(no subject)

[seekingferret]

Friday morning I was in a car accident on my way to work. The car ahead of me was turning into a driveway, but I didn't realize how sharp his turn was- he apparently stopped partway through his turn in order to maneuver. I wasn't paying close enough attention and I slammed straight into the back of his car. Neither of us were hurt, thankfully, and his car took only minor damage, but my car took considerable front end damage.

My bigger problem is that when the police showed up, it turned out that my insurance coverage had lapsed. It was set on autopay and I wasn't paying attention- it looks like when my credit card expired, they failed to contact me successfully to get it updated and ended up cancelling my policy. Because of bad timing I don't think I ever received the cancellation notice, but obviously I should have realized.

I'm still waiting to hear back from lawyers, but my rough estimate of the damage: I'm on the hook to pay to repair the car I hit (and hopefully no medical bills), I'm on the hook for whatever fines will be levied by the city for failure to carry insurance, and I'm likely to have my license suspended for a year. I'm okay for the likely amounts of money, but the license is a bigger problem... there's no reasonable mass transit to work and ubering daily would be a painful (but I think manageable) cost to carry. I'm about six miles from the office, I can bike to work, but it was 22 F this morning and we're looking at a lot more days like that for the next several months. Hopefully I can find a lawyer who can help me minimize the suspension. In the meantime, I'm uncertain about repairing my car or getting a new one- if I won't be able to drive it, I'm better off waiting.

I spent a chunk of the weekend uselessly catastrophizing about this but I think I'm mostly past that. In the end, I was very stupid and very careless and there will be consequences for that, but I'm lucky they weren't any worse. The limits of the damage as I see them are bad but not unsustainable. I'm very fortunate that my financial position means I should be able to survive this.

Comments

[bironic]

Oh, YIKES. Well, I'm glad you and the other person are okay. I hope the rest works itself out with the minimum amount of headache.

[pauraque]

I'm relieved no one was hurt! Best of luck getting through the financial and logistical aspects.

[psiten]

Glad to hear you're safe, and everyone in the other car is likely to be safe as well. It sounds like you'll be able to handle things somehow, which is definitely lucky. Not having public transit options sucks, undoubtedly. Hoping this goes as easily for you as possible.

[grrlpup]

Oh, man, so much stress! I'm very sorry for your hassles and of course glad no one was injured. And I hope you can refrain from kicking yourself too much over the insurance / human error aspect. May it all get untangled as smoothly as possible!

[lokifan]

Oh nooo, I'm so sorry! I'm glad to hear you can handle it but ugh, so stressful. I'm glad no one was hurt.

[lirazel]

Oh gosh, that sucks so hard. I'm so glad you and the other person are both okay!

And once again, all of these problems could be solved if cities would just invest in decent public transit...

[princessofgeeks]

I am so sorry this happened to you!

[oracne]

I'm sorry for the damage to your car, and glad nobody was hurt.

[jack]

Oh no, I'm so sorry :( :( I'm glad you're not hurt, and I hope everything else does turn out ok.

[chestnut_pod]

Oh my, I am very glad you and the other driver are both unhurt. Good luck with all the logistical hurdles.

[primeideal]

Boo to the transit situation. Glad you're in one piece.

[ambyr]

I'm glad no one is hurt, and hope you're able to get solid legal advice.

[sanguinity]

Oh no. I'm glad it wasn't worse and that you'll be able to survive it, financial-position-wise, but what a terrible day, and what a grind this next however-long is going to be.

[starlady]

I'm glad you and the other person are both okay, even if the rest of it sucks. I hope the logistical and financial stuff can be resolved with minimum hassle.

[batdina]

I'm glad you're okay.

[lannamichaels]

Oy. I'm glad you're okay.

[sophia_sol]

Oh no, what an unfortunate set of circumstances! I'm glad you weren't hurt by the accident, at least, but how miserable.

[gwyn]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! That sounds really rough.

[calledtovienna]

That sounds immensely rough, especially not having a license for a year. I'm sorry dude.

[morbane]

That's rough. Like everyone else, I'm really glad no one was injured. I hope you get a good result from lawyers and that your work is willing to be more flexible, for at least a while, about working from home.