My Car was Plowed

Lex is my beater car baby. He's 16 years old and has been through a lot of rough times. Since he has been in my posession (which totals three years this month), Lex has clipped garbage cans, smashed Ashery's mailbox with her father watching, dropped off a curb, had a rock chip or two, had his engine rebuilt, struggled with spark plugs, had a cracked boot, guzzled oil (and continues to do so), and I'm sure other various things that Lex would chastise me for if only he could speak...

But...

Last Saturday I was weeding Reva's yard in Brigham City and as I was enjoying the lovely sunshine and the dirt stuck in my gardening gloves, all of a sudden I hear this crushing sound and the revving of an engine. I look to my left and see my "parked car" being pushed along by another car, like a bulldozer pushes dirt. And then the thud of Lex crashing into a tree and the squeal of my sideview mirror scraping up against another car. Oooo...why does something strike me as "bad" about this whole situation...?

This is a basic diagram of how things looked.

Red is where all the cars began initially.

Blue indicates where all the cars ended up.

I walk over and pull off my gloves. I suppose I was in some state of shock. I didn't know what to do. I just kind of stood there observing everything. My car had hopped the curb and was resting peacefully alongside another Ford Escort. A lady came rushing over from the yard sale across the street. Reality hit her. She was screaming out, "My baby! My baby!!!" Oh man. I was sick. This woman had left her baby in the car? The car that had hit mine, causing the accident, flipped a U-turn and semi-pulled into Reva's driveway. She got out of her car profusely screaming, "I sorry. I sorry! It was an assident. It was an assident!" The first woman had opened up her car door asking her child if he was ok. He responded that he was fine. She was hyperventilating. Then a crowd gathered at the scene. In retrospect, I must have looked really dumb...I just stood there, the entire time...just watching...nobody talked to me (which I was completely fine with!)

The woman who had hit my car was wide-eyed and shaking. "It was an assident! My brakes! They wouldn't work! My brakes!" It was clear that besides being in a state of hysterics, this lady was about to pass-out. The crowd was helping her out. Her name was Maria.

Sissy, the woman with the child in the car, had calmed down. Her "baby" was actually an older handicapped boy that said he just felt the car shake and only his hands moved. He wasn't too worried. :)

Now you have to realize, that this all sounds very dramatic -this lady plowing my car into another car and a tree?- turns out that there wasn't a whole lot of damge. It could have been so much worse. All cars involved were absolutely fine. Lex got the butt end of everything, but considering, he only had a few paint-swap scars.

A police man showed up at the scene of the accident. He gathered up all the necessary papers...and Maria was not able to provide proof of insurance at that instant, although she claimed that her husband had it. By then, I had definitely been noticed. People had talked to me and asked me how I was doing. I was completely fine - don't worry about me! I'm not the one who hit a parked car! Maria was in tears. She had two little kids in her backseat that were crying and everyone was watching after them. I just stood there as Sissy and her sister tried to provide some comfort to everyone around. We stood around forever as the police man filled out the paper work.

I wasn't really in a talking mood, but we struck up very light conversation. Sissy was such a sweetheart and looked at the bright side of everything. I was grateful to her. Maria was scared. She wanted her husband, but there was no way of contacting him. She had the only cell phone between the two of them.

Eventually the police man comes back and gives us all our paperwork. He asks Maria what happened. She was talking really fast, and was pretty terrified. She said she tried to stop, but her brakes wouldn't respond. So the police man had her get back in her car and backup slowly to ensure that her brakes really did work. They were fine. When Maria left, the policeman approached Sissy and I. He asked us to explain what happened...because he couldn't understand everything she said. I pretty much saw the entire thing so I gave my shpill on what had happened. After discussing things, we decided Maria was probably entirely distracted by the yard sale, and with her eyes not being on the road, she plowed into my car. If Sissy hadn't turned her wheels in toward the curb (because we were on a hill), my car would have hit hers, and hers would have probably continued to roll down the hill and hit another car....causing a domino effect of all the fellow yard sale shoppers' vehicles all the way down the line. Most excellent right? Good thing it didn't happen.

