Had an accident, driving home last night northbound on I-270. I was driving in the left lane, and had the cruise control on, going just a couple of miles above the speed limit (that being about 60 in a 55). The road surface had been rained on all evening, so was a little slick.
I came up on a deer in the road. Not standing, but laying in the road, smack in the middle of my lane. So, naturally, I slammed on my brakes, and swerved to the left to avoid the deer. The combination of braking and swerving sent me into a spin on the slick pavement. I had turned around nearly 360 degrees before I slammed into the jersey wall on the right side of the roadway. I bounced off, and slammed into the jersey wall on the median, and there I landed.
I called the police first, then my insurance company, GEICO, who actually didn’t cover any of what just happened because I had neglected to get my vehicle inspected in a tamely manner for the Comprehensive/Collision coverage. And, since the Emergency Roadside Service option required at least on of those two to be on my policy (Really? Good to know!), the towing wasn’t covered either.
While I was arguing about this with GEICO, a trucker had stopped just up the road, and he came up yelling, asking if I was okey. I was, I thought (though this morning, I have a very stiff neck). The cops came, stopped traffic before the deer, which was apparently still in the road, and… shot it.
Multiple times.
WHAT THE FUCK??? I risk life and limb, and totally fuck up my relativemy new car to AVOID hitting this animal, and you just come along and SHOOT IT?? And later, I learn from the tow truck driver, if I had hit the deer, I probably would have gotten a better response from my insurance company. Lesson learned? I should have hit the fucking deer.
Well, the other lesson learned is that when I needed to go have the inspection done, I should have done it right away. Maybe then I’d be singing GEICO’s praises instead of mourning my own stupidity. Ah, well…
Anyway, the cops eventually pull over to me, first thing out of his mouth, “You much have been going way too fast for you to lose control of your vehicle like that.”
“Sir, I had the cruise control on, going no more than 60 mph.”
“Well, the speed limit is 55 here. When it’s raining, you definitely shouldn’t be going that fast…. blah, blah, blah…”
I said “Fine, fine, fine,” but what I was thinking was “Dude don’t even fucking give me that lecture. 5 miles an hour wouldn’t have made any difference here.”
So, eventually, they called me a tow truck, seeing as how my insurance company wasn’t going to provide one, set up some flares, and left. I’m waiting there, panicking, thinking okey, maybe the tow truck guy will give me a lift to his shop, but there’s no way he’s gonna take me home. How the fuck am I gonna get home?
So, I call a very good friend of mine, whom I woke out of a very deep slumber, and explained I had no way home. I was hoping maybe he wasn’t freelancing the next day, but he had an early call in the morning, and just couldn’t do it, so I got off the phone as quick as I could, to let him get back to sleep. (Sorry, Doug!)
I eventually talked the tow truck guy to let me off at home (Thank you, Robert!), and he made me a deal where if I came down and took care of things today, he wouldn’t charge me the $45/day storage fee. So basically, I need to decide whether it’s worth it to fix the car… or whether I just sign it over to them, give ’em the title, and bid sayonara to several thousand dollars worth of good car. Thing is, the engine may be pretty well shot, so who knows how much it’ll cost. Guess I’ll have to wait and see what the estimate is. (The tow truck guy’s guesstimate was in the four to five thousand range, and if that’s the case, I won’t be able to afford it. We’ll see.