Saturday, December 20, 2014

Fender Bender

It was an exciting day. I had a job interview this morning and a fender bender this afternoon. Since I don't have much to share regarding the interview (I won't know anything for maybe a couple of weeks), I'll tell you about the fender bender.

Hannah and I were out together. We're trying to tie up loose ends on our holiday gift giving, so although I am not a big Walmart fan, we went in for a few items, nothing grand and glorious. We hopped back into the van and I glanced into my rear view mirror before backing slowly out of my spot. I let some pedestrians pass and a car that was headed down the aisle. I had my eye on the back corner of the car parked to my right when my van stopped rather abruptly. Another check of my rear view mirror told me I made contact with another car. (Oh, blah..)

I pulled back forward and opened my door to a man across the aisle in the same position. "What are you doing backing up when I'm backing up?" the other driver asked me, to which I replied, "Why didn't you beep?" (Had I known he was there I surely would have stopped before crumpling our bumpers.)

"I didn't see you!" the guy in the other car said. I felt a sense of relief wash over me as I realized nether of us had been paying attention to who or what was behind us at that particular moment. We had almost identical damage to our vehicles, a dent in the rear driver's side bumper. Since we were turning opposite directions, we were probably the same distance out into the aisle. The dent in my bumper is decidedly worse than the one on his car, or should I say "his wife's"?

I felt a little bad for him. His wife, who was on her way out of the store, was not happy at all. She took pictures of my van with her cell phone, proceeded to call the police, and then complain about how she "didn't have time for this." We'd already traded insurance information and such by the time the sheriff, who really didn't need to be summoned at all, showed up and told us a police report wasn't necessary. (I'd said that earlier but she insisted she wanted the police.)

So, now I will be calling our insurance agency on Monday morning. I can hardly stand all the excitement.

14 comments:

  1. I hope your fender bender has a good outcome. When I had mine last year, a gal pulled in front of me and many witnesses saw and share that it was entirely her fault. The end result, I got my 13 year old Nissan painted and it looks like new...The insurance company paid for the front half of paint...I pay the back. A good trade.

    LOVE your cartoon.

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    1. Don't you just love "Go Dog Go"? Those dogs are some of my favorites.

      We'll see how it goes. There weren't a ton of witnesses, but the identical impact marks kind of tell the story. I'm supposing the insurance companies will have seen this kind of thing before. Like Chuck Smith used to say, "It's all gonna burn."
      :0)

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  2. Ugh...I've never had a little bump...just a total smash that wasn't my fault. Neither seems very fun. ha. Poor man...you got to ride home with Hannah. He had to ride home with his wife. lol....

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    1. Yeah, I did feel bad for the guy. At least Hannah was nice to me.
      :0)

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  3. Oh boy! Hate when that happens!

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    1. Kind of a bummer, but not the end of the world.

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  4. Sounds like a day filled with excitement. :\ I'm always afraid of that happening. It happened to Donna once.

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    1. Parking lots are an accident waiting to happen. I'm surprised they aren't all over America's Funniest Home Videos!

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  5. Not the best way to end your day but on the bright side, no one was hurt!

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    1. No one was hurt, except the bumpers of course, and the ears of the small children who heard the man's wife use some colorful words.
      :0)

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  6. The same thing happened to me in the parking lot at a golf course :-( She said the same thing "didn't you see me? " I said "well didn't you see me?" She said "well I thought you would stop"?????? What!!?? Anyhow - in Canada in a parking lot it is 50/50. There was no damage to my car, but her tail light was broken and you might think that isn't a bit deal. Well it was almost $1,000!!!! We were both insured with the same company too.......... :-(

    Marilyn from Canada

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    1. I've had close encounters before. Been beeped at, done the beeping, and just plain happened to look in the right direction at the right time. This time we were destined to make contact.
      It does help to know I am not alone in my parking Lot Plight.

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  7. Glad you are ok...
    Guess his wife was not feeling the Christmas spirit!
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

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    1. The wife definitely lost all her Christmas spirit after seeing the dent in her bumper.
      :0)

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