This summer, while many people were making phone calls to their travel agents, booking European vacations, I was making phone calls to my insurance agent, because two months ago, I was in the first car accident of my driving career.
While at the time, it seemed catastrophic, it was nothing more than a fender bender. I was preparing to turn left onto a road, on which a car was driving, in the right hand lane, with the right turn signal on. Being the trusting person I am, I assumed that the turn signal meant that the car was actually going to turn onto the side street, and therefore, I continued past the stop sign.
After arriving in the median, my car was then struck on my driver’s side by the man who would become the thorn in my side for the following two months.
As the man’s wife and I were trading our insurance information, a task he was clearly incapable of doing, he was calling the police, insisting that he paid taxes (and a lot of them) and he wanted as many policemen there as were in the area. While his car had far less damage than mine, he was telling the 911 operator that his car was unable to be driven anymore, yet immediately followed that statement by declining her offer to send out a tow truck.
There are so many things that I wish had happened differently that day, and so many things that I wish I knew then that I now know after having gone through this whole debacle. Here are just a few pieces of information to remember next time karma hits your car in the form of an automobile.
First of all, never say you’re sorry to the other driver. It is a natural human inclination to say you’re sorry when such things happen, but whether you feel you should apologize or not, just don’t do it.
Secondly, know what you are looking for when you’re writing down other drivers’ information; don’t just write down random numbers that you see on their insurance cards. Necessary info that you will need is: their driver’s license number, their insurance company, their policy number and don’t forget to write down their license plate number.
Finally, if you think the accident is the fault of the other driver, file a claim (aka report the accident) with their insurance company first. You will want the investigation to begin on their side first, rather than yours.
There were two things that I did not know about the other driver involved in this crash, both of which I now know. I know that, first and foremost, he is crazy. But I also now know that he is the owner of a food consultation company, a company that was instrumental in developing the meat that is used in the Sausage McMuffin, the beef that is used by Arby’s and the Ballpark Frank. As you can imagine, there were many jokes made about the fact that I collided with the McMuffin Man this summer. So if anyone asks, yes, I do know him, and no, he does not live on Drury Lane.