Tuesday, February 01, 2005

My First Car Accident

It has been five years already since I first got my license. I think it's about the time. Research says you are most likely to have your first car accident in year 2 and 3. Since I didn't always drive in past five years, all in all, the timing was about right.

No, damn it!!! The timing was simply aweful. I was on my way back from an otherwise very pleasant ski trip. I finally got a grip on how to smoothly link my left and right turns on a snowboard. I was extremely excited about my progress. My spirit was high and I was proud. But the accident just spoiled everything.

The accident is my fault, according to my insurance company. Everything happened in seconds. I was merging to the right lane from the middle lane. The truck driver, who was on the right lane driving steadily, just decided to cut me off and suddenly accelarated after I signaled. I didn't anticipate this suddenly move and continue to change lanes. The truck scrached my car from the right side and made some unpleasant noises. Fortunately no one in my car was hurt. We eventually waited two hours for cops to show up and I hadn't felt this hungery and cold since...... Fuck it, I have never been this hungery and cold.

Today, the adjuster from my insurance company took a look at the car and called me afterwards saying that the damage is about $3,000. I almost fell off my chair when I heard that. Of course, I am only paying the deductables, which is $500, but I can't imagine how my premium will be like when we renew next time.

What really pisses me off is the fact that the asshole in the truck is not at fault. He is the aggressive one who has little regard about other people's life. In any normal situations, he would have never touched my car since I tend to drive fast, hmmm... pretty fast. I cut lanes in a heart beat and I blow people by like a wind. (I am exaggerating of course, but you get the idea). The only reason I was in the middle lane that day, following the crowd and being a nice boy, was because of the additional passengers (4 of my friends) on my car. I was trying to be extremely cautious. But that might just cost me the accident. My theory of "nice guys always got their butts kicked" was proven correct, again.

So here comes the real question, how should I drive?? I am confused.

1 comment:

Max said...

feel sorry for you bro.
The only thing I can say is think twice when you trying to changing your style.

I am a crazy New York driver with a very aggressive attitude. I take moving fast not to delay anyone as a responsibility to drive in NYC. At times I was trying to drive slowly, nicely following the car just in front of me. But after no more than few minutes I really just can't bear following the slow dude while breaking every few seconds. This actually easily makes me lose my level of concentration. Have cars behind me snear off to the front also bothers me a lot :(

I find one thing interesting about give friends ride. When there is only 3 other people in the car, I am pretty much drive at usual pace. But when there is three people in the back, the distraction can have 2 fold increase. My concentration just drop so much that I feel my mind is not as clear as I used to be. I find it helps to playing some familiar music at low volumn or to chew a gum.