I think I my last update about anything having to do with my car was about 35 hours after the incident actually occurred. So without further ado, here's the rest of the story...

The day after my last car posting on February 1st, my mom got a call at our house from the kid's insurance agent. It was the standard follow up call with the exception of the fact that it was almost a full three days after the accident occurred. Needless to say by this point my parents and I were pretty fumed about how long it had taken to even get a call from an insurance adjuster for an accident that was completely out of my control.

The adjuster told my mom that he had spoken to his client the day before and that he DENIED THAT THIS ACCIDENT WAS HIS FAULT!!! Apparently he told his agent that he was "forced into my car by an oncoming vehicle" that didn't move over far enough to let him pass safely. HA!! Yeah, my dog ate my homework too.

There was no evidence of this mystery vehicle even being present at the scene, nor was it mentioned in our preliminary copy of the police report. After calling a witness to the accident whose phone number we had got that morning, he too confirmed that he didn't see any other car. This however did not calm my fears that even though my car was parked and I wasn't in it, that we would some how have to fork over cash to fix my car.

His agent told us that if they determined that some other car might have been partially at fault (even with no proof of this cars existence) they may rule him only X percentage at fault for the accident. Meaning they would only pay X percent of the bill. Of course they couldn't determine who was at fault until the official police report came out which we were told could take up to two weeks. WTF!!

At this point I was so pissed off I stayed home the better part of that evening sifting my way through legal documents on the internet. Playing amature lawyer I suppose. Not to mention that since this cop was so incompetent, I wouldn't trust much his police report anyway. I found multiple state and local traffic ordinances about right of way and parked vehicles. The paraphrase the main point I found against him, "Any time you have a legally parked car in your lane, it is always ultimately your responsibility to yield to all oncoming traffic, cyclists, or pedestrians". Meaning even if another car didn't move over far enough to let him pass, it's still 100% his risk to try to squeeze through.

After quenching the thirst of my raging beast within with the knowledge that I was indeed right, I passed any and all information off to my mom since she was planning on calling back his agent the following day. When she did so, she cited the information I had discovered. She also asked if the kid mentioned in their previous discussion that he had admitted fault to the police officer in front of her and his own mother. He sheepishly said, "Uh... no. He didn't mention that." All it took was a quick phone call from his agent and the threat of insurance fraud charges to change this kids mind.

As I stood in the lobby of Enterprise Car Rental on Friday evening of that week about to rent a car on my own dime, my mom called right as I was walking up to the counter to make the reservation. She said that his insurance had indeed finally accepted the full responsibility for the accident and that I would have a rental confirmation number within minutes. Turns out by the time she hung up the phone and I gave the rental attendant the claim number, the confirmation number had already been entered into their system. Of course since it was a Friday night at about 6 PM, there were no standard sized vehicles left. I had to settle for a mini-van for the weekend.

The next week I brought my rental mini-van back to trade in for a standard size and there were still none available on the lot. I got a nice bonus in the fact that they hooked me up with a pretty decent SUV for the remainder of my rental period. But hey, what did I care, I wasn't paying for it. The car had quite a bit of pickup and a pretty nice stereo system as well. A completely different sort of drive after riding in a Honda Civic for the past 3 years.

A week later we finally got a call back from his insurance agent about the car. They had estimated the damage around 5,000 bones and it was headed up to Huey's Honda Collision Center to be repaired. Secretly my mom and I both wished they had totalled the car for multiple reasons, but it was still way under the mark of the cars retail value of $12,000.

For one, the car was nearly paid off and had they totalled the car I would have ended up with a big check for about 9,000 after paying the balance of the loan. This would have helped me A) completely pay off all my debt, B) completely pay for my trip to Mexico, C) put a huge chunk of change down on a new car and D) pay all my taxes and licensing fees on said new car. Not to mention leave a little moolah in the old checking account for a rainy day. Another reason is that a car that has been in a wreck like this never drives the same again. Not to mention that the trade in or resale value goes down. Oh well, such is life.

A funny thing happened while my car was in the shop too. After having a few coldies at the Billy Goat after work one day I decided I wasn't done drinking and headed to the QT by my house for more beer on my way home. As I was pulling a way I noticed a young kid pulling up to a gas pump in a WHITE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX. Oh and it had quite a bit of damage to the front left side. Not to mention forest green paint marks down the side of his car. However, I was still about two beers away from being enough of an asshole to stop and say something to him. I should have at least given him a barb about "having enough money to pay for that gas since he was paying to fix my car". Oh well, I'm a pacifist what can I do.

So finally last week I got my car back. Turned in the rental and went to pick it up on Wednesday evening. I must say they did a great job on the body work although it's hard to tell how well it drives due to the fact that I'm still so used to that SUV. Another bonus is they were forced to fix the spot where the drunk driver hit me several years ago since it was so close to the damage this time around. At any rate, here's how she looks now:


Not bad I say. But still a big fucking pain in the ass all around for this whole ordeal. Maybe once I move my ass downtown and I'm doing less overall driving, my car won't get fucked up so much. Just broken into a lot.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:46 PM