Impact!
I spent the last full week of August with my family in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. It was a relaxing time down in the Massanutten resort area. Except for all the time we spent watching baseball and ESPNEWS to keep tabs on the Yankees, our vacation was distraction-free: the nearest Internet access was at a coffee shop 20 minutes away. Just after I got home and was ready to resume working at full relaxation, one Jeep ruined everything.
SYCOTIK
On Sunday, August 28, I had just seen Back to the Future at The Oaks Theater up in Oakmont, the last film of their summer Moonlit Matinees series. I dropped off my friends at their homes and headed through Shadyside to come home. At 12:45 AM early Monday morning, at an intersection just 1 1/2 miles away from my home, a red Jeep Cherokee stopped on my right, figured nobody else would be on the road at that hour, and proceeded into the intersection. I was there at the worst possible moment; I tried to accelerate and swerved into the path of oncoming traffic to avoid the Jeep. I heard the Jeep's brakes screech, then a thud. I was hit. No air bags deployed; I wasn't hurt, just angry; and I pulled onto Howe Street to assess the damage.
The driver of the red Jeep Cherokee, a cute 22-year-old woman who just began grad study at Pitt, was upset at the accident but unhurt. She immediately accepted full blame for the accident and claimed she didn't really look because she was less than a block away from her apartment. Her Jeep, owned and insured by her father, had last been involved in an accident just two months prior.
Neither of us were injured, uninsured, drunk, or violent, so the 911 dispatcher told me to simply collect insurance and driver information. I inspected the cars at this time to survey the damage. The damage to the Jeep, which bore the personalized license plate "SYCOTIK," was limited to a baseball-sized indentation on the front bumper. My car had significant damage all over the passenger side, though the passenger door still opened, closed, and locked.
When I pointed out the Jeep's minor damage, the other driver said, "Yeah, that's why I drive it." This is not why you drive Jeeps. It was late at night and I just wanted to go home, but that's about the worst off-the-cuff remark to make. Lie to me about why you drive your Jeep. Say you love to drive off-road. Say you have to deliver orders for your business. Say you have to tow farm equipment. Just don't say "I want to be the one to walk away from a car accident." That's amazingly selfish: it sends the message that only people wealthy enough to buy, maintain, and gas up a big truck deserve to survive car accidents. It suggests that buying a Jeep is physical insurance, even though the driver's dad's policy covered more than $3,000 in damage that a low-speed side-impact collision did to my car. I'm also speaking a bit from experience as back in Syosset, a lot of well-off parents bought giant SUVs for their kids to use as bumper cars right after passing their road tests. Less than two weeks after my accident, a student in neighboring Jericho, New York died after trying to ride on the running board of his friend's truck. SUVs aren't toys, as the other driver learned when she tried in vain to stop hers before hitting my car.
The Road to Recovery
Both I and the other driver were insured with State Farm, so discussions among our agents were quick. I received a call from the other driver accepting full responsibility on the same day that I handed my car over to Pittsburgh Collision for repair. Meanwhile, Enterprise Rent-a-Car set me up with a Chevy Cobalt as a rental for the two-plus weeks that the bug was out for repair. My policy normally covers 80% of the cost of a rental car but I got this for free due to the other driver's claim of responsibility; had I known that I would have tried for a larger car -- perhaps an SUV to try for the ultimate ironic twist.
As of last Tuesday I'm back in my regular car, this whole episode behind me. Now I'm ever more cautious while driving and I'm especially fearful of another side-impact collision by a driver eager to ignore a stop sign. Playing bumper cars in real life is no fun.