Santa Smashed My Car

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Or rather, a big fellow who looked just like him, wearing (I drive a '95 Toyota Tercel.)

I was stopping by the bank this evening to deposit a cheque in the ATM. Since the ATM is on the outside wall of the bank, there are parking spaces that face the front of the building up close to it, and then the painted spaces out in the lot. (It’s across the parking lot from a strip mall.) When I pulled up, there was a big pickup truck idling in the space closest to the ATM, so I parked in the next closest available space, which was still quite a bit away. Where I parked happened to be perpendicular with the end of the truck, though there was a pretty good distance between the vehicles.

Anyway, the ATM was out of envelopes so I walked back to my car and was going to stop at another bank branch on the way to work in the morning. I was just about to put my hand on the door handle when the truck suddenly decided it was going to leave, and started to back up. There was plenty of room if the truck had backed out to the right or left, but instead it went straight. It stopped about three yards from the end of my car, and I thought the driver saw me/my car. Then it backed up a bit more, and stopped a few inches from my tail light. I walked around towards the front of my vehicle, waving my arms and yelling, but then the bozo decided to give the gas a good stomp and go ahead, completely busting out my blinker light and putting a huge crater in my fender. The crunch was awful and the whole thing seemed so terribly stupid. He pulled up AFTER mutilating my car, got out (I was already walking around and yelling) and said “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there.” Aaaargh. He was very nice about letting me write down all the info I wanted, and his insurance is going to have to pay for it, but STILL. Now I’ll have to drive a rent car for two or three days, and I have to get up early to make phone calls, and take the car in for repairs, not to mention get a quote at the shop I take it to…

The whole way home, I’m worried that the damage isn’t something that can be completely repaired, as in “Am I going to have a permanent, major flaw here even when the metal is popped back out?” I have babied this car unbelievably because right now I need it to get to work (it isn’t even paid for yet) and I need to get the best resale on it I can. It is supposed to be a major source of funds for when I finally manage to move again. I can not afford to have a horrible flaw in my car that will make its value decrease in $1000s! My dad looked at it though, and told me that it can be fixed so it looks the way it did before, so I’m feeling better now. I’m still mad about the inconvenience, and just this guy failed to look where he was going, my time is wasted and his insurance company is going to have to pay out a lot of money. My poor little car!

So, has anyone else had a similar experience? I haven’t ever been in a major accident, and I certainly never thought that I’d have the end of my car smashed in while standing on the pavement watching like it was some kind of side-show…

2

Nothing to say about your post, but that thread title is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time.

3

Oops, I meant to say, he had a white beard and looked like Santa, and he was wearing a baseball cap and overalls that oddly went with his Santa-like appearance.

Except the blonde in the passenger seat.

4

I once had an idiot decide to make a left turn from the right lane, in front of me who was in the left lane (but not left turn lane). I was going straight. And boom, I hit him.

When the cop arrived he said, “I used my turn signal.” Mr. Copper said, “But Sir, you can’t make a left turn from the right lane. I’m sorry.”

I said, “So who is your insurance carrier?”

5

I once stood and watched as a SUV-driving soccer mom (no hyperbole here) backed into my car trying to make a turn around the corner of a gas station. I was parked behind her at the gas pump, and she was finishing as I pulled in. She apparently felt the need to get more turn radius to make the turn around the corner to the air and water pumps, so backed directly into the front of my truck. Real slow-like. It was like she couldn’t comprehend that suddenly her car wouldn’t go backwards any more. So she kept doing it. Finally, she lost her patience and stomped on the gas, which caused her to smash my turn signal and make a big crunchy sound. The first time she did it, I thought " She can’t possibly be that stupid again–there’s no damage, so I’ll just yell at her and tell her what she did. " No such luck. This woman had three kids and a dog in the car, radio up all the way for some reason, and evidently didn’t notice the guy in the black leather and goatee yelling at her and waving his arms.
She caught on after the crunch, though, when I went up to her window and tapped politely on it.
“Ma’am, you seem to have hit my car…three times!”

Oh, and jin, my mom got into an accident (not her fault) last year where she t-boned an 80-year old ordained minister. Who looked like Santa. Who was on an oxygen tank at the time of the crash. Talk about feeling like a sh*thead.

6

Man… yet another reason to dislike these huge trucks and vans. I hate going to find a parking space and seeing some gigantic crew-cab truck kind of angled in over three spaces. News flash people: if you can’t park it or back it up, don’t drive it! :frowning:

I took pictures of my car this morning, and it doesn’t look that bad now, but my dad still says it’s going to probably be $1200-1500 to fix…

7

I’m sorry, this thread is so amusing…

8

Not to mention that just before I posted here, the thread below this one was titled, “Once again, Fate slips a horseshoe into the boxing glove of life . . .”

Talk about your sequential thread titles.

[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-28-2001 at 12:20 PM]