a lovely start to the day (not)
Sep. 28th, 2004 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioThis 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).
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 09:58 am (UTC)(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.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-28 10:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-29 04:40 am (UTC)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. :-)