Dangerous Intersection

Well, I’ve had an interesting morning already. I got rear-ended on my way to work this morning by a pregnant lady. Everyone is okay, I’m still a little freaked out, but no one was injured, and it was just a fender bender. The bumper to the truck is folded down, and there’s some paint damage. What’s really funny (ha ha) is that Chris had a wreck last week in the same intersection. That one was his fault though, and he was in the company truck. He was so afraid he was going to get fired for that one. Of course he didn’t. Shit happens right?

I had stopped in the right hand turn lane at a red light. The car in front of me turned right, so I pulled forward and stopped. I had time to look left to see if I could go, there was a car coming and then enough space after them for me to go, so I was waiting for them. Then WHAM. I was pushed into the oncoming traffic, luckily, they were able to stop without hitting me. I pulled onto the shoulder out of the way and the lady who hit me did as well. No one else stopped (even the other car that almost hit me went on after I was out of the way). I walked back to her car to see if she was okay and found out she’s pregnant (probably about 5 months or so), so she was pretty freaked out – the seat belt had tightened across her stomach. But we were all okay (she had a kid in the car with her, 10-12 years old).

We talked about calling the police, but since neither of us was injured and both of the vehicles were drivable we decided not to. In my experience, cops will tell you that if there are no injuries and the cars are drivable, and there’s no question about fault that you don’t need to call the police. In Tulsa, you can go to QT and pick up accident reports and fill them out yourself. At least you used to be able to. So we exchanged info and went on our merry ways.

I know, I can hear you all out there going “You didn’t call the cops? You should always call the cops no matter how minor the accident was.” And, “You moved the vehicle? You should never move the vehicle until the cops get there.” I have actually watched a cop chew out someone for not moving a moveable vehicle when it was blocking traffic. If there’s an injury or the vehicle can’t be moved that’s one thing, but why do you want to block traffic for miles at 8:00 in the morning if you don’t have to?

So anyway, I’ve already talked to her insurance, and I went ahead and called mine cuz several people (who also said I should have called the cops) said I should. My insurance said to let them know if I have any trouble with the other insurance, but otherwise they didn’t need to be involved. I should be hearing from an adjuster sometime today.

And of course I didn't have my camera with me, so I'll have to take pictures tonight and post them later.