A Scary Time
Yesterday I experienced the second scariest thing I have ever had in an automobile. I had gone into DC to attend a bridal shower. As I was arriving at a location I noticed an available parking place (very rare in DC). It meant that I had to pull into an alley and then back out into the street and down about 20 feet to be aligned properly to pull into the space. No big deal, or so I thought. So as I backed out of the alleyway I was turning the wheel to the right when my car suddenly went into a fast skid/circle in that direction. I assume I must have put my foot on the accelerator instead of the brake. Anyway, I had done a complete 360 turn before I could even figure out what was happening in order to react. By the time I got the car under control I had hit the motorcycle and the Hundai that were parked at the curb in front of the spot I had been trying to park in. The passenger side and front bumper of my car were a total wreck. It was all I could do to slide it into the originally spotted parking spot and get it off the street. Thank the Gods that there was no one in the vehicles, on the sidewalk or coming down the quiet side street where this all occurred.
A good Samaritan in the house across the street called 911 and came out to see if I was hurt. I wasn't thank heavens. An ambulance arrived within 10 minutes but when I assured them no one was hurt they left. I asked them not to cancel the 911 call for the police. I think that request was ignored. Because it took the police two more phone calls and two hours to arrive. Meanwhile I was engaged in an ordeal that inclued calling Frank, calling the insurance company, getting someone to take my gift into the bridal shower and give my apologies, dealing with the owner of the motorcycle, trying to find the owner of the Hundai and trying to deal with the "opportunistic" owner of the auto body shop whose tow truck arrived right after the ambulance. The insurance company's weekend warrior authorized Mr. Opportunity to tow the car to his facility so I am sure he thought he would be getting the repair business. He offered to "cut me a deal" so that I wouldn't have to pay any deductible. I told him I could not authorize anything until I had spoken to the claims agent. He seemed like a nice enough guy but Frank and I were leary of anyone who is willing to give you a $500 rebate on auto repair work
Today, I spent a couple hours on the phone with the claims agent who said that although people with their insurance had used the facility where the car was towed and that I could choose to do that, the insurance company would not guarantee the repairs unless they were done by one of their "authorized" facilities. So then more hours were spent talking to the tow company (angry because they were not authorized to do the repairs), the authorized repair shop, and the replacement rental car agency. In the end, Mr. Opportunity, whose facility is at least 35 miles away from where I live, has had to settle for the cost of the additional tow to bring the car to the authorized repair shop close to my home. But he has not made it easy. First he insisted that I would have to go to his place to sign a release in person, no faxes allowed. I finally got him to agree that I could sign the release when the car arrived at the Gaithersburg repair facility, so long as he had the insurance company's faxed agreement to pay for the tow. The car will not arrive here until sometime tomorrow.
If only I were rich enough to be chauffered everywhere, I would be willing to give up driving in a minute. All this happens after I have gone through 5 years getting a clean driving record so that our insurance rates would go down which they did in September, but since we are on a six-month renewal, I am sure that the bill in March will be nasty.
A good Samaritan in the house across the street called 911 and came out to see if I was hurt. I wasn't thank heavens. An ambulance arrived within 10 minutes but when I assured them no one was hurt they left. I asked them not to cancel the 911 call for the police. I think that request was ignored. Because it took the police two more phone calls and two hours to arrive. Meanwhile I was engaged in an ordeal that inclued calling Frank, calling the insurance company, getting someone to take my gift into the bridal shower and give my apologies, dealing with the owner of the motorcycle, trying to find the owner of the Hundai and trying to deal with the "opportunistic" owner of the auto body shop whose tow truck arrived right after the ambulance. The insurance company's weekend warrior authorized Mr. Opportunity to tow the car to his facility so I am sure he thought he would be getting the repair business. He offered to "cut me a deal" so that I wouldn't have to pay any deductible. I told him I could not authorize anything until I had spoken to the claims agent. He seemed like a nice enough guy but Frank and I were leary of anyone who is willing to give you a $500 rebate on auto repair work
Today, I spent a couple hours on the phone with the claims agent who said that although people with their insurance had used the facility where the car was towed and that I could choose to do that, the insurance company would not guarantee the repairs unless they were done by one of their "authorized" facilities. So then more hours were spent talking to the tow company (angry because they were not authorized to do the repairs), the authorized repair shop, and the replacement rental car agency. In the end, Mr. Opportunity, whose facility is at least 35 miles away from where I live, has had to settle for the cost of the additional tow to bring the car to the authorized repair shop close to my home. But he has not made it easy. First he insisted that I would have to go to his place to sign a release in person, no faxes allowed. I finally got him to agree that I could sign the release when the car arrived at the Gaithersburg repair facility, so long as he had the insurance company's faxed agreement to pay for the tow. The car will not arrive here until sometime tomorrow.
If only I were rich enough to be chauffered everywhere, I would be willing to give up driving in a minute. All this happens after I have gone through 5 years getting a clean driving record so that our insurance rates would go down which they did in September, but since we are on a six-month renewal, I am sure that the bill in March will be nasty.