I said I'd try to provide an update, and here it is.
I'm in town again today (Monday) in order to pick up a police report. I'll explain why in a few but it's connected to my comment Saturday that "we also need to order a new headlight for my wife's minivan."
Since leaving Virginia on the 15th, we've encountered an ice storm that caused us to spend the night in a Hartford parking lot (Wal-mart), been almost unable to get the minivan up the paved road leading to our property, gotten our moving van stuck in the snow and mud, had a power outage, had our cockatiel of 23 years die *AND* had a car accident.
I didn't want to go into the details about Saturday's accident because it had only just happened and was a bit embarrassing. I thought it might have been my wife's fault. Today, I'm feeling better about it.
We were in a roundabout in town, intending to head straight. When my wife tried to exit the roundabout, I saw a car on the right and only had time to utter an expletive before she hit it. Our front right headlight and assembly were damaged, and the other driver's rear left fender was damaged. Her tire went flat and she had to be towed.
No injuries, fortunately. My wife called the police while I talked to the other driver to make sure she and her one-year-old were okay. They were. The driver, a 21-year-old, was crying.
My wife told the police she thought the car was turning off, and it obviously wasn't. I couldn't honestly say what had happened. Suddenly there was a car on our right and we hit it. That was about all I knew. I sort of thought it was moving faster than we were (passing us) but I wasn't sure. I thought the accident could have been our fault or not. Did we catch up to the car and clip its rear as we exited the roundabout, or did it catch up and mostly pass us illegally on the right?
Unbeknownst to me, a WITNESS had approached my wife while I was speaking with the other driver and gave my wife her name and phone number, saying she didn't have time to stay. My wife gave that to the police. As soon as I heard that, I felt a lot better. After all, I'd been a witness to an accident years before and when I passed on contact information, I gave it to the party that I could defend. A witness doesn't give his contact info to the party that's at fault!
So I just hoped that the police would contact the witness.
Today, we picked up the accident report and I feel GREAT! In the report, we are MV #2. The report reads:
MV #1 WAS DRIVING NORTH BOUND IN THE OUTER LANE COMING FROM THE (LOWER) MAIN STREET. SHE PLANNED TO TURN OFF ONTO WINCHESTER STREET - THE THIRD EXIT OFF OF THE ROTARY. ONCE I INFORMED HER THAT BASED ON HER PLANNING TO TURN ONTO WINCHESTER STREET SHE WAS AT FAULT, SHE THEN CHANGED HER MIND AND TOLD ME SHE WAS PLANNING ON CONTINUING ON MAIN ST.
MV #2 WAS DRIVING NORTH BOUND IN THE INNER LANE COMING FROM (LOWER) MAIN STREET. SHE PLANNED TO CONTINUE NORTH ONTO MAIN STREET - THE SECOND EXIT OFF OF THE ROTARY.
WITNESS REPORTED MV #1 WAS IN THE OUTER LANE AND DRIVING AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED WHEN IT SUDDENLY TURNED LEFT TOWARD WINCHESTER STREET.
NO P.I. REPORTED.
DAMAGE TO THE LEFT REAR TIRE OF MV #1 - TOWED BY ELM CITY TOWING.
DAMAGE TO THE FRONT RIGHT CORNER OF MV #2 - DRIVEN FROM THE SCENE.
I don't think the report could be more favorable to us, so I'm happy.
We ordered a pair of headlight assemblies for $62. They'll arrive Thursday and my wife is going to try to do the installation herself.
The minivan has over 200k miles, so I have no illusions about getting much from the other driver's insurance company. The truth is, I don't care about that. We're insured and are not at fault, and our damages will amount to $62 plus cosmetic issues that we will probably ignore. We were likely to retire the minivan this year anyway.
We've been married for 23 years and still haven't had an accident that was our fault. I've been rear-ended, and my wife was both T-boned and rear-ended in separate incidents, but in all cases the other drivers were cited. I think this accident will be the same way.
I leave for California tomorrow. I have a nasty 12 hour trip and will arrive there around 9PM. I stay for three weeks and am not expecting to enjoy it much. I'm there to empty and fix up my parents' house, then get it listed.
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