SynthDude2001
Lifer
Well, today has been an eventful day.
As the topic summary indicates, I got into an accident about 6 hours ago (around 3pm Central time). I was driving several friends over to the other side of town so we could eat at a Chinese buffet. It happened when we were literally less than a block away.
I was under a bridge, about to turn left onto the westbound access road (of Loop 1604 near Stone Oak Parkway in San Antonio, in case anyone knows where that is). Then suddenly I felt a forceful hit from behind which sent me through the interection - luckily my light was green so there wasn't any cross traffic; and luckily I hadn't actually turned the steering wheel yet, otherwise I'd have been sent into the cars on the opposing side of the street.
It took me a second to realize what had just happened, then I asked everyone if they were alright, etc. As I was pulling over into the parking lot that was right there, I noticed that the faceplate for my CD player had flown right off, and the glove compartment had popped open and spilled its contents on the floor - the latch was broken. Yay.
It didn't "feel" right either, and as I got out of the car I noticed that it was indeed riding lower than normal in the back. So I walk around to the back, and see the damage. "Shiiiit." Massive trunk damage, and as I found out a few minutes later, the rear right door would no longer open either.
The driver of the other car, a 2003 Jeep Liberty, did pull over too and said "Hey...sorry about that." His English wasn't all that great either, and I certainly wasn't feeling up to trying to speak to him in Spanish. So one of my friends called the police, and a woman drove up to where we were in the parking lot, telling me that she'd seen the whole thing, and gave me her contact information if I needed to use her as a witness. I wrote it down, thanked her, and she then left (I assume she had somewhere to be).
So at this point I'm just kind of waiting around, not knowing what exactly to do (except writing down the vehicle information of the other driver, just in case he were to run off or something). He comes up to me and said, "So...do you want to wait for the police?" - To which I responded "Yes."
So the officer showed up after a little while, asked us what happened, asked us for our licenses and insurance papers, and begins to write the report. He got up out of the car to survey the damage to both cars (the other didn't seem to have sustained nearly as much damage as mine did, which I assume is because his was sitting a good bit higher up than my 1992 Pontiac Bonneville). He finishes up his report, then writes down our information (so the other driver and I could each have the other's), and tells us to each call our insurance companies and tell them what happened, referencing the police report number.
I'm assuming I did all that I was supposed to, but not having had first-hand experience before today, of course I can't be sure. In any case, I later called my insurance company and explained to them what happened, gave them all the information I had, and was told I'd be contacted by an adjuster within 24-48 business hours. Obviously I'm glad that none of us seems to be hurt, but it's just such a pain in the ass to have had this happen less than two weeks before I'm going to be moving back up to school. I don't know what the hell the other driver was doing either, because I didn't hear screeching brakes or anything - I just felt the impact. I don't know how fast he was going either, but I'd guess somewhere between 30-40mph. It probably would have been worse too if I hadn't already taken my foot off the brakes and begun to accelerate a little.
In any case, I realize too that this wouldn't be a proper ATOT thread without pics, so here is the damage:
Pic 1
Pic 2
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading - I suppose I just needed to vent.
As the topic summary indicates, I got into an accident about 6 hours ago (around 3pm Central time). I was driving several friends over to the other side of town so we could eat at a Chinese buffet. It happened when we were literally less than a block away.
I was under a bridge, about to turn left onto the westbound access road (of Loop 1604 near Stone Oak Parkway in San Antonio, in case anyone knows where that is). Then suddenly I felt a forceful hit from behind which sent me through the interection - luckily my light was green so there wasn't any cross traffic; and luckily I hadn't actually turned the steering wheel yet, otherwise I'd have been sent into the cars on the opposing side of the street.
It took me a second to realize what had just happened, then I asked everyone if they were alright, etc. As I was pulling over into the parking lot that was right there, I noticed that the faceplate for my CD player had flown right off, and the glove compartment had popped open and spilled its contents on the floor - the latch was broken. Yay.
It didn't "feel" right either, and as I got out of the car I noticed that it was indeed riding lower than normal in the back. So I walk around to the back, and see the damage. "Shiiiit." Massive trunk damage, and as I found out a few minutes later, the rear right door would no longer open either.
The driver of the other car, a 2003 Jeep Liberty, did pull over too and said "Hey...sorry about that." His English wasn't all that great either, and I certainly wasn't feeling up to trying to speak to him in Spanish. So one of my friends called the police, and a woman drove up to where we were in the parking lot, telling me that she'd seen the whole thing, and gave me her contact information if I needed to use her as a witness. I wrote it down, thanked her, and she then left (I assume she had somewhere to be).
So at this point I'm just kind of waiting around, not knowing what exactly to do (except writing down the vehicle information of the other driver, just in case he were to run off or something). He comes up to me and said, "So...do you want to wait for the police?" - To which I responded "Yes."
So the officer showed up after a little while, asked us what happened, asked us for our licenses and insurance papers, and begins to write the report. He got up out of the car to survey the damage to both cars (the other didn't seem to have sustained nearly as much damage as mine did, which I assume is because his was sitting a good bit higher up than my 1992 Pontiac Bonneville). He finishes up his report, then writes down our information (so the other driver and I could each have the other's), and tells us to each call our insurance companies and tell them what happened, referencing the police report number.
I'm assuming I did all that I was supposed to, but not having had first-hand experience before today, of course I can't be sure. In any case, I later called my insurance company and explained to them what happened, gave them all the information I had, and was told I'd be contacted by an adjuster within 24-48 business hours. Obviously I'm glad that none of us seems to be hurt, but it's just such a pain in the ass to have had this happen less than two weeks before I'm going to be moving back up to school. I don't know what the hell the other driver was doing either, because I didn't hear screeching brakes or anything - I just felt the impact. I don't know how fast he was going either, but I'd guess somewhere between 30-40mph. It probably would have been worse too if I hadn't already taken my foot off the brakes and begun to accelerate a little.
In any case, I realize too that this wouldn't be a proper ATOT thread without pics, so here is the damage:
Pic 1
Pic 2
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading - I suppose I just needed to vent.
