My First Car Accident

This week on Tuesday I experienced my very first car accident, and lets just say it was not one of my favorite events of my life. So on Tuesday I was heading home from work around 5:30. As I was heading west on 700 N. I noticed this massive Club Wagon van on the right side of the road. Well all of a sudden this huge van pulled out to do a U-turn right in front of me. I swerved, slammed on my brakes, and layed on the horn but unfortunately this did not prevent the unaware driver from nailing the front right end of the Jeep that I drive. Luckily I had my seat belt on, if not for that I fear I would have gone into the wind shield, the hit was pretty hard. So I got out of the car (leaving it in the middle of the road because I have always heard the you shouldn't move your car after an accident) and immediately started dialing 911 because I knew there was damage without having to even look at the car. As I got out the other girl got out of her massive van and said to me, "I had my blinker on." In my mind I was just like, yeah, so that means you can hit me? So I said back to her, "Well I swerved and slammed on my brakes and honked." All she could reply was, "I didn't hear you honk." It doesn't sound like it but this chika was giving me major attitude. So by this point in time I am on the phone with the 911 operator and they said that they would send the next available officer. At this point I am a mess, I am bawling and shaking and my chest was killing me. I called my Mom and she quickly got in the car to come down to my rescue. Within seconds my sister Melissa called and she said that she was on her way. Then my Dad called and he was on his way to Dark Canyon with Reed for a scout camp so he couldn't come so I was telling him all the details. After that this boy from my freshman ward showed up and made sure that I was ok, which was so nice of him. Pretty much I had three different people who I have never even met stop to make sure that I was ok, this was an affirmation to me that there are some nice people out there, unlike the girl who hit me.

In the mean time, Melissa had shown up with our cousin Whitney and their roommate Ashley. So I was explaining what happened when the cop showed up. I immediatly went and told him my story first. He took a look at the dammage, had me give him all of my drivers information, and had me pull into a driveway. So when I was doing this I could hear this girl giving a completely different story. She was telling the officer that I hit her and that she had been as far left in the lane as she could be in order to make her U-turn. LIES! I couldn't believe that this girls version of the story was so different. So the officer has us filling out paperwork and Melissa is going around taking pictures of everything with her phone. So I asked her what the damage was to the van and she said that there was a dent in the side of her van where you fill up the gas but it wasn't really bad. I was waiting to give the paper work to the cop and the other girl said to me that she was going to just go give it to him in his car. I went with her to give my stuff to the officer and as I was walking back to my car her friend stopped me and was asking me all of these questions, me still a complete wreck is trying to tell her and Melissa just comes and grabs me and tells them that I couldn't talk to them. Yay for Melissa being protective of me! So another cop gets there and is taking pictures of everything and my Mom arrives.

Right after she gets there the cop has me go over and starts telling me and the girl who hit me (I find out her name is Megan) about what he was putting in his report. "Well you are both telling very different stories. And as far as I see it and the way that I am writing it up is that Susan's story seems to be the most accurate. According to the laws of physics, gravity, and traffic there is no way that what you say happened Megan, could have occured. In order for both of your cars to be damaged the way that they are it would have been neccesrary for them to hit like this" (at this point please view the diagram located belowwhich depicts how the Copper and I believe that the accident occured.) Basically this Megan girl just started arguing with the cop. I just thought to myself, "Girlfriend, you are not helping your case at all." So the cop then proceeded to tell her that she was being issued a citation for making an illegal left hand turn and whatnot. So my MOm and I were trying to figure out how to drive the Jeep back to Bluffdale ( I was not wanting anything to do with driving at this point!) So the cop came and helped us rip off some of the loose items that were preventing us from driving and an hour after this whole ordeal began we were leaving. So basically the dammage to the Jeep is all on the front right end of the car where it is all crushed up and what not. The doors on the right side of the car are not opening and on the front of the car everything has kind of popped out.

Luckily insurance will take care of everything, at least it should. This Megan girl's Insurance company called me to get a statement about the events. I told her exactally what happended and what not and she was actually quite nice. After seeing my address and the recorded part was over she asked me if I lived in Devonshire and I told her I did and she told me that she used to live there. She also told me that Megan is telling a completely different story and that she basically believed me more than her. Yesterday I woke up with major back pain so I stayed home from work and layed around all day. Today my back is feeling a little bit better but not much. I hope that it all goes away and I don't need to go to the doctors. I am just so grateful that no one got hurt and that the damage is fixable.

One of my favorite things about this is that the girl had a California drivers license. Everyone always gives Utahns a hard time about their driving but in reality, it is the peeps from other states who cause the accidents.