Thursday, December 07, 2006

Totaled!

I didn't get a chance to post this, this morning. Everything here was stressed & frantic, and last thing on my mind (well, not quite) was posting our newest bit of bad news.

As DD & I got up this morning & were getting her ready for school, DH calls & asked if we'd heard anything about an accident on the radio (which we always listen to for the bus report & road conditions). Nope, I hadn't. Turns out that not 1/4 mile from our house, DH was passing an intersection when a 16 year old boy with a new license decided that things were clear enough to pull out -left turn- in front of DH (he claims he didn't even see Dh coming, witnesses don't see how he could have MISSED seeing DH there) on his way to school. DH said he didn't even have time to contemplate hitting his brakes (with roads as slick as they are, slamming the brakes might have done more harm than good), much less time to actually do so. DH wasn't even up to speed, either, having just pulled out of our neighbourhood. Long story short: Nobody's hurt (dh's hand is sore where we think he "punched" the sterio face-plate upon impact), both vehicals are totaled & completely undrivable; Now or ever. The cop gave the kid a citation & told him it'd be in HIS best interest to plead guilty. And told DH that there was no way this could be construed as DH's fault by any stretch of the imagination, certainly not with 2 witnesses.

The insurance company is offering us 19,500 for the truck (which was less than 2 years old). I'm not sure what that means for a down payment on a new truck, as 19,000 is what we had left to pay on the old truck. Dad is letting Dh drive his jeep (he's got a Ram pick-up, as well) until we can get a new truck purchased. Which DH & FIL will be doing (have threatened DH's life if he goes vehical shopping without FIL's assistance).

So, mixed blessings from a horrid event. The biggest shocker is that both DH & this kid walked away from the accident without injury. At all. Much less serious injury or dead. There's nothing really left of either vehical worth trying to salvage (well, the BED of our truck is still good, as were the hockey sticks stored back there).

And I guess it's a positive that we're no longer tied to that truck, which WAS a real lemon. We're going with a different brand of truck altogether on the next one we buy.

Hope y'all had a better day than we've had. For tomorrow....

Have a Blessed Day!

8 comments:

whimsical brainpan said...

I am so glad that no one got hurt! Good luck on the hunt for a new vehicle.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear this bad news. I am glad everyone is ok, Hopefully you can find another truck soon

heather said...

Wow, yesterday must have been a bad day. My coworker totalled her car on theway to work too. Glad to hear that no one is hurt.

Anonymous said...

I am so grateful that no-one was injured. I hope you find a good truck in replacement for that lemon and that all will work out.

I hope that the young boy has learned a lesson and will be more careful from this time forward!

Blessings

Niobium said...

Glad to hear everythings ok. Bad advice from the cop though.

Kati said...

Nio: why do you say that??? The kid was at fault, he knew it, the cop knew it, and the cop was recommending he not dig himself a deeper hole by trying to get out the responsibility. Of course, from the kid's view (or his lawyer's view) it may be bad advice, but it's also truthful. And thanks to some screwy-ness I've heard out of OUR insurance today, I'm going to be calling a lawyer myself, for possible (though hopefully not necessary) legal representation.

I think, all in all, that kid would be better off just fessing up to his mistakes & hoping for a slap on the wrist. If he tried to worm his way out of it, the judge may decide to really slam him with penalties.

And I'll tell ya what, around here, that kid doesn't get much sympathy. Our small town has several injury/accidents a year because the teens pull stupid crap that ends up getting themselves & others hurt & killed. Nobody's much sympathetic to stupid teen drivers, around here.

Gina said...

Wow, I'm glad there were no injuries or worse! Lots of luck vehicle shopping.

As an aside, as the above commentor said: Thursday must have been a bad driving day. I was caught behind a THIRTY car pile-up on I-69 through Indiana. Blinding snow conditions, I guess.

Kati said...

Wow... Sammy & Gina, glad neither of you were hurt in any accidents on Thurs. Yep, sure doesn't sound like it was a good day for driving conditions, across the nation.