My van is totaled. I loved my van. It's now totaled. All because someone decided to blow through a red light and hit my van. Thankfully, I'm fine and no one else was in the car, but I'm going to miss my van.
Yesterday (Thursday...depending on when this posts) I was on Cumberland Street, heading back toward Stillwater Ave, when I had to stop for the red light at the corner of Cumberland and Center Streets. It turned green, so I cautiously proceeded out; I'm always cautious because I've learned not to take a green light on my side at face value...the other traffic isn't always smart enough or patient enough to know they have a red light which means STOP. I start to pull out, and out of the corner of my eye, I see a car NOT STOPPING for her red light. As that car is on my--driver's--side, I knew without a doubt I was going to get hit. The trajectory of the two of us put it that I would be hit in the driver's side door full force. I slammed my brakes on, hoping that would make me stop in time so it would only hit the front of the car; however, she had already hit the car, between the front tire and my door, and the force of her car hitting made my brakes not work that well, and also increased the momentum of my van. There were two thoughts going through my brain simultaneously: I was bracing for impact because I just knew I was going to be hit and I was waiting for the crush of her car slamming my door into me, and the second thought was I really needed to stop the car before it went over the curb in front of me and I rammed into the little store that is on the corner; I didn't want to hurt their business.
I know, I know--it would have been her fault if my vehicle hurt their business, but that poor store has changed owners so often I didn't want to give anyone a set back in trying to get it off the ground.
Once the cars finally stopped moving....all this happened in a few seconds but it seemed so much longer than that....I just sat in my van and couldn't move. I think I was in shock that I wasn't hurt. Grateful, but in shock. I immediately looked for my phone so I could call 911, but I couldn't find it anywhere. When I'm driving it's either tucked under my right leg so I can feel it vibrate if I get a call (and don't have to take my eyes off the road as I'm driving to see if the "You have a call" light is blinking), or it's in the empty cup holder on the console between the two front seats. This day it was in the console, but when I looked for it, it wasn't there. The force of the impact jolted it out of the cup holder and onto the floor directly beneath it. The force also caused most of my iced tea to spill out, yet the large plastic glass stayed where it was in the cup holder by the ash/coin tray, so my pants legs were wet from the iced tea. I looked over at the driver of the car who had been in the on-coming lane, and we had the green lights together, and she was calling the cops. Thank goodness she was there. She was an excellent eye witness. She told me later that she also saw the car running the red light, and she slammed her brakes on so hard that all her stuff in the front seat went flying onto the floor.
I sat in my car for a minute or two and I started getting mad from thinking about all the money I had just spent less than 10 days ago to get my van inspected. I had to get a new tie-rod, a new windshield, and the bottom "runner" under the driver's side doors was all rusted and had to be replaced. And that was exactly where this girl hit!!!!! Well, not the windshield, but..... It cost about $600 to get it inspection-ready.
When I finally got out of the car, I took my little camera with me (I always have it in my pocketbook) and took pictures of the scene. Mostly for insurance purposes, but also because it's a documentation of another crazy day in my life. As the fire truck is pulling up, and the ambulance is coming down the street, and the cops are arriving from a different direction, I took a picture of the group of three "kids" who, I thought, had been in the car, and were standing on the opposite corner from me smoking cigarettes and conferring among themselves. One of them, who I later found out was a bystander and had not been in the car, looked at me after I took the picture, pointed at me with his stupid cigarette dangling from his young hand, and shouted "You better hope you have good insurance!" I couldn't believe he said that!!! I was not the one who ran the red light!!!! That's when I figured they were over there trying to get stories straight and blame it on me. Thank goodness for my eye witness, who stayed with me until the police arrived. As soon as they pulled up and got out, she was over there like a shot and telling them that she and I had the green light and these "kids" ran the red light and if she hadn't put her brakes on when she did, she would have been in the accident too. Then she started telling him that the one kid who yelled at me was not even in the car, but was behind her car when it happened, and he went over to the car right after the accident. The cop looked at her and said, in a very dead-pan sort of way, that the kid is trouble, they've dealt with him before, and he is not a reliable witness!!! Those words were mostly mine, but the way he said it was better and more generic.