Then came the tricky part: Getting my car away from Sissy's car without further damaging it. I had to crawl through the passenger's side. I'm wearing these old raggedy pair of work jeans. As I cross from the passenger's side to the driver's side, I feel this rip in my pants near my back pocket. Oh yes. How perfect! Heh heh. My sideview mirror left a lovely scratch on Sissy's car. My front left light had been cracked and there was a pretty decent dent in Lex's fender. I parked my car to get out, but as I tried to exit my vehicle, it became very apparent that my door would not open. The fender had crunched inward, pinning the hinge that my door relies upon to open. Dang. I had to crawl back out the way I came in...and my pants ripped even more. I was past caring.

After that whole fiasco, I called up my dad and told him the news. Nothing super serious...the whole situation made me laugh. I was not expecting any excitement like this! I told him the only real problem was that I couldn't open my door. We talked for a while and then he suggested I run to my uncle Chad's house to see if he could help me out, since Chad only lives a few blocks directly below Reva. So I did!

I pulled up to Chad's and Chad and Kaleb were outside working on the sprinklers. Kaleb immediately started gabbing to me about the purple glue that daddy was using to stick the pipes together. :) Then I told Chad of my lovely dilemma and asked if he could look at my car. Chad and Kaleb came around and Kaleb noticed my cracked light. He poked at it with his finger and a piece of plastic fell off. "What happened?" he asked me. "Oh some lady smashed into my car," I told him.

Chad didn't have the tools to really help me out, but I was grateful that I could come to him and that he was willing to look at things for me! Then Shallen and Tyler came outside to say hello. ;)

My poor Lex. He truly is a college student's car. I love him.

So I called up my dad and he said to bring the car over and he'd try to fix it for me.

On my way home, I got stuck in traffic. Traffic in a standard whomps...just so you know. I had my windows rolled down and I was talking on the phone with Bill to tell him what happened and cancel a date we had together that afternoon. Then this train comes blaring by with it's horn. It scared the tar out of me. With the rate of the traffic, I stayed in perfect sync with that train...horn blowing all the while. Oy. This day! For real?

I get home and dad and I had a wonderful talk. I called up my grandma with some insurance questions, and come to find out, that I'm going to have to be the responsible one and track Maria down if I want anything on my car fixed. The police officer didn't provide us with any phone numbers, and Maria lacked proof of insurance...who knew if she really even had any! I had her address. That's really helpful. That police officer did me a real favor, I tell you what.

So I told my pops the news grandma had told me. We talked about all the many ways I could go about this situation. To track down Maria and bug her, or let my beater car remain a beater?...that was the question. I'm not an agressive person, by any means, and I felt so bad for Maria! She was such a wreck. She had many things to worry about. But she was the one being careless...ugh...I'm such a softie.

Then mom and Jord came home and were surprised to see me there! I told them the story all over again, and they joined in on our insurance conversation. Boo. I hate the cost of life!!! It's so stressful! But I feel very informed and aware of the importance of auto insurance. :)

Dad took a crowbar to my door and we pried away the frame so that my door could have some flex room to open and shut again. It was by no means a pretty fix, but at this point, I didn't even really care. I'm just glad I still had a car! Then we fixed my light by using packing tape...and electrical tape. This just adds to the cardboard and aluminum foil also being used to help my car stay in shape. ;) My dad looked at all the pannels of my car. All but one panel has a good ding in it. Poor Lex. He's been abused in a very loving manner! And guess what? My registration is up at the end of this month...my car needs to be inspected. Oh my life! There's always just one more thing...

Me and my dad just laughed the entire time he sat there fixing it. This day was so wretched, it was funny. I really wasn't put out about the fact that it had all occurred. Now I had an excellent story to share with the world!

And it really was nice to come home unexpectedly and visit with my family. We had some good laughs and just enjoyed the day together until I needed to head back up to Logan. :)

Lex is doing just fine. He runs just as stellar as he ever did, and for that I'm eternally grateful. He has a lot of character now! Well...more so than he did before. ;) Crazy things happen all the time and they're never convenient, but I've realized that life wouldn't be life without those struggles. It's best to just take them on with a positive attitude. And so I'm trying! And that's good enough for me.