Step Away From the Car....Again

Hello. I'm back. As you can tell from my last post, I learned how to insert pictures, use different colors for text, and I also learned to link (haven't done that on my blog yet). Chatty Kelly came over last week and taught me a few things. I took notes while she was here....I can almost read them. Hope I remember how to do it.

The color changing is easy! I can do that!!

Unfortunately, as you can tell, I can't figure out how to arrange the pictures where I want them to be. Chatty Kelly isn't home now but I'll have to call her later.

Anyway, even more unfortunately, as you may have guessed from the pictures, I need to continue from a previous blog that I was hoping I had completed for a while.

Step Away From The Car....and find a new means of transportation. Now where were we? Ok we were at #8.

#8. JM is at home asleep (that is understandable..it's only 1:00pm) I go outside. hhmmm. Didn't his car used to have 2 rear lights? When He wakes up I ask about it. JM? "Oh yeah, I was backing out from Sam's house and there is a shelf that sticks out from his shed. I backed into it." Well, he can't drive it like that. He'll get pulled over and get a ticket. He says the man at the auto parts store said he can temporarily put red tape over it and drive it legally. It won't pass inspection but he won't get a ticket. I suppose that if Waffle House can hire paramedics, then Advanced Auto can hire law enforcement officials. He assures me he'll get it taken care of.

#9. Phone rings....same day. (this was all last Friday). "Mom, do we have insurance?" I sigh and say "JM, auto insurance won't cover a tail light." P-A-U-S-E . "JM, were you in an accident?" JM "Mom, everybody is ok. The police needs to know what insurance we have." (sigh) .

Well, before I go any further, please say a thank you prayer for me because this car does not look like everyone walked away without injury. But they did, and for that I am VERY grateful. JM has a guardian angel on his shoulder and he doesn't even realize it.

So, back to the story. He tells me the story. He stopped at the stop sign. Looked. Saw no one. And proceeded thru the intersection. He was t-boned by another car (he hadn't seen her). It appears that she may have been trying to stop (She probably saw them ) but her speed limit was either 45 or 55 mph (which means she was probably going between 60-75 mph) and I don't think she had time to slow down very much. She slammed into the side of his car. There were 5 teenagers in his car. She hit the passenger side and I still get woozy when I think about what could have happened. As a firefighter, I see this kind of thing quite often and usually when the vehicle looks like this, someone is going to the emergency room. They WERE wearing their seatbelts! If they had not have been wearing them, then at LEAST one of them would probably have been ejected from the car. Everyone was fine......as for the 2 vehicles....that's another story.

Of course I immediately went to the scene after he called me. He had told me I didn't need to, that he could find a ride.......oh yeah.....right....I'll just stay home and continue cooking dinner. I was there in 15 minutes.

The police officer was terrific. He could have been otherwise. After all, an old car full of 5 teenagers VRS a nice (well, it used to be nice) 2008 Jeep Something SUV driven by a woman who was perhaps in her 60's. The officer said he felt sorry for JM. He believed JM stopped and looked. He just didn't see her coming. JM said she was flying over the speed limit. Maybe she was...maybe she wasn't. You really can't prove that unless Gil Grissom was there with his CSI crew. They would have come but were busy with a case in Las Vegas. Something to do with a serial killer, an adopted kid and a district attorney. ANYWAY... The kids were all shaken up. The woman continued to scream about her "beautiful car"..... I didn't think it looked that beautiful....the whole front end was crashed in and the airbags were deployed. Does that sound beautiful to you?

Of course the bottom line is.....JM got a ticket for Failure to Yield to The Right Away Of Approaching Traffic From A Stop Sign. And yes, I know that it was his fault. But I am still so sorry for him. He's had a tough first year of driving. Some of his mishaps could have been avoided and some of them couldn't have been. But even when they were his fault he felt SO MUCH remorse (you know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you have an accident, or a flat tire, or even just do something without using good judgement.) He's had his share of mishaps but I'm just SO grateful for that angel on his shoulder that kept protecting him and any others involved.

Never-the-Less, his car only had Liability insurance (speaking of insurance, it almost doubled when we added him to the policy, I can only guess how much it will be now). Therefore, our insurance will cover the other car and if there had been injuries it would have covered them.......but our beloved 1991 Nissan Sentra with 163,113.4 miles...may she rest in peace.......

The picture taken from the driver's side is what she looked like normally. The others are from the accident. And the one from the back is where he had put the red tape over the light earlier that day. (which, by the way, had nothing to do with the accident).

P.S. I drove it for almost 16 years.
He drove it for 13 months.
(sigh)