Oops....
So I was driving to school today... when I uh.. whats the term.. oh right.. slammed into the car in front me.
Oops..
The car had suddenly stopped, I tried to stop but failed. The car behind me was able to avoid missing me, but washit by anouther car. So there we were, four cars sitting in the right lane, about a quarter mile from Dana. So I sit there in my car, after making sure my brother was okay, and eat my breakfast as I wait for the car in front of us to move so I can pull over. A lady in one of the back two cars came forward to make sure nobody was hurt and we all pulled over onto the curb.
I then called my mom, and got out of the car to inspect the damage done. The car that I hit was fortunally not in bad shape. One of the tailpipes was bent, and some of the paint was scratched, but no real damage. My car however was not so pretty a site. The hood was bent in, like someone bending their knees slightly. The front panel on which the little saturn icon usually is (or in my case usually wasn't) was pushed back all the way against the engine. It was still secured, just pushed back really far. The lights which sit on either side of that panel were completey smashed, with parts resting both under the hood and in the middle of the highway. There was also the steady drip of coolant dripping out.
The police man came (Norwood) and took down everyones information. It was determined that since the third car did not come in contact with me, it was officially two seperate accidents. In mine, I was at fault, but luckly I didn't get a citation. The lady who I hit was very understanding. I attribute this to two factors: a) her car, which was really her companies car thus not even hers, was fine b) She said her daughter did something similar about a month ago.
And so I put on my flashers (my back lights were still intact), and made my way to Walnut. There I waited for my mom, and for my engine to stop steaming (duue to no coolant). It was about 7:40 or so at this time. My mom came, and we decided that it would have to be towed. We called my dad and set him to work finidng out what our best option would be insurance wise. We decided to wait till after school to get it towed, and to take it to Kalb Auto Body.
With that, I went of to class, leaving my poor beat up car all alone the WHHS parkng lot... (some punk did come by and dent my hood even more.. not a big deal, but still obnoxious). I went to Calculus, but only made it there for the last 10 minutes. I then went off to Physics where we had a test on... Momentum and Collisions... Ironic eh?
My mom came back after school and we got the car towed via AAA. We went on over to Kalbs ourselves and got waited as he looked over the car to come up with an estimate. Several times he called other body shops looking for parts (mainly a bumper). While we waited we got to hear some recycling guy make some sales pitch about being able to take 50 gallon waste and vaporize it.. or something.. I dunno.
Well anyway.. the final estimate, with labor and parts etc, came to $3,566. We have collision insurance with a deductable of $500, and so we decided to make a claim, and pay the 500 rather than 3K. This does mean that my insurance rates will take a sharp step upwards. The State Farm guy was goign to go down and take a look at the car either today or tomorrow, and then they decide what they want to do. We told Kalb that we wanted it repaired rather than totaled, and so hes going to try and push for that. The repair vs Full cost ration was about 61%.
And thus ends the tragic tale of my car.. Luckly nobody got hurt, there were no citations, and my car was the only car that took real damage.
Oops..
The car had suddenly stopped, I tried to stop but failed. The car behind me was able to avoid missing me, but washit by anouther car. So there we were, four cars sitting in the right lane, about a quarter mile from Dana. So I sit there in my car, after making sure my brother was okay, and eat my breakfast as I wait for the car in front of us to move so I can pull over. A lady in one of the back two cars came forward to make sure nobody was hurt and we all pulled over onto the curb.
I then called my mom, and got out of the car to inspect the damage done. The car that I hit was fortunally not in bad shape. One of the tailpipes was bent, and some of the paint was scratched, but no real damage. My car however was not so pretty a site. The hood was bent in, like someone bending their knees slightly. The front panel on which the little saturn icon usually is (or in my case usually wasn't) was pushed back all the way against the engine. It was still secured, just pushed back really far. The lights which sit on either side of that panel were completey smashed, with parts resting both under the hood and in the middle of the highway. There was also the steady drip of coolant dripping out.
The police man came (Norwood) and took down everyones information. It was determined that since the third car did not come in contact with me, it was officially two seperate accidents. In mine, I was at fault, but luckly I didn't get a citation. The lady who I hit was very understanding. I attribute this to two factors: a) her car, which was really her companies car thus not even hers, was fine b) She said her daughter did something similar about a month ago.
And so I put on my flashers (my back lights were still intact), and made my way to Walnut. There I waited for my mom, and for my engine to stop steaming (duue to no coolant). It was about 7:40 or so at this time. My mom came, and we decided that it would have to be towed. We called my dad and set him to work finidng out what our best option would be insurance wise. We decided to wait till after school to get it towed, and to take it to Kalb Auto Body.
With that, I went of to class, leaving my poor beat up car all alone the WHHS parkng lot... (some punk did come by and dent my hood even more.. not a big deal, but still obnoxious). I went to Calculus, but only made it there for the last 10 minutes. I then went off to Physics where we had a test on... Momentum and Collisions... Ironic eh?
My mom came back after school and we got the car towed via AAA. We went on over to Kalbs ourselves and got waited as he looked over the car to come up with an estimate. Several times he called other body shops looking for parts (mainly a bumper). While we waited we got to hear some recycling guy make some sales pitch about being able to take 50 gallon waste and vaporize it.. or something.. I dunno.
Well anyway.. the final estimate, with labor and parts etc, came to $3,566. We have collision insurance with a deductable of $500, and so we decided to make a claim, and pay the 500 rather than 3K. This does mean that my insurance rates will take a sharp step upwards. The State Farm guy was goign to go down and take a look at the car either today or tomorrow, and then they decide what they want to do. We told Kalb that we wanted it repaired rather than totaled, and so hes going to try and push for that. The repair vs Full cost ration was about 61%.
And thus ends the tragic tale of my car.. Luckly nobody got hurt, there were no citations, and my car was the only car that took real damage.