That’s Why They Call It An “Accident”

This week my car was rear-ended while driving home from work.  True story.  Here’s what happened and the aftermath — financial and otherwise.

Crash!

After work I was driving home on RT-128 in Gloucester, MA.  There are two traffic circles.  I got through the first one and was waiting in line at the second, when I heard the squeal of brakes and almost immediately felt the impact from behind.

My car was pushed forward and into the vehicle in front of me.  The front impact triggered the airbags in my car to inflate.  The nose of my car became lodged under the bumper of the front car, dragging my car off to the side of the road as the front vehicle pulled out of traffic.

When my car came to a stop, I opened the door and just sat there, adenaline rushing — not in a good way — trying to get my bearings.

The kindnesses of strangers

Soon a guy appeared, asking if I was alright.  He turned out to be the driver of the vehicle in front of me, which, I now realized was, ironically, a tow truck.  If I could ever choose the vehicle that I was to get into an accident with,  my #1 choice would be an ambulance and #2, a tow truck.  These guys knew exactly what to do.  Sean stayed with me, instructing me to sit (not stand) until there was no longer a danger that I’d flop over.  His colleague, John, directed traffic around the other car which came to a rest blocking a lane.

I took general inventory of myself, and I seemed relatively unscathed.  Even my stylishly flimsy glasses were unaffected by the blast of the airbag.  When I felt that I could stand without flopping over, I got out of the car and sat on the guardrail.  Now I could see that my car was crushed like an accordion.  The airbags had done their job.  The car, however, was a total loss.

I knew I’d need a ride home, but of course, today I had forgotten to bring my cellphone.   Sean loaned me his, and I called my spouse to please come pick me up.

Sean explained to me what was going to happen:  the police would take the necessary information, a wrecker would tow the cars away, how to start the insurance process.  Sean knew the police and the wrecking crew.  He could run for mayor.

No collision or comprehensive insurance

My car is was a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse with 136k miles.  About four years ago, I stopped carrying collision or comprehensive insurance on the car.  It had a low book value and a high premium.  (I guess Eclipse drivers aren’t a safety-conscious bunch.)  I’ve saved more in premiums than I would have collected from the accident.  I called my insurance company anyways because they’ve been quite helpful over the years.  I’ve been a customer with them for 26 years.  Just to be clear, I do carry insurance in case I hit someone (it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law) — I just don’t carry insurance to replace the car.

Since the accident was not my fault, I can file a claim with the insurance company of the driver who hit me.  I called her insurance company, and the representative opened a claim for me.  Apparently I should be eligible to receive compensation for:

• the car,
• a rental replacement vehicle, and
• towing and storage of the car at the lot it was towed to.

Of course I won’t receive a dime until all the paperwork is complete, which can take a month or more.

What’s a 1998 Eclipse worth?

There are several good sites for estimating the value of a used car. Edmunds estimated the trade-in value of my car at $1789, and Kelly’s Blue Book came up with $1300.  I don’t know the formula that the insurance company uses, but I don’t think I’m looking at a lot of cash.  The car was worth a lot more than that to me.  I won’t be able to replace it for that kind of money.

Manual vs. automatic transmission

The Eclipse had a sporty manual transmission.  I like driving a standard, but I’m beginning to believe that an automatic might be safer.

While waiting in line at, say, a stop sign, I tend to keep my left foot on the clutch pedal and my right foot on neither the accelerator or brake.  To nudge forward, I let out the clutch just enough to engage the idling engine.  To slow down, I push the clutch back in.  The point is that I don’t necessarily have my right foot on the brake pedal.  With an automatic transmission, you have to have your foot on the brake or you would roll forward.   I honestly don’t remember whether I had my foot on the brake when I was hit.  There is a slight downhill pitch at that part of the road, so I might have, but if I had an automatic transmission, I would have been certain that I was braking.  Obviously, if you’re going to be hit from behind, you want to have the brakes on, to prevent being pushed forward.

I think my next car will be an automatic.

Let’s go shoppin’

So now we get to go car shopping.  We’ll have to decide new or used, what kind of car.  I’m sort of looking forward to it, and sort of dreading it.  I’m really not a shopper.  I’ll be posting soon about what I discover.  If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.  Thankfully I have fully funded my sinking car fund, so I should be able to pay cash.

Summary

It’s been three days since the accident, and today is the first day that I really feel like myself, again.  The airbag punch kind of knocked me for a loop.  I never lost consciousness, so I never saw a doctor, but my neck was really sore.  The head is like a bowling ball attached to your shoulders by springs (your neck muscles).  Push the shoulders forward hard, and those springs get sprung.  Thankfully, ibuprofen helped.  A little extra sleep would have helped, too, but that was not to be (well, not this week, at least).

Image credit: lucasdiniz99 on Flickr.  This isn’t my car.  It was too dark to take a photo of my car, so I’m using one from Flickr.  There are way too many photos of crashed cars on Flickr — crazy obsession for some.

Note on the title: When I was a young driver, I caused an accident.  A friend was hurt — not very badly, but nevertheless, I felt terrible about it.  When the policeman said, “That’s why they call it an ‘accident’,” I really felt quite a bit better.  His kind words have stayed with me for all these years.

Carnival: This post was included in the 236th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted at The Mighty Bargain Hunter.

Tags: car crash, collision insurance, comprehensive insurance