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a lovely start to the day (not)
This morning while I was driving to work someone hit my car. It's a minor fender-bender (probably just paint in my case), and the other driver admitted responsibility immediately. So while annoying, this should have been a five-minute stop for exchange of information, followed by her paying my repair bill.
But no... I had to draw someone who's never been in an accident before. She totally freaked.
I feel bad for the lady; the timing really does suck from her point of view. She got married on Saturday, she just graduated college, and she was on her way to a job interview. I initially told her "look, we can do this quickly and you won't be late for your interview", but she called to cancel it -- which turned out to be the right call given how completely she fell apart afterwards.
So instead, it took me more than half an hour to complete the exchange of information and try to calm her down. (Part of this time was consumed by a search for the contact lens she cried out of her eye.) She insisted that you're supposed to call the police when there's an accident; I said they don't care if all cars can be driven away and no one was hurt ('cause I made that assumption once upon a time too), but she called anyway. I gave her a business card and told her to call if the police wanted to talk with me, and then asked if I could go to work while she waited for the police. (This was on Carson Street, so I can just walk out there in the unlikely event that they want to talk with me.)
She is also very upset at the driver of another car, the (in her opinion) proximate cause of the accident. There was a disabled car on Carson -- no blinkers, no flares -- and other traffic pulled up behind that car, then realized it wasn't going anywhere and had to pull around. The person who hit me was backing up in preparation to go around. I wish her luck in pleading that case to the police (she was livid that they should "do something" to that driver), but I don't think the driver of a disabled vehicle is likely to be charged in an accident that doesn't even involve that vehicle, even though that driver should have been more pro-active (like standing behind the car and waving traffic around). You've got to pay attention to the other traffic, especially when doing non-standard maneuvers like backing up on a busy street. She's lucky that she learned this lesson for, probably, less than $200.
Now the trick is finding time to take the car to a body shop (or VW dealer other than the one where I bought it).
But no... I had to draw someone who's never been in an accident before. She totally freaked.
I feel bad for the lady; the timing really does suck from her point of view. She got married on Saturday, she just graduated college, and she was on her way to a job interview. I initially told her "look, we can do this quickly and you won't be late for your interview", but she called to cancel it -- which turned out to be the right call given how completely she fell apart afterwards.
So instead, it took me more than half an hour to complete the exchange of information and try to calm her down. (Part of this time was consumed by a search for the contact lens she cried out of her eye.) She insisted that you're supposed to call the police when there's an accident; I said they don't care if all cars can be driven away and no one was hurt ('cause I made that assumption once upon a time too), but she called anyway. I gave her a business card and told her to call if the police wanted to talk with me, and then asked if I could go to work while she waited for the police. (This was on Carson Street, so I can just walk out there in the unlikely event that they want to talk with me.)
She is also very upset at the driver of another car, the (in her opinion) proximate cause of the accident. There was a disabled car on Carson -- no blinkers, no flares -- and other traffic pulled up behind that car, then realized it wasn't going anywhere and had to pull around. The person who hit me was backing up in preparation to go around. I wish her luck in pleading that case to the police (she was livid that they should "do something" to that driver), but I don't think the driver of a disabled vehicle is likely to be charged in an accident that doesn't even involve that vehicle, even though that driver should have been more pro-active (like standing behind the car and waving traffic around). You've got to pay attention to the other traffic, especially when doing non-standard maneuvers like backing up on a busy street. She's lucky that she learned this lesson for, probably, less than $200.
Now the trick is finding time to take the car to a body shop (or VW dealer other than the one where I bought it).
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Alas, you're wrong, at least if you were in California. According to the California DMV (http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/sr/sr1.htm), if you are involved in a vehicle accident that occurred in California, you must report it to DMV if (a) there was property damage of more than $750 ($500 for accidents prior to January 1, 2003) or (b) Anyone was injured (no matter how minor) or (c) Anyone was killed.
In Pennsylvania, you are sort of right. According to the Philadephia PD (http://www.ppdonline.org/ppd3_autoaccinfo.htm), an accident is considered reportable by law if it meets any one of the following three conditions: (a) One of the involved vehicles cannot be driven from the scene of the collision under it's own power, except in cases where a flat tire alone has disabled the auto; (b) An occupant of one of the vehicles or involved person has sustained an injury of any kind, no matter how slight; (c) The accident resulted in a fatality. They noted that if an accident is not considered reportable, a police accident report is not required by law. Nevertheless, many motorists prefer to report the accident to facilitate insurance claims and other proceedings.
Just FYI.
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This is pretty much what the police I insisted on calling for something like this, years ago, told me. (I hadn't thought or heard of the flat-tire exception, but it makes sense.) In this case no one was hurt and both cars were scuffed but not even (so far as I could tell) dented. I'm pretty sure the cost of repair will be less than her deductable.
Nevertheless, many motorists prefer to report the accident to facilitate insurance claims and other proceedings.
That makes sense.
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Besides, you're both doing better than the guy I saw sail through a red light to broadside someone else, who was driving one of the pickups from work at the time. ("Ohmygod, this is my job, I'm gonna lose my job for this...") and even he's doing a lot better than he would have ten or twenty years ago (the "side-impact crumple zones" on the car that got hit were, for an engineer, a thing of absolute beauty to watch - the driver, after a moment to catch his breath and dig out from the airbag, opened the crushed driver-side door and climbed out with no apparent injuries.)
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the driver, after a moment to catch his breath and dig out from the airbag, opened the crushed driver-side door and climbed out with no apparent injuries
Wow, that's impressive!
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Alas, they also do not yet make a hatchback.
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Best of luck.
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Ah, memories ... nearly three years ago I was running an errand of some urgency, and as I was waiting for the person I was supposed to pick up, one of my contacts decided it was time to take a flying leap out of my eye for no reason. Scrabbling around in the gravel of a parking lot (in the rain) yielded no results -- that lens was gone. My passenger finally showed up after a longer-than-expected wait, and then on the way back my one remaining contact decided to slip out of place. (Luckily, this happened *before* I got on the highway.) I pulled over to move it back into place, and it popped out. We had a nervous few minutes looking for it, but it finally turned up. What a relief -- I was already nervous about driving with one contact, but to be without both of them would have incapacitated me.
In any case, sorry to hear you've had more trouble with this car. Hopefully it'll be fixed quickly.
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(I guess one advantage of glasses is that failure involves breakage, not loss, most of the time -- so if I had to I could probably find something to use to tape them back together long enough to get home. My lenses are way too thick to shatter under conditions that would result in me remaining conscious, by the way.)
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I didn't really notice anything at first, because of course it's hard to see anything with them when they're wet...
but just in case you were wondering, concrete ranks above glass on Moh's hardness scale. :-)
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Luckily, after 5 minutes I was able to convince her to move to the shoulder...
BTW, the minor oops will cost her a lot more than $200 - if she goes through her insurance company, she'll have higher rates for, probably, the next 5 years...
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Yes. I told her several times that if the damage is less than her deductable she shouldn't even involve her insurance company. She asked if I was going to call her company and I said I only care about getting my car fixed so no, if she pays the bill I have absolutely no reason to call them. I hope it sunk in.
Hey, it could have been worse...
It Was Very, Very Bad (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49286-2004Sep25.html)
Three people died and two were injured; it was just a horrific accident. One of those, "if it could have gone wrong, it did". Yuck.
Re: Hey, it could have been worse...
Re: Hey, it could have been worse...