a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Accident Schmaccident

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Accident Schmaccident

SUMMARY: A busy, painful, and possibly expensive day.

OK, I'm glad the dogs weren't with me. I got rear-ended today, making me (I believe) at least the 4th person in my agility club to be in an accident in the last 2 weeks. What's worse (or maybe it's better) is that it was a friend and we were moving furniture at the time. At least we won't be worried about some complete stranger deciding that they want to sue us. (No, no, and we won't be suing each other, either.)

The back door of my van will no longer open. Which is where the dogs' crates open. And, since i tried to open it and got it open about a quarter inch, it will now no longer close, which means that the alarm won't set.


Not sure how I'm going to be transporting dogs for the next couple of weeks. Thank goodness I don't have a trial coming up any time soon.

What's worrisome is that both side doors now make a grinding noise when they open, which they didn't before. If my frame is bent, I am so so so screwed. I will never get a vehicle in as good a condition as this one (because I've owned it most of its life, have taken care of it, have kept it in the garage almost all the time, and have driven it almost exclusively freeway to & from agility trials). I've just been thinking lately about how lucky I am about what great condition it's in for 126,000 miles and how it might actually last me until 200,000 with no great effort. The bluebook value would not come close to buying something in good condition like this.

The friend had bookcases in the back of his truck; just the impact slid them forward enough that they apparently torqued his rear window and blew it right out. And, oh yeah, the huge chunk of his front fender he had to pick up and toss in the back with the bookcases.


And this was on a residential street just after a stop sign, probably not more than 15 miles an hour.

Crap.

On the other hand, we did get all the furniture moved before it started raining, and I had a lovely birthday dinner with my family.

9 comments:

  1. Geeze, Ellen, I would have ended with the "Crap" and left out the Pollyanna shit.

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  2. But what a truly crappy day it would have been without those things! Thank goodness for missions accomplished and a loving family.

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  3. At least no one was hurt and it was between friends. It's expensive and a nuisance but stuff can always be fixed/replaced. But yeah, no one wants to be shovelling a bunch of money towards a car these days. Fingers crossed for you that the diagnosis won't be too bad.

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  4. Just heard from the insurance company, after taking both of our statements, that it won't count against me. Bad for him, but I'm a bit relieved. We could both have done something different and it would never have happened--or if there hadn't been construction on our regular route, it never would've happened. What if, what if.

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  5. Aw man! I hate when I have to deal with bent cars. But it IS very good that no one had dogs in the car (or truck) with them. So since no one was hurt..well...oh well. Hope it doesn't put you out too much $, but odds are it will. Sigh. Saying Happy Birthday seems a bit out of line but Happy Birthday anyway!

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  6. What! I'm so sorry to hear that, but relieved that no one got hurt. I hope the verdict on the van turns out ok.

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  7. So sorry to read of your accident, and on your birthday, no less--sheesh. But on the bright side, you can probably guilt-trip this friend into doing whatever you want for the next six months!

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  8. Wow, sorry to hear of your accident!

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  9. Appointment wednesday morning to look at the damage and then leave the car to get it fixed. They'll supply a rental.

    He was already kind of being guilt-tripped into helping to move furniture for my parents, so I don't think I could double-dip. :-/ Plus, as I said, I did something that probably wasn't the best choice (in retrospect), and even though the insurance company took my statement to that effect and still absolved me of blame, I can't really entirely point and say, you idiot...

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