A 3-car accident caused by yours truly, a trip to a lot of water
Not longer after my most recent post, I caused a 3-car accident.
Quick facts, to the best of my knowledge: Nobody got hurt. Minimal property damage. It was mostly my fault. No charges were filed.
I was still driving Meghan's car. I'd parked on Ashland, a side street, as is my custom. But to turn around, I had to go back into our parking lot at the dead end of Ashland. I came back out to the intersection of Ashland & Averill. As it was a Sunday morning, people were parked on both sides of the street. This narrows the street considerably. Also, the street never gets plowed or salted, so there's a nice sheet of winter. Most people just drive straight down the center during the winter, so there's one decent set of tracks to follow. That said, this is one of the worst roads for maintenance I've encountered during the winter, even worse than rural places back home. Because of the both-sides parking, it's hard to see this one lane of traffic. I was nosing into the intersection to turn left. As I did this, a gold Jeep Grand Cherokee came barreling along, and BAM I ran into it.
FUCK.
At the moment of impact, I noticed that the passenger was a girl about 10 years old. Fuck fuck fuck.
The Jeep's driver either braked or turned the wheel or something, but the vehicle stayed in motion another 20 feet or so, slamming into an Isuzu Trooper parked on the left side of the road. We both stopped, I jumped out and ran to ask if the driver was okay, her daughter was okay, their car was okay. "Yeah, we're fine.. this other car's headlight got smashed..."
A family who kitty-corner to my building was trying to get into their car, which presumably had keys locked in it. I asked if it was their car, the son said he knew whose it was. The owner lived upstairs. Convenient. We looked around, I apologized profusely, cussed a bit, and waited to see if the Isuzu's owner came out. He wasn't answering his door. Also, Meghan's phone was off. "Well, I guess we should call the cops."
Officer Mitchell showed up within about 5 minutes, no sirens or lights. Nicest. Cop. EVER. His top priority was making sure nobody was hurt. His second was making sure we all stayed warm. He took the other driver's statement first, and I was pretty much in agreement with it. The owner of the Isuzu came out a while later, and I didn't get to speak to him, which is probably just as well. The cop took our information, and I mentioned the complication that it's not actually my car. He didn't think it was that big a deal. "She needs to call her insurance agency, and you should probably buy her flowers. Maybe something more than that." "Like, dinner, chocolate, and flowers?" "That'd be good." He used to live in Corning, he told me, when he went to CCC and took classes less than a mile from my parents' house at "the school" on Goff Road. (It was the local elementary school until the district centralized those, and CCC bought it to make it their center for criminal justice programs.)
So, yeah. Meghan's car was fine. The Jeep looked fine, but apparently they're getting a damage estimate just in case. The Trooper's right headlight was trashed and the bumper might've sustained damage. The little girl said her leg hurt, but when the mom mentioned this to the cop, it was very dismissive. I couldn't figure out if she didn't believe her daughter, or if the pain was pre-existing. Most likely the former. Shrug. I talked to Meghan's insurance company yesterday, and the guy in charge of the claim says it'll probably be 70-80% my fault. We'll see how it turns out...
The what-if section:
1. If the city didn't "extend a courtesy" (cop's words) to churchgoers, I'd've been able to see the oncoming traffic better.
2. If the other driver hadn't been travelling at a speed about 10 mph above what I consider safe on that road, impact would've been softer
3. If she wasn't driving a friggin' SUV
a. she probably wouldn't have been as confident, and thus would've been travelling slower
b. the impact with the parked car would've been lesser
c. their might've been more damage to her car, possibly even to the passengers :-\
4. any others you see?
I finally got on the road around 12:30, when I was supposed to be at the Falls in Canada by 1. Arrived at the falls about 2:30, after getting all sorts of mixed around on the other side. Not enough signage exists for such a major attraction. But I saw the world's ugliest house. And a stripper may have given me directions. Hard to say, she was out of uniform. (I'm jumping to some conclusions.) The Falls were not as loud as I expected them to be, but they were mighty impressive. We didn't do any really touristy stuff other than take some pictures. The attractions were all too pricey, so we basically got a late lunch at a Chinese place and headed off. Meghan & I had to go into the Customs office at the border so she could get stuff stamped. I'm not trying to be a major dissident or anything, but these people kind of suck at doing their jobs. There are NO signs about what to do once you're in the office. We had a little slip of paper with some cryptic things on it. The only sign was "CELLULAR PHONE USE PROHIBITED." We stood in line for about 10 minutes at the one window, waiting with anywhere from 4-10 other people. Guess what? Nobody was supposed to be in line. You're supposed to have a seat until your name is called. But no officer had told us that, nothing was written. They have these posters about how they're supposed to be courteous and polite, but most CBP officers seemed just.. snippy. We took down the Comments Hotline and once we formulate a solid list of issues, the US Government will be hearing from me. SO THERE.
I got up at noon today and threw some laundry in. Doubtful that I'll sit at the office at all. Meh, I'll trek in to grab some reading material for stuff upcoming in the next week, then sit at home and eat. Meghan (with some help from me) made me an awesome birthday dinner last night, which has tons of leftovers. I was going to make creme brulee, but I didn't have the right dairy products, and I'm not sure I would've been coordinated enough to fill the torch. Some other time.
