Monday, May 23, 2011

The Inevitable....

I knew it would happen one day. After all, most of us have been there.

I was 28.

My sister was 18 or so.

Dave was 20, 24, and 45.

What am I talking about?

Car accidents.

Yep.

I got a call from Alex today around 11:30.

"Mom, I just rear-ended someone."

Great. Had the car for a month......lovely.

Newly activated light, trying to change lanes, light changed to red, and boom.

I said, "I am on my way to meet you."

Alex..."Why? I am going to school." (note: he attends a charter school in the morning and his regular high school in the afternoon so was enroute.....)

Fortunately, he hit a good person.

I asked, "Was the guy young or old?"

Answer....."Maybe early 40's."

Hmmm......so is that young or old? I'd rather not hear the answer.

But this 40ish man had no damage to his truck. Alex hit the trailer hitch. Nothing happened to the guy's truck. Thankfully.

The guy also said, "We can handle this one of two ways. We can call the police but then they'll give you a ticket for following too closely. Or, we can just exchange info and you can handle it on your own."

And again he said, "My truck is fine."

So, Alex headed back to school all while I worried about the extent of the damage which we are NOT going to fix anytime soon.

He got home and I saw.....



Definitely cosmetic. Definitely nothing major. But definitely not fixing anytime soon.

Just very thankful for that trailer hitch. If that was not there, the entire front of the car would likely be messed up.

But more thankful that the accident was minor.

----------------------------------------
Follow up......Called the gentleman Alex hit who again confirmed there was no damage, said how polite Alex was when they were talking about the options, and said there was really nothing Alex could have done to avoid the accident. It was one of those start/stop kind of traffic patterns....and then someone in the very front stopped for some unknown reason. Alex tried to stop, but couldn't. And, by only going 15mph, it really did help keep the damage level down.

He said...."I was in his shoes at his age. I hit someone, no damage to the vehicle, so no police were involved. I wanted to do the same thing for him. There is no point in having this on his record when no damage was done."

3 comments:

Jboo said...

Whew -- glad it was a minor accident! Those calls are what turned my hair gray! :) Glad it worked out so well.

Janet

Sharon said...

Sosossosooooo glad it was so minor. what a scare. I sure would love to have you for company in going private!! What is your email address? (I wont publish it!)

Laura L. said...

Oh, I have been there. I rear-ended someone once, and it was no minor thing. I did a LOT of damage to both cars. So glad his accident was minor and especially that no one was hurt.