Best Accident Ever

My accident history back in Minnesota is nothing to be proud of.  I totaled two cars before I left on my mission.  My third car I totaled about eight years ago.  It was always a painful, humbling and lonely experience that left me carless and sometimes desperate for money.  Well last Saturday I was driving down 33^rd South and a huge truck pulled out in front of me to turn left at a yellow light.  I slammed on my breaks and probably thanks to my anti-lock brakes, I stopped a foot or two from his car.  He took off and left my heart pounding.  I was both frustrated and grateful that we avoided that crash. 

Then on Monday I was driving into work and I think that everyone was a little distracted by the new Trax light for the Sugarhouse line.  The car in front of me stopped really abruptly and I stopped as quickly as I could, thankfully in time.  Then I watched out my rearview mirror as the 1980’s Volvo behind me hit the back of my car going less than 10 mph.  We pulled off into a nearby parking lot and got out to view the damage.  I first went to look at my bumper.  There were a few scratches and some broken glass embedded in my bumper.  The girl got out of her car and I could tell she was young and felt bad.  Then her passenger got out, who had no legs but using his arms and body to move across the parking lot.  He asked if I was okay.  I said that I was fine and he said, well if everyone is okay that is what matters most.  This later made me wonder if he lost his legs in an accident. 

My car wasn’t that bad and being in her shoes in the past I didn’t want to file a police report or even really call my insurance company to report it at all.  I was a little torn though because I thought that my car (my midlife crisis convertible) was going to carry the scars of this accident as long as I owned it.  They asked me if I wanted to file a police report and I said that I didn’t want to bother with that but I did want to get her information.  We exchanged information and I went to work not feeling like I wanted to do anything about it. 

A few hours later I got a call from her insurance company and they told me that they were taking full responsibility for the accident and they would take care of the repairs and get me a rental car.  That really surprised me that she was so proactive.  I remember getting rear ended in MN and I got the guys info and no one seemed to want to do anything about it (my insurance guy told me that I had to do all the leg work and get working with his insurance company so I just dropped it) so I just had to live with my dented bumper. 

As much as I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going to do anything about the accident, due to my independent personality I guess, people seemed to keep telling me that they were going to take care of everything.  I tried to tell the rental car guy that I could take the bus to his location and he seemed to even laugh at the suggestion and wanted to come and pick me up at work.  When I told the guy at the repair shop that I could walk three blocks to the Trax station he said he would take me in his van (which I was especially grateful for because it wasn’t the best neighborhood).  Bottom line, it felt REALLY good to be so well taken care of.  It is not something I have ever been used to and honestly makes me feel uncomfortable to rely on other people.   However it doesn’t make me feel any less grateful for it.  In a world that sometimes makes it seem like you are always imposing on others or makes you feel like you constantly have to fight to be treated fairly it is nice to be taken care of once in a while.

In the end of all of this I didn’t think the damage to my car was worth the $1,280.00 they were going to pay to have it fixed so they are going to cut me a check for the money instead.  Now my only problem is figuring out what to do with the money.  I want to say that I should take an exciting trip somewhere but the logical side of me wants to be boring and pay down my principal on my mortgage.  Life’s questions shouldn’t be this hard.  ;)  My roommate said that her dad could help me hide the damage pretty inexpensively.  Oh and my mom tells me that accidents usually happen in threes so I think that I am going to stick with public transportation, and be really careful when I have to drive.