Don't Stop at Red Lights

Week before last was very tough on me. I had two accidents in two days. I asked myself, "Why did this happen?" I thought about all the detective shows I've watched over the years. What would the guys on Law and Order say? What would Colombo do? Of course, they'd look for a commonality. It wasn't hard to find one.

On Wednesday, I was stopped at a red light when a woman hit me from behind. On Thursday, I was stopped at a red light when a man plowed right into me. Well, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know that what both accidents had in common was that I was stopped at red lights. So there you have it.

I drive a car I really like. It is the best car ever. It has a great stereo system and it's really fun to drive. Everyone should have one. And if you do, you need to protect it. I know very well, because if you don't, you have to get a rental car. Now here's the thing--they will tell you that you need one right away, but that the insurance won't kick in until the company inspects the damage. I'm almost certain, in fact, that they also told me the company would pay me for the rental, eventually.

Then I got a letter from the insurance company saying if my car was driveable, they wouldn't pay anything. I went right back to the body shop and said hey, why am I driving around in this tiny little car with a crappy music system when I'm not being reimbursed for it? They said they'd told me that. Now they may have. I was pretty nuts after having been hit twice in two days.

Anyway, I gave them back the rental and took my car back. I was very happy. Sadly, later today I have to turn it in again so the insurance company can look at it and work out the repair cost with the body shop. At that point I will once again be relegated to a budget rental that I will likely as not have to push to work. If you see me pushing a rental car to Queens please honk, wave, or offer a tow.

Anyway I've reflected on all this and the only logical conclusion is that it's very dangerous to stop at red lights. So now I just plow right through them and everything's fine. Since I've started doing that, no one's hit my car at all.

I probably won't teach my students this particular lesson. On the other hand, maybe it will be a good way to get them to argue with me. I'll bet when I tell them I no longer stop at red lights there will be some objection.

Maybe this is good for something after all.