First Car Accident
So I just got into my first car accident! I guess it was inevitable, but I just got my license yesterday, and the brand new car 3 weeks ago.
Don't worry, everyone's okay.
My mom wanted to take a drive to the stake center this morning (large LDS church) to get me to practice since my single's ward (congregation of 18-30 year olds) meets there and I go there all the time.
She practiced organ while I went for a run around the neighborhood.
Of course, I put my bag in the trunk, since we were all warned to do that after people's cars were broken into, stealing wallets and CDs out of them.
Of course when I came back, I forgot that my bag was in the trunk. :)
So we were driving back and stopped at a red light. There were like 6 or 7 cars in front of us, and it was a three lane road and we're in the middle. All of a sudden, there's this squealing sound, and my mom starts screaming! We get hit behind, I remember glancing into the rear view mirror and seeing this black car with a silver grate come at us, and then realized the car in front of us was coming forward quickly. I remember REALLY not wanting to hit the car in front, and moving to slam on the brakes. Fortunately, we stopped in time.
So I'm hit. I asked my mom what I should do, so I fumble with turning on the emergency lights, and then at her direction, make my way to a parking lot on the right. I'm going to stop in the entranceway, but my mom's like, "No, pull into a space", so I do.
So I stop the car, and get out. I was worried at first that the car that hit me was just going to drive off, but they were just stopped there right where they hit me.
I guess I was pretty calm once I realized that. The back of my car was hit, but not terribly. My mom was in a terrible rear-end when i was a child, so I guess I have a perspective.
So I go back over to where the car is, there's a woman sitting in it, and I walk over to her passenger window and tap on the glass. There is food strewn everywhere, all over the passenger seat and the floor and the dashboard. I hope that she wasn't eating when she hit me. She rolls the window down and I ask if she's okay.
She is.
I don't ask much else. My mom was trying to tell her to get out of the car, and leave it so that she doesn't get hit herself. And well, she doesn't seem to be doing that (she seems a little dazed), so I just tell her to put the car in neutral and we'll push it.
Of course I meant my mother and I, but of course my mom's still on the side of the road, trying to- I don't know. Telling us to get out of the street? I know the thing to do is to move this car out of the way as quickly as possible, and no one is trying to drive in the innermost lane, so it's okay. I wouldn't have gone out there if traffic was going around both sides.
So I get behind this black car and start to push it. It's not too heavy, at least until we get to the incline of the parking lot entrance. I'm wishing that my brother were there with me. The black paint of the back of this car is HOT, and it's way to painful to keep holding but I keep at it until we start to turn into the parking lot. It gets harder because of the incline, and finally, it's not moving at all, and my hands can't take the heat so I'm like, okay. I'm done. I tell her it's too heavy to keep moving up the incline.
If my brother were there, he'd of been able to keep pushing it, all the way up. He's strong, and heat doesn't bother him. He grows peppers. And eats them. :)
I figured that mom would have been calling the cops while I was pushing this car, but when I asked her, she said she didn't, and the woman in the black car didn't either, so I tell my mom to call.
So she says she can't see the numbers and asks me to do it. So I dial 911 and tell them there's been a car accident but no one's been hurt. They ask if the accident involved a black 500 something, so I figure that that must be her car and tell them yes (I check afterwards just in case!) and give them the info they need.
Then we just have to wait.
I'm not really upset. I'm thinking of my step dad and people I know who will have to deal with the consequences, mostly. It's so disappointing to be in an accident. I'm worrying about insurance, and if I'll get points on my license (which I just got the day before). We don't seem to have very good luck with cars, or maybe it's just the places we've lived.
The woman tells us what happened on her end. She was having a stressful day at work, trying to get everything done she needed to get done. She was on her lunch break, just got some Taco Bell and was looking for a Verizon store for work when she hit us.
We talk some more, she vents about how she always told her kids and grandkids (she doesn't look that old) not to talk on cellphones while driving, ect, and she and my mom agreed about that and bemoaned texting while driving.
My mom tells me to get my diver's license, and I go do it.
I check the glove compartment, because I thought I had put my temporary license there. It's not there so it must be in my wallet.
