Car Accident

Wednesday marked an end of an era.  In my almost 47 years of life, I had never been in a car accident.  And then...

  I caused an accident!  ME!  I'm a careful driver, with at that point a perfect record (yes, I had a couple of tickets 20+ years ago).   And there was that time I banged into a car in the parking lot with the big van when I was still getting used to its turning radius.  But other than that, I've been great!

Really, I've been great. I'm careful, I'm cautious, I don't speed.

But Wednesday I got into the left lane and realized I was in the wrong place -- I had wanted to turn left at a road a mile down.

I was distracted by that mistake, and thinking about how to get turned around.  It was wet and misting.  The oncoming car was white without headlights and blended in somewhat to the sky.

But still, it was my fault. I turned left in front of the oncoming other car.  By God's grace (and I mean that, I am praising God!) the other driver was very alert and immediately slammed on his brakes. But the pavement was wet and he slid into the back of the minivan.  

No one was hurt seriously. That's the most important thing. The other driver and his wife were very nice about it.  It was the wife's birthday.  Gah, not the way you want to spend your birthday!  We waited 2 hours to get the whole traffic report processed. I got a pretty whopping citation for failure to yield.  The back of the minivan is something of a mess.  Actually, the dent doesn't bother me much but the broken taillight isn't great (all the lights still work, though.)  We have it at a body shop for an estimate of how much it will cost to fix it.  It is likely the cost to repair is more than the value of the van, as it is 16+ years old.

So yeah, not the best thing in the world. I went to our wonderful chiropractor this morning as my neck and back have been hurting some since the accident, though not too badly. She said my range of motion isn't right so there probably is some minor damage. I felt the minor whiplash when we got hit.

Still, all in all it was, as accidents go, a very benign one.  I feel badly that I messed up, but I've messed up before.  For all that I'm a good driver, I HAVE made mistakes.  I just was fortunate in the past that no one was there to crash into me.

We're pondering the car situation.  We have 4, so being down one car shouldn't be a huge issue. But one is the big van and today it was pouring rain again and I hate driving that beast in the rain. Naomi was supposed to go to work, but her boss cancelled on her. So that made it all easier.

We'll figure it out. We are ridiculously blessed to have 4 cars, and I know it.