beenie

Weekend was nice... for the most part

The not-so-nice part of today came with a bang, right around 12:30 PM. Or would that be a crash?

Don'tcha just love car accidents?

I was driving on a straight road, minding my own business, when a guy came out of a side street on my right (his vision was blocked by a large van, but he pulled out into the middle of the intersection anyway - grrr). I swerved to try to avoid him (and would have T-boned him had I not, and thank god nobody was coming in the other direction, otherwise I would have hit them head-on), but I wasn't able to get quite far enough out of the way. My passenger side headlight is smashed, there's a pretty sizeable dent in my right front quarter panel, and a small dent in the seam of the passenger side door and the right front quarter panel (which is currently preventing my front passenger door from opening).

I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant on that corner, as did he. He got out, profusely apologized, fully admitted it was his fault. He offered to write me a check, but I wanted to go through the insurance company. We exchanged information and went on our ways. His vehicle has virtually no damage (GMC Sierra, which is a pretty sizeable pickup). When we were exchanging information, he also told me that my insurance agent could call him and he'd write the insurance a check. I think he may be looking to throw money at the problem in the hope that it will go away.

I stopped at the police station on the way home, just to see if it needed to be reported. The officer I spoke with who came out to look at my car said it was probably borderline reportable (meaning probably right around $1,000 in damage), but that if we kept it within the insurance companies (or company, since we both use the same one), it wouldn't go on our records like it would if we did a police report.

The guy seems like he's going to be pretty cool about it. Either that, or totally paranoid and willing to do what it takes to avoid whatever would come with anything court-related. When I got home, DH said the guy had already called to make sure I have his phone number, and DH said one of the first questions out of his mouth was to ask whether I knew if it was going to be over $1,000 in damage. DH also said the guy sounded really nervous. I don't know whether he actually mentioned a lawsuit, but he specifically said that the guy sounded nervous about being sued. I don't know what the deal is with being so paranoid though - I checked him out on the court website and there's only one thing under his name, and I'm not even 100% sure it was him (at another address, in another county (albeit not too far from here), 15 years ago.

Anyway...

Aside from the light, I think it might just need body work, but you never know. I'm certainly not a mechanic. I made it home okay, and the car seemed to run okay, but like I said, I'm not a mechanic.

My deductible for comprehension is $50 and my collision is $250. I get $30 a day toward a rental, but I'll need something bigger than a $30 a day rental car (my fat ass is NOT fitting in a tiny little car). I may ask him to cover my out-of-pocket costs. If he's not as agreeable to whipping out the checkbook then as he was this afternoon, my mom suggested taking him to small claims court.

But WAAAAAH!!!!! My baby is all dent-y! It could have been a LOT worse though, but it wasn't. And for that, I'm definitely thankful.

Posted by beenie at December 14, 2003 08:34 PM