Bumper Cars

14 Apr 2005 ,

I was driving west on NY Ave:

spot of the accident

Approaching sixth street, I’m in the center of three lanes, the light is green. To my left is a car trying to turn south on sixth st. NW, hanging out in the intersection - a Van, or something. As I go through the light, a white car catches my eye as being directly in front of the van and seeming to cross the intersection into my lane-OH SHIT! I slam on the breaks and veer right slightly as she hits my car just behind the front drivers-side wheel. ABS kicks in, no airbag goes off (YAY) and I bump-bump-bump (abs) to a stop on the corner in front of NY Ave. Pizza, pull up and straighten my parking spot out (wtf), put my ipod in my laptop bag after noting that the other driver is turning onto 6th and parking on the corner, grind the door open CREEAAAAAAK, and go get the paperwork taken care of. Nice lady, feels terrible about the whole thing, blind spot, van, etc… Cop came, no one injured == no police report. Insurance called, probably get a loaner but won’t know until her adjuster calls me back tomorrow morning.

Notes:

There’s a chunk of paint missing from my rear bumper from I-don’t-know-what and a dent in the hood from a rock falling out of a dump truck on 495, but no, the accident only masked the slight scratch I put in the panel over the rear wheel squeezing out of my parking space one morning. I guess 1/3 ain’t bad.
I walked to work that morning, figuring I’d avoid the car for a day but ended up having to drop a PC off in PG county, hence me returning home on NY Ave. I should have avoided the car all day.
Oh noes I’ll have to get my fancy Infinity speakers out of the door.
I was absolutely blasting The Libertines at the time of the accident. with the window half way down because it was chilly. The window is fine - were it all the way down I’d be broken but I was able to put it all the way up as I parked.
On the way back up from taking the pictures in the above gallery, Manda and I noticed a very nice stainless steel cyllindrical-with-a-lid-and-foot-pedal trash can sitting amongst the building’s large plastic trash cans. Score. Carried that up to the house as a replacement for our plastic, tall, white, lidless kitchen can. Amanda thinks I’m crazy for not washing the inside before using it. It is cleaner inside than our trash can.
I was ultr-friendly to the lady, she was very nice to me and gave me a hug as we were leaving. The officer on the scene said it was the “nicest accident he’d had all day”. Ha.