When Words Collide, Sentences Form

D'oh

I became a Minnesota winter weather road statistic tonight. And I did everything under my power to prevent it. Good news - I'm 100% A-OK, and my truck still runs, despite some backwards new cosmetic work. But gosh, the whole thing sucks. But what can you do...I guess it's my own damn fault for trying to drive a little rear-wheel drive pick-up in the north! But I did get two great examples of "Minnesota Nice" tonight, also.

I was going to my friends' house this evening and there was a little bit of snow on the ground. Not much - what would be considered a "dusting" in meteorological measurement. But I'm not stupid - I know that a "dusting" of snow can still be very slick...and I took my time and was extremely cautious. I know that I make fun of the other drivers for being crappy navigators in the ice and snow - and with good reason. But I was following all of "my" rules...and those that I learned from my mom, too.

I was going slowly (I know that I piss a lot of other drivers off in the snow up here...but screw them, if I need to go slow in order to not wreck, then I will!).

I left a lot of space between me and the car in front of me. (Tonight, that was an off-white/silverish Toyota Camery-type car.)

I planned ahead and started to left off the gas early since I knew that the car in front of me wouldn't go through the yield onto the round-about...that she would stop instead...so I would have to.

I had both hands on the wheel in their proper locations.

And I suspected (although I had no proof yet at the time) that the roads would be slick.

So I was approaching the round-about. There was a lot of room between me and the Camery...but I thought "I really have to watch this cause it's probably going to be slick and that car is not going to go even though she can." The next 6-10 seconds felt like they lasted 15 minutes though...and the whole thing felt like I knew exactly what the end result would be, but I couldn't stop it...like one of those bad commercials for buckling up your kids in the back-seat, where they stop the accident half-way through to fasten the seatbelts of the little munchkins once they see that they are going to crash.

I took my foot off the gas and lightly pressed the brake to try to slow down...and nothing. So I took my foot off the brake cause I was starting to slide. And nothing...the truck didn't slow much. Brake again...more sliding. And the Camery...still sitting there. At this point in time I said "Oh shit. This isn't good. I'm not going to be able to stop." And I couldn't go anywhere - I was in one of those narrow roads leading into a round-about, and I had been planning ahead, looking around for an escape route in case I couldn't stop and still had enough control to steer someplace..but there was really nowhere to go, and I really couldn't steer it away if I wanted to, probably. It was one of those times where I would better off hitting her square in the back of the car, rather than try to avoid her and clip her and possibly cause more damage actually or run off the road and be in worse shape. So I did all that I could, said "Uh oh!" and braced myself for the impact. Now, I was going a whole 10 mph...tops. But what a freaking crunching noise.

The good part is - the Camery stopped me! However, the noise that the unification of our two bumpers caused was so wretched that I half expected her bumper to fall off as she removed herself from the joint custody of the common piece of road. But it didn't!

So the Camery-type car and I pull over to the side of the road and the 40-something driver gets out, and I get out...preparing for her to scream at me. And she looks at me and smiles and says (before even looking at our cars), "I'm ok!!! Are you??" I said, "Yeah! And you are, you said??" She said, "Yeah...let's see if that did anything." So we look at her car...and my bumper had removed some snow from it. Literally. That was all the damage - missing snow. Then I turned and looked at my truck. And I said, "Ummm, I think I got the worse end of this deal!" My poor bumper was bent down, kinda sad looking, and my right front quarter-panel (passenger side) was all bent in and near the tire. But all of my lights were working and nothing else was cracked or anything. So the driver and I exchanged names and numbers...and both agreed that there wasn't anything either of us could have done and that ice sucks...and laughed about the fact that both of us are geeky enough to carry Sharpies for taking notes cause they are easier to write with than pens if you don't have a hard surface to lean against. Minnesota Nice - the driver was friendly from the moment she opened her car door.

So I continued on my way - being careful not to make sharp turns because the bent in piece of the front of my truck would rub against the tire. Fortunately, my friends lived very close by. Later on in the evening, with a hammer, gigantic pliers, a crowbar and more Minnesota Nice in their freezing driveway, they got the metal far away from my tire and my truck was good to go. I will say, the bumper of my truck crumpled as easily as aluminum it seems, but is as hard as steel to bend back. It's a bit of a site for sore eyes...but with a little luck and a nice neighborhood auto body guy, it can be pounded back into something that resembles it's original shape.

It sucks, but what can you do? I have gone over the whole scene over and over again in my head and can't think of anything else I could have done to avoid making that lady into my temporary hood ornament - short of not being on that road at that point in time. At least we were both physically OK, her car wasn't damaged, she was very nice, and my truck is fine except for looking like a real road warrior. All 4 of those things making me very happy - because if any one of those 4 wasn't true, it could have been a very bad situation, I'm sure.

I will say that this is the first time I have actually ever hit someone else - every other time damage has been done to one of my vehicles it was 100% the fault of another hitting me.

Thank goodness there was enough frozen percipitation on the ground for snow angels. I had a couple near me at that round-about!

posted by Steph @ 9:13 PM