Our car after being tagged by a nice lady who was looking the other way.

Our car after being tagged by a nice lady who was looking the other way.

Yesterday was an eventful Saturday.

As you can see, our car is not feeling so happy. But, more importantly of course, we are all fine. It was pretty scary, though.

A very nice lady with her head fully turned the other way began to pull out right in front of us on the main road we live on, only about a half-mile away. When I saw that, I thought, “Aw man… seriously?” I hit the brakes and tried to veer left a bit, but she kept coming, smacking into us and jolting the car to the side. Her bumper flew past the front of our car as we pulled past, straightened out, and stopped. I can’t clearly remember, but I suspect when she saw us she reflexively hit the gas pedal, tagging us nicely, which may have been why we couldn’t slip past her. Anyway, I’m just glad she didn’t shoot out in front of us, causing us to ram her. Even at the 30-40 miles per hour we were driving, it would not have been a barrel of fun. Whew. But everyone was fine, other than being a bit shaken up.

The lady was very nice, admitted (to us, at least) her fault in the matter (she was pretty upset at herself), and was very helpful with information for the insurance. One of those people you wished you’d met under better circumstances.

It’s hard to tell in the photo above, but I’m pretty sure the rear right axle (or whatever the proper name for that part is on this vehicle) is bent, causing the wheel to tilt inward a bit. The rear passenger-side door obviously won’t open, and the front passenger side door is a bit banged up as well. I’m sure there’s more damage here and there, but, all in all, I’m happy with how well the car took the hit. I never lost control of the car; its handling was pretty tight and solid through the whole thing. I do wish the brakes would’ve stopped the car faster, though. I think my old Camaro SS would’ve pulled up short of the hit. (Although, it’s possible that would’ve caused a rear-end collision with someone else. Who knows.)

So far, there are no aches and pains, so that’s good (but we’ll see). Now we’ve just got to deal with the insurance companies and hope the very nice lady doesn’t change her tune. That she was at fault is pretty obvious, but you never know what people will do after they go home and talk with other folks. Also, we hope the car will be fixed some time soon, since my little commute car doesn’t fit us all very well, not to mention its much-further-down-the-list safety status. Sigh.

-T