The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170807   Message #4131433
Posted By: Stilly River Sage
07-Jan-22 - 02:46 PM
Thread Name: FITNESS & Declutter 2022 - Pandemic redux
Subject: RE: FITNESS & Declutter 2022 - Pandemic redux
I'm so sorry! Your great little VW!

Several years ago I missed taking my turn properly at an intersection that was broken and was blinking red all directions. I was t-boned, rear seat on my side, low speed, but being out of turn, it was on me. I don't think I said anything at the time, just took photos, exchanged information, and a police officer made notes and had the other car towed. No ticket. I got a new (to me) vehicle shortly after learning my unibody SUV was totaled. The difference in how you're treated can be in the insurance company you have - I use a very polite insurance company. They raised my rates for several years, but I am back in good standing with them.

You might want to have those groceries delivered. Every muscle is going to be stiff for a few days, and getting into a car (rental or other) and driving may be difficult at first. You'll revisit the accident - wondering how you missed that light? Don't beat yourself up - accidents happen. There were probably factors involved that you can conclude contributed to missing the light. Was the sun in your eyes? Did you look at the radio for a moment? These are things that can be corrected. I had a passenger and turned my head just long enough to not realize I was following another vehicle when I should have stopped. I try to be all the more careful, and taking the defensive driving course really again helped. Understanding that you did a great job in the past (and will again) also does help.

The worst of 2022 is over. The rest of the year will be much better! I queried Google about actuarial figures on driving accidents and came up with this from Quora:
So if you got your license at age 16, the odds are quite good that you’ll experience some kind of crash by the time you’re 34, at the latest. Over the course of a typical long, driving lifetime, you should have a total of three to four accidents.

Chances are these crashes won’t be deadly. There are about 10 million accidents of all kinds each year, from parking lot scrapes to multi-car pileups, according to the National Safety Council; in 2009, just three of every 1,000 of those accidents involved fatalities.

You've already beat the odds on your first accident, so you'll do fine for the rest of your driving life.