So what I have always feared while traveling happened yesterday. I got in a car accident...in my rental. Before you get all worked up, the other driver and I are fine. Before you start cracking blonde women driver jokes you need to know that it wasn't my fault.
I have to admit that when it's time for me to leave a city and head for the airport I have only one thing on my mind and that's my wonderful bed awaiting me. If you know my driving habits you know that, since living in Atlanta, I've gained a slightly heavier foot. So, with the combination of gethomeitis and my abnormally large stomper, I tend to become the pace car as opposed to just keeping up with the flow. I know my dad is proud.
But none of those factors came into play yesterday. Literally five miles from the airport exit an accident happened about 500 yards ahead of me (which I couldn't see because a semi was a few cars ahead of me). So everyone, as you can imagine, slammed on their brakes. The car in front of me pulled to the right to the shoulder so she didn't hit the semi and I didn't hit her, but the car behind me was not as quick and came barreling into my bumper. Yes, I tensed up, yes, there were some girlish shrieks, but I survived!
I saw in my rear view mirror that the air bag on the car that hit me had deployed so I thought it was a lot worse than the impact felt. To my surprise (I was fully expecting a douchbag male to get out of the car) a 17 year old girl with, no I'm not lying, leopard tights, vintage t-shirt, brown knee boots and a piercing above her lip gets out. She is shaking and apologizing and asking what we should do. She was so sweet, worried I was mad and kept saying her parents were going to kill her.
Keep in mind that I haven't been in an accident since getting my license so I'm trying to refer back to drivers ed class 12 years ago to decide the best course of action. It's then that I realize she's looking to me for direction on how to handle the situation. GREAT, now is not the time I wanted to be the adult. The damage to my rental was minimal, I was actually shocked at how well it took the impact. Her car, a 97 Lincoln Town Car, looked like she had driven into a wall. But both vehicles were drivable and she was one exit away from her house. So, remembering something about less than $500 worth of damage just exchange info and move on, I figured my car looks fine and I have a flight to catch. So we exchanged info and went on our merry way. Right thing to do? I'm still not sure. But it worked for both of us.
The rest of those five miles I spent trying to remember if I took out the extra insurance that Hertz offers but, because I'm cheap, I'm sure I declined. I called Ben, he settled me down and gave me all the insurance information I needed. The Hertz people were actually very nice and just had me fill out an incident report and I was on my way. I contacted my insurance about the accident and less than an hour later I was sitting at my gate thinking that I handled everything fairly well.
In honor of how well I handled the stress I got home and ordered a large veggie pizza and cinnastix for delivery. I ate two pieces of pizza and downed all the cinnastix, don't judge me, just be happy I'm alive!
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