This is technically the last day of winter break. I can't wrap my head around it.
Quick facts, to the best of my knowledge: Nobody got hurt. Minimal property damage. It was mostly my fault. No charges were filed.
I was still driving Meghan's car. I'd parked on Ashland, a side street, as is my custom. But to turn around, I had to go back into our parking lot at the dead end of Ashland. I came back out to the intersection of Ashland & Averill. As it was a Sunday morning, people were parked on both sides of the street. This narrows the street considerably. Also, the street never gets plowed or salted, so there's a nice sheet of winter. Most people just drive straight down the center during the winter, so there's one decent set of tracks to follow. That said, this is one of the worst roads for maintenance I've encountered during the winter, even worse than rural places back home. Because of the both-sides parking, it's hard to see this one lane of traffic. I was nosing into the intersection to turn left. As I did this, a gold Jeep Grand Cherokee came barreling along, and BAM I ran into it.
FUCK.
At the moment of impact, I noticed that the passenger was a girl about 10 years old. Fuck fuck fuck.
The Jeep's driver either braked or turned the wheel or something, but the vehicle stayed in motion another 20 feet or so, slamming into an Isuzu Trooper parked on the left side of the road. We both stopped, I jumped out and ran to ask if the driver was okay, her daughter was okay, their car was okay. "Yeah, we're fine.. this other car's headlight got smashed..."
A family who kitty-corner to my building was trying to get into their car, which presumably had keys locked in it. I asked if it was their car, the son said he knew whose it was. The owner lived upstairs. Convenient. We looked around, I apologized profusely, cussed a bit, and waited to see if the Isuzu's owner came out. He wasn't answering his door. Also, Meghan's phone was off. "Well, I guess we should call the cops."
Officer Mitchell showed up within about 5 minutes, no sirens or lights. Nicest. Cop. EVER. His top priority was making sure nobody was hurt. His second was making sure we all stayed warm. He took the other driver's statement first, and I was pretty much in agreement with it. The owner of the Isuzu came out a while later, and I didn't get to speak to him, which is probably just as well. The cop took our information, and I mentioned the complication that it's not actually my car. He didn't think it was that big a deal. "She needs to call her insurance agency, and you should probably buy her flowers. Maybe something more than that." "Like, dinner, chocolate, and flowers?" "That'd be good." He used to live in Corning, he told me, when he went to CCC and took classes less than a mile from my parents' house at "the school" on Goff Road. (It was the local elementary school until the district centralized those, and CCC bought it to make it their center for criminal justice programs.)
So, yeah. Meghan's car was fine. The Jeep looked fine, but apparently they're getting a damage estimate just in case. The Trooper's right headlight was trashed and the bumper might've sustained damage. The little girl said her leg hurt, but when the mom mentioned this to the cop, it was very dismissive. I couldn't figure out if she didn't believe her daughter, or if the pain was pre-existing. Most likely the former. Shrug. I talked to Meghan's insurance company yesterday, and the guy in charge of the claim says it'll probably be 70-80% my fault. We'll see how it turns out...
The what-if section:
1. If the city didn't "extend a courtesy" (cop's words) to churchgoers, I'd've been able to see the oncoming traffic better.
2. If the other driver hadn't been travelling at a speed about 10 mph above what I consider safe on that road, impact would've been softer
3. If she wasn't driving a friggin' SUV
a. she probably wouldn't have been as confident, and thus would've been travelling slower
b. the impact with the parked car would've been lesser
c. their might've been more damage to her car, possibly even to the passengers :-\
4. any others you see?
I finally got on the road around 12:30, when I was supposed to be at the Falls in Canada by 1. Arrived at the falls about 2:30, after getting all sorts of mixed around on the other side. Not enough signage exists for such a major attraction. But I saw the world's ugliest house. And a stripper may have given me directions. Hard to say, she was out of uniform. (I'm jumping to some conclusions.) The Falls were not as loud as I expected them to be, but they were mighty impressive. We didn't do any really touristy stuff other than take some pictures. The attractions were all too pricey, so we basically got a late lunch at a Chinese place and headed off. Meghan & I had to go into the Customs office at the border so she could get stuff stamped. I'm not trying to be a major dissident or anything, but these people kind of suck at doing their jobs. There are NO signs about what to do once you're in the office. We had a little slip of paper with some cryptic things on it. The only sign was "CELLULAR PHONE USE PROHIBITED." We stood in line for about 10 minutes at the one window, waiting with anywhere from 4-10 other people. Guess what? Nobody was supposed to be in line. You're supposed to have a seat until your name is called. But no officer had told us that, nothing was written. They have these posters about how they're supposed to be courteous and polite, but most CBP officers seemed just.. snippy. We took down the Comments Hotline and once we formulate a solid list of issues, the US Government will be hearing from me. SO THERE.
I got up at noon today and threw some laundry in. Doubtful that I'll sit at the office at all. Meh, I'll trek in to grab some reading material for stuff upcoming in the next week, then sit at home and eat. Meghan (with some help from me) made me an awesome birthday dinner last night, which has tons of leftovers. I was going to make creme brulee, but I didn't have the right dairy products, and I'm not sure I would've been coordinated enough to fill the torch. Some other time.
This is technically the last day of winter break. I can't wrap my head around it.