My Poor Car!

Wednesday night I was in a car accident. Luckily no one was injured, it was not my fault at all, and the other person completely accepted blame. All that aside, it was an incredibly weird experience.

I had stopped at the Verizon store on my way home from work because I finally got a new phone the day before and needed to switch my contacts over. After the transfer process took over half an hour, I was itching to get home.

About a mile from my house, I made a right hand turn after this red 2010 Camaro. The Camaro pulled into the middle lane to make a left hand turn into the Walgreens and I thought to myself, There's a sign there saying left hand turns are illegal because it's so close to the intersection but who cares because she's not hurting me?

She missed the turn into the Walgreens and was kind of just slowly driving in the middle lane now. She must be slowly creeping along until a gap comes along and she can get back into traffic. I'll just continue past her, legally, in the correct lane.

Nope. Didn't wait for a gap. Decided to run into the rear left portion of my car instead. Geez, I don't know how I reacted so quickly, but the damage was pretty minimal. We both pulled into the nearest parking lot (which ironically was the parking lot for the grocery store I had planned on getting groceries at later that night) and assessed the damage. Her car actually took most of the damage. Who would have bet that in a battle of Chevy SS Camaro versus Volkswagen Beetle the Beetle would walk away the victor?

I decided to call the cops because that's just what I've always been trained to do. I didn't realize how badly my hands were shaking until I tried to use my new phone. Try adding another layer of stress when your worried your hands are shaking so badly that you'll drop your brand new uninsured phone onto the pavement. Ugh.

Well apparently, the cops don't come out to accidents in Tucson anymore unless someone is injured or you're blocking traffic. While it was kind of a relief, it also complicates things. With a police report, I can go to the insurance company and clearly demonstrate that the accident wasn't my fault.

So without a police report, I knew getting photos of the damage and the scene would be that much more important. And have I mentioned that I have a brand new cell phone that I don't know how to use at all, especially the camera? I called my mom and asked her to come down and to bring her camera. The other woman called her son and we just attempted to exchange information without really knowing what we were supposed to do (it's so much easier when the cops just come!)

My parents finally show up and assess the damage. All of a sudden, the woman starts asking my mom where they know each other from. At this point, it was pretty funny because my mom was pretty pissed off but still trying to be polite, but she had no idea who this lady was. After a couple of failed attempts, we all realized that I went to elementary school with her son. The son that was now working his way to the scene. And we were more than friends. He was my kindergarten boyfriend and we used to kiss everyday at recess by the watering fountain. Everyone says that Tucson is a small town because somehow everyone knows everyone else, they just don't realize it most of the time. Kind of a cruel time to rub that one in my face, Tucson.

Actually, it probably made things easier because the tension between everyone melted at this point. I calmed down and let it sink in that this actually was an accident and that being angry really wasn't going to help anything. She accepted full blame to insurance company over the phone in front of me so at least I'm not as worried now that she'll suddenly flip a switch and try to pretend it was my fault. And, since I'm friends with her son on Facebook, I know I've at least got a back up method of getting in contact with her if things start to go downhill.

And the damage to my car is pretty superficial. It's still drivable and the tire she hit appears to be fine, but we need to have it looked at just to be sure. A couple of the panels will need to be replaced and I'm going to need a new hubcap, but it could have been much worse. I just don't want to drive around a scarred Tick (I named my car Tick because he's a little red bug. And yes, he's a boy car). I want to clean him up as soon as possible so hopefully the insurance adjuster can evaluate everything pretty quickly. My poor baby!

Please ignore the ridiculous look on my face. This stupid candid photo is the only digital one I have of Tick.