msbelle, I'm relieved mac is ok and only the car was hurt. I have the dubious distinction of being the only one of my parents' three daughters who has never totaled a car. (My brother, who is 30, just got his license last year after 15 years of mooching off friends and living in cities with excellent public transit.)
But the guy was so eager not to report to the police and to each take care of our own cars' damage that I think he'd blown through the stop sign and was worried it would result in tickets if the police got involved
About 5 years ago, I was sideswiped by a woman blazing through a just-turned-green light (I had been stopped at the red and was going maybe 5 mph, she hit me on the drivers side trying to go around me at god-knows-how-fast), and she begged to take me to the nearest ATM and just give me cash. I eventually agreed to not call the police, but insisted we exchange insurance information. Turns out she was driving with an expired policy (so if we had called the police, she would have been arrested on the spot) and so my insurance company couldn't do anything about it. I should have taken the money - she was offering $500 for what turned out to be about $75 worth of damage!
I did once back into the corner of our garage trying to get out of the driveway, at my parents. The garage faced the back of the house and we didn't use it but parked two cars side by side. I was trying to back around the other car and not hit it, and instead hit the house. Oops.
Morning update from the house of chaos: cousin's daughter had to be taken to the ER in the middle of the night for altitude sickness.
In a very Buffista turn of events, my worst teenage car accident happened in the parking lot of the local public library. The library was built on a low hill, and the parking lot was under the library -- a bunch of pillars supported the library. One day, I was backing out of a parking spot and scraped the side of the car against one of the pillars. Luckily, no worse damage than loss of paint and a dent. Still, my parents were Not Pleased.
Grateful I didn't get my license until I was 21! Not that I didn't have my mishaps after that age.
Sorry to hear about Mac's crash. That sucks.
I remember my first accident. It was a super icy day and I stopped at the top of a hill when I noticed a Lincoln Town Car was sideways at the bottom of the hill, blocking the entire street. I actually got out of the car to go help move it and when I shut the door, my car starting moving downhill. I jumped back in and tried to stop it, but couldn't do anything on that ice. I ended up aiming for the Town Car's tire and hit it, causing no visible damage to the Town Car, but knocking some paint off of mine (oddly not at the point of impact, apparently the cold paint just fell off). It was a weird way to have a first accident.
It was a weird way to have a first accident.
Very weird! Though it reminds me of the time Cindy ran over herself.
Ha ha! Might not be altitude sickness! Might be the flu! Which would mean we're all exposed! And the flu shot is not especially effective this year! And MIL has a chronic lung condition!
Dang, well it could have been that contagious pregnancy stuff, to MIL's delight.
Your holiday is getting epic, Dana. Wow.