But my wallet's in the trunk. Which is currently smashed. I try to pop it open anyway, no luck. Okay, great.
I call my mom over, and explain the situation, and she reminds me that you can get to the trunk through the back seat. Hooray!
So I go into the back seats and try to get my arm between the back seat cushion at the top. It's a tight squeeze but fortunately, the bag was pushed to the back of the trunk so I grasp it right away.
There's one problem. I can't pull my bag up through the small opening. It's stuck. Why did I have to stick a large canister of raisins in it this morning?
So I can't get more than one arm down the hole, and I can't manage to get the raisins out, but I CAN get my arm into the bag. So I fumble around and pull my wallet out.
Whew.
Looking through my wallet, I realize that there's no license in the wallet. So now I'm freaking out. I'm picturing myself being carted off to jail, and thinking about this boy in my family's ward who was recently taken to jail simply for driving the same color truck as the one some police were looking for in a certain area. (This was 3 weeks before he left on his mission, on his 18th birthday! True story. He was with his friends, out to off-road bike to celebrate his birthday. The cops thought they had the truck they were looking for, one reported stealing machinery, or something for awhile. Wrong kids, but the cops tried to stick something on them. But of course they didn't have any alcohol or drugs, or anything. The cops even brought dogs out to sniff around, and their truck now smells like dogs! Couldn't find anything, so the cop just let the others go and took the 18 year old and booked him for- no idea what. To save face.)
Okay back to me. No license. I'm done for. I wonder how my mugshot will look.
I call my mom over and drop the news that I don't think I have my license. I check the glove compartment again, go through my wallet, pull out things one by one out of my bag through the back seat. I can't find it.
That's a problem, but the cop isn't there yet, and maybe my step dad can stop by the house and pick it up for me. :)
So my mom calls my step dad, but she's more interested in telling him about the accident, than instructing him to get my license. What she says first is 'It wasn't her fault, she got into an accident' so I'm a little worried that she thinks she has to soften the blow. I remind her to tell him to get my license, but he'll probably not get here before the cop.
I figure that whatever will happen, will happen. Maybe the cop will be really nice and decide not to take me to jail. :)
So the cop comes, and talks to the woman in the black car first. I think he helps her get it started, because she is able to drive it the rest of the way into the parking lot, and park it.
Luckily, when he comes to me, and I explain that my license is probably in the trunk, and that it can't open, but that I have my ID card and the numbers are the same, he's okay with that and says that he can just get the number from that. Whew! No jail for me! I am so relieved, but still a little freaked out because where did my license go?.
I give him my ID card, and the insurance and registration cards. He gives me a report to fill out.
Some time later, we're both done and waiting by the guy's car to finish writing the insurance info. My mom got the woman's from her, and then we waited for my step dad to come in his shiny black sports car while the cop checks the woman's car with her again.
Fortunately he doesn't seem upset, not unusual, and reminds me what he said before, that he can replace the car, but it's not as easy to replace me.
I want to drive back, because when a horse gets hurt with a rider, you're supposed to get back on and keep riding, and it's the same with the other things. My mom reminds me that I don't have my license, so I scratch that idea.
She keeps trying to reassure me that it wasn't my fault, but I know that, and I'm not really upset. I guess I'd always known it was a matter of time before I got into an accident.
My step dad drives off back to work, and my mom drives us back home. She wakes my brother up with "Guess what? Your sister was in an accident" so he comes out to see the damage and I tell him everything that happened.
He manages to get my bag out of the trunk by taking the top off of the jar of raisins and smushing it enough that it will fit through the hole. I have raisins in my bag now. XD
And guess what? My temp license was in there, floating around. See? I knew I wasn't irresponsible enough to drive without it! I was just worried that I had.
So we're okay. My head hurts slightly, and I was worried that my body was shaken up, but it could also be from my run earlier so it's no big deal.
I am a little annoyed that this will put back my driving progress for awhile. I hoped to be able to drive myself to school next week, but that's out.
We will probably take the car back to the dealership tomorrow and get it repaired. I'll never view her as perfect and new again. :*( But she'll be fixed!
