I totaled my car

[Imdanny]

Hi, Danny-

I am coming to this thread super late because I didn't know the thread about a "totalled car" had anything to do with you until kenny sent me to this thread! I have, now, read it all the way through.

First, like everyone else, let me say that I am most grateful that you are physically safe and that, indeed, everyone else in the cars is, too.

Second, I have to say that my view on driving appears to be a bit like Haven's. My attitude is that one has to be a defensive driver. I have stressed that when talking to my (now 19 year old) daughter all her life, not just when she started to drive. I have a more than healthy fear-I have a deep fear-of other drivers. I drive as if they are all out to get me in any way they can. I drive in a way that borders on the paranoid, watching for cars that might slide off trucks carrying them and rocks that might fly off landscapers' trucks. (By the way, two drivers were killed by foreign objects going through their windshields on the stretch of I-95 near my home in the last few months of 2011!)

I am a very good driver, although not a world class driver. I drive up and down the I-95 corridor far more than than the average person and have put over 150,000 miles on my Jeep in 7 years. Yet I have managed to do some dangerous things and also to be hit during that time.

The worst shock came in a minor collision-reminiscent of yours-in 2011. I was on a narrow back road at night with my daughter as a passenger. A car had come out onto the road in front of me from a stop sign. I was forced to stop in the middle of the road. Where I shouldn't have been forced to stop. And suddenly I felt a huge jolt. I had been hit by a huge piece of heavy equipment driven by someone who had alcohol on his breath and who, like me, knew the road well. He kept asking why I had stopped there. I told him someone had come out in front of me! Suddenly! It was a little frightening with him that night, but everything worked out. But one cannot plan for everything.

As I keep telling my daughter, watch out for the other guy. And try your best not to be a danger yourself. But I once read a very generous statement by a motorcyclist posting about an accident. It may have been here on Pricescope. He said that at one time or another all of us have been a danger to someone; and that is true. I know I am not blameless. So when someone wrongs me on the road, I try to remember that I have done some careless and stupid things at times, too.

Big hugs to you!

Deb/AGBF

Deb, thank you. big hugs to you too!

 

[Imdanny]

Aw, Danny I am so, so, so, so sorry that this happened. Your car is in Audi heaven! But, I am really glad that nothing happened to you - your life is irreplaceable and you are much to great and fantastic to lose. You really are so great, Danny. I'm thinking of you and hope you know that I truly wish nothing but the best to you. You have been one of my favorite posters on here for a while now. Keep your head up!

Autumnovember, thank you. I enjoy your posts too!

 

[Imdanny]

Awww, sorry to hear this Danny!

Accidents are so SCARY aren't they?

Hugs to you!

I'm always amazed at the driving that I see here. Do the tourists think that the cars somehow aren't REAL when they go on vacation? I'm also amazed when they walk in the middle of the street, like they're on a deserted country road. They're plain stunned when a car comes up behind them. And there are SO many people that will just drive down the sidewalk here! WHY would they do that? And apparently they don't have stop signs wherever it is they come from, because they can't navigate a four-way stop to save their lives. I always wait until cars completely stop before I cross the street, because I have seen so many people just breeze right through them. And stopping in the middle of the road? Of course, how else can they read their maps?

Yup. I hear ya . . .

iLander, yes. They're so violent. And, yes, I feel we can all do our part, and if this includes not stopping one's car in the middle of the road to check one's map then so be it. Thank you.

 

[soocool]

Danny I am happy that you are okay. My friend hit a patch of black ice a few weeks ago, the car rolled over and skidded into a wall of a local winery. The car was totalled, the wall destroyed, and she came out of it without a scratch. Just earlier this year she fell off her horse (horse bucked) and she suffered a concussion. We are all convinced she is a cat with 9 lives.

 

[Imdanny]

soocool, I'm sorry to hear of your friend's accident and glad to hear she's ok! My mom hit black ice and ended up with her car wrapped around a telephone poll and her collar bone broken. Every day I think I get closer to just being glad we all walked away and so feeling a sense of calm. Thank you.