However, those plans were dashed by the fact that last night, on the way to circus practice, I got into a car accident. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I caused a car accident, although it really was one of those situations where the situation itself was more at fault than any individual actor. Judge for yourself; here's what happened:
To get onto the highway from my house, I take a right turn off of a bridge onto a long downhill left-side entrance ramp. There are two particularly relevant fact here. First, "entrance ramp" is a bit of a misnomer. There's barely two car-lengths worth of room to speed up in order to enter the highway once you get within striking distance, and no way from the rest of the ramp to see with any precision what's going on on the highway itself. Second, "left-side" becomes extra important in this circumstance, because one has to merge into the fast (left) lane of traffic rather than into the slow (right) lane, as it more typical. So it's a bit of a nervy situation to begin with. Throw in the fact that this highway entrance has only been open for about a month following two years of construction and you have a disaster waiting to happen.
It wasn't a disaster that happened, but it wasn't pretty either. I was coming down the ramp, looking in my side-view mirror to see if there was space for me to merge onto the highway. I found my opening and started to turn into it, shifting my vision back to the front. At that point I saw that the car in front of me, rather than maintaining speed or speeding up to get onto the highway, as one should, had actually stopped. But by then it was too late for me to do anything about it, and I ran right into the back of him. I'll spare you the rest of the details, but suffice it to say that that was not how I saw my evening being spent.
The front of my car is pretty badly smashed, and I'm waiting for word from the insurance claims adjuster about what they're going to do. But other than that, I have to say, everything turned out as well as could possibly be expected. I'm not hurt, and neither was the other driver. His car suffered some damage to the back bumper, but he was able to drive away. He was upset, obviously, but not angry or hysterical, and we exchanged information as pleasantly as it was possible to do under the circumstances --- that is to say, in the back seat of my car to keep out of the cold wind, under the continually fading glow of my dome light. Fortuitously, a tow truck was coming onto the highway just a few minutes after the crash, and was able to block traffic for us and call the police. The police arrived in due course and took our statements. Everyone was very professional and calm and kind: the tow truck driver, the police officer, the insurance agents.
And me. It's strange how these situations can affect one, but I don't remember being terribly upset. I was later, when I got home and it had a chance to sink in, but at the time all I remember is calm. There were things that needed to be done, things that needed to be taken care of, and I just took care of them. I wasn't going to let this get the best of me. I relayed the details to the police officer, cleaned everything out of the car and put it in a bag before it was towed away, and checked and double-checked with the other driver that he wasn't hurt. He was supposed to be on his way to an exam that night, so he was a bit antsy about that, but I pointed out that a police report would probably make for an acceptable excuse.
The tow truck driver even complimented me on being the calmest person he's ever seen in such situations. I think that was a bit of hyperbole, but I thanked him anyway. It's the little things like that which make such a difference under these circumstances. Like the fact that the police officer let me wait in the back of his squad car after they towed my car, so that I didn't have to be outside in the cold. Or the fact that the insurance company arranged for me to get a rental car that night so I could pick it up first thing in the morning and not have too much disruption to my schedule.
So I guess I got lucky, all things considered. My neck is a little sore and they might total my car, but that's not really what's important. I know that now more viscerally than I did before, so that, too, is something.
UPDATE: Michael went down to the impound lot and took some pictures. Not pretty.
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