Parking lot collision. Oh, noes!!!11!!

[MineralMan]

There I was, ladies and gents, driving slowly down a parking lot aisle, when BAM!! a guy backs his new Camry out of a parking space right into the passenger side front corner of my aging GMC Jimmy. Oopsie! And me with my groceries in the back of the car.

The Jimmy jumped about a foot to the left, so I stopped and got out to survey the damage. Meh! A minor ding to the front bumper and fender, and some scratches down the passenger side of the Jimmy. The Camry? Oh, not so good. The entire rear bumper plastic got ripped off, a rear tail light smashed, and the trunk sprung.

So, the other driver, red-faced and upset, gets out of his car and has a look. "Why did this have to happen today?" A supermarket security guy walks up and says, "Uh-oh." He asked the other driver if he was OK, since his face was all red and he was sweating. The guy was OK, just upset, and it was warm. So, the security guy called the local town gendarmerie and, presently, a nice young city cop arrived.

He looked at the scene and proceeded to tell the other driver that this accident was clearly his fault, and that he was going to take the hit for the repairs. He then collected our DLs and insurance cards and went back to his car, after having us back into parking spaces. He said he'd be filling out an exchange of information form for us.

While he was doing that, I talked to the other driver, who seemed to be at a loss about all this. "What am I going to do? How am I going to get home? Well, the car was driveable, but the rear bumper plastic thing was hanging off, attached just by one clip and a screw. I told him it wasn't a big deal, and that I'd help him get the bumper thing loose. I fished a phillips screwdriver out of my toolbox and unscrewed the bumper thingie, then popped it off the clip. "How am I supposed to get that thing home?"

So, I asked him to open his trunk, which had some bags of groceries in it. I told him that, if he put the groceries in the back seat, I'd get the plastic bumper cover in the trunk for him. Since it was so flexible, it folded up neatly into the trunk. Nothing really needed doing on my car.

About this time, the cop was done, and had printed out the forms, which had all the information on them about the accident and the two driver's information, including insurance info. He explained about contacting our insurance companies and said that his police report would be available in five days. He then scolded the other driver again, telling him that his police report would reflect that the accident was his fault. The guy just looked sad.

So, I got in my car and left, but remembered that my insurance agent's office was just around the corner, so I drove over there and left the form, or a copy of it, with the agent. No big deal, he said. He promised to contact the other insurance company and get the police report sent to them. "It's cut and dried," he said. "You should have a check for the damage in a couple of weeks, and you won't have to file a claim with us. I'll get it all done for you."

Nice folks all around. He estimated the damage to my car at about $1000, then said, "I'll bet you $5 you aren't even going to bother fixing it, though..." He got it in one. The car's ten years old, and I wouldn't spend $100 fixing that little ding, much less $1000.

So, the bottom line is that my old Jimmy earned me about $1000 this afternoon. That'll come in handy right now. Too bad for the Camry guy, though.

First accident I've ever been in, in 47 years of driving. Hmph!

[Bertha Venation]

1. I'm glad you weren't hurt.

You were awfully friendly to the other driver. That was nice.

[MineralMan]

2. Nobody was hurt...a low-speed collision...

And it never hurts to be nice. The guy seemed pretty lost as to what to do.

[NJmaverick]

3. Unless you are a professional writer, I really think you missed your calling

you took a routine type incident and made it a very enjoyable read.

[MineralMan]

4. That's what I do. I've made my living by writing since 1974.

Now, I'm sorta retired, and just doing some web content stuff and posting on discussion forums.

[NJmaverick]

5. Well your natural talent is not hard to spot

what sort of writing did you do before retiring?

[MineralMan]

6. I wrote mainly for PC World, doing reviews, how-to articles

and a column on word processing. Before that, I wrote for everyone from Seventeen Magazine to Mechanix Illustrated. I did a couple of books, one on outdoor woodworking projects and one on WordPerfect 6.0, again over a decade ago. I've had a bit of fiction and poetry make it to the printed page, but that was many years ago. I had to eat, so I wrote non-fiction.

These days, I write mostly for my bloggish website at www.osomin.com, plus some web content for other people's websites. With money tight these days, I've ramped up the web content writing some.

My wife is also a magazine writer. We met at a COMDEX trade show back in 1990 and joined forces. She's still doing that, as much as is possible, given the sorry state of the magazine industry.

[NJmaverick]

7. I read PC world for years and years

I bet I have read some of your articles. I think it's great that you guys met at COMDEX, probably isn't many couples that can say that.

[MineralMan]

8. No doubt you did. I wrote for them for over 12 years. Most anything

about Microsoft Office or Word came off my keyboard. I hated to see that phase of my life end.

[astral]

9. I thought you had to make the repairs to get the money

Doesn't the insurance company pay the actual repair bill from the invoice?

[suninvited]

11. As long as no leinholder is involved

you can do whatever you want with an insurance payout.

Someone recently backed into me and I was surprised at the way their insurance company made it clear that actually fixing my car was totally up to me. Of course, I have a leinholder, and I didnt like the scratch on my car. I had my car fixed at the bodyshop Farmers Insurance recommended.

A friend of mine recently took the check for $4000 her car insurance company paid her after an accident and didnt repair her car. Of course her car has practically zero resale value now.

[DarkTirade]

10. My car seems to be a magnet for that sort of thing.

First accident it was in... I pulled into my driveway. A car on the road lost control and pulled in next to me. And by 'next to me' I mean 'into the passenger side door'. While I was in my driveway.

Second accident was last Saturday... I had just put my groceries away, put the cart back in the cart corral, turned around to walk back to my car to see the car next to mine pulling out and SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP along the side of my car. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it had looked from that angle, just a scrape and small hole in the bumper and a few minor scratches that can probably be buffed out by the wheel well. Guess which side it was, too? :)

[ThomCat]

12. I'm glad it was so minor for you.

It's good that you weren't hurt at all and the damage to your car is so superficial. :)