I have had more than my fair share of car accidents. I used to be a horrible driver. Actually I used to be a sleepy driver.
When I first went off to college I had a 1991 Geo Storm. Remember these? It cost $9,000. I'm assuming it was cheaper because it was a stick shift. It was also Teal. I had a hell of a time learning to drive it. I cried during the test drive and told my dad to take it back. He said, "sorry, it's already been paid for." YIKES! One of the few times he tried to teach me to drive it was horrible. Painful even.
I was pulled up to an incline at a stop light. I looked over and there were several boys I went to school with, in the next car. So I peeled out. Screeching tires and all. It worked out very well at that light. However, when I got back into my neighborhood I kept popping the clutch and the car would jump forward and stall. My father started jumping up and down in his seat, swinging an imaginary lasso over his head, screaming, "Yee Haa!" He did that at every stop, six blocks to home. Then I pulled into our driveway, went into the house and told my mother, "Daddy is an asshole, I'm not driving with him again." The first time I cussed in front of my parents. My mother put her foot down and he didn't go out with me again in that car. Ugh!! I think every one should know how to drive a standard, but you have to be very patient when learning and teaching it.
After I moved to California to go to school I put that car through the ringer. I was trying to pass an 18 wheeler in the rain. I hit a pot hole the very moment that the back tire of the truck threw water up into my windshield. I started hydroplaning, bumped into the truck, started spinning. Slide under the truck, I looked up and his tire was in my windshield. When he stopped I spun out again and hit the median, head on. All I could think was, "this is gonna hurt." I walked away from that accident. Had a good knot on my head and a really sore neck, but it could have been really bad. The insurance wanted to total the Geo, my dad wouldn't let them. So they actually fixed it! Rebuilt it more like it. Much later my now ex-husband slammed into a brick wall and crushed the front fender. When I traded it in a couple years later it was on three tires, a spare and still had the front all jacked up.
I got a green Mazda Protoge' after the Geo. I had it for almost three months when it was totalled. I had barely broken in the seats, gotten my radio stations right, and put goodies in the glove compartment. I was leaving work in Downtown. A lady ran a red light and t-boned me. She hit me right at the front wheel well. I slammed my head on the driver side window, then was thrown into the passengers seat. She got out of car and pryed my door open, then tried to pull me upright. I just kept thinking, "don't move, I could have broken my back." The guy behind me finally got out of his car and started yelling at her to leave me alone, he called the police and ambulance. The he asks her, "what were you thinking, we had the green light!?" She said...... ready for it...... "I had a green light too." Uh...no. I believe I was unconscious for a few seconds. I woke up and saw my cell phone on the floor so I called my mom. I told her I had a date tonight, could she put a note on my door and let him know I was at the hospital? I went into "make everyone else feel better" mode. I kept telling I was OK. I didn't see any blood but that I was going to need to go to the hospital. I would call her back when I knew more. The firemen that pulled me out of the car were fun, as much as I remember. I was worried about them being worried about me, so I kept making jokes about my boobs falling out of my shirt. I was wearing a square neck sweater. Once they had me strapped onto the back board, I was all boobs! We were getting all loaded into the ambulances and I wasn't allowed to go the hospital I wanted to go to. The lady that hit me had a child and an elderly woman in the car with her. The old lady just had back surgery. So the mom and kid had to ride in one ambulance, and I had to ride with the old lady. Because of her recent surgery, she needed to go back to the same hospital.
Because I had just gotten that car, I got the same car. Only blue this time. I had it about two years this time. A lady was trying to cross five lanes of traffic with no stop signs. She made it past the first four lanes, but I didn't see her, I was in the last lane. I t-boned her this time. She was in a van, so all I basically did was push her off the road. She had small children in the car with her. All the seat belts had been cut out, so they all bounced around the back. As it turns out, the cop told me she was an illegal alien, didn't speak English, and didn't have a driver's licence. Lovely. The entire front of the car was crushed in. It was totalled.
By this time I was married. We had intended to have kids so we got a bigger car this time. A Chevy Trailblazer. I loved that truck. LOVED it. Now that I think about, that was not totalled. LOL I ran into a barrier at a friends apartment, so it had a small dent in the front fender but that was it. When we became pregnant with our third child we couldn't fit another car seat into the Chevy, so we needed a mini van. ARGH!!! I always hated mini vans.
That is the car I still have. It's a Kia Sedona. It's alright. I won't buy another Kia. I miss the Chevy. I am a much better driver now.
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