So, yes... I'm having a hard time today.
End result, her car was heavily damaged if not totaled, my car is almost certainly totaled because it had the entire front end ripped off, and now the dance of the insurance companies begins. The wreck was my fault and I was cited for not yielding right of way, with a fine of a little more than $200. The old lady went to the hospital, the tow trucks came, and what remains of my car is now sitting at my cousin's auto body shop.
God knows what happens now. I get a rental car tomorrow, the insurance companies start doing their thing bright and early, and then I guess they decide what happens to my car. If it's fixable, it'll get fixed. If not, I'll get a paltry settlement that I'll have to try to use to buy another vehicle.
And I'm mad. Good God, am I mad. Not at the old lady or myself, just at the situation. Thank God no one was seriously hurt -- neither one of our airbags even deployed, and the old lady went to the hospital because of how hard she'd been yanked against her seatbelt. But, fuck, am I angry. I had paid that car off. It was the most expensive thing I've ever bought, and by far the most valuable thing I owned. I'd even had a lot of work done to it recently to make sure it would last me another six years.
Gone.
I'm mad at the situation. I was only going to work, to a job that barely pays me enough to keep gas in the car, in a car that ferried me from home to school, to my mother's house, to her doctor's appointments, and which I would have needed when I transfer from college to a university that will require driving to the next county once or twice a week. I needed a reliable car, and for once in my life it seemed like I had one.
I am furious.
Then I consider that but for a split-second's difference, I could have killed that old lady, if not her and her adult granddaughter who was riding with her. I seriously could have killed someone. All over a stupid mistake. My car hit hers right at the front driver's-side tire. A bit to the right and it would have caved in her door.
I've been running on adrenaline since it happened, and as that wears off, the aches and pains set in. I have no health insurance, and still can't get it thanks to our illustrious governor's decisions on Obamacare (take it to fratching, because I don't want to hear it), and could not afford to go get checked out myself. A bruise is developing where I was slammed against my own seatbelt. And today, riding to church and back with my partner, the fight-or-flight response set in every time I saw a car about to turn. My heart was racing the entire time we were in the car.
This sucks, and apparently the whole thing was a lot more traumatic that it seemed yesterday at first glance.
So, yes... I'm having a hard time today.
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