Two weekends ago I spent a wonderful day with my little sister! We went shopping, went to the Rod works 'Girls night out' and then over to Roberts 'Girls night out'. We were on our way home, exhausted...when suddenly...this happened -
You know Roberts on 1300 E.? Well we were waiting in line to ‘exit’ the parking lot, and if you will , just for a second, picture the turnout there…there is HARDLY a downhill, in fact there isn’t one – there is a sewer that separates the parking lot and 1300 E. so there is barely a hill. Well Alyssa and I were chatting away when the lady in front of me starting pulling out to make a left hand turn, I took my foot of the brake and just starting costing about 3 inches down this ‘barely hill’ when all of a sudden, no cars are coming and the lady in front of me decides she doesn’t want to turn and slams on her brakes – I’ll be honest, this was my fault, I was too close to her bumper and I should have been paying better attention, but this is when I rolled into her car. Ya know, like a little tap? She gets out of her car and so do I as I frantically give Alyssa my phone and tell her to call Casey and have him bring my wallet as I didn’t have my license. She started crying, I felt horrible – the first accident Alyssa had ever been in is with me and I said the “S” word in front of her…an accident? You can hardly call it that, as me and the old lady get out of the car she immediately grabs her back and states “Oh my back, I broke my back!” All I can think is the “S” word again and “yeah freakin right! I barely touched you!” (oh, and the fact that I don’t have my license and even if I did, it expired 3 months ago) – WONDERFUL! Anyway, I turned on the charm, as this lady had to be in her late 80’s and I know how older people LOVE polite ‘younger’ folk…I won her love immediately…thank heavens!
Anyway, everyone on 1300 was honking at us as they past as the front of her car was out in the front lane, so I asked her to move her car back into the parking lot and we will exchange information over there…This is when she tells me “I don’t know how to put my car in reverse. Will you move it for me?” So I was in totally shock…moved my car, told her to get on the sidewalk, moved her car and then Alyssa and I helped her cross the road over to where I parked the car – she walked like an old person, come on, you know what I am talking about – WAY TO SLOW, anyway, as we are crossing the parking lot to where I pulled the cars a guy pulls up next to us and asks “Are you guys okay?” So nice of him…I sweetly told him we were, and stated that I hit her. The man looked at me with shock and horror in his eyes and that is when I realized what I had just said…”OH, I mean, I didn’t hit her, I hit her car and we are just helping her over to her car now!” He still looked super confused, and drove away. I took a mental picture of us practically carrying her over to her car, her barely being able to put one foot in front of the other and takin 10 minutes just to walk across 2 parking spots…yeah, I would have thought she got nailed by a car too. The damage on her car was a tiny scratch that did in fact take the paint off her bumper…now when I say small…look at your pinky fingernail (if they are short like mine) and divide it into fourths, ¼ of your finger nail is how much paint I took off of her 1998 mazda. She told me she wasn’t sure what to do, asked if we should call the cops or just exchange information…I opted to exchange information for the sake of not getting fined for 1. Not having my license on me and 2. For having an expired license – She was totally okay with that…after I called my father whom is a retired police officer – because in all reality, I too had no idea what to do as this was the first time ANYTHING like this has ever happened.
I put her back in the car and was squatting next to the front seat as I wrote down my information for her, and then tried to write down hers…She couldn’t remember her address or her phone number. She did know her name though, so that was good. WHATEVER? Should this lady even be driving? I think not! She told me her son would get in touch with me to get the car fixed, I was secretly hoping her would look at the scratch that you cant even notice unless someone pointed it out to you, and not even worry about it getting fixed. When all of a sudden, I hear fire trucks and ambulances up the road, I joking stated “Good thing those aren’t for us huh?” The old lady giggled and said “You would have to have hit me a lot harder than that for those!” 20 seconds later…they were indeed for us, I stood up from bending over next to her car to greet the 3 police men, the fire truck and the ambulance…I know I had a look of shock on my face as I knew my license was about to get suspended, all those men were frantically jumping out of their ‘work cars’ and were sprinting towards us, the police men came to me to get a statement when I immediately asked “Are you here for us?” That is when the officer said, yes, a man called in and told us that a pedestrian had been hit by a car and was knocked unconscious.” I had to giggle…just my luck. “No officer” … and then I told him what had really happened, he told the 2 of us that there was less than $50 damage on the car and that it was our choice to just exchange information or to file a police report I pretended like I didn’t really care, whatever the old lady wanted…I knew she would say we were fine with just exchanging as she had JUST TOLD ME that she was late for dinner at The Atria. In fact, that is just was she told the officer…Oh how I LOVE old people!
Anyway, we got our bill yesterday. Casey and I decided to just pay it out of pocket and not file a claim as we have a $500 deductible anyway. Yeah, Dent Master in Salt Lake charged us $492 to “fix the scratch on the back left of Peggy’s bumper” is what his message said. He then went on to tell us that he did take off $100 of labor…what a nice guy…however, Peggy’s son was suppose to get 2 quotes before he got it fixed…and that is JUST what Casey told Dent Master. So before Dent Master finished Casey called them and told them to stop as he has someone that would fix it for cheaper…the only had the bumper off…the guy asked for how much and Casey said “$375” Dent Master then said her would fix it for $370.22 – DEAL!
However, I think the whole thing is crazy and it makes me sick to my stomach that we have to pay that much over a TINY scratch, sure I would get my car fixed if it was mine…but seriously? A 1998 Mazda for an 87 year old driver that can’t remember her address or phone number and doesn’t know how to put her car in reverse…AWWWW
However #2, the whole incident turned out to be a huge blessing, not the accident itself obviously, but the fact that the cop didn’t ask to see my license, was a huge blessing in which I am extremely grateful.
