chrystalline

As you might be aware, if you’ve ever looked at my user-profiles anywhere, this past Monday was my birthday. A couple of my friends had made plans to take me out to celebrate, but they were being very hush-hush about where, exactly, we were going, as well as what other things we would be doing. While I’ve always been antsy about surprises (I once sneakily unwrapped all my Christmas presents ahead of time and taped them back up, just so I would know), I was okay with this.

The day started slowly; I had a nice lunch with Mom at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and then I had to go shopping at Wal-Mart. It took an hour (I left around 2 PM), and I didn’t get everything I wanted, so I decided to go home and look up the phone numbers for the other stores the Jane cosmetics email had recommended. I was hoping to get someone who could order the last of the Vanilla Bean Megabites lipstick I like so much.

Traffic wasn’t great, but the right lane emptied out as we approached the intersection where the road narrows on the other side. The light was red, so I started slowing down, preparing to stop if the light didn’t change before I got there. The left turn light went from green to yellow to red, with maybe two or three cars from my side and only one or two cars from the other direction going through. I was about fifty feet from the intersection when my light turned green. The two lanes to my left were full and at a complete stop, but there was no one between me and the intersection, and as the light had just turned green, I switched from decelerating to accelerating. Just as I reached the intersection, a car appeared in front of me.

I hit the brake, but it was too late.

She pulled into the gas station and I pulled up in the car lot, both of us shaken and unhappy, but neither of us physically harmed. None of the other cars on the road stopped, so we had no one to provide neutral witness, and unfortunately, that intersection didn’t have cameras. The first thing I did was call my mom, who recommended calling the police immediately, as Alabama has a really low dollar figure for required accident reporting. I think it’s about $200 of damage that requires a police report. She looked up a number for accident reporting and I wrote it down, but figured I would go see the other driver and check whether she was talking to them or not. I could see that she was on her cell phone, too.

The other driver tried to talk me into not calling the police, claiming we could work it out just between our insurance companies and saying that she would call her dad, who she said was a lawyer, to make sure. I wasn’t sure about this, having never had a collision before, but as I was waiting for her to get done talking to whoever she really was talking to, a flatbed tow truck pulled into the gas station lot with a crunched-up car on the flatbed and another crunched-up car pulled behind. He told me the insurance company wouldn’t do anything without a police report anyway (and obviously he has experience with these things), so I ignored the apparently pointless chatter behind me and called the number my mom had given me.

No one answered.

I didn’t want to wait for her to stop jabbering, because I was starting to get a little afraid of what she’d do if she knew I was about to call the cops but hadn’t yet made contact, so I went ahead and dialed 911. Once she knew I’d reported it, she went back to her car to wait. I called my friends to let them know that our evening plans might be delayed, as I’d just had My First Collision. They came as soon as they could, and one got me a bottle of water from the gas station. When the police came, I was introduced to the wonderful world of writing an accident report. Being thoroughly shaken and inexperienced in police reporting, I just wrote down the direction I was going, about how far I was from the light when I stopped braking and started to speed up, and how she, from my point of view, came out of nowhere. The officer was friendly and even joked around with me, pretending to be disappointed when I asked if I’d filled the form out right, and then reassuring me that yes, it was fine. He also told me that the other driver had no insurance, was driving with a suspended license, and would be going to jail for “unspecified reasons.”

He offered to get me a tow truck, but my friends determined that they could finish taking off the bumper, as it was hanging from one end by a cord and a bolt, and then I would be able to drive it home. As they worked, I shielded my eyes so I wouldn’t have to make eye contact with the other driver and the man who came to help her out. They were very loud, both of them, when the cops fitted her with a nice pair of silver bracelets. We stuck the bumper in the trunk and back seat (I love my Saturn ION3’s fold-down back seats and huge trunk) and I backed up a few feet to demonstrate that the wheels were still sufficient to travel. We caravanned back to my house, where I started the lovely telephone aftermath.

I had to call my mom, and the local branch of our insurance company, who gave me the national 800 number which I called and gave everything I could manage with regard to what happened and car info, and then my dad to let him know, and then the insurance-approved body shop to make an appointment for an appraisal, and then my dad to let him know what they said, and when it was all said and done, it was almost an hour past our target start time for the evening.

We went out anyway. First we went to Outback Steakhouse, because I’d never been there before. Then we went to the movie theater and saw Premonition (I’ll review it later, but suffice it to say, not impressed.) Afterwards we went to one friend’s house and had cake and ice cream and watched a video. And yes, there were cool presents - I have more blades! Yay! And a vanilla candle and sparkly purple gift bags with sparkly tissue paper.

I did have trouble sleeping that night, as I was still pretty shaken by the whole thing, but the evening helped. Fortunately, we do have an extra automobile, so I’m still able to drive to work, though I’ve been skittish the last couple of days when I do. I had to work Tuesday and Wednesday, and I played phone tag with the insurance lady on Wednesday afternoon, but I was off today, so I got to do a lot of run-n-fetch.

I had lunch with my mom again, as I usually do on my days off, and then I had to get my car and take it to the body shop for the appraisal I scheduled when I’d called Monday (it came to just shy of $2700 - fortunately, insurance will cover most of that). I had bank/credit card issues to sort out, too, so I was on and off the phone the whole time as well. (I had to do a lot of going home in between things, too, mostly to switch cars.) Then I had to get my check at work, which was harder than usual, as they weren’t out in front, and go deposit it at the bank, which was easier than usual, as there were no lines, and then I had to go to the municipal building (which is all but impossible to find if you’ve never been there before - I went in circles for almost half an hour before I got there) to get the police report and the form I have to send to Montgomery. Apparently this is a general form required for anyone who has an accident in AL, and if I don’t send it in within thirty days, they’ll suspend my license. Obviously, I intend to send in the form. Oh, and I had my haircut tonight, too - I was pretty busy today.

So, anyway, I plan to still get another appraisal, as we have a family friend who works at another body shop and might be able to get us a better deal, and then we’ll decide who’s going to fix it and take it in for repairs. I still boggle at the depth of her chutzpah, telling me that we could work it out between our insurance companies when she knew full well that she didn’t have any insurance and claiming that I’d run a red light to hit her when she was turning. According to the report, she’s also unemployed. Doesn’t that just figure?

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.