I guess I'm lucky we can do that. When my mom got rear ended, we drove around in that car, unfixed, for years.
Don't worry, everyone's okay.
My mom wanted to take a drive to the stake center this morning (large LDS church) to get me to practice since my single's ward (congregation of 18-30 year olds) meets there and I go there all the time.
She practiced organ while I went for a run around the neighborhood.
Of course, I put my bag in the trunk, since we were all warned to do that after people's cars were broken into, stealing wallets and CDs out of them.
Of course when I came back, I forgot that my bag was in the trunk. :)
So we were driving back and stopped at a red light. There were like 6 or 7 cars in front of us, and it was a three lane road and we're in the middle. All of a sudden, there's this squealing sound, and my mom starts screaming! We get hit behind, I remember glancing into the rear view mirror and seeing this black car with a silver grate come at us, and then realized the car in front of us was coming forward quickly. I remember REALLY not wanting to hit the car in front, and moving to slam on the brakes. Fortunately, we stopped in time.
So I'm hit. I asked my mom what I should do, so I fumble with turning on the emergency lights, and then at her direction, make my way to a parking lot on the right. I'm going to stop in the entranceway, but my mom's like, "No, pull into a space", so I do.
So I stop the car, and get out. I was worried at first that the car that hit me was just going to drive off, but they were just stopped there right where they hit me.
I guess I was pretty calm once I realized that. The back of my car was hit, but not terribly. My mom was in a terrible rear-end when i was a child, so I guess I have a perspective.
So I go back over to where the car is, there's a woman sitting in it, and I walk over to her passenger window and tap on the glass. There is food strewn everywhere, all over the passenger seat and the floor and the dashboard. I hope that she wasn't eating when she hit me. She rolls the window down and I ask if she's okay.
She is.
I don't ask much else. My mom was trying to tell her to get out of the car, and leave it so that she doesn't get hit herself. And well, she doesn't seem to be doing that (she seems a little dazed), so I just tell her to put the car in neutral and we'll push it.
Of course I meant my mother and I, but of course my mom's still on the side of the road, trying to- I don't know. Telling us to get out of the street? I know the thing to do is to move this car out of the way as quickly as possible, and no one is trying to drive in the innermost lane, so it's okay. I wouldn't have gone out there if traffic was going around both sides.
So I get behind this black car and start to push it. It's not too heavy, at least until we get to the incline of the parking lot entrance. I'm wishing that my brother were there with me. The black paint of the back of this car is HOT, and it's way to painful to keep holding but I keep at it until we start to turn into the parking lot. It gets harder because of the incline, and finally, it's not moving at all, and my hands can't take the heat so I'm like, okay. I'm done. I tell her it's too heavy to keep moving up the incline.
If my brother were there, he'd of been able to keep pushing it, all the way up. He's strong, and heat doesn't bother him. He grows peppers. And eats them. :)
I figured that mom would have been calling the cops while I was pushing this car, but when I asked her, she said she didn't, and the woman in the black car didn't either, so I tell my mom to call.
So she says she can't see the numbers and asks me to do it. So I dial 911 and tell them there's been a car accident but no one's been hurt. They ask if the accident involved a black 500 something, so I figure that that must be her car and tell them yes (I check afterwards just in case!) and give them the info they need.
Then we just have to wait.
I'm not really upset. I'm thinking of my step dad and people I know who will have to deal with the consequences, mostly. It's so disappointing to be in an accident. I'm worrying about insurance, and if I'll get points on my license (which I just got the day before). We don't seem to have very good luck with cars, or maybe it's just the places we've lived.
The woman tells us what happened on her end. She was having a stressful day at work, trying to get everything done she needed to get done. She was on her lunch break, just got some Taco Bell and was looking for a Verizon store for work when she hit us.
We talk some more, she vents about how she always told her kids and grandkids (she doesn't look that old) not to talk on cellphones while driving, ect, and she and my mom agreed about that and bemoaned texting while driving.
My mom tells me to get my diver's license, and I go do it.
I check the glove compartment, because I thought I had put my temporary license there. It's not there so it must be in my wallet.
But my wallet's in the trunk. Which is currently smashed. I try to pop it open anyway, no luck. Okay, great.
