Gillespie Clan Treehouse

CRASH!

So, last saturday (the 3rd, not the 10th) I was driving home from a friend’s birthday party when I got into an accident. I was at a stopped at a light on 88th and State and when the light changed we all started rolling forward. The guy in front of me was turning right and I was anticipating him clearing out of the way so I could go straight when suddenly he slammed on his brakes. There were apparently some pedestrians who had made the unfortunate choice of wearing dark clothing in the dark and he didn’t see them in the crosswalk until the last second. I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting him, and immediately started sliding. There was still some sand and gravel left on the road from all the snow we’ve had around here. Despite a valiant effort on the part of my Camry’s anti-lock braking system, we didn’t stop in time to prevent the accident.

To make things worse, the vehicle I hit was a truck whose bumper was just high enough to slide over the top of mine on impact. I got an estimate back from the shop day before yesterday and the repair is going to cost $4200…and the car is only worth $5000 or so. My insurance company tends to total vehicles (according to their rep on the phone) when the damage is more than 70% of the value of the car. I’m thinking that I’m going to have to go shopping for a new car. 

The good news is that it’s currently a great time to go buy a car, because sales on cars are down. I also just got a bump in pay that will make it much easier for me to make a car payment. We’ll just have to see how things go. I’m not going to jump the gun and go buy a car until I hear from my insurance for sure. They may just repair the car I already own and then I’m only out the money for the deductible on my insurance.

I’ll let everyone know what happens when I get more info.