Something you should do
If you’re going to get into a car accident, as I did tonight, the best place to do it, as I did tonight, is in the street right outside your apartment. That way, even if your car is no longer drivable, as mine is not, at least you don’t have to call a tow truck. You can just push it back to the curb where you normally park it, and where it had been parked 13 seconds earlier.
(Answers to follow-up questions: No one was hurt, the airbags didn’t even deploy, I only have liability coverage for my clunker car, my car had much worse damage that the BMW that hit me, and I don’t know whose fault it will turn out to have been. I say it’s his, but he technically had the right-of-way, so who knows.)
December 11th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
I say you find theBMW and leave gifts on the front porch. You know, like waffles or flaming bags of rap and whatnot. Maybe then they’ll forgive you for your potential vehicular oversight. (Not that I’m saying you did anything wrong.)
December 12th, 2006 at 5:25 am
I just received a flaming bag of rap the other day as a white elephant gift…
December 12th, 2006 at 6:14 am
When I totaled my dad’s car, the other guy was actually to blame, yet technically he had the right of way. The insurance company went with actual blame; the police, however, went with technical right of way. So my dad got a shiny new car, and I got a shiny new ticket…
December 12th, 2006 at 6:49 am
I once hit a Mercedes in Atlanta that turned out to have belonged to an attorney. I thought I was toast; not only was it an attorney’s car I nailed but it was totally my fault. Oh, and it was my best friend’s Ford Focus that I was driving too.
After taking care of all the details with insurance I had to go back to Atlanta for my court date. It was one of those open court sessions where they try a whole bunch of cases in one afternoon and I could tell that the judge was not in the happiest mood to be dealing with so many idiotic people. When my name was called I bagn approaching the bench when suddenly the court room doors opened and in strolled the attorney that I hit. He walked straight up to the prosecutor and whispered with her for a moment before pointing at me. I was asked to come forward and I gulped. The judge read my charges and asked if I understood them. I said I did. She continued and hen explained that the attorney I hit was a friend of hers and that he was requesting that all charges be dropped.
I couldn’t believe that I had hit the nicest attorney in Atlanta! It wasn’t even until much later that I realized that the victim in an accident has no sway whatsoever in having the traffic violation dropped. Man, I was lucky…
December 12th, 2006 at 8:02 am
That is terrible. I hope the matter resolves itself rapidly and in your favor.
December 12th, 2006 at 8:05 am
I hope Eric’s insurance company (and the BMW’s) thinks like Ian’s. I don’t suppose the amount he would get for that well-used car would get him a shiny new anything, but hopefully he could at least buy another Tercel or something. Or at least get him home for Christmas!
December 12th, 2006 at 8:14 am
Hopefully you will be okay as long as you didn’t say anything in your conversation with the other driver that would presume your guilt. Like, say, “Sorry.”
Also, hopefully you took pictures of the accident so that the other driver doesn’t suddenly show up with a completely totalled BMW blaming you for the damage and requiring you get him a whole new vehicle.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:18 am
When my car got totaled it was parked legally and struck by a drunk driver going about 40 miles per hour over the speed limit and the insurance company still tried to convince me that it was my fault. We finally changed their mind but they never give you what it’s worth. Good luck finding a new car.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:37 am
I’d go with the flaming bag of rap on the guy’s front porch. Just drop some hot rhymes at his doorstep and witness the magic of brothahood as the gangsta in him unconditionally forgives you.
Holla!
December 12th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Aw, poor Eric. I’ve totaled my poor Blue Raspberry (blue ‘89 Honda Civic) three times already. First time I hit a telephone pole, and the other two weren’t my fault. One was a rear-ending and the other was something I continue to refer to as a front-ending, where I was sittting at a stop sign and a guy hit me from the front. Both times I took the money from their insurance, got my car fixed by a friend who charges less than a shop, and used the extra money to pay for school bills.
Man, I kinda want to get totaled again. I could use some extra cash.
December 12th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
I should also mention that both times were men in pick-up trucks. I tell you, it’s no fun to get hit by a huge old pick-up truck when you’re driving a teeny-tiny seventeen-year-old Honda. Come to the think of it, the first time I got a sprained lower back and whiplash out of the deal, months and months of excruciating pain.
Never mind, I don’t want to get totaled again.
December 12th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
so since you have no car now, and from what you tell me little life. Wanna move to Austin? It’s like a party all the time.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Accident: check
Street right outside my house: check
Not having to call tow truck: check
Parking it back where it was 13 seconds earlier: check
The other person’s fault: err…
December 14th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
I saw the poor Eric-mobile in person today. It was sad, sad, sad. The saddest part was that he hadn’t even named this car yet. I ask again, Eric, will it be named posthumously?
December 16th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Sorry to hear this happened…
But I’m going to guess that it was completely your fault.