[previous entry: "This is depressing"] [main index] [next entry: "And after the lull,"]

02/28/2003 entry: "Crash, bang, screech"

Bad bad news.

They say bad things come in three's.. I should have seen it coming. First, I don't get my art scholarship (still have to tell mom and dad about that..). Then, I get an F on my Personality test. The third thing was much much worse and I need to talk about it now, though I've been talking about it all day.

A little before 5pm today, I got in a car accident driving to work. Let me try and explain what happened.. I was in a turning lane, to turn left. I was in the middle of the intersection, as we usually are when turning left. The light turns yellow, I wait for cars to stop and then get out of the intersection. As I'm turning, the light turns red, and when I'm halfway safe, I get rammed by a car coming in the outside lane who (I later found out) had changed lanes and sped up to get through the light. They hit the right side of my car (HARD), my back end swings to the left and hits someone stopped at the light, my eyes are closed and I'm yelling something to the effect "OH SHIT".

Someone gets out of their car, makes sure everyone hit was okay (nice guy). A woman runs up to my window, gives me a piece of paper, and says "I saw what happened, I have to leave now but here's my number if you need me as a witness". Unfortunately, I forgot about this for a bit, I wish I had given her number to the police. Oh well.

Then the guy who hit me comes and gets my insurance information. We wait for the police to come. In looking around the inside of my car, my coffee from Dunkin Donuts flew out of the cupholder and spilled all over, including on two bags of a few groceries I had picked up. Luckily, two of them were boxes of tissues. I ended up needing them. I finally look in the backseat and see that the seat is crushed on the side he hit me. Thankfully, I was the only one in the car. Anyone else most likely would have gotten hurt.

I keep hearing crunching glass and metal as cars go around me (I'm still blocking some traffic). The police finally come, and they move me to a driveway. I get out of the car to talk to the police / see the damage. It's pretty bad. Both sides of my car are damaged. Large dents, broken lights, etc. I'm in shock still. So I have to tell the police what happened, and since I didn't actually know at the time if the guy who hit me had run the red light, I just told them I wasn't sure if the light changed or not. I knew it was yellow, and that it may have turned red. Good thing, since my witness says the guy did run the light. Another witness said differently, but you know how that is. It's still technically my fault, failure to yield, etc. It's not the ticket that bothers me though. It's $75, and I have that.

It's the car. It's the fact that now I have to go through a lot of insurance bullshit. That my car is probably totalled and I had JUST gotten that car this past summer. That my insurance is going to go up due to this. That I totalled my car. I can't believe it. I was really liking that car.

Because I'm having so much trouble with this, I'm trying to stop myself from getting depressed by saying "It's only a car, only a material possession. At least no one was hurt. At least your record will be fine after 3 months. Even if you don't get a new car, then whatever."

It's hard, I tend to get attached to silly things.

The other thing that legitimately bothers me is the money thing. If the car is fixable, it's going to cost a lot. Definitely more than $500. Probably thousands. My family doesn't have that kind of money.

Aside from that, I got away with just some bruises. My left knee hit the steering column, I'm pretty sure. I think my arm hit the door. My other leg is feeling a little achy. I have a headache from crying so much. Accidents tend to have a dramatic effect on me :\

I didn't work today because of the accident. So they're going to ask me about it. I couldn't go to a Budget meeting for Art Club that I said I'd go to. Though, I didn't need to, I was doing it just because I thought it would be nice and I'd learn something. When I got back I told 4 people in a row the whole story. Kevin, my dad, my mom and Sara. That's kind of why I'm writing in here, so that anyone else who asks can just read it.

I guess the more I talk about it, the better I feel. Plus, maybe things will work out a little better once the insurance companies hear what this other witness (Veronica) had to say about it. You know, this is the second time that I've gotten in an accident because of some idiot changing lanes at the last minute before an intersection. Happened 4 years ago. Yes, this is only my second accident ever.

Another thing that really bothers me is not being able to go where I want when I want. I can't go home tomorrow, like I was going to. I can't drive to a store if I need to. I can't drive to work on Saturday. I can't do any of that. I will if I get a new car, or get this one fixed. We'll see. I guess that's good, I do have a paper to write for Monday. And work to do for the art department. Oh well.

So, that's my story. Hopefully this is the end of my bad luck. :(