Thursday morning I was stopped at a traffic light near my home when a woman in an SUV smashed into me from behind. I saw a little hole in my bumper. I was going to ignore it, but I thought better of it. I went and got a photo of her insurance card. She gave me her number and told me to call her. She said maybe she could pay outright for the damage and we wouldn't have to call her insurance.
I stopped by my local body shop but it was 6 AM and it was closed. I stopped at the mechanic across the street from where I work. He also wasn't there, but there would be someone at eight. Around two o' clock I walked over there. I paid a bill for 21.83 or something, and the guy told me that the reflector inside the bumper was loose. It couldn't be fixed without a new bumper, which would cost about $300.
I decided to blow off the UFT meeting I had that afternoon and drive to the body shop. This woman hit me so she could pay to fix it. They looked at it. They were outraged that the mechanic charged me 20 bucks to look at the car. How could anyone do that? Then they handed me an estimate for $1083 for the bumper. No charge. I called the woman who'd hit me, who didn't answer. Yesterday morning I texted her the estimate, with a note that if she didn't get back to me soon I would contact her insurance. Haven't heard back.
Yesterday afternoon I was driving home through the miserable storm and following Waze, which finds the fastest ways to cut through traffic. I was stopped at a traffic light in Lynbrook NY when a Range Rover came around the corner pretty fast, heading straight for my car. I honked for him to stop but it wasn't happening. The guy slammed into my front bumper.
I couldn't believe it. The guy pulled over. He handed me a business card and said call him tomorrow and he'd take care of it. He said I could trust him. I told him with all due respect, I'd never met him before. He said he'd never met me either. I told him I wanted to see his insurance card, and he said he wanted to see mine. So I went and got it. He was still fumbling around his papers looking for it. Evidently he didn't have one, which made trusting him even harder.
I called 911. Have you ever been placed on hold while calling 911? Well I was. They repeated a recording saying my call would be answered in the order it was received. Then they played some kind of tone for the hard of hearing. This went on for maybe twenty minutes until they transferred me to the local police. I reported the accident, and the guy who hit me advised me to pull into the nearby parking lot before I got hit again. I did.
After maybe twenty minutes, the cop came. He spent another twenty minutes interviewing us, and came back to tell me he would write it up and that I was not at fault. He also said if I wanted to work out payment with the guy rather than go through insurance, that would be fine. I went over to the guy, who was a little upset I didn't just take his card and call him the next day. It turns out I will be doing just that.
But I'm not going in to work today. I'm totally freaked out by being in two accidents in two days. I am not having it happen three days in a row. Maybe I'm superstitious.
But why take chances?
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