LESSON LEARNED!!!

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks.  You may have read on Facebook how I was in a car accident on Tuesday, June 16.  In 78 years, it was my first ever.  Given that no one was hurt (only the cars), we were all lucky.  But I can assure you, I never want to go through this again!!!

Three weeks prior, I had purchased a new used car.  It was a 2024 Ford Escape with only 7000 miles on it.  I wasn’t sure at first when I made the purchase if I had made the right choice….I mean cars now days have so much electronics involved, and initially it was a very frustrating experience, like I mean, it took me 2 days to figure out how to turn on the radio!!!  I use cruise control as soon as I get in a car, and this 2024 had a very different system. 

A young man made a left hand turn on a green light (not a green arrow) and he could not see that I was coming through the intersection in the right lane.  His view was blocked by a very large truck.  I hit his car on the passenger side rear door.  Luckily his rear right air bag did deploy, you can see it in my dash camera footage. 

When we both pulled over, he and his wife opened the driver side rear door and out came a dog, a toddler and an infant.  No one was crying or bleeding, but the dog was a nervous wreck. 

Three different sets of police cruisers (Goshen Township, Milford police and Miami Township) showed up very quickly.  Two ambulances and 2 fire trucks showed up right behind them.  One of the ambulances did take the wife and the toddler in the ambulance: I’m betting the toddler was not secured in the back seat and they wanted to check him out.

Luckily the young man driving did admit to the police that the accident was his fault, and my footage from the dash cam supported that.  Unluckily the police report indicates that he did not have a valid driver’s license nor proof of car insurance.  So, as it turned out, the cost of the damage to my car was not covered by his insurance.  Damn!!!

His car had to be towed away.  My car was drivable.  The front of the car was badly crushed, could not open the hood, could not open the passenger side door.  My door cracked loudly every time you opened it, but other than that, the car ran fine.  I drove it home and called my insurance company.

First step in this process is you have to get your hands on the police report.  Their website says crash reports will appear online 2-3 days after the accident.  I check daily all week and by the following Tuesday I called and a very nice young lady said, “Oh, not all reports are posted.”  Grrrrr.  She nicely sent me a copy. 

So, a copy went to my insurance and then I contacted the body shop of the dealership where I purchased the car, drove it in, and left it with them.  My insurance provided a rental car.

The very next day I got a call from my insurance company telling me that they had to total my car.  What!!!  Turns out that once the body shop got the car, got under the hood and got the passenger side door open, there were more parts needed than they had estimated, and that cost drove the math over the threshold of fixable vs totaled!!!!  I was so angry!!!!

Couldn’t get to sleep that night I was so upset, so I sat up and created an excel spreadsheet on all the possible Ford Escapes in their inventory that I would look at.

Next day I was back at the dealership and they had picked out a car for me and had it waiting for me to look at.  I bought it, but am not as happy with it as I was with the 2024.  I now own a 2022 Ford Escape with 14000 miles. 

So, after all this, I have learned my lesson…..never again will I proceed through an intersection unless I can see the left turn lane…..lesson learned!!!!

BTW….Happy 4^th of July!!!!