car fun
At 1am my door buzzer went off. After 3 tries I assumed it was important and went down to let the person in. It was a police officer who explained that my car was in an accident. Despite her calm manner and polite helpfulness, I was pretty worried so I went in the house to get whatever it was I thought I needed to get.
I’m usually pretty fussy about parking, largely because many people on our block aren’t exactly polite about making best use of the available space. After coming home from work I parked at the spot to the left of the entrance to our alley. I always check that I’m leaving a safe minimum of space for traffic clearance but otherwise I try to park fairly close to the end of the curb. I assumed someone just pegged the back of my Honda Civic when exiting or entering the alley.
Once I get out there I see a police car and a shiny, black (ooh, check out the fancy rims) Mercedes in the middle of the street. The Mercedes had a good deal of front, left damage. On my side of the street, two cars up from mine, a nice, newish Civic Sedan had gotten pegged in the front left while the rear right was pushed up on the sidewalk and into the car behind it. That next car, in turn, hit my car – or rather hit it and subsequently parked its rear bumper on my front bumper. After seeing the whole scene, I realized I was relatively fortunate.
Because I was so fussy about leaving an exact amount of space at the end of the alley, I have a fairly good estimate that my car moved at least 2 and 1/2 feet. I began to worry about hideous and subtle after-effects of the impact. The kind police officer at the scene provided me with the Mercedes driver’s information and suggested I move my car. After taking a few pictures I thought to ask what exactly had happened.
The remaining police officer explained that the driver of the Mercedes was trying to find the alley and ‘thought’ [my emphasis] it was there. The officer indicated that the female passenger in the Benz was the real problem. I’m not sure if that means it was a terrible end to a great evening or an even worse end to an already terrible evening. Something had to be severely distracting to so determinedly ‘miss’ an alley by three car lengths. Maybe the mistake would have made more sense if all three cars involved in the accident weren’t red but were instead camoflaged by being black or some other midnight shade.
I’m very curious how my insurance company and my very minimal coverage will handle all this late night bumper to bumper action. For now I’ll simply lament the loss of my hood ornament and hope for the best.
18 August 2004, 01:30 ::
commenting closed for this article
— poopsie 2004-08-20 06:21 #
praytell what could that be?
after about 6weeks and too many phonecalls to the wrong insurance agent, a very aimiable Progressive adjuster came out to photograph the business end of old whitey and suggested that they will most likely total the truck out. basically they give you whatever is less: the amount of the damage or a contrived devaluation of the vehicle (redbook). if they total it, you can can “buy” it back from them for a minor scrap price (plus tax) and they pay you the remainder (hopefully there is a remainder).
since you were not at fault, your insurance agent will probably not even be involved, except to raise your premiums.
you may not want to tell them, but they will bloody-well find out about it anyhow.
when i questioned the adjuster about the common sense surrounding the raising of premiums for those who were not at all at fault (but involved in an accident) he suggested that a class action lawsuit may be the only way to try and change that policy.
you and me makes two broke individuals who may want to find funding to start that suit.
insurance is enough of a racket without charging you for what others do to your vehicle. bicycle insurance will be next, or public transportation commuter insurance.
“can i get a transfer and another month of bus-rider insurance?”
— henry haggis 2004-08-21 10:43 #