My Car Accidents

I’m hoping that because I remember all of these that it means I didn’t have that many.  But I sure had more than I wanted. 

=~1972 – Got my first new car.  It was a Honda car and cost $1800.  It was orange and folks told me it looked like a roller skate.  It didn’t have much get up and go (600 cc and went 62 mph going downhill with a wind behind you) but I was sure happy to have it!  I had two accidents the first week I owned it.  The first happened two days after I had my car.  It involved a truck, with a camper shell, backed up into me at a Stop sign

They were stopped and I pulled up behind them.  I guess they had pulled too far into the intersection and decided to back up.  Not seeing that I was there, the coast seemed clear.  I can’t tell you how livid I was when this happened.  I laid into that mother who had her young (10?) daughter with her.  I did apologize to her after I cooled down and felt rather foolish.

That was on a Thursday.  I picked up my car on Tuesday.  Now it’s Saturday.  I was driving on a well-lit street, about 9PM, in the far-right lane of a six-lane street.  A volkswagen van was to my left.  We had both passed each other, staying in our respective lanes, several times.  I didn’t feel invisible as I guess I was the other day.  This guy just changed lanes right into me as though I was.  He did pull back when he encountered resistance and we both pulled over into a parking lot.  He apologized (I think he had been drinking) but said he had no insurance but was willing to give me some money next week at his house.  He gave me his address and I trusted him.  When I did go to his house the next week, he wasn’t there and his girlfriend said he was working out of town and he didn’t leave anything for me.  I got her phone number (they lived outside Tucson) and called the next week and got the same story.  I may have called again but stopped as I was beginning to feel like a stalker.  I did manage to get all the dents out.

My next accident happened in the 80’s with my Fiat.  It wasn’t much larger than the Honda and cost =~$3400 (demo with about 150 miles).  This is the only accident I can safely say was my fault but I wish that caddy hadn’t stopped suddenly to make a left.  I was a few car lengths behind him, going about 10 mph, looking at a pretty distraction walking to my left.  Not paying enough attention to where I was going (I knew better too) and assuming everybody in front was still moving is not much of an excuse but it’s all I had.  I think I wound up paying over $1000 for his and there sure wasn’t much damage there.

The final two happened with my yellow Escape.  One hit me on the right side and the other on the left.  One was in November, ‘06 and the other was January, ‘07.  Here’s what happened: 

1. Making a left at a big intersection with my own light (single column with arrow on bottom).  I pulled into the far left lane.  There was no competition for any lane.  There was a gas station on the corner I was passing to my right and a car decided to enter the street and head to a left turn lane that I was approaching.  I’m not sure if they saw my (Ford Escape) and proceeded to plow into me forcing me into that lane.  As the traffic going in that direction was stopped, I couldn’t make a left but by that time the woman driver was now aware of her mistake and was no longer pushing me.  We did manage to get it all straightened out and I did get my now much needed repairs.
2. I was traveling West on a country road.  There wasn’t much snow but plows were out.  I was approaching a T intersection (with East/West travel being the top) and a plow was approaching from the South.  I didn’t see him slow down (neither of us was going more than about =~20 mph) and when I started to he just kept going, plowing (sorry for the pun) into me as we both crossed paths.  I really thought he would hace the STOP sign.  I had started to steer off the road (to the right) when he made contact and I just missed plowing into a fence and a large tree.  Although my car made a noise (I was hit towards the back of the left side, enough to crunch the hatchback), I was able to drive back onto the road while we waited for the police.  I got this fixed shortly thereafter too.