First Wreck

I think everyone remembers their first auto accident as an adult. Heck, I am sure some of you remember your first as a teen, and maybe as a child too. Anyways, I remember mine, and I don't think it is an easy thing to forget when someone dies.

It was about 15 years ago, and my wife was in the hospital as it was a day after my daughter (the first child) had been born. I was driving the second car I owned which was a 1980 Toyota Corolla wagon, 4-valve, stick shift, auto-nothing. It was about 9pm and I was headed home to get some sleep before heading to work in the morning. I was bout 3 miles from home traveling in the middle of three lanes headed north, doing 40-45ph. I had just checked the rear-view as I crossed over a major intersection, and the closest car was about 3 car lengths back on the left lane side of me. Nothing else was within blocks of me.

All of a sudden I feel a bump-push like someone had rear-ended me. I glanced up int he mirror and see some wreckage sliding on the road making sparks. "Shit. I think my bumper and back end has just fallen off," I am thinking to myself, when I glance left and see the other car, with the driver motioning me to pull over. I hurriedly pulled in ahead of her in the yellow emergency lane, and rushed back to make sure she was okay.

"I'm okay," she says, " But that fellow back there on the ground isn't I am sure." I looked back over to what I thought was the rear-end of my car, and realize it was a motorcyclist. By now there are a couple other people stopped and calling 911. I run out to the bike, and there is someone there trying to see if the guy is okay, so I head up traffic to help detour around since this is in the middle of the road. Police show up and send me to the curb, where I was talking to the lady of the other car. She had said this guy on the motorcycle was behind her, right on her bumper, when as she crossed the intersection, he decided to gun it and whipped out behind her, right onto the back of my car. Of course, if you've ridden bikes, a straight shot like that hitting someones bumper, very easy to close control, which is what happened.

So we are there over the course of a couple hours going over what happened with police, then detectives. The biker is rushed to the nearest hospital (which is where this lady worked). The biker, all they could tell us, was wearing tank top, shorts and flip-flops, so no protective gear at all, and that the prognosis was not good for him. I finally got around to looking at my car, and I had this indention on the bumper about 4 inches wide. I notice I cannot open the hatchback as the indention is up about 1/2 inch too much. "Great. Wonder how I am going to fix that," I remember thinking. I go on home, life returns to normal as I await any news about the accident. It never made TV news that night.

About 2 days later, I am at work and I get a personal call from someone I don't recognize, so I go ahead and take it. It is the other lady involved int he accident. I had mentioned she worked at the same hospital the biker was taken to... well, seems she had gotten a friend nurse to check the guy's charts and found out a couple things. 1) his Blood Alcohol was over 3.1% and 2) the doctors were not giving him much longer to live. Seems he had several severe internal injuries that hey could not fix or something. I thanked her for calling. About 2 days later she called me back to let me know he had passed away.

So, I have a dead guy, with no insurance info found on him or the body at the accident scene. I wait about a week, then take a sledge hammer to the bumper to knock down the indention so I can use the hatchback again. About 5 weeks later, an insurance adjuster comes to my door, and wants to look at my car. I show him, and told him that was the only damage, plus what I had done so I could open the hatch. He crawls under the back end, makes some notes, gets the other car info and hands me a check he wrote on the spot for $500.

I was like "What's this?"

He says,"That is the insurance settlement for the vehicle damage to your car from the accident that took place back on such n such date."

"Okay, I never though he had insurance." Wow, $500, right before Christmas - man I could use that! I am low paid, newly married, newborn at home.Then I think, for that much money, wouldn't I rather see that biker alive?