Is this the end of the Lesbomobile?
So as any of you on FB know, my car was hit yesterday. And it doesn't look good. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, but my car may not be salvageable. I won't know for sure until it's looked at by the insurance co.
One of the perpetual jokes about me is that I don't take left hand turns. Which isn't to say I don't take ANY left hand turns, but I avoid those nasty lefts whenever possible. There is one near my house, a blind left onto a very busy street. Luckily for me there is also a side road nearby that leads to a better left onto the same road just 200 feet away from the bad intersection. I use this cut through whenever I need to take that left, or even go across the road, because it's safer. And that's what I did yesterday on my way to get Himself at the school.
And it didn't help.
Because as it turns out, it only saves you from being hit by people on the main road you are turning onto, not by people on the side roads blowing stop signs.
After I made my turn onto the main road and was getting up to speed, I had just enough time to think "Oh Shit!" as I got to the intersection and saw in the corner of my eye a car coming right at me. They never stopped at the stop sign, just went right through at full speed. I think I tried to stop and turn but there was no time. I just got plowed into. THANKFULLY there was no one coming the other way at the time or I'd have been hit twice probably, once head on. My car seems to have hit the front quarter of her car. I hit her more in the side while she wiped out my front right. Her air bag went off, mine did not. Once we stopped I got out and asked her if she was okay and if there was anyone else in the car. There wasn't. She had to get out the passenger side. I had left the car running but went back to turn it off and got my purse. It was cold out. Cold shaking fingers trying to text my son to say I wasn't going to be there to pick him up.. yeah, that's fun. Actually some nice guy had stopped and called the police which was nice because I couldn't have. I don't know if he left his name at all as a witness or if he even saw anything. We tied up traffic for a bit. As people squeezed by they asked if we were okay. I banged my knees on something under the dash, but otherwise felt okay. The other woman seemed more shaken but said she was okay. We both refused treatment when the ambulance arrived. They towed her car away and then towed mine. My car they actually were able to start and move twice, once to get it off the road and again to drive it up onto the flatbed truck. My poor Subi!
The police were nice about filing out the exchange of info form. I usually keep something in my glove box for that kind of thing, but I was in no condition to go looking for it and I can never remember all the things you are supposed to get from the other person. I also had brought the papers with me figuring after I got Himself at school (it was late) we would drive around and do them. That didn't happen. So I had to get them out of the car before they towed it. Ryther came from work to pick up the lad, and I actually saw him go through the intersection while I was waiting for the tow trucks, so he got to see the incident. He said it looked to him like half the car was gone.
All in all I am very lucky I wasn't severely hurt. I was trying to look up statistics on the intersection and found one accident a few years ago where the same thing happened to another person only from the opposite direction, and they were seriously injured as their car rolled over. And they were wearing a seat belt.
The cynic in my wants to know if the woman was texting or on the phone at the time. But the police didn't ask of course.
If my car is totaled, I'll have to find something to replace it and the newer cars are all made with horrid blind spots now. Anything comparable would be a CRV or RAV 4, but I don't like the design of them. The new Foresters are also ginormous. I might have to go with an older Forester or maybe an Outback. I will say that if nothing else, the Forester held up with it's promise of safety. I'll give that to them. But I sure did like that car. And if do get it back, I fear it's never going to be right. Then again, I don't drive much.. so maybe that won't really matter? We'll see. There are only 63? thousand miles on it, and it's 9 years old. It was in good shape otherwise. Ironically my brother had just stopped to look at the car that day, because I had complained about the window seeming to stick and he thought maybe the door had dropped a bit. Turns out there is probably something worn inside the window that props up the glass. I told him after the accident the 'good news' was he didn't have to fix the window… :/
I'll have to call the insurance agency Monday. I did the accident report already. I wonder if her story will say if she stopped or not. Either way, I had total right of way. For what thats worth these days.
I was watching The Perks of Being a Wall Flower tonight with Jeff and there is a scene where a woman is driving along and a truck slams into the drivers door. And all I could think of is 'that could have been me'. Its very scary the crap you have no control of, as hard as you try to do the right, safe thing.
My son gave me a big hug when he got home with his dad. That was nice. I do love my boy.