The cop took my information--insurance card and license--ran them, and did the same for the other car. The driver of that car was a 26 yr old female; her passenger was a 25 yr old male. I'm surprised that a young "lady" would be going that fast on a residential street, and also to run a red light. My witness had to leave, but I gave her one of my CAP business cards which had my number on it, and she gave me her phone number (she called me last night to see how I was doing. That was so, so nice of her!!) After she left, the paramedics wanted to make sure if I wanted to go to the hospital or how I was feeling. I felt fine because there were no broken bones or any immediate health issues; I was just still in a bit of a shock that it had happened at all!! AND that I wasn't hurt worse than extremely tense muscles from gearing up to be hit. They were all so nice to me. I had no direct contact at all with the "little dears" in the other car. I knew it wouldn't do any good to engage them in any type of confrontation; that would only add credence to whatever they may have been planning. At one point, I was standing near one of the cops, and the pedestrian/passenger-who-wasn't-really came up to the officer and started bad-mouthing me. The cop told him to knock it off, and he wouldn't stop. The officer finally got tired of it and told the "kid" to put his hands on the trunk and he started patting the "kid" down!!! The kid is protesting and saying it's a violation, etc, and the cop is so calm, yet with great authority, and he's telling him that yes, he does have the right because it's an investigation and the kid is not listening. I'm standing there with my mouth open because I've never seen that happen to a person in real life, and one of the firemen who was standing next to them had to turn his face and walk away because he was trying so hard not to laugh!! Why do some young "adults" have to have such an attitude???
Throughout the whole experience yesterday, I felt like I was in a fog, but all the professionals were so nice I didn't feel alone or adrift. Right after it happened, and I had gotten out of my van to take the pictures, I shut my door out of habit. I didn't have my keys with me because I knew it was unlocked. I had my wallet with all my ID in it, and I had the small zipper binder out of the glove compartment with the registration, etc. So, I'm walking around with this stuff in my hand, but my pocketbook and keys are still in the car. The officer said I'd have to have my car towed, so I went to open the door to retrieve my purse and my Bible and it was locked. Well, it thought it was locked...the button was still up, but the mechanism in the door was telling it that it was locked. Those firemen went right to work---because the door now didn't shut all the way, they were able to thread in a door-unlock-thing. They threaded it down to the unlock button on the door, pushed it so all the other doors unlocked, and they were able to open the passenger side!!! I was so impressed!!
The tow truck came and I went with him to the tow truck place, my sweet van being pulled along behind us. I called Geico from the office there, and was able to rent a car from Union Street Towing so I didn't even have to go anyplace else. The lady in the office worked with my insurance company and was so nice. She knocked the extra $4 a day that it would have been to rent the car--and I would have had to pay out of pocket--and settled for the $30/day that my insurance pays. She said she even gave me the best car they have (a Buick Park Avenue). I have to tell her that the driver's side front window doesn't work well, though. It doesn't like to "roll" down; could be the motor. But, it's a great little car. Well, little compared to my van. But it rides so well, and it's got so many little "gadgets" on the dashboard, etc.
So, the van went to the auto body place my insurance deals with, and the man from there called me this morning to tell me that the damage underneath is a lot more extensive than it looked on the outside. I can't say I'm surprised, though. She had to have been going at a very high rate of speed, and I know things are totaled based on what can/can't be fixed, how much it costs in comparison to the value of the vehicle, and how old the car/van is. My van is.....was.....a 2000 Ford Windstar; a beautiful candy apple-ish red. I bought it used back in November of 2005 (Katie's first year of college), so it was already 5 years old then. But, it's been a great van. It had, I think, "only" about 60,000 miles on it (maybe less) and it turned over 100,000 miles a few months ago. I use my van a lot!!!!
I now have to look for another van, and Alex is not here this time to help me. He's such a great shopper and always has wonderful advice. He was the "driving" force behind me getting this last one, and it was a very good choice.
I won't know anything money-wise until Monday or Tuesday, but this weekend I'll go out and at least see what's out there. I didn't have that much longer before this was paid off. Now I have to start over again with more payments. Ahhhh....such is life. I'm just so grateful that I'm not dead or at the very least in the hospital! I picked up the accident report from the police station, and it said the other drive ran the red light, so I guess that's saying the incident is closed. I hope their insurance company doesn't decide to investigate because they think their client is correct. I really don't feel like going to court over something that is clearly their fault. Or, they might have decided not to say it was my fault and actually take responsibility.
So, that's my story for the day!!!! Hope the rest of this week is NOT as "exciting" as this month has been so far....... I need some rest.
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