I call my mom over, and explain the situation, and she reminds me that you can get to the trunk through the back seat. Hooray!
So I go into the back seats and try to get my arm between the back seat cushion at the top. It's a tight squeeze but fortunately, the bag was pushed to the back of the trunk so I grasp it right away.
There's one problem. I can't pull my bag up through the small opening. It's stuck. Why did I have to stick a large canister of raisins in it this morning?
So I can't get more than one arm down the hole, and I can't manage to get the raisins out, but I CAN get my arm into the bag. So I fumble around and pull my wallet out.
Whew.
Looking through my wallet, I realize that there's no license in the wallet. So now I'm freaking out. I'm picturing myself being carted off to jail, and thinking about this boy in my family's ward who was recently taken to jail simply for driving the same color truck as the one some police were looking for in a certain area. (This was 3 weeks before he left on his mission, on his 18th birthday! True story. He was with his friends, out to off-road bike to celebrate his birthday. The cops thought they had the truck they were looking for, one reported stealing machinery, or something for awhile. Wrong kids, but the cops tried to stick something on them. But of course they didn't have any alcohol or drugs, or anything. The cops even brought dogs out to sniff around, and their truck now smells like dogs! Couldn't find anything, so the cop just let the others go and took the 18 year old and booked him for- no idea what. To save face.)
Okay back to me. No license. I'm done for. I wonder how my mugshot will look.
I call my mom over and drop the news that I don't think I have my license. I check the glove compartment again, go through my wallet, pull out things one by one out of my bag through the back seat. I can't find it.
That's a problem, but the cop isn't there yet, and maybe my step dad can stop by the house and pick it up for me. :)
So my mom calls my step dad, but she's more interested in telling him about the accident, than instructing him to get my license. What she says first is 'It wasn't her fault, she got into an accident' so I'm a little worried that she thinks she has to soften the blow. I remind her to tell him to get my license, but he'll probably not get here before the cop.
I figure that whatever will happen, will happen. Maybe the cop will be really nice and decide not to take me to jail. :)
So the cop comes, and talks to the woman in the black car first. I think he helps her get it started, because she is able to drive it the rest of the way into the parking lot, and park it.
Luckily, when he comes to me, and I explain that my license is probably in the trunk, and that it can't open, but that I have my ID card and the numbers are the same, he's okay with that and says that he can just get the number from that. Whew! No jail for me! I am so relieved, but still a little freaked out because where did my license go?.
I give him my ID card, and the insurance and registration cards. He gives me a report to fill out.
Some time later, we're both done and waiting by the guy's car to finish writing the insurance info. My mom got the woman's from her, and then we waited for my step dad to come in his shiny black sports car while the cop checks the woman's car with her again.
Fortunately he doesn't seem upset, not unusual, and reminds me what he said before, that he can replace the car, but it's not as easy to replace me.
I want to drive back, because when a horse gets hurt with a rider, you're supposed to get back on and keep riding, and it's the same with the other things. My mom reminds me that I don't have my license, so I scratch that idea.
She keeps trying to reassure me that it wasn't my fault, but I know that, and I'm not really upset. I guess I'd always known it was a matter of time before I got into an accident.
My step dad drives off back to work, and my mom drives us back home. She wakes my brother up with "Guess what? Your sister was in an accident" so he comes out to see the damage and I tell him everything that happened.
He manages to get my bag out of the trunk by taking the top off of the jar of raisins and smushing it enough that it will fit through the hole. I have raisins in my bag now. XD
And guess what? My temp license was in there, floating around. See? I knew I wasn't irresponsible enough to drive without it! I was just worried that I had.
So we're okay. My head hurts slightly, and I was worried that my body was shaken up, but it could also be from my run earlier so it's no big deal.
I am a little annoyed that this will put back my driving progress for awhile. I hoped to be able to drive myself to school next week, but that's out.
We will probably take the car back to the dealership tomorrow and get it repaired. I'll never view her as perfect and new again. :*( But she'll be fixed!
I guess I'm lucky we can do that. When my mom got rear ended, we drove around in that car, unfixed